Join the Coastal Conservation League for the
JOHN WINTHROP CIVIC AFFAIRS FORUM
People Oriented Cities: Shared Mobility, Housing & Prosperity in the 21st Century
Featuring: Gabe Klein with an expert panel discussion
Followed by drinks and hors d’oeuvres
December 15, 2016
5:30 — 7:30 pm
The Colonial Ballroom at
The Francis Marion Hotel
387 King Street
Charleston, SC 29403
Click here to register by December 13
FEATURED PRESENTER: GABE KLEIN
Read his 2014 Charleston Peninsula Mobility Report HERE.
GABE KLEIN is a co-founder of CityFi, an advisory services firm, as well as is the former Commissioner of the Chicago and Washington D.C Departments of Transportation. In both cities he revamped technology platforms and government processes while focusing on putting people first vs. automobiles on city streets. This included launching two of the first and largest bike share systems in the U.S. and building protected bike lanes and better pedestrian infrastructure for vulnerable citizens citywide, as well as facilitating private services like carshare and rideshare that could help each cities mobility goals. Gabe honed his creativity and leadership skills working in business, including Zipcar, where he served as Vice President, Bikes USA as national Director of Stores and his own electric powered, organic food truck chain, On The Fly.
Post-government, and after an enriching fellowship with the Urban Land Institute in 2014, Gabe joined Fontinalis Partners as a Special Venture Partner on their $100 million 2nd fund. Gabe also advises governments and companies worldwide on innovation in cities including Singapore where Gabe has been a visiting fellow for the Centre For Livable Cities, working on creating a “car-lite” city-state. In 2015, Gabe also published Start-Up City with David Vega-Barachowitz on Island Press, a manifesto on revamping how (and how fast) we innovate in cities and rethinking public-private partnerships with a triple-bottom line approach as technology shapes a dramatically different future.
Gabe sits on the boards of Streetsblog, Carma, and advisory boards of NACTO, Sensity Systems, Zendrive, and advises next-gen start-ups including Phone2Action and Transit Screen. As Commissioner, he has worked to bring a new Riverwalk to Chicago as well as the breathtaking Bloomingdale Trail, 100’s of miles of bike lanes, new policies combined with technology solutions to revamp parking, permitting, and many other arcane government processes.
JOINED BY PANELISTS
SEAN FLOOD started The Gotcha Group in 2009 after seeing a need on college campuses for alternative forms of transportation and discovering a solution. The Gotcha Group consists of Gotcha Ride and Gotcha Bike. Gotcha Ride offers free rides to students and faculty members on ten campuses nationwide, using a fleet of branded electric vehicles. Gotcha Bike provides a turnkey bike share system for universities and municipalities. In 2014, Sean relocated The Gotcha Group to Charleston, SC where he lives currently with his wife Jacklyn and two boys, Knox and Penn.
DANNY PLEASANT serves as Director of the Charlotte Department of Transportation. His organization plans, designs, builds, operates and maintains the city’s multi-modal transportation network. CDOT operates Charlotte’s on-street parking enterprise and manages the use of city rights of way. The department staffs the three-county metropolitan planning organization and the fourteen county air quality planning region. Danny serves on the Executive Board of the National Association of City Transportation Officials. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, the Urban Land Institute, and the Congress for the New Urbanism. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.
PETER SHAHID serves on Charleston City Council representing District 9. He is a practicing attorney in areas such as criminal defense, family law, and personal injury and is married to Mary Shahid, a practicing environmental law attorney at Nexsen Pruet. They have three children together: Peter, James, and Julia. Councilmember Shahid graduated from the University of South Carolina, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1978, and the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he received his Juris Doctorate in 1981. He is a native of Charleston and resides in West Ashley. Councilmember Shahid has been a sole practitioner at the Shahid Law Office, LLC (1997-current). He was appointed as an Associate Municipal Judge for the Town of Mt. Pleasant (1997-2006) and was an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of South Carolina (1988-1997). He was a partner in the law firm of Shahid and Taylor(1984-1988) and was an Assistant Public Defender, Charleston County (1981-1984).
DEBBY 
WAID has worked in affordable housing since 1987 when she began her career at the VA Medical Center coordinating services for homeless veterans. At Crisis Ministries, where she was the program director and later the executive director, Debby saw first-hand the critical shortage of affordable housing in Charleston. She went on to work for the Humanities Foundation which developed affordable apartment complexes through the Low-income Housing Tax Credit Program During her time with Humanities Foundation she helped to develop over 800 units of affordable rental housing for very low to low-income households. Debby worked in all aspects of the development process from site selection, financing, construction and property management.
Throughout these years, Debby volunteered with the Mayor’s Council on Homelessness and Affordable Housing and chaired the group for two years. Debby was also a member of a committee of the Mayor’s Council that was seeking new sources of funding for affordable housing development. This committee ultimately created the Lowcountry Housing Trust in 2004 with committee members becoming the founding board of directors of this new organization. Debby continued to serve as a board member until joining the staff in 2012. The Lowcountry Housing Trust became the SC Community Loan Fund (SCCLF) in 2014, adding new loan products and expanding its market area from coastal counties to statewide.
As SCCLF’s Chief Program Officer, Debby provides technical assistance and training on affordable housing development through community workshops and one-on-one consulting. She also assists developers with project financing through the Low-income Housing Tax Credit Program, Federal Home Loan Bank, HUD’s HOME Program and others. She is currently working with municipalities throughout South Carolina providing workshops on changes to federal funding programs and new compliance requirements. Debby is also a current member of the Mount Pleasant Housing Task Force.
MIKE SEEKINGS is currently serving a second term as Charleston City Councilman representing District 8. He is Chairman of CARTA, Chairman of the Sustainability Advisory Committee, Chairman of the Traffic and Transportation Committee, on the Board of the Charleston Area Convention and Visitor Bureau, the Gibbes Museum, and the Cooper River Bridge Run.
Mike is a magna cum laude graduate of Amherst College and received his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh. Following law school, he clerked for former South Carolina Governor Donald S. Russell on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and thereafter worked for Latham & Watkins, in its Washington, D.C. office. He is now a partner with the firm of Leath, Bouch & Seekings, LLP representing owners in complex construction defect litigation. He is a member of the South Carolina, New York, and District of Columbia Bar Associations and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the District of South Carolina. He is a former member of the South Carolina Bar’s House of Delegates and the executive committee of the Charleston Bar. He is an adjunct professor at the Charleston School of Law and the College of Charleston.
Mr. Seekings is a private pilot and one of Charleston’s most avid runners. He is married to Michele H. Seekings. Michele also has a passion for the outdoors.