CityTalk Sept 26, LIVE with Anyika Mark, Mukhtar Latif, Sameer Patel & Taylor Aikin

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Subject: CityTalk Sept 26, LIVE with Anyika Mark, Mukhtar Latif, Sameer Patel & Taylor Aikin

Life on Main: How can we make main streets matter more?

Thursday, Sept 26 | 12 p.m. ET | Live Zoom Webinar

Life on main streets is a delicate balance of many urban factors such as housing, community, space, diversity, and culture all working as critical levers to make local places matter.

So, how do we strike that balance?

Join us this Thursday Sept 26 at 12 p.m. ET for CityTalk Live where Anyika Mark, Black Urbanism Toronto; Sameer Patel, Divercities Advisory; Taylor Aikin, MBB Architects, and Mukhtar Latif, Crosswalk Sustainable Communities dive into their work to meet these challenges, and discuss how they harness the opportunities at our fingertips to bring change and revitalize these important places. In addition, learn more about the recently launched Measuring Main Streets Tool, including an update on recent data being collected at CUI that is supporting building better main streets.

Meet the Speakers

Anyika Mark

Director of Communications | Black Urbanism TO

Anyika Mark is the Director of Communications with Black Urbanism TO since 2019, volunteering at first until she was hired full-time in 2024. Black Urbanism TO (BUTO) is a non-profit organization founded in 2018 with a mission to increase the participation of Black communities in community development to advance our social, cultural and economic interests in the neighborhoods we call home.

Black Urbanism TO officially founded the Little Jamaica Community Land Trust in 2022- an entity that is designed to anchor Black businesses, residents and cultural heritage in Canada’s oldest Black enclave- Eglinton Wests Little Jamaica. Anyika also loves theatre, and has written two plays to date! She also became a mom in 2023, which has informed her work in more ways than one.

Sameer Patel

Co-founder | Divercities Advisory

Sameer is a designated Professional Land Economist and a retail thought leader. Over the course of the past 24 years, Sameer has developed a nationally recognized retail consulting practice focusing on main street tenant strategy, market demand analysis and mixed-use development strategy.

Sameer offers a wide range of consulting experience in both the public and private sector through his practice at Tate Research as well as co-founder of Divercities Advisory.

Through Tate Research, Sameer offers data driven consulting services across all aspects of commercial development across all areas from City wide down to mixed-use districts and individual developments. Recent projects include; Punjabi Market Capacity Building Work (City of Vancouver), Little Jamaica Retail Strategy (BBPA), Queen Street West Retail Mix Strategic Planning (Queen West BIA) and City of London Downtown Vacancy Reduction Strategy (City of London).

Taylor Aikin

Partner | MBB Architects

Taylor Aikin is a Partner at MBB Architects, a multidisciplinary architectural firm in New York City focused on serving mission-driven institutions. He also serves as the Chair of the Board of Bricks & Mortals, a nonprofit whose core purpose is to ensure that faith-based organizations have the knowledge, resources, and advocacy they need to manage their real properties in service of their missions. Taylor also serves on the NYC Mayor’s Working Group for Faith-Based Affordable Housing Development. In his architectural practice, he has led the planning and design of innovative higher education and PK-12 projects, contextually sensitive church and synagogue upgrades, and high-performance work environments. A visionary collaborator, he helps unlock long-term value for institutions and the people they serve.

Mukhtar Latif

Founder COO | Crosswalk Sustainable communities

Mukhtar Latif has over 30 years of international affordable housing and development experience. He excels in building partnerships with government agencies, funders, non-profits and private sector to deliver affordable and diverse housing options across the housing income continuum.

Mukhtar was the Chief Housing Officer for the City of Vancouver, developing policy for sustainable communities and setting up the Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency to build 2,500 affordable mixed use homes on city owned land, including developing the first movable modular housing project in Vancouver. Prior to his work in Canada, Mukhtar was a Development Director for several housing associations in the UK developing new homes using modern methods of construction. Crosswalk Sustainable Communities was set up to address affordable housing supply, by building at scale and leveraging social impact financing to secure certainty of program funding.

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Subject: CityTalk Sept 26, LIVE with Anyika Mark, Mukhtar Latif, Sameer Patel & Taylor Aikin