Christmas and giving thanks

Street Christmas decoration, Price Utah Main Street.

I'm not religious.  My birth father was Jewish, my mother Christian.  I wasn't exposed to church regularly until I was 11ish, in foster care.  So it was hard to have "faith" when Christianity seemed illogical.  I am somewhere between agnostic and atheist so holidays like Christmas are hard for me--Hallmark Christmas movies are especially over the top.

But the holiday lighting is cool, who doesn't like presents, and it's fun to attempt to give meaningful gifts (one year we gave Suzanne's parents an avocado tree).

Last year at this time, I probably had two chemotherapy treatments and I was weak.  My hair started falling out around then.  

It was part of a bad period that would only get worse--in 14 months I had a colonoscopy, colon surgery, congestive heart failure (which presented in post-op), Large T cell lymphoma alk-negative (super aggressive), I think a couple of biopsies, chemotherapy treatment, then in the hospital for 8 days with covid, and pneumonia and myocarditis as a bonus, then I needed a pacemaker (on a heart monitor after the hospitalization and they called in the middle of the night saying my heart had stopped for about 12 seconds--by the end of the day I had a pacemaker), a third lead added to the pacemaker (it runs most of the time, dealing with my various issues), enteral nutrition (upon release from covid, I weighed 110 pounds), a CHF relapse so all the terrible symptoms -- constant cough and snot, hard to talk being the worst -- returned, blood clot in the heart so I was hospitalized, and two instances of supra fluid imbalance (I forget the technical term) which led to hospitalizations too.

One of the "worst" symptoms is "cancer mouth".  It makes most foods taste bad and so I wasn't interested in eating, and I lost a lot of weight.  With my CHF relapse in June it got even worse--even water tastes bad.  But lately I started not tasting at all and that's actually better so I am eating more.  Now I weigh about 126...  But it makes it hard to appreciate food.  E.g., I made a gingerbread cake earlier in the week, with frosting.  Suzanne says it's great but I can't taste a thing.

1900 block of Michigan Avenue, Salt Lake City.

Ah, and because my chemotherapy was interrupted by my covid, I was supposed to get 6 treatments but by February had only received three.  In May/June preparing for resumption, testing found I am in remission from the lymphoma  After three treatments I didn't have to do anymore!  My hair has since grown back but differently, more tufty but darker, less grey.  

Since I started cancer treatment I got in the habit of not looking in the mirror, so I don't pay much attention to how I look.  I was supra gaunt, and I don't pay much attention to my hair.  

My heart is functioning more than 3x better than in June--it was so poor then I was a potential candidate for a heart transplant.

It's been quite a 14 months.  I am thankful that I am still alive after all that.  I am still quite weak compared to my former self.  I haven't biked in almost 18 months--my last 1 mile bike trip took 45 minutes between gasping, coughing, snotting, and resting.

It turns out the thing I am most thankful for is taking up biking for transportation in 1990.  My adoptive parents moved and forced me to take my belongings, which included an old Raleigh 10 speed.  

I started biking for transportation because it was efficient compared to the time getting to and from transit and waiting for trains or buses, but also for health reasons.  My patrilineal line had a history of heart disease--my father and uncle died at 54, their father even earlier.  And I didn't think I could routinize going to the gym to make a fitness membership worthwhile.

So out of all my health problems, many of the tests found I was quite robust internally (relatively speaking).  Eg when they did the angiogram there were no plaques at all.  And it's given me the resilience to survive (many of the people with my recent health history die rather than survive),

So it's not a shock to me that a study in Scotland found that regular biking reduced early death ("18-Year Study Of 82,297 Adults Finds Cycle Commuting Halves Chance Of Early Death," Forbes).

The latest research to confirm this is an 18-year-long study of 82,297 Scottish adults. 

This found that compared with sedentary commuting, commuting to work or study by bike was associated with lower all-cause mortality risk, lower risk of any hospitalization, lower risk of cardiovascular disease, lower risk of cancer mortality and better mental health. 

Those who walked to work also extended their lives, although not by as much. The study—in BMJ Public Health—says that cycling to work is the “most practical and sustainable way [for many people] to increase daily physical activity.”

Mile End Bike Garage Co-op, Montreal.

