A city can do a lot of things to improve their downtown, but the ultimate measure of their success or failure is the number of people who use the area. Lets see what that means to Jane Jacobs and Richard Florida, a few well known authors who write about topics like people and places.
In 1961, a wise woman named Jane Jacobs wrote a book that became a classic in the planning world. It was called "Death and Life of Great American Cities". I read it before I started on the planning program at Auburn, and I guess it's one of the reasons I enrolled in the classes in the first place. She talks a lot about what makes cities rise and fall, neighborhood safety, main street economics, and the bad moves being made in the name of slum clearance and urban renewal that was repalces slums with projects, and making things worse.
To boil down the part that had the biggest impact on me into one brief statement: She basically said you need to design or encourage a place to be somewhere those with economic choices will deliberately choose to shop there/visit there/move there, and most importantly, stay there when they have made enough money to move somewhere else. Don't focus as much on designing a world for those who don't have choices, but rather make the life in that place so appealing that even when those same lower income folks develop the financial means to move out or move away, they will choose the intangible benefits of the old neighborhood over the newer housing and shopping choices now available to them somewhere else. Rent and sales prices tend to stay up in these types of neighborhoods, and they stay safer because the residents take voluntary ownership of the streets, the neighborhood, and each other.
In 2003, a guy named Richard Florida expressed some similar ideas in a book called Rise of the Creative Class. Florida looked at cities in terms of their economic opportunities instead of simply Urban Design or other physical attributes. Times have changed quite a bit since Jacobs wrote her book, particularly in the ways we work and communicate. The widespread use of cell phones and PC's (merging into smart-phones), and the diminished importance of union/seniority based jobs, large-scale manufacturing employment, and corporate issued pensions have all worked together to usher in an age of hyper-mobility that even Jane Jacobs could not have predicted. When the bonds between a person and their birth place/home town are broken, and the idea of moving to a place for better opportunity have become the cultural norm, then it is even more important to develop places that will attract and retain people with choice.
Florida says that we have become a nation full of people that want to express ourselves, even in our jobs. In many cities and industries, it has become more accepted to take your "life" to work with you rather than leaving yourself at home when you start your morning commute. Florida says that the future of business is creative work of some kind, and he agrees with Thomas Friedman that every member of your society is equally capable of creating the next generation of wealth. He says that cities need to be less self-limiting, and be open to new ideas and new people. Strongly correlated with that is a city's tolerance of homosexuals, mostly because it is evidence that your community is open to all, and that people will be valued based on their own abilities, not anything else, like seniority, connections, etc. Florida says that cities should not seek to grow their employment by offering the new factory more subsidies than the other towns are willing to offer. Rather, he says it wold be better to worry about making your town the kind of place that innovators would choose to live, and support them as their innovations bring home-grown money and jobs to your town.
These days, many people can work anywhere there they can get onto the internet. Instead of staying in one city for the local factory or mill, or the slightly better option of letting a company relocate you and your family all around the country whenever they choose, many people are choosing to move to a place they like, and then finding a way to make a living there. Living in a college town, I hear it all the time when graduates are looking to take that first job... "What would it be like to live there?" Ask yourself if outsiders, with outside ideas, and unlimited choices would choose your town, or your downtown, or your neighborhood... and you'll have a pretty good glimpse into the future of that place.
Place matters.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Successful Downtowns (part 4) - The big picture
After meeting with city officials in Chattanooga and Greenville, I decided to head to Birmingham to sit down with Cheryl Morgan of the AU Architecture program's Urban Studio, and with Darrell Meyer of the planning firm KPS Group. Both of them are well respected in their field. In fact, Darrell also used to run the planning program at Auburn before moving on to KPS, which means he also used to live here. He could offer a unique perspective on Auburn's downtown that those in Greenville and Chattanooga could not.
They both had a simple, focused message for me, "ORGANIZE". They said the key to getting anything done downtown was to be organized. That means getting the business owners, residents, and property owners together regularly, and speak with one voice to the City Council, economic development, and planning departments.
For those unfamiliar with Auburn, the University makes up 1/4 of the original "100% corner", and the area around the downtown (College St. and Magnolia Ave.) is made up of many small shops and offices, surrounded by 2-3 story apartments, mostly filled with Auburn to students. As a result of the proximity to the University, the downtown has never seen the mass exodus that many other downtown areas across the country have. The constant flow of patrons and tenants has kept the neighborhood viable, but sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom for a community to put its attention on an area and pull together to make it the best it can be.
