Coffee with Annie White, Director of Real Estate + Economic Development

Annie in her office. Artwork by Noah MacMillan.

We grabbed coffee with Annie White to talk about her experiences in promoting equity, economic development, and her Midwestern pride! We also got some great stories about some of Annie’s favorite odd jobs over the years.

Annie is the Director of Real Estate and Economic Development at Karp Strategies and joined us after six years at the NYC Department of City Planning. Annie is a big advocate of the importance of recognizing inequitable systems at play in our built environment and working towards creating more equitable systems in their place, as well as engaging the community in this process.

Why did you join Karp Strategies?

I was incredibly excited to join Karp Strategies because I was looking forward to being part of a small but growing and active team. I loved the idea that there was enough space for me to take on the work I wanted to take on while being supported by the leadership team. Also, after working in NYC government, I wanted to have the opportunity to work more on a regional basis and learn more about the offshore wind industry in general. As Director, I have gotten to engage in more real estate planning work (such as zoning analyses, market analyses, land use studies, etc.) and have been able to work on community engagement to ensure the end result of our projects builds equitable wealth for our city and the communities we are serving.

What do you see as the major intersection between architecture and urban planning? What inspired your switch to urban planning primarily?

When I started my career, I was at a small architectural design firm in St. Louis, MO. St. Louis is a city that has seen the full rise and fall of urbanization and population decline. While at the firm, we did a lot of historical rehabilitation and housing work. Being there helped me to realize that I was interested not so much in what we were designing but in the systems in place that allowed all these neighborhoods to see this amount of disinvestment and extreme racial inequality that was present in St. Louis. I went back to planning school to understand these systems more and ended up getting really interested in real estate and economic development. One fun thing to note—I have a lot of Midwestern pride. While in planning school, I was one of the few people who refused to use New York City or Boston case studies—I always would investigate ones from the Midwest.

What do you see as an important policy step that needs to be taken that will make urban planning and design more equitable?

I think that the city needs to be better about equitably distributing resources (both physical as well as programmatic) across the five boroughs. When working in planning, you continually see neighborhoods that take the burden of housing growth and resiliency that should be better and more equitably distributed. We are still living in a deeply segregated and inequitable city. When thinking about the bigger conversations we’re having surrounding housing equality, the resources and benefits that come with having enough affordable mixed-income housing are essential for fair and equitable living.

What advice would you give to an urban planner whose project isn’t the most popular with the public?

I think the most important thing is trying to find some common ground with the public, even when facing extreme opposition. I have learned that there will always be very vocal opposition to any planning work you’re doing, but oftentimes, that is just a very vocal minority. When I worked on the Soho and Noho rezoning projects, we realized that we needed to have large town hall settings but also smaller conversations to meet the locals where they were at. There was also a lot of misinformation; once we could sit people down and discuss the impacts the project would have on their housing situation, we made more headway. Anyone living in unstable housing has fears around rezoning, but once you talk to them one on one, you can find common ground, and people were able to start seeing some of the benefits of the rezoning.

What has been your favorite odd job you’ve worked and why?

I have always worked in the service industry and really enjoyed my time there. But I did end up being DJ for a few weddings in grad school, and that was a really cool experience. Hit me up if you ever need some fabulous wedding playlists—tried and tested!

Tell me about a favorite hobby of yours and how you got into it.

When I was growing up, I played volleyball a lot. I recently got back into this hobby with the volleyball subculture at Domino Park. I started playing in Domino Park during 2020, and it was a fun way to enjoy the outdoors, get a great view of the city, and enjoy the nice weather while we have it.

Fast Facts:

Last TV show I binge-watched: Succession

Restaurant (delivery) I’d recommend to close friends: Xi’an Famous Foods

Book that changed me: Anything by Elena Ferrante

Best concert I’ve ever experienced: Beyonce

Movie I’d pay to see again and again: 10 Things I Hate About You

My Heroes are: A personal one is my sister—she is in med school right now and is an absolute rockstar. Another one is Anthony Bourdain—I was obsessed with him and how he used food to explore and understand different cultures.

A Coffee with Ali Sutherland-Brown, Principal

Ali with her daughter Thea

We grabbed coffee with Ali Sutherland-Brown to talk about cities, storytelling, and what it's like to be a working mother. We got some great book and movie recommendations too!