I joke that while biking didn't ward off my heart problems, it postponed them by many years--I have lived 10 years longer than my father.  

And now that I seem to be on an upward trajectory with my various treatments, I may still be able to live a long time, relatively speaking.  With physical therapy and cardiac rehab on the horizon, I hope to be able to take up biking again.

Happy holidays! 

PS this year I am going to try to make sufganiyot, Hanukkah doughnuts, for dinner at my next door neighbors.  One filling will be plum jam that I made before all my health issues.  The other will be custard (pudding).

Community safety partnership for MacArthur Park in Los Angeles?

Some time ago, I learned about how the LA Police Department in association with the Housing Authority, created what they called a community safety partnership, to put officers full time in high crime housing projects.  The program has been quite successful ("After Years Of Violence, L.A.'s Watts Sees Crime Subside," NPR and "What Does It Take to Stop Crips and Bloods From Killing Each Other," New York Times ).

I wrote a piece suggesting something similar for the Ballpark neighborhood of Salt Lake ("Creating 'community safety partnership neighborhood management programs as a management and mitigation strategy for public nuisances: Part 3 (like homeless shelters)," 2020).  I think it's a model that's quite portable.

Aaron preps a pipe for a hit of fentanyl in the Westlake District.(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 

Steve Lopez of the LA Times has been following the decline of MacArthur Park in LA ("Can MacArthur Park be saved? A look to the past points the way forward," "‘Why are you messing with me for smoking fentanyl?’ The tough task of policing MacArthur Park," "‘I can’t deal with life sober’: Response to the MacArthur Park drug epidemic just isn’t enough," and "The time for excuses is over. L.A.’s MacArthur Park needs a champion now") which is apparently a recurring problem.  

A homeless man, wrapped in a blanket, walks by two men prepping a pipe for a hit of fentanyl near an alley in Westlake known for drug use. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 

The park declines, is cleaned up, people don't maintain the same level of care, and the park declines again.  Not unlike the Kensington district in Philadelphia ("Business and bloodshed," Philadelphia Inquirer), the area has significant problems.  From the fourth article:

In MacArthur Park, it’s not as if the problems have been ignored, nor are they easy to fix. They’re deeply rooted in poverty, homelessness, the lack of affordable housing, a low-wage economy, cheap and powerfully destructive drugs and gang-controlled criminal enterprise. 

Recently, Bass and her team have been strategizing with the police, recreation and sanitation departments and working with supportive housing providers. 

On Thursday, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who believes too much money is spent on law enforcement and not enough on social services, held a news conference in MacArthur Park to announce several partnerships and social service initiatives. She also said she is committed — along with county Supervisor Hilda Solis and state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, among others — to improving “the quality of life for residents and visitors alike.” 

           ("What are the answers to MacArthur Park crisis, and can Councilmember Hernandez lead the way?," LAT, "Can key politicians in Los Angeles help MacArthur Park? They’re going to try," LA Daily News). 

...The neighborhood is primarily made up of low-income Spanish-speaking people, many of them undocumented residents who can’t vote and can be easily ignored even though they’re a critical part of L.A.’s economy, present and future. So it’s good to finally see such a response in a neighborhood that has become a symbol of the disorder that is crippling Los Angeles, but it shouldn’t have taken this long to confront the festering crisis head-on. 

I wondered if this might be yet another of the many MacArthur Park rescue projects that brought temporary relief before falling apart. It’s not just neighborhood problems that have to be fixed. It’s the fractured relationships between various city and county agencies, the culture of over-promising and under-delivering, and the scourge of fragile egos and petty politics.

The need for police + social services = community safety partnership.  Lopez argues that without police involvement, change is unlikely, or at least unlikely to be long term.  I would say they just need to introduce and maintain a CSP.   Which is what Lopez describes in the first article.

Parks conservancies as more engaged parks managers.  Note that this is a problem for many urban parks across the nation ("Addressing Homelessness in Public Parks," NRPA).  NYC deals with it by having park  conservancies, basically park improvement districts, to provide the kind of more detailed attention to the public space that is beyond the capacity of a parks agency responsible for many parks.  Sometimes these are funded in part by a small property tax on commercial property in the area.

