Port Townsend featured on walkability & livability tour of Puget Sound

The 9th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference is coming up in Seattle, February 4-6, 2010.

Following is a brief statement of purpose from the conference website:

Today, more than ever, we are faced with environmental and economic challenges that will define our generation, shape our future, and test our resilience as cities, regions, states and a nation. Join leaders from across the U.S. as we tackle these challenges head-on and demonstrate solutions to curbing greenhouse gas emissions by reducing our dependence on foreign oil, creating a green economy, and building more livable, walkable, and healthier communities.

An optional pre-conference tour focusing on "Smart Growth in Small Towns" is taking place February 1-3, including a stop in Port Townsend this Wednesday. Last week, the Peninsula Daily News ran a story about this week's visit. For tour information, see the flyer PDF posted on the conference site.

The Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, Inc. recently set up shop in Port Townsend. The mission of the organization is "...to to make cities and towns throughout the world walkable, bicycle and transit friendly, livable, sustainable, socially engaging and welcoming places by improving their built form."

Executive Director Dan Burden is one of the leaders of the small town tour this week. He is well known as an expert in "walkability" and his co-leader Paul Zykofsky, part of the Center for Livable Communities program of the Local Government Commission, is recognized in the arena of "smart growth."

Port Townsend has been selected as one of the small towns in the Puget Sound that has made strides in consciously creating opportunities for "walkability."

As they get comfortable establishing the new Institute here in Port Townsend, we'll try to coax Institute staff Dan Burden and Sarah Bowman to contribute ideas to ongoing conversations on this blog.

EPILOGUE: The PDN published an article about the 2/3 tour on 2/4.