Ali is a Principal at Karp Strategies. As the first employee after Rebecca Karp founded the firm, Ali has been instrumental in helping build the company into what it is today. With over 13 years of industry experience, she previously worked at the NYC Department of City Planning and the Institute of Urban Design. She is a proud Coro Leadership New York graduate and holds degrees in Urban Planning and History/American Studies from MIT and Princeton, respectively. While trained as an urban planner, she is also an ardent advocate for creative and adaptive communication: “A good idea doesn’t mean very much if you can’t communicate it well.” She is also obsessed with behavioral economics and organizational psychology. Karp Strategies could not have grown to where it is today without Ali’s fierce commitment to the company and its people and passion for the work.

How do History and American Studies inform your practice of City Planning?

There’s always context and history you have to appreciate. American Studies is an interdisciplinary subject, and it totally changed my perspective on the different lenses through which you can think about and experience a place. You need to know its streets, its maps, its music, its novels, and its people—just to name a few elements of what ‘place’ really is. This idea is central to my work, and I use it to examine creative ways of understanding. Beyond that, part of the reason I love this field is that while I may be an expert in methodology, I am not an expert about every place we work in. Humility is critical, and my job is to understand the expertise that already exists in communities. You can find all of that if you take an interdisciplinary approach.

How has your experience living in different cities guided your understanding of urban planning?

I didn’t really know what urban planning was in undergrad—I just always knew that I loved cities and had a strong reaction to space. Living in different cities made me realize how much I’m affected by the built environment. For example, when I was an undergrad, I really thought I was going to be a TV writer and producer. But when I spent a summer interning in LA, I realized I just couldn’t live in such a car-centric place. Manhattan, Brooklyn, Cambridge, Chicago, DC, LA, and Ottawa—they are all so different but fundamentally led me to this career. I do this job because I want to positively affect how we experience cities and highlight how place and space affect our physical and mental health.

Why is the craft of writing and storytelling important to your work?

Everything is fundamentally about communication—every job comes down to your ability to communicate well with the people around you. This allows you to get what you need from your job, motivate other people to do their jobs, and be satisfied throughout it all. Ultimately, there is no shortcut to having an open line of communication or establishing empathy with someone—and this is the #1 thing I try to bring to my leadership at the firm and to clients. Just have the conversation. Prepare for it, especially if it’s a tough one. And see the situation from the other person’s perspective before you ever show up in the room. Written communication is also incredibly important because one of our primary jobs as urban planners is communicating the content we’ve created. We’re not doing our jobs effectively if we are not, for instance, writing as crisply and cleanly as we can. ‘Storytelling’ doesn’t have an implication of falsehood, to me—it’s all about getting your message across.

What has been your favorite highlight of working at Karp Strategies?

Growing the company! As someone with a degree in Urban Planning, I never thought that half my job would be helping to build a company from scratch. To the extent that people become urban planners because they’re excited to build something—a park, a facility, a district, a city—this company is what we’ve built. And by ‘we,’ I mean everyone who works—or has worked—here has contributed to its DNA. This has been one of the most unexpectedly rewarding experiences of my life. Making Karp Strategies the best company it can be is such an immense but rewarding challenge because if we can do that, then we can keep doing this great work.

Tell me a life-changing moment that helped shape who you are today.

Having my daughter—she’s two years old and is the best person I’ve ever met. Mostly, she makes my life much more complex, and also weirder and more wonderful than I thought possible (you can’t really anticipate the experience of dancing to Cookie Monster’s interpretation of a Swedish electropop beat until it happens to you). As this relates to work, historically in the US, there’s been a mistaken impression that working mothers are distracted and, therefore, less valuable as employees (I highly recommend Jessica Grose’s recent book on the subject). But working mothers are the most efficient and empathetic people you’ve ever met. Falling under the category of ‘cliche for a reason’: parenthood has changed my perspective on everything, including what work can and should be. And for what it’s worth, I’m immensely grateful to work somewhere that doesn’t just tolerate but celebrates my family and intense responsibilities at home.

Fast Facts:

Last TV show I binge-watched: Yellowjackets

Restaurant (delivery) I’d recommend to close friends: Mint Heights

Best concert I’ve ever experienced: Belle & Sebastian

A book that changed me: Anything by Lauren Groff and James Baldwin, Americanah (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie), Priestdaddy (Patricia Lockwood), Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Joan Didion), Why We're Polarized (Ezra Klein), The Image of the City (Kevin Lynch)

A movie I’d pay to see again and again: Charade, Rear Window

My heroes are: Nora Ephron, Barack Obama, Kathryn Bigelow, Lorne Michaels, Jean Michel Basquiat, Daniel Kahneman, Holly Whyte

Unlocking the Power of Economic Impact Analysis at Karp Strategies

What we do

At Karp Strategies, we understand that economic development is about people, communities, and creating sustainable growth. Our clients come to us with questions such as: What is the contribution of a certain business or an industry to a region’s economy? What are the characteristics of the jobs created or supported in different sectors as a result of an investment or a policy change? What are the potential supply chain and value chain dynamics of a certain facility? How does an increase in resident population or workforce size impact household spending in a region? These are complex challenges that require a nuanced understanding of the local economy and a clear-eyed view of the trade-offs and risks involved.