Not unlike libraries, many of which have created social work positions to address homeless related problems as people gather in libraries ("‘A lot of people in need’: Social workers added to staffs at Mass. libraries," 25News, "How One Library Is Filling the Gaps in Homeless Services," Governing), one of the only public spaces open to all, certain parks in many cities need the kind of focused attention common to many of New York City's parks.  (Salt Lake should do the same for some of its major urban parks also.)

Transit agencies have created similar programs to better address homeless issues ("Transit's Response to People Who Are Homeless," APTA, Homelessness: A Guide for Public Transportation, National Academies Press).

Engaging the community in positive activities is crucial.  FWIW, like the Sharkey point about the importance of community organizing as an element of the crime drop (Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence), I argue that parks are loci for civic engagement (""Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Eight | Civic Engagement," 2024), and wrt safety, that parks with problems need to be used by positive users--as Fred Kent of Project for Public Spaces used to say "if you plan for streets and traffic that's what you get, it you plan for people and places that's what you get instead."

Tons of activities need to be organized in problematic parks to help sweep the nuisance uses away.

Group walks, dog walks, park cleanups, organized playground activities, etc.

Engaging Hispanics.  The area is home to a large number of low income Hispanics, many undocumented.  They don't have a predilection to participate in community affairs, because many come from countries where activists are killed.  This has made it difficult to maintain a functioning community council--many of the seats go vacant ("Mired in overdose crisis, MacArthur Park struggles to revive Neighborhood Council," Los Angeles Daily News).

I don't think social urbanism--a Latin American strategy for community revitalization--is relevant because this community already has parks and libraries.  

One strategy is to build and or strengthen Latino-focused community organizations.  No question that extranormal organization and community building is required.

In the health field, in there is a program in nearby Orange County, called Latino Health Access, that could be a model for how to create a program to engage Latinos in community improvement programs.

Latino Health Access, Orange County, California.   Focused on providing health care to the Latino community, which has traditionally been underserved, the organization focuses on education, prevention and participation, training a cadre--many thousands over the years--of paraprofessionals and volunteers working in and already part of the community, to deliver health education, focused on chronic diseases, such as diabetes.

The organization was featured in a four-part HBO documentary “The Weight of the Nation,” on addressing obesity.

The organization sponsors an annual health walk, has built a park and community center in an impoverished neighborhood that lacked such facilities ("Residents Bring First-Ever Park to California’s 92701 Zip Code," Salud America!), and the organization's main clinic has a community room with space for exercise classes, fitness equipment, and space, a "Youth Room," for adolescents.

LHA has published a workbook, Recruiting the Heart, Training the Brain: The Work of Latino Health Access, discussing what they do, how they built the organization, and their care model.

Rayful Edmond's death reminds me of my introduction to Washington, DC

The Post reported, "Inside the sudden death and complex legacy of an ex-D.C. drug kingpin," that Rayful Edmond, a kingpin during the crack cocaine days of the late 1980s and early 1990s, has died.  (Also see "Running Low on Rayful," Washington City Paper.)

Besides all the deaths, in another way, his is a tragic story, because clearly he had the smarts to be a very successful businessman.

... authorities say that in the 1980s, he commanded a ruthless crack cocaine operation, raking in an estimated $2 million a week and fueling a deadly epidemic that plunged D.C. into the national consciousness as America’s murder capital. 

The sudden death stunned Edmond’s family and attorneys, who have said that although he was once a prolific salesman of drugs, he claimed not to have used any himself. And his demise elicited sharply divergent reactions in D.C., a place that prides itself on second chances. To many who investigated and prosecuted him, Edmond was a larger-than-life criminal who profited from death and addiction in the city. 

To some who considered him a friend and neighbor, he was a local legend whose charisma helped build an empire, and who was known to cover rent, food and medicine for those in need. “He may have been convicted of serious crimes, but Rayful’s only intention in life was to be able to help people,” said Tiffani Collins, one of Edmond’s attorneys. “Sometimes people go about giving that help the wrong way, but there is no doubt in my mind he would have wanted his life to be a lesson for anyone to benefit from it.”

... The nightly crossfire among street crews guarding their turf — and profits — helped to sharply drive up D.C.’s annual homicide toll in the late 1980s and early 1990s, peaking at nearly 500, almost double the rate in 2023. Although Edmond was never convicted of a violent crime, authorities say he was responsible for hundreds of deaths, from murders to overdoses. 

