Today, 80 percent of Americans live in cities and suburbs and more than half the world's population is now classified as "urban." Older cities and their suburbs like Baltimore City and County are experiencing many challenges - affordable housing, jobs, mobility, education, public health, physical fitness, floods, and ecological destruction - not to mention the current economic and foreclosure crisis.

"Humane Metropolis" is a new perspective on people, nature, and cities developed by the Ecological Cities Project in collaboration with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. The 2006 book The Humane Metropolis: People and Nature in the 21st-Century City highlights new initiatives for various cities to become more:

Green: Protect and restore urban biodiversity and ecological services

Healthy: Promote outdoor exercise and fitness, reduce respiratory threats

Safe: Reduce crime rates; lower risk of fire, floods, and other hazards

Efficient: Employ a better use of water, energy, materials (e.g., green building, light rail)

Equitable: Embrace environmental and social justice, affordable housing, access to jobs

Neighborly: Foster pride of place and sense of community

Humane Metropolis Baltimore, the latest in a series of regional conferences, will involve practitioners, activists, and public officials from Baltimore and elsewhere to address the following session topics:

1. Baltimore and Its Region: The Road Ahead
2. Urban Parks: New Uses and Users
3. Baltimore's New Sustainability Plan
4. Growing Food and Community
5. Urban Ecology: The Baltimore Ecosystem Study
6. Reviving Urban Streams and Watersheds

Workshop resources:

Flyer includes a registration form
Draft copy of agenda