Are State Capital Cities the Final Frontier of Neighborhood Revitalization?

Helllooo PPPers, Detroiters and those of you who are not Verizon subscribers getting monitored by the federal NSA but think that the NSA is tapping your phone anyway...

They can't catch us if we go low-tech!!

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Are State Capital Cities the Final Frontier of Neighborhood Regeneration?

Over a two-week period this Spring I was lucky enough to work with Urban Land Institute-led teams analyzing transportation, connectivity and neighborhood regeneration challenges in Columbia, South Carolina and Austin, Texas.   From a marketing and branding perspective, Austin is currently "keeping itself weird" and Columbia is still "famously hot".   Both cities have great mayors who are awesome city ambassadors. 

Yours truly with Mayor Lee Leffingwell of Austin

Yours truly with Mayor Steve Benjamin of Columbia

 












In addition to my time in those capital cities, I am also helping to implement neighborhood regeneration strategies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Washington, DC.  As you might imagine, the District of Columbia shares many of the challenges and opportunities faced by most capital cities (I know, I know, there's no "State of New Columbia" but we operate like a state capital city).

Our state capital cities often have the same critical revitalization challenges: 

1. Fractured ownership of land and buildings;
2. Transportation and Connectivity Issues; 
3. "Parking Lot Problems"; and
4. Lack of 18-Hour Vibrancy.

• Fractured ownership of land and buildings.  Whether it's the state government owning a large percentage of the land, or dominating ownership by local colleges and universities, many state capitol cities and downtowns struggle to reinvent themselves. Part of their struggle is the mosaic (*ahem*) of landowners they have to work with who have very different interests, resources and decision-making structures.  What do you do when the local government, state government, major university and large corporate employer don't agree on land use and planning?   The solution takes a robust understanding of how to structure, implement and manage P5 public/private/non-profit/philanthropic/people partnerships in a way that all parties can benefit and flourish. 

• 

  Office buildings and parking lots directly across from Austin's State Capital building

• Transportation and Connectivity Issues.   Ownership and control issues also typically apply to the streets and avenues in many state capitols as well.  Many state capitols don't own, control or maintain the streets that bisect them.  Oftentimes there are mini-highways that bisect the state capitol (four lane roads cutting through downtown Austin come to mind) which hamper the ability of the city to offer safe and convenient multi-modal options for pedestrians, cyclists and people using public transit.  Moreover, the street grids, too-wide roads and office building-focused development tend to disconnect the capitol city center from its adjacent neighborhoods often through ridiculous intersections that serve to divide not connect.  Capital cities from Sacramento, to Austin to Columbia are all desperately trying to retroactively fix these issues.  

To be fixed:  Columbia, I don't want to cross that street to get to that nice restaurant.  Oh wait.

We fixed it!  Some will say DC's attempted connectivity fix is more complicated than it's worth!

• Parking Lot Problems.  A consistent second problem in capital cities is parking lots.  If you're working to revitalize cities you're probably channeling Jay-Z right now and saying "I got 99 problems but parking lots ain't one."  But put yourself in the shoes of a state capitol city where government, corporate institutional and universities build seas of parking (some of it underground no less!) that only get used for 12 hours a day.  Those same lots (usually fronting onto major streets by the way) break up urban streetscapes and hamper retail development, create public safety issues, are usually poorly maintained (if at all) and are often magnets for unscrupulous activity at night.  
  

  

  This 7 feet tall Gamecock protects a downtown Columbia parking lot. There's no one to protect at night though.

• Lack of 18-hour vibrancy.    
   

  

  We built it and they didn't come.

  Lack of 18-hour vibrancy is mostly an outcome of the ownership, connectivity and parking lot issues I identify above.   If you have an area of your city where a 12-hour work day population commutes in but very few people live there, you end up with limited retail and restaurant options in the evenings and on the weekends.  The limited entertainment amenities cause more people to stay away, which begets less activity, less public safety, and the vicious cycle kills the vibrancy of the downtown in that state capital city.  

Soooo...Is it hopeless for the downtowns & adjoining neighborhoods of our capital cities? 

'Course not.

Capital cities also have assets that coalesce in their downtowns that make many cities envious.  Our next blog post will discuss solutions to the problems discussed above.  Many of the solutions to the revitalization challenges of state capitals derive from leveraging three assets that most capital cities benefit from that many cities wish they had:

1) A semi-permanent employment base and industry cluster;
2) The headquarters or sizable outposts of large private sector corporations and;
3) Major universities and colleges.

-- Calvin

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Let's Connect!

