MIT Infrastructure Policy Lightning Talks
The recent release of Biden’s American Jobs Plan presented an opportunity for faculty to engage with the new administration, and provide expertise and ideas that could help shape infrastructure policy. In spring 2021, MIT’s Washington Office had reached out to the various schools at MIT to encourage faculty to develop policy briefs that provide expert input on infrastructure policy as it relates to the many varied aspects included in the Jobs Plan. Over the summer, the Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism coordinated SA+P Policy Perspectives on Infrastructure, for faculty to respond to the American Jobs Plan. Given the extensive inclusion of issues of transportation, architecture, landscape and urbanism within the bill, this presented an opportunity to inject the expertise and insight of faculty into policy, to help shape the future of US infrastructure.
Over a six-month period, the MIT Washington Office worked extensively with faculty to shape policy papers and facilitate outreach with congressional, administrative and agency staff, working with them to get ideas implemented in policy. The MIT Infrastructure Lighting Talks presents the ideas shared with staffers by faculty from MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning and the MIT Mobility Initiative.
The first panel gathers policy responses on housing with Marisa Morán Jahn and Rafi Segal on care-based co-housing, Susanne Schindler on limited-equity cooperatives, and Jeffrey Levine on incentives for communities to remove exclusionary barriers to housing production.
The second panel draws together policy responses on energy efficiency of housing, design and construction culture, and the need for a Civilian Climate Corps. Zachary Berzolla and Christoph Reinhart introduces their recommendations around supporting energy efficiency and accelerating heat pump retrofits for American homes, Caitlin Mueller and Keith Lee share their responses on modernizing design and construction culture for the transportation infrastructure, and finally Bahij Chancey, Nicholas de Monchaux, Lisbeth Shepherd, Winn Costantini, and Christopher Zegras discuss launching a Civilian Climate Corps.
The final panel gathers the MIT Mobility Initiative transportation-based responses to the American Jobs Plan and includes policy recommendation on innovations for transit and EV charging presented by Anson Stewart, John Moavenzadeh, and Annie Hudson.
Summaries of the talks and full policy memos are available here.