When I first came to DC, it was in 1987, and I wanted to live in the city as opposed to the suburbs.  I lived in Ann Arbor--a city--before the move, and in Detroit off and on until I was 12, and then the suburbs for 6 years.

Then, not only was I a knee jerk liberal but mostly "young and dumb," not really ready to live in the 'hood.  I joke that I wish that Elijah Anderson's books Streetwise and Code of the Street had been already published, so I could have been better prepared!

Flicker photo by Ted Eytan.

Why this matters is we lived a few blocks away from his main distribution area, a set of two one way streets near Florida Avenue and today's thriving Union Market, Morton Place and Orleans Place. 

One thing I learned from this is that one way streets make it easier to make and hide drug transactions.  (In the H Street neighborhood, G Street and another pair of one way streets had similar problems.)

On Thursday morning, the blocks of Morton Place and Orleans Place NE that were once the epicenter of Edmond’s operation were quiet, full of well-kept rowhouses with fallen yellow ginkgo leaves blanketing the sidewalk. 

Then an open-air drug market called “The Strip,” Edmond’s employees once stashed drugs in abandoned houses here and sold them at a clip of 30 transactions a minute. High-rise apartment buildings have popped up in the surrounding blocks in recent years, next to Union Market, a foodie’s paradise serving everything from bubble tea to Mexican-Korean fusion.

Now Redfin lists transactions on those streets from the high 600s to over one million.

I thought the area was a good place to live because even though H Street NE was riot scarred, it was close to Union Station, Downtown, and Capitol Hill-US Capitol.  Then again, 30 people were murdered in the area in our first 18 months, and we had a lot of problems, serious marriage-breakup problems, with crime.

I moved from knee jerk liberal to what I called an "inner city progressive" whose liberal tendencies were mediated by the reality of the local conditions and governance.  (Still it was about a decade before I actually got off my ass and got involved, because I believed if I didn't the area would continue to languish--good timing since trends shifted favoring urban living).

Loree Murray was an activist involved in many issues, including DC statehood.

When I did get involved, one of the first organizations was Near Northeast Citizens Against Crime and Drugs, founded by a lady who lived around the corner from the mayhem ("A Woman Who Won't Sit Still From It," "Fought D.C. Cocaine Epidemic," Post) and police service area meetings--one of the problems we had is the area was split between two different police precincts creating problems of coordination.

Near Northeast Citizens Against Crime and Drugs was exactly the kind of community response and organizing initiative that Patrick Sharkey discusses in Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence as why we had the crime drop in the 2000s, nationally, and in DC.

A nearby apartment building, post-reproduction of space, was named in the honor of the founder of the group, Loree Murray.

FWIW, this area gave me another lesson, my lodestone in revitalization, in that investments in transit infrastructure in the right places has the fastest ROI, when the infill NoMA Red Line subway station opened in 2004 (case study) which brought about a huge influx in new residents.

From BTMFBA to "community right to buy"

 BTMFBA, or Buy The Mother F------ Building Already, is a set of blog entries about how arts groups specifically and nonprofits more generally, need to own their facilities in order to be able to control their futures

-- "BTMFBA: the best way to ward off artist or retail displacement is to buy the building," 2016

-- "BTMFBA: maintaining arts spaces in the face of rising real estate values | Seattle, New York City," 2024
-- "New form of BTMFBA in San Francisco," 2023
-- "A wrinkle on BTMFBA: let the city/county own the cultural facility, while you operate it (San Francisco and the Fillmore Heritage Center)," 2021
-- "BTMFBA: Baltimore and the Area 405 Studio," 2021
-- "Revisiting stories: cultural planning and the need for arts-based community development corporations as real estate operators," 2018
-- "BMFBTA revisited: nonprofits and facilities planning and acquisition," 2016
-- "BTMFBA: artists and Los Angeles," 2017
-- "BTMFBA Chronicles: Seattle coffee shop raises money to buy its building," 2018
-- "Dateline Los Angeles: BTMFBA & Transformational Projects Action Planning & arts-related community development corporation as an implementation mechanism to own property," 2018

although sometimes nonprofits can't be trusted either.