  Visit our website at www.mosaicurban.com

        Link me in at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/calvin-gladney-leed-ap/7/481/347
        Follow us on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mosaicurban

Is resiliency sufficient to regenerate cities and urban neighborhoods?

Helloooo Detroiters, Canadians and those of you who heard that Amanda Bynes verbally attacked Rhianna and said “Who’s Amanda Bynes?”

That's Amanda?  No seriously, isn't that Miley Cyrus?

*****

Is resiliency sufficient to regenerate cities and urban neighborhoods?

Resilience is on fire.  With a possible honorable mention to the term “creative placemaking” (as we discussed in my last post), there is no other term as hot as “resilience” right now in the lexicon of community and economic development.  The concept of resilience has become the pièce de résistance of many well-thought out strategies for the regeneration of cities, including, as an example, the Rockefeller Foundation’s inspiring and groundbreaking 100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge.

I love the concept of resilience and believe it is an important tool in the regeneration of our cities and neighborhoods.  But resilience is not enough.  It is necessary, but not sufficient.

In a way, resilience is reactive, not proactive.  It is a tool used to help cities withstand what happens to them.

In my mind, resilience is defense, not offense.  Defense wins championships (so they say) but you still have to score one more point than the other team to win.  Defense only sets up the offense to win the game.  

So what comes before, after, and during our march to resilience in our cities?   How do we play neighborhood revitalization offense?

Here are three actions we need to add to building resilience to sustainably transform our communities:

• ·         Authentic community outreach, engagement and feedback 

Communities need to be heard, their ideas leveraged, and their feedback incorporated to win.  Residents should be the quarterbacks of the regeneration of their cities and neighborhoods.  They should be the leaders, and their cities and neighborhoods are not laboratories where only outsiders have the great and sustainable ideas.

Yours Truly engaging the Old South Baton Rouge community last month

•  ·         Neighborhood and Corridor Level SWOT Analysis & Strategy 

Most economic development analysis and strategy seems to happen on the citywide level these days.   There are notable exceptions – including the neighborhood-level work of astute planning departments like the District of Columbia’s Office of Planning, business improvement districts that focus on a neighborhood like the NoMa BID in DC or the groundbreaking Detroit Future City Framework led by the Kresge Foundation that drills down and suggests neighborhood land use and industry clusters.  

In addition to hiring awesome advisors (ahem!) to help neighborhoods do these self-assessments, there's also a great new trend:  We can leverage web-based technology to ask the community for information and input on its neighborhood without having a meeting!

MindMixer Infographic Courtesy of Code for America

However, our most challenged cities have neighborhoods that need to understand their own strengths and weaknesses so that they can affirmative sell themselves rather than simply withstand economic storms.  You might be thinking “Do neighborhoods need to sell themselves?”  My answer is yes, because neighborhoods exist in a city-wide and region-wide eco-system of neighborhoods that all have different assets and liabilities. These neighborhoods are competing for new retailers, local entrepreneurs, and city resources.  If a neighborhood attempting to revitalize itself does not know its best selling points it makes it much harder to understand (and then implement) the blueprint for its future.  But a neighborhood must take the time to do the analysis and truth-seeking necessary to get real understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. 

This talk of neighborhoods selling themselves brings me to my final point of neighborhood offense:  Place-based marketing and branding.

• ·         Place-Based Marketing and Branding

The first step is for the neighborhood or urban corridor to understand what’s the best of what it is “selling” now and in the future (you can loosely call this the neighborhood’s “brand”).  Next, that neighborhood, its residents and its key stakeholders must affirmatively compete in the marketplace for resources and amenities.  Neighborhood-relevant resources and amenities range from government public realm dollars to new retailers filling vacant storefronts.  Many of our most challenged urban neighborhoods can use place-based marketing and branding strategies as a catalytic first step in their march towards to resilience.  Moreover, we’ve found the process and outcomes from a place-based marketing and branding project within a neighborhood can help build greater community pride and collective action.  These are the building blocks of sustainable neighborhood regeneration.  As an example, in Detroit we worked with non-profit Southwest Housing Solutions and urban planning firm Interface Studio to create a new brand, marketing strategy, logo and tagline for a set of neighborhoods and a retail corridor. 

There are now community-led events all over town that use the "Historic Hubbard" brand!

The Upshot:  Three Plays on Offense in Addition to Resiliency

Resilience is a great foundation for all of us who want to positively impact our cities and neighborhoods.  The three action steps above are our neighborhood regeneration offense, if you will.  So let’s add robust community engagement, SWOTs and place-based branding to our playbook. 

-- Calvin

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Let’s Connect!