The impetus for downtown Chattanooga's renaissance came way before the famous aquarium. In fact, it began from a public embarrassment: it was being named the Most Polluted City in America by the EPA in 1969. As the heavily polluting industries started closing or moving away, the city was able to remake itself through citizen involvement and financial support from local families. Now, it is seen as one of the most environmentally conscious cities in the US, known for its sustainable practices and clean industrial base. During that same process, the city returned to its roots, and made the Tennessee River and the downtown area a key piece of the puzzle. I point out the EPA part of the story mostly as an example of a single event that galvanized the community for action. That #1 ranking happened 40 years ago, but the resulting changes are still visible today - and gaining strength with every LEED certified construction project coming out of the ground. And I haven't even mentioned the local factory making electric busses or the other that makes windmills for alternative energy production.
The challenge we face here in Auburn is a good one, and the same as many other downtown areas of all sizes. How do we get the attention and resources of the city focused in our neighborhood when the area is not at a crisis point... and probably never will be? We are doing "pretty well", but with our demographics, we should be doing GREAT, not just "pretty well". Surely there are other needs around the city that are more pressing, but in a State like Alabama, where property taxes are soooo low, often listed as the lowest in the nation, you must give attention to other ways of paying for the City.
Our best path may be to follow the advice of Cheryl Morgan and Darrell Meyer, and ORGANIZE, and then bring that unified voice to the city to say: Help us help ourselves. Work on the zoning ordinance, the traffic policies, the street vending permits, wayfinding systems... inexpensive things like that. We would like to reestablish the downtown neighborhood as the heart of the town, culturally and historically, make make it as economically successful as possible. With a little help from our local government, we can leverage that help to create a much bigger financial return to the city coffers, which can then be used to support other programs throughout the city.
Next time I will look at all of this in light of Richard Florida's recent book, Rise of the Creative Class.
They both had a simple, focused message for me, "ORGANIZE". They said the key to getting anything done downtown was to be organized. That means getting the business owners, residents, and property owners together regularly, and speak with one voice to the City Council, economic development, and planning departments.
For those unfamiliar with Auburn, the University makes up 1/4 of the original "100% corner", and the area around the downtown (College St. and Magnolia Ave.) is made up of many small shops and offices, surrounded by 2-3 story apartments, mostly filled with Auburn to students. As a result of the proximity to the University, the downtown has never seen the mass exodus that many other downtown areas across the country have. The constant flow of patrons and tenants has kept the neighborhood viable, but sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom for a community to put its attention on an area and pull together to make it the best it can be.
The impetus for downtown Chattanooga's renaissance came way before the famous aquarium. In fact, it began from a public embarrassment: it was being named the Most Polluted City in America by the EPA in 1969. As the heavily polluting industries started closing or moving away, the city was able to remake itself through citizen involvement and financial support from local families. Now, it is seen as one of the most environmentally conscious cities in the US, known for its sustainable practices and clean industrial base. During that same process, the city returned to its roots, and made the Tennessee River and the downtown area a key piece of the puzzle. I point out the EPA part of the story mostly as an example of a single event that galvanized the community for action. That #1 ranking happened 40 years ago, but the resulting changes are still visible today - and gaining strength with every LEED certified construction project coming out of the ground. And I haven't even mentioned the local factory making electric busses or the other that makes windmills for alternative energy production.
The challenge we face here in Auburn is a good one, and the same as many other downtown areas of all sizes. How do we get the attention and resources of the city focused in our neighborhood when the area is not at a crisis point... and probably never will be? We are doing "pretty well", but with our demographics, we should be doing GREAT, not just "pretty well". Surely there are other needs around the city that are more pressing, but in a State like Alabama, where property taxes are soooo low, often listed as the lowest in the nation, you must give attention to other ways of paying for the City.
Our best path may be to follow the advice of Cheryl Morgan and Darrell Meyer, and ORGANIZE, and then bring that unified voice to the city to say: Help us help ourselves. Work on the zoning ordinance, the traffic policies, the street vending permits, wayfinding systems... inexpensive things like that. We would like to reestablish the downtown neighborhood as the heart of the town, culturally and historically, make make it as economically successful as possible. With a little help from our local government, we can leverage that help to create a much bigger financial return to the city coffers, which can then be used to support other programs throughout the city.
Next time I will look at all of this in light of Richard Florida's recent book, Rise of the Creative Class.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Successful Downtowns (part 3) - Greenville, SC
Continuing the look at downtowns that have become great successes, our trip takes us to Greenville, SC.
