We partnered with the City of Portland to create a handbook showcasing best practices for district management and guidelines for establishing or expanding Enhanced Service Districts.
We closely partnered with Waterloo Greenway Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to the development and management of the Waterloo Greenway, to help the organization develop a detailed integrated strategic plan.
Uncommon Bridges supported the strategic planning process for the Downtown Austin Alliance, which was completed in the spring of 2023.
In one of the first deliberate DEIA processes for a downtown organization in the country, we guided the Downtown Long Beach Alliance through augmenting its existing strategic plan with diversity, equity, inclusion, and access goals.
We partnered with DowntownDC Business Improvement District to support the creation of their 2023-2027 Strategic Plan and continued organizational development.
As our communities become increasingly diverse, place management organizations such as BIDs, BIAs, SBDs, EIDs, etc., are seeking to better understand the role that they can play in creating neighborhoods that are welcoming, affirming and safe for BIPOC communities. BDS Planning and long-time partner Jackie St. Louis, offer an intensive training and group process facilitation to support organizations such as the Ballard Alliance, SODO BIA, and the Alliance for Pioneer Square align their activities with principles of anti-racism and develop an equity lens to guide their future work.
Managing Partner Brian Scott served as co-chair, lead facilitator, and primary author of a yearlong process that led to the creation of A 25-Year Vision for Central Portland involving more than 500 community leaders and 90 high school students. The resulting vision provided direction to support the City of Portland's decisions to make school funding, the health of the Willamette River, and diverse central city neighborhoods its top priorities.
Since the firm’s inception in 2009, we have actively partnered with the Downtown Seattle Association and its Metropolitan Enhancement District, which provide place management services to most of downtown Seattle.
Uncommon Bridges, in association with ECONorthwest and Arturo Vargas, completed a Strategic Plan for the City of McMinnville, Oregon: Mac-Town 2032. Our engagement included facilitating five focus groups in English and Spanish and two discussions between the City Council and the Project Leadership Team (consisting of City department directors and community stakeholders).
Uncommon Bridges helped reinvent the Ballard Chamber of Commerce into a much more inclusive, effective, and influential collaboration among businesses, residents, and property owners, known as the Ballard Alliance.
Our team facilitated multiple Strategic Plans for DSA, which engaged business leaders, social service agencies, neighborhood associations, downtown residents and workers, government employees, and elected officials.