 
  Visit our website at www.mosaicurban.com

        Link me in at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/calvin-gladney-leed-ap/7/481/347
        Follow us on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mosaicurban 

Keep it Coming, Detroit! Mosaic on Team that Wins Prestigious ArtPlace Grant!

We are excited to announce that our momentum in Detroit continues!

We’ll let today’s press release from the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation sum it up: 

Detroit, MI, May 20, 2013 --ArtPlace America announces today the award of a $200,000 grant to Detroit Economic Growth Association for REVOLVE Detroit to activate empty storefronts along Livernois Avenue with art and related activities. The project was chosen from over 1,200 applications as an exceptional example of creative placemaking.

See our interviews on the news!:

WMYD-TV Channel 20

WXYZ-TV Channel 7

Mosaic Urban Partners will be co-managing this initiative. We’re pleased to say this will be our fourth project in Detroit (our experience in the city has ranged from neighborhood marketing plans to city-wide housing strategies). We’re also pleased to see our work with creative and arts-based place-making expand from DC to Louisiana and now to Detroit.

For more detail on the work we will be doing on Livernois Avenue in Detroit please continue reading!

REVOLVE Livernois will match world-class designers and artists with local university students, residents, and entrepreneurs. Artists will create temporary and permanent installations for vacant storefronts and public spaces. Along with other art-related events, the installations will continue to re-vitalize Detroit's historic "Avenue of Fashion." This summer, a local panel will select five artists with national reputations, five local artists, and several University students to create original works inspired by the district and its rich legacy. The installations will be displayed early next fall.

ArtPlace America is a collaboration of leading national and regional foundations, banks and federal agencies committed to accelerating creative placemaking - putting art at the heart of a portfolio of strategies designed to revitalize communities. This is ArtPlace America's third cycle of grant awards, and Detroit was one of 54 organizations that earned an award.

"The Avenue of Fashion has and always will be one of Detroit's premiere cultural and entertainment districts," said Olga Stella, vice president, business development at Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC). "Our goal is to show how the arts can serve as a catalyst for community and economic revitalization."

Kim Swift an artist with the studio We Came In Peace, and creative director for the project said, "Detroit is rapidly evolving as a cultural hotbed for artists and young entrepreneurs from all over the world. The Avenue of Fashion is a perfect place for a diverse group of local and international artists, architects and designers to come together with the community and rediscover the greatness that’s already there. By connecting the emerging with the established to create spaces and art that engages, inspires and builds commercial interest, we aim to foster a climate of possibility and strengthen the fabric of the community."

Kim Tandy, program manager at University Commons said, "Livernois Avenue has a great tradition of art, fashion and music, and we are very pleased to be able to showcase the work of artists from other parts of the country and the world with some of the great work of Detroit artists. Detroit ArtPlace projects will help us continue the momentum we have built for re-invigorating this important district of Detroit. Watch for more to come."

Rip Rapson, chair of ArtPlace America's Presidents' Council and president and CEO of The Kresge Foundation said, "ArtPlace America recognizes the central role arts and cultural activities can have in the revitalization of American cities. With this grant award ArtPlace America is directing individual project support to scores of creative, high-impact projects throughout the country."

REVOLVE activities along Livernois Avenue are part of a collaborative effort among government and non-profit agencies, businesses, anchor institutions such as University of Detroit-Mercy and Marygrove College, and University Commons community organization. The initiative is supporting ongoing projects that are revitalizing this important district of Detroit.

One of the consulting project managers on the Livernois project is Mosaic Urban Partners, an advisory services firm that specializes in the regeneration of urban neighborhoods throughout the country. Mosaic has worked on a number of projects in Detroit and will also provide national best practices expertise on creative placemaking and arts-based revitalization projects. 

About REVOLVE

REVOLVE Detroit is a collaborative program of the DEGC that partners with community leaders, building owners, entrepreneurs, and artists to activate vacant storefronts with transformational businesses and art installations. The goal of the program is to foster the evolution and vibrancy of Detroit?s neighborhood business districts.
https://www.facebook.com/RevolveDetroit

About Detroit Economic Growth Association

Detroit Economic Growth Association (DEGA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the economic development of the city of Detroit. DEGA is administered by Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC), a non-profit organization that serves as the lead implementing agency for business retention, attraction and economic development initiatives in the city of Detroit.