Located about halfway between Atlanta and Charlotte on I-85, Greenville itself is only about 52,000 people, but it is the undisputed hub of the Upstate region of South Carolina. My January and March trips to Greenville were my 3rd and 4th visits, I think. I thought the city was cool before I understood anything that was going on behind the scenes. After a year and a half of Planning school, I was able to understand a lot more about what makes it so special. While Chattanooga's focus was on environmental issues, Greenville's efforts are clearly geared towards an active "Main Street" community. It is obvious to anyone who visits the downtown, but let me paint a picture for those that have not personally been there.
About 25 years ago, the city decided to reduce the number of lanes running through their Main St from 4 down to 2, add back in street parking and a bunch of trees. Today, those trees are fully mature, and provide shade to those strolling on their sidewalks. Shaded sidewalks are a big bonus in the southern summer, but they don't do much good if there is no one using the sidewalk. To fill their downtown with people, Greenville started with a Hyatt hotel, then added the Peace Center for Performing Arts, and a plaza for outdoor music. To add to the public amenities, they developed a Falls Park, first class urban park, and most recently, West End Field, a new stadium for the Greenville Drive minor league baseball team. They also work together with the well organized Metropolitain Arts Council, which adds other intangible aspects to the quality of life.
To redevelop its downtown, Greenville has used a pattern common in the shopping mall business, by spreading out these destinations every half mile or so along Main Street, instead of lumping them all together at one place. They see their attractions as anchors, and the smaller storefronts in between these major destinations benefit from the foot traffic passing by their front doors. To help draw in visitors from outside the neighborhood and around the region, the City has built several parking structures on the side streets about a block off of Main. This keeps some vehicular traffic off of Main, but also helps provide foot traffic for the side streets too. In fact, their largest event center, the Bi-Lo Center, was intentionally a few blocks off Main, and with less parking than is standard for such a facility. This was done as a way to get more use from the existing parking infrastructure, but also to encourage those going to a concert or other event to get a meal downtown and maybe do some shopping too.
How did they pay for all of these things? From what I have learned, it seems that Greenville has paid for a lot of this by adding a small hospitality tax on hotel rooms rented, and by establishing a TIF district. They have used a lot of their economic development muscle to build people friendly infrastructure and projects that add to the quality of life and generate additional tax revenues at the same time. Building a parking deck does not typically pay off as a stand-alone project, but if you build one as a component of a new mixed use project, then you get repaid with increases in property taxes and sales taxes, in addition to the parking fees. The city has partnered on several of the projects I mentioned earlier, and the resulting increases in demand have spurred considerable unsubsidized private investment as developers, retailers, buyers, and renters have been attracted to the vibrant life downtown. The TIF district has the effect of corralling those increases in tax property revenues and reinvesting them in the same neighborhood in projects that are designed to generate even more tax revenues. Part of the strategy is to build spaces for events - even small areas - then fill these new spaces with activities to drive foot traffic. I was told they have over 150 events a year throughout the City, many of which cover multiple days. As the investment has brought the increase of visitors and spending, the goal has worked. Greenville has primed the pump, and now it is flowing pretty well.
If you live in the Southeast, it's worth to spend a Saturday visting downtown Greenville, to see how good a small city can be.
Located about halfway between Atlanta and Charlotte on I-85, Greenville itself is only about 52,000 people, but it is the undisputed hub of the Upstate region of South Carolina. My January and March trips to Greenville were my 3rd and 4th visits, I think. I thought the city was cool before I understood anything that was going on behind the scenes. After a year and a half of Planning school, I was able to understand a lot more about what makes it so special. While Chattanooga's focus was on environmental issues, Greenville's efforts are clearly geared towards an active "Main Street" community. It is obvious to anyone who visits the downtown, but let me paint a picture for those that have not personally been there.
About 25 years ago, the city decided to reduce the number of lanes running through their Main St from 4 down to 2, add back in street parking and a bunch of trees. Today, those trees are fully mature, and provide shade to those strolling on their sidewalks. Shaded sidewalks are a big bonus in the southern summer, but they don't do much good if there is no one using the sidewalk. To fill their downtown with people, Greenville started with a Hyatt hotel, then added the Peace Center for Performing Arts, and a plaza for outdoor music. To add to the public amenities, they developed a Falls Park, first class urban park, and most recently, West End Field, a new stadium for the Greenville Drive minor league baseball team. They also work together with the well organized Metropolitain Arts Council, which adds other intangible aspects to the quality of life.
To redevelop its downtown, Greenville has used a pattern common in the shopping mall business, by spreading out these destinations every half mile or so along Main Street, instead of lumping them all together at one place. They see their attractions as anchors, and the smaller storefronts in between these major destinations benefit from the foot traffic passing by their front doors. To help draw in visitors from outside the neighborhood and around the region, the City has built several parking structures on the side streets about a block off of Main. This keeps some vehicular traffic off of Main, but also helps provide foot traffic for the side streets too. In fact, their largest event center, the Bi-Lo Center, was intentionally a few blocks off Main, and with less parking than is standard for such a facility. This was done as a way to get more use from the existing parking infrastructure, but also to encourage those going to a concert or other event to get a meal downtown and maybe do some shopping too.