That's where our Economic Impact Assessment services come in. Using input-output modeling (I-O) tools like IMPLAN, Lightcast, RIMS II, and JEDI, we help our clients map out the ripple effects of their investments and initiatives across sectors, industries, and communities. Our goal is not just to measure the economic impacts but to help our clients design strategies that align with their values and priorities. We choose the most appropriate tool, or combination of tools, for our client’s needs based on their industry and reporting requirements. Then, work closely with them to evaluate the potential benefits and costs of different projects or initiatives, estimate their return on investment, and identify potential risks and trade-offs.

We also know that hard data only takes you so far—our assessments always include thorough quantitative and qualitative methodologies. For example, we might use IMPLAN to execute our quantitative analysis, while our qualitative study relies on a review of stakeholder interviews and other forms of desktop research. In alignment with our core tenets as a firm, we examine every project from a holistic perspective incorporating data, people, and places. Our rigorous and transparent analysis enables our clients to engage with stakeholders and partners, communicate their value proposition, and ultimately, build a strong case for their economic development strategies.

But we don't stop there. Our approach to economic impact assessment is grounded in our commitment to grassroots economic empowerment. We believe that data and analysis are only valuable if they can be translated into meaningful action—and that communities should be central to and involved in that action. That's why we work with our clients to identify ways to involve stakeholders in the decision-making process and to ensure that the benefits of economic growth are shared widely and equitably. Our economic impact assessments are an essential component of building broader community, economic, and workforce strategy and planning that help our clients build more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive economies.

Economic Impact Assessments in Action:

Below are some examples of the economic impact assessments we’ve conducted for clients ranging from private-sector developers specializing in large-scale mixed-use projects to offshore wind developers and manufacturers seeking to embed a new industry into an existing ecosystem. Karp Strategies’ analyses inform our clients’ strategic decision-making processes—grounded in data and informed by conversations with those most affected by the project at hand.

Tackling the economic impacts of various developments: affordable and market-rate housing, commercial retail space, and/or outdoor public amenities. Developers in New York City engage Karp Strategies to execute economic impact assessments to estimate the direct, indirect, and induced impacts a new development will have on jobs, labor income, and tax revenues during the construction process, as well as the project’s longer-term operations phase. This has allowed them to quantify and communicate the positive economic effects of their developments to decision-makers, internal stakeholders, and the broader community. By presenting a comprehensive analysis of the potential benefits and costs of a project, Karp Strategies helps developers build a strong case for their investments and address concerns from community members and elected officials.

Leveraging workforce and fiscal impact analyses to understand New York City life science hiring trends and industry gaps. Karp Strategies was hired to conduct an analysis of the life science sector in New York City and recommend ways to optimize workforce development and community investment. Through a series of mixed methods analysis that included economic and fiscal impacts assessment, expert interviews, and desktop research, we quantified the contributions of the life science industry to New York City’s economy and mapped the key characteristics of the current life science workforce. Karp Strategies then compiled a comprehensive key findings and recommendations report that identified potential opportunities for advancing equitable access to future life science jobs and strategies for filling existing industry gaps through future investments. Click here to learn more about this project.

Planning for the growth of offshore wind—a nascent industry. Karp Strategies is dedicated to the development of the clean energy industry as a key means to create thriving economies and a sustainable future. That involves helping developers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) craft informed and impactful workforce development and supply chain strategies. As part of several teams vying for NYSERDA’s third solicitation, Karp Strategies developed projections for the economic and workforce development impacts of the proposed projects—including estimates for the number of projected jobs, Minority- and/or Women-owned businesses who may participate, and jobs accessible to those residing in designated disadvantaged communities. Our quantitative assessments, coupled with our additional economic and stakeholder research and strategy, directly informed our clients’ New York Jobs and Workforce Plans and OEMs’ Supply Chain Investment Plan(s). Click here to learn more about our offshore wind practice.

Karp Strategies approaches each unique context to deliver content expertise, produce a strong and focused product, and employ stellar project management throughout our work to unlock the full power of economic impact assessments. If your investment, project, or advocacy requires a formalized analysis of overall economic impact, please do reach out to us at info@karpstrategies.com and tell us more.