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Join Mithun partner Erin Christensen Ishizaki for “Belonging in Motion: Community Engagement in Times of Urban Transformation” to explore the place-based factors within station environments and evolving transit-oriented communities (TOCs) that impact mental health, safety and the sense of belonging. This session will explore the difference between placemaking and placekeeping in practice, and how a cross-departmental, change-management approach — bringing together planning, real estate and facilities management — can help center social connection and well-being in transit-oriented community development.

Attendees will learn common challenges communities face amidst the loneliness epidemic and strategies for overcoming them through a holistic, human-centered approach. Drawing on emerging findings from Mithun’s decade-long Design for Health Research and Practice initiative, presenters will highlight evidence-based human behavior, design and space management factors that influence social connections, including considerations for LGBTQ+ spaces. Real, evolving community case studies, including the Mariposa Healthy Living District in Denver and the Little Tokyo community in Los Angeles, will demonstrate effective methods for engagement and use of human-centered data to support a placekeeping approach.

Erin’s co-presenter is Sound Transit high capacity transit development manager Miranda Redinger.

Date Posted: 10.28.2025