New York City Economic Development Corporation – Brian Gardner – 2022

Goals

Gardner’s work included a case study to help EDC “tell the story” of their community led initiative, and highlight areas of potential improvement for the future, revisiting a Racial Equity Tool that had been developed for EDC previously and iterating on it to build a more fluid and functional Social Responsibility Tracker.

Solutions

Gardner used his understanding of Game Theory to assist internal stakeholders. As part of a Capstone Project team with interns, Gardner built a “Zero Displacement policy template” to offset the increase in property values that result in government investment and often disrupt the lives of low-income residents.

Potential Impact

Gardner worked with the Innovation arm of EDC as an advocate for more outreach and support to marginalized communities, giving them access to start-up best practices coming out of UC Berkeley, including Open Innovation and Business Model Innovation, and broadening the scope and accessibility of diversity outreach and training to include neurodiversity and other impacted minorities.