How did they pay for all of these things? From what I have learned, it seems that Greenville has paid for a lot of this by adding a small hospitality tax on hotel rooms rented, and by establishing a TIF district. They have used a lot of their economic development muscle to build people friendly infrastructure and projects that add to the quality of life and generate additional tax revenues at the same time. Building a parking deck does not typically pay off as a stand-alone project, but if you build one as a component of a new mixed use project, then you get repaid with increases in property taxes and sales taxes, in addition to the parking fees. The city has partnered on several of the projects I mentioned earlier, and the resulting increases in demand have spurred considerable unsubsidized private investment as developers, retailers, buyers, and renters have been attracted to the vibrant life downtown. The TIF district has the effect of corralling those increases in tax property revenues and reinvesting them in the same neighborhood in projects that are designed to generate even more tax revenues. Part of the strategy is to build spaces for events - even small areas - then fill these new spaces with activities to drive foot traffic. I was told they have over 150 events a year throughout the City, many of which cover multiple days. As the investment has brought the increase of visitors and spending, the goal has worked. Greenville has primed the pump, and now it is flowing pretty well.
If you live in the Southeast, it's worth to spend a Saturday visting downtown Greenville, to see how good a small city can be.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Successful Downtowns (part 2) - Chattanooga, TN
On my January and March visits to Chattanooga, I had set up meetings with 3 different people who help make the city great.
First up was Karen Hundt of the Planning & Urban Design Center. Karen got her undergrad in Architecture at Auburn, and her Masters in the same Planning program that I am currently working on. Her job is to develop and then administer the regulations that determine things like setbacks and parking regulations, but that's only part of the job. The other parts include helping the city and region come up with their Climate Action Plan, one part consisting of coming up with ways to reduce energy use through the design of the city, like bike lanes or providing zoning that allows for neighborhood shopping, things like that. Another part of her job consists of holding meetings with residents, business owners, property owners, and other "stakeholders" in the area to come up with new plans for revitalizing their neighborhood.
Next up was Jon Coddington with the RiverCity Company. It seem that RiverCity is a non-profit development company that was set up to build catalyst projects that would spur private redevelopment projects along the river and throughout downtown. Most notably, they were instrumental in developing the Tennessee Aquarium, but there are many other projects as well, such as Miller Plaza, the site of weekly outdoor concerts, and the brownfield redevelopment of Coolidge Park. Jon is the latest in a line of leadership that has guided Chattanooga in environmentally friendly and sustainable direction.
I finished my day with Sheldon Grizzle of CreateHere. I had heard a little about this group and their artist relocation program, ArtsMove. In addition, they have programs like MakeWork to help small artists and artisans purchase equipment to help produce their art, and SpringBoard, which is a small business training course and mentoring program headed by Sheldon. The SpringBoard class is modeled after a similar class taught in Asheville, NC. The office space and the vision of CreateHere were amazing to me. It was awesome to see so many people my age (33) and younger working so hard to bring about such a positive change in their commmunity. They are all about planting seeds that will bear fruit for the city long into the future. Sheldon emplored me to read Richard Florida's Book "Rise of the Creative Class", to get a better understanding of what the big picture goals of the group were. He said that they were trying to help create a culture that welcomed and encouraged creative thinkers and small businesses to relocate to (or remain in) Chattanooga instead of moving to larger cities. Instead of relying on the traditional economic development technique of attracting production facilities with free buildings and tax abatements, this group is trying to build a local economy that will produce the next generation of wealth in Chattanooga.
It's hard to summarize so many influential meetings in just a few paragraphs, but if I went into all the details, the post would be unbearably long. If you want to know more, email me, or better yet, plan a trip to Chattanooga and visit with these folks yourself. If you are really interested in cities, it will be an unforgettable experience.
Next time we will visit with folks who have made Greeenville, SC into my favorite city in the US.
Thanks for your time.
First up was Karen Hundt of the Planning & Urban Design Center. Karen got her undergrad in Architecture at Auburn, and her Masters in the same Planning program that I am currently working on. Her job is to develop and then administer the regulations that determine things like setbacks and parking regulations, but that's only part of the job. The other parts include helping the city and region come up with their Climate Action Plan, one part consisting of coming up with ways to reduce energy use through the design of the city, like bike lanes or providing zoning that allows for neighborhood shopping, things like that. Another part of her job consists of holding meetings with residents, business owners, property owners, and other "stakeholders" in the area to come up with new plans for revitalizing their neighborhood.
