Neal Richman    Ph.D. in Development and Planning, University of Aalborg (Denmark)  Director, Center for Neighborhood Knowledge  Phone: (310) 825-0577 Campus Extension: x50577 nrichman@ucla.edu

Dr. Richman has twenty years of experience in affordable housing management and development, contributing to the rehabilitation/construction of more than one thousand dwelling units in Southern California. Most of these projects were designed as scattered-site, infill developments with the aim of strengthening the fabric of distressed neighborhoods. His development work has relied on expanding resident-controlled housing and broadening opportunities for ownership by lower income households. His development research clients have included organizations in Europe, Africa and the former Soviet Union. 

Currently, as the associate director of UCLA Advanced Policy Institute, he has been exploring the use of new information and communication technologies to support grassroots community development activities. Funding for this technology outreach and training program is currently provided by FannieMae Foundation, Microsoft Foundation, and the National Telecommunications Information Agency. The Neighborhood Knowledge Los Angeles (NKLA) internet site, which provides access to a searchable database that for the first time anywhere provides information on property tax delinquencies, code violations, and other city and country data, can be accessed at http://nkla.sppsr.ucla.edu. In partnership with the Southern California Association of Governments, Dr. Richman has also been conducting training programs for government officials, and representatives of private industry on how new technologies will reshape urban development and finance. 

Since 1991, he has been teaching in the UCLA Department of Urban Planning with courses on such topics as real estate finance and development, planning theory, non-profit management and professional practice. He received a doctoral degree for his cross-national research on housing provision from the Department of Development and Planning at the University of Aalborg in Denmark where he sometimes teaches a module in planning theory. He received his Master's Degree in Urban Planning from UCLA in 1982.

Selected Publications:  

"Internet-based Neighborhood Information Systems: A Comparative Analysis." With Danny Krouk and Bill Pitkin, under review for Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communications Technologies, M. Gurstein, ed. Idea Group: Hershey PA, 1999 (forthcoming).