-- "Lack of a system breeds more of the same: Source Theater, Washington DC, up for sale 2006, 2024," 2024
-- "When BTMFBA isn't enough: keeping civic assets public through cy pres review," 2016

‘David Cameron’s talk of a volunteer-led “big society” became a cover story for funding cuts and the closure of leisure facilities.’ Photograph: David Rowe/Alamy

Under Conservative control of the UK from 2010-2024, local governments were severely crushed by actions of the central government, austerity and other cuts, and further mandates meant that local governments faced up to a 2/3 drop in revenues.

Many local governments have gone bankrupt and are blamed for lack of probity and good management, when really it is a mark of system failure.

Many shut down facilities like libraries and recreation centers ("Councils reduce library and culture spend by almost £500m since 2010, new analysis shows," CCN), and got involved in bad real estate deals to try to earn revenue ("Councils’ disastrous journey into commercial property investments," LandlordZone).  From the article:

English councils collectively went on a near £7bn commercial property buying spree, a journey which has now proved to be responsible for bringing some of them to the edge of bankruptcy. Their commercial investments, often made at huge distances from their boroughs over the last eight years or so, involved the purchase of office and industrial buildings, shopping centres, cinemas and even solar farms. 

 And despite their impressive looking multi-page strategy documents justifying their investment cases, many of which are still available on these council’s websites, the edifice eventually came tumbling down. In the case of many of these councils it has led to budget cuts to many services, redundancies, fire sales of council properties and an appeal to central government for bailouts.

The Labor government has introduced a proposal giving communities the right of first refusal on properties up for sale, to pursue community/public good/social infrastructure goals ("The Guardian view on a ‘community right to buy’: unleashing the power of the local," Guardian).  From the article:

In theory, the bill will give communities a head start over private investors in bidding to save, run and, in some cases, repurpose valued buildings and assets. As the local government minister, Jim McMahon, told the House of Commons last week: “When we talk about important community assets, we see from an economic point of view that it is far better for them to be used and be productive, but … we also recognise that they are hugely important to community identity and pride.” 

That is an insight to be built on by a government that, while understandably prioritising growth, sometimes tends to an overly technocratic understanding of its mandate for change. The new “right to buy” legislation can help shift the balance of power in less well-off areas, where local development has too often meant more betting shops or fast food outlets. But Labour’s overall communities strategy needs to be considerably fleshed out if its impact is to be transformative.

In places that have suffered from underinvestment and a sense of disconnection from power for decades, the white paper’s aspiration to boost local engagement and “community voice” will only be fulfilled through a long-term injection of major funding and support. In a recent report [Fixing the foundations: A communities strategy for Britain], the Power To Change thinktank recommends the creation of a community growth network, dedicated to building up organisational capacity and confidence in areas where the social fabric has been steadily eroded.

Now you could argue that other attempts by local councils to own properties, or mis-management or failure to keep control of buildings in a nonprofit portfolio doesn't bode well for this policy.

The failure of ArtScape in Toronto ("Artscape tried to launch a ‘game changer’ for artists. Now it’s on the brink of collapse," Toronto Globe & Mail) is another illustration that arts groups buying properties with the expectation of major revenue generation are likely to fail.

I think the issue here is the focus on maintaining and extending social infrastructure rather than revenue generation and that this new policy is workable.  And how Power to Change recommends capacity building is an important add on to better enable success.

I hope you appreciate the drivers of transit buses

I've always thought that driving a bus is one of the hardest jobs.  The vehicles are big and hard to maneuver and you have to go in and out of traffic constantly--stopping the bus at a stop and then getting back into traffic.  Plus, the riders.  While many riders are no problem, some can be violent or otherwise problematic. ( ... plus the drivers, most are nice, but some are not).

A Route 70 bus passes two bouquets of flowers Wednesday afternoon at 15th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 41st Street in the University District where Shawn Yim, a King County Metro bus driver, was fatally stabbed around 3 a.m. (Jennifer Buchanan / The Seattle Times)

A few days ago a King County Metro (Seattle) bus driver, Shawn Kim, was killed by a rider who is a transient, likely with mental problems ("King County Metro bus driver fatally stabbed in Seattle’s U District," Seattle Times).

In an odd twist, he is the brother in law of my next door neighbor.

I always say thank you when I leave the bus.

