City Forward: How Innovation Districts Can Embrace Risk and Strengthen Community

Innovation Districts and anchor institutions such as hospitals, universities, and technology hubs can drive economic growth and employment opportunities. But their benefits can sometimes fail to reach the residents of the neighborhoods they are built in. 

Matt Enstice joined the Smart Growth Network as he explained how the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) took a different approach. Under Enstice’s leadership, BNMC fostered participation and collaboration among neighborhood leaders, foundations, and other organizations to ensure that the interests of Buffalo residents were represented as the campus developed. 

Enstice shared 12 strategies that, together, have created a new model for re-energizing Buffalo that can be applied across in other cities of the U.S. and beyond. This is covered in his new book City Forward.