Faculty Profile

Tom Angotti lecturing about CCPD’s Unity Plan (Photo by Tracy Collins, 3c.com)
As Director of the Center for Community Planning & Development (CCPD), Professor Tom Angotti works to promote knowledge, applied research, and innovative practice in community planning and development throughout the New York metropolitan region. CCPD was established as a venue that would support and promote community/university partnerships where community members, students, and academics can learn and benefit from each other’s experience and skills.
CCPD recently partnered with Picture the Homeless (PTH), a community-based organization in the Bronx, to organize the first-ever inventory of vacant buildings and lots throughout the five boroughs. Using existing data from various city departments and other volunteer reports as their foundation, CCPD, PTH and several other community groups mobilized volunteers to conduct block-by-block surveys of several targeted areas. Dr. Angotti and his research team hope to further develop this methodology to the point where it can be implemented on a yearly basis, to ensure the data is kept up-to-date. This comprehensive study will eventually be presented to elected officials and other community-based organizations in order to launch discussions about affordable housing issues.
Past CCPD projects have included an analysis of local business impacts in Flushing, a special zoning district committee in Chinatown and the Lower East Side, and a study of Walmart’s impact on local economies with Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
Together with Dr. Angotti, CCPD’s staff is made up of graduate students in urban affairs and planning committed to democratic, inclusive, and participatory approaches to planning and development that foster sustainability and economic and social justice.

Tom Angotti lecturing about CCPD’s Unity Plan (Photo by Tracy Collins, 3c.com)
CCPD recently partnered with Picture the Homeless (PTH), a community-based organization in the Bronx, to organize the first-ever inventory of vacant buildings and lots throughout the five boroughs. Using existing data from various city departments and other volunteer reports as their foundation, CCPD, PTH and several other community groups mobilized volunteers to conduct block-by-block surveys of several targeted areas. Dr. Angotti and his research team hope to further develop this methodology to the point where it can be implemented on a yearly basis, to ensure the data is kept up-to-date. This comprehensive study will eventually be presented to elected officials and other community-based organizations in order to launch discussions about affordable housing issues.
Past CCPD projects have included an analysis of local business impacts in Flushing, a special zoning district committee in Chinatown and the Lower East Side, and a study of Walmart’s impact on local economies with Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
Together with Dr. Angotti, CCPD’s staff is made up of graduate students in urban affairs and planning committed to democratic, inclusive, and participatory approaches to planning and development that foster sustainability and economic and social justice.