Next up was Jon Coddington with the RiverCity Company. It seem that RiverCity is a non-profit development company that was set up to build catalyst projects that would spur private redevelopment projects along the river and throughout downtown. Most notably, they were instrumental in developing the Tennessee Aquarium, but there are many other projects as well, such as Miller Plaza, the site of weekly outdoor concerts, and the brownfield redevelopment of Coolidge Park. Jon is the latest in a line of leadership that has guided Chattanooga in environmentally friendly and sustainable direction.
I finished my day with Sheldon Grizzle of CreateHere. I had heard a little about this group and their artist relocation program, ArtsMove. In addition, they have programs like MakeWork to help small artists and artisans purchase equipment to help produce their art, and SpringBoard, which is a small business training course and mentoring program headed by Sheldon. The SpringBoard class is modeled after a similar class taught in Asheville, NC. The office space and the vision of CreateHere were amazing to me. It was awesome to see so many people my age (33) and younger working so hard to bring about such a positive change in their commmunity. They are all about planting seeds that will bear fruit for the city long into the future. Sheldon emplored me to read Richard Florida's Book "Rise of the Creative Class", to get a better understanding of what the big picture goals of the group were. He said that they were trying to help create a culture that welcomed and encouraged creative thinkers and small businesses to relocate to (or remain in) Chattanooga instead of moving to larger cities. Instead of relying on the traditional economic development technique of attracting production facilities with free buildings and tax abatements, this group is trying to build a local economy that will produce the next generation of wealth in Chattanooga.
It's hard to summarize so many influential meetings in just a few paragraphs, but if I went into all the details, the post would be unbearably long. If you want to know more, email me, or better yet, plan a trip to Chattanooga and visit with these folks yourself. If you are really interested in cities, it will be an unforgettable experience.
Next time we will visit with folks who have made Greeenville, SC into my favorite city in the US.
Thanks for your time.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Successful Downtowns (part 1)
In January of 2009, I signed up for 3 hours of "Independent Study" for my Masters in Community Planning at Auburn. The work was designed to allow me a chance to visit a few cities that have pulled off a serious turnaround in their downtown, and interview some of the people associated with that turnaround. Well, the project has stretched into the summer, but it has been a tremendous learning experience.
(My assignment also required me to do distribute a SWOT Analysis about various city figures, read and review 8 books on cities/design/parking, meet with Cheryl Morgan of the AU Architecture School's Urban Studio, and lastly, hold a public meeting about what people would like to see in downtown Auburn. More on all that later.)
The 2 cities I chose to visit were Greenville, SC, and Chattanooga, TN. I have visited each of them before this semester, but this was the first time I had been back since starting my Masters, and so I was seeing them with a different set of eyes. I knew a little more about urban design, TIF Districts, and the federal "Main Street" program. In both of these cities, I found several great ideas, and met some inspirational people that loved their jobs and their cities as much as I have ever seen. I left each place pumped up, but yet depressed at the same time. Could my adopted hometown of Auburn ever achieve such change, could we ever build such broad and deep coalitions to move our downtown forward? Could we decide on a vision, and then work toward achieving that vision? I was not so sure, and despite the small successes I've witnessed so far, the jury is still out.. at least in my opinion.
Next time, I'll share what I learned in Chattanooga, and see what's made them such a model for downtown revitalization.
(My assignment also required me to do distribute a SWOT Analysis about various city figures, read and review 8 books on cities/design/parking, meet with Cheryl Morgan of the AU Architecture School's Urban Studio, and lastly, hold a public meeting about what people would like to see in downtown Auburn. More on all that later.)
The 2 cities I chose to visit were Greenville, SC, and Chattanooga, TN. I have visited each of them before this semester, but this was the first time I had been back since starting my Masters, and so I was seeing them with a different set of eyes. I knew a little more about urban design, TIF Districts, and the federal "Main Street" program. In both of these cities, I found several great ideas, and met some inspirational people that loved their jobs and their cities as much as I have ever seen. I left each place pumped up, but yet depressed at the same time. Could my adopted hometown of Auburn ever achieve such change, could we ever build such broad and deep coalitions to move our downtown forward? Could we decide on a vision, and then work toward achieving that vision? I was not so sure, and despite the small successes I've witnessed so far, the jury is still out.. at least in my opinion.
Next time, I'll share what I learned in Chattanooga, and see what's made them such a model for downtown revitalization.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
