“We need to charge for parking, and we need to limit the number of cars households can have. That’s the way to do it and that doesn’t make people happy. But that’s the most effective way,”

“We need to be able to have these really heady quantitative conversations with people who understand these nitty-gritty metrics. But then when we move back to the community, it’s really about storytelling.”

Stacy Thompson of the LivableStreets Alliance said the draft guidelines on the whole appear to do good, but she took issue with the fact that the plan doesn’t require a certain percentage of the units be affordable.

Livable Streets Alliance Executive Director Stacy Thompson cited St. Paul, Minnesota, and Raleigh, North Carolina, as parking reform examples for Boston to follow. St. Paul in August eliminated parking minimums at real estate developments, while Raleigh in June voted to begin the process of eliminating parking requirements at new projects.

In addition to a graduation ceremony, the event featured presentations from nine project teams organized around the themes of food security, affordable/fair housing, youth mentoring, racial equity and small business supports. As a result of the pitches, approximately $50,000 of funding was committed by philanthropists and foundations to launch projects to address these community and regional priorities, organizers said in a statement.