DEGC is led by a 60-member board comprised of business, civic, labor and community leaders. Its 40 professionals provide staff services for key public authorities that offer tax credits and other forms of financing for projects that bring new jobs or economic activity to the city. Among them: the Downtown Development Authority (DDA), Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (DBRA), Economic Development Corporation (EDC), Neighborhood Development Corporation (NDC), Local Development Finance Authority (LDFA), and Tax Increment Finance Authority (TIFA). DEGC also provides planning, project management and other services under contract to the City of Detroit.www.degc.org

About ArtPlace America

ArtPlace America provides grants and loans, supports research, and conducts outreach and advocacy. To date, ArtPlace America has awarded 130 grants totaling $42.1 million to 130 organizations in 90 U.S. communities (and a statewide project in the state of Connecticut).

My Simplified Definitions of Place, Placemaking and Creative Placemaking

Hellooooo Louisianans, Detroiters and those of you who religiously watch ABC’s Scandal, but are too ashamed to admit it!

Hiiii Kerry, I'm not ashamed.

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I have the honor of being on a powerhouse team whose latest mission – broadly defined – is to help the residents of Old South Baton Rouge in Louisiana use Creative (or Cultural) Placemaking as a catalyst for the regeneration of their neighborhood.  On Friday, the team – led by our expert team leader Lord Cultural Resources – facilitated an all-morning workshop to start the ball rolling. 

One question that Lord had us ask everyone who attended the meeting was “What is Culture?”

"What is Culture?" - colorfully self-defined by the attendees through Post-Its.  Kudos to Lord Cultural for this great tool!

One of my roles was leading a group in a discussion of placemaking in Old South Baton Rouge. 

About 20 minutes into the discussion, one woman looked around and said “I still don’t quite get it.  I’m new to some of this terminology.  Can you tell us again what y’all mean by “Placemaking?”

I paused.  A hush went over the room.  The hands on the clock on the wall stopped.  A red hummingbird flying by the window hung suspended in mid-air, its little wings visible, outstretched and unmoving.  

 

*wink*  

Her question made me stop and think.  

Shouldn’t there be a straightforward, relatively jargon-free definition of Placemaking? 

Accordingly, shouldn’t there be a simplified definition of what we placemakers mean by “Place”?

[I’m certain some of you are feverishly drafting a Tweet or a comment to this blog post in your mind right now.  “Calvin, where have you been?  There are tons of awesome organizations who have defined place and placemaking!” Didn’t you just tell us in your last blog post that you were appointed to be a member of the international Placemaking Leadership Council?  I’m sure they’ve already defined place and placemaking.  You’re now gonna give us YOUR definition? You’re going Rogue?!  You’re in trouble now!!]

Well, I guess I kinda like going against the grain on how people see things.  Hey, if I didn’t, I might be still in the projects in Brooklyn where I grew up.  

 

Baby I'm from New Yorrrk, Concrete Jungle Where Dreams are Made Of...

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And so, I turned and looked directly at the woman who asked the question about defining placemaking.  My answer:

 “I would define ‘places’ as “locations where people gather, linger or interact.”  

[Editorial note:  That means places can be locations like buildings or parks, but places can also be sidewalks or street intersections.  It also means that Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are “places” too.]

“My definition of ‘placemaking’ is the act of affirming, improving or creating great places.”

[Editorially,

Affirming a Place may only mean raising awareness of the great places already existing in a community.  I call it “place-based marketing and branding”—and we’ve used it as a tool for regeneration in neighborhoods in Detroit, Baltimore and Oakland.  (More about that in a future post).

Improving a Place could simply include cleaning up a “place” so that it is more inviting, accessible or useable for more people.  No need to get all complicated about it-- maybe you do nothing but put out some old-school lawn folding chairs.

And guess what?  Nobody steals the chairs!

Creating a Place may mean building something new, or it may mean bringing activities to a location where people did not often gather, linger or interact.]

“My definition of ‘Creative Placemaking’ is therefore using the arts, artists and culture to affirm, improve or create great places.”

I looked around.  The clock’s hands started to move.  The hummingbird’s red wings began feverishly whirring and then became a blur as it soared majestically away.  

The lady who asked the question about defining placemaking smiled and nodded.  Other people in the group nodded as well.  We went back to the main discussion.  

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My definitions in a nutshell:

Place.  Places are locations where people gather, linger or interact.  

Placemaking.  Placemaking is the act of affirming, improving or creating great places.

Creative Placemaking.  Creative or Cultural Placemaking is therefore using the arts, artists and culture to affirm, improve or create great places.

What do you think of my simplified definitions of Place, Placemaking and Creative or Cultural Placemaking? 

 – Calvin  

  

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Let’s connect!

  Visit our website at www.mosaicurban.com

        Link me in at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/calvin-gladney-leed-ap/7/481/347
        Follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mosaicurban