Cook County property taxes

Counties across the US are mostly funded by property taxes.  If communities within the county decline, and/or costs continue to go up, a county's revenue base is threatened.  Cook County, Illinois, which encapsulates Chicago, has had property tax issues for some time.

High property taxes, higher taxes proportionately on properties owned by lower income households, graft in property tax appeals ("Powerful Chicago official charged with corruption," "County property tax official running for sixth term rakes in cash from appeals industry," Chicago Tribune), and increased number of vacant properties not paying taxes are just some of the issues.

Crain's Chicago Business has an article, Cook County's property tax system is complex and burdensome. Here’s how it can be fixed," listing 7 policy options.

1. Create circuit breakers 
2. Get vacant properties back on the tax roll
3. Increase assessment frequency
4. Reduce government spending
5. Raise other taxes
6. Implement a 'millionaire tax'
7. Address appeals 

I didn't think the solutions were particularly amazing.  Circuit breakers are homestead tax credits.  The article focused on amounts that were pretty minimal.  Some areas of the county have as low as 50% collection rates, because of the high number of vacant properties.  

The County has a lot of different agencies funded in large part by property taxes, and the article suggests perhaps some could be consolidated.

The County has also initiated a reinvestment plan in some of the communities with lagging collection rates, but it's had minimal impact--one property! (Transforming Places).

Once again, this reminded me of the pathbreaking program in Hennepin County, Minnesota, where declines in property tax assessments in Minneapolis, then a declining city, were increasingly worrisome, with potential significant worse outcomes in the future.

Hennepin did an analysis of Minneapolis, and identified the factors that separated the stable neighborhoods from those that were declining.  They created a revitalization program focused on Minneapolis, to turn declining neighborhoods into successful and stable ones.  This journal article, 

"A COUNTY AND ITS CITIES: THE IMPACT OF HENNEPIN COMMUNITY WORKS," Journal of Urban Affairs (2006), describes the program.  What they found is that housing in areas by parks, rivers, and lakes retained the most value.

Faced in the nineties with a growing imbalance between the declining prosperity of its core city (Minneapolis) and suburban municipalities, Hennepin County, Minnesota, pioneered a different path. In 1994, Hennepin County launched an urban redevelopment program, “Hennepin Community Works” (hereafter HCW) that clearly supplemented the more common models of county activity. HCW devised an entirely new redevelopment role for the county, and has consequently had a major impact on Minneapolis and its suburbs. 

Since its inception, Hennepin County commissioners have committed close to $200 million of infrastructure spending into a targeted redevelopment program with five goals: (1) to enhance the tax base; (2) to reshape troubled neighborhoods; (3) to improve transportation within the county; (4) to protect and develop green space; and (5) to create new jobs. While much of the U.S. urban past since the eighties has featured decreasing levels of public sector funding and involvement with urban affairs, Hennepin County voluntarily took on substantial additional financial and political commitments with this program

... HCW began here in 1994 as a public works program initially intended to address declining property values. Since then, HCW has significantly transformed portions of the county through major housing, transportation, parks, and environmental restoration investments. Through 2008, HCW launched nineteen projects, totaling $197.5 million in investments.

Later it was matched by a couple of complementary reinvestment initiatives by Minneapolis, which furthered the impact of HCW and now Minneapolis is thriving.

I have a set of entries on suggesting revitalization programs for East County Montgomery County, Maryland, Pontiac Michigan, and St. Louis.

As I stated in the article about Pontiac, I am embarrassed that as a former resident of Oakland County, it never occurred to me that one of the wealthiest counties in the US should have created a specific revitalization program for Pontiac.  Although the county was one of the first in the US, to create a Main Street commercial district revitalization program to support the various smaller towns across the country.

-- St. Louis: what would I recommend for a comprehensive revitalization program? | Part 1: Overview and Theoretical Foundations," 2021
-- "St. Louis: what would I recommend for a comprehensive revitalization program? | Part 2: Implementation Approach and Levers," 2021
-- "Revisiting St. Louis revitalization planning in the face of population shrinkage," 2023

-- "Pontiac Michigan: a lagging African American city in one of the nation's wealthiest counties," 2022

--  -- "Social urbanism and equity planning as a way to address crime, violence, and persistent poverty: (not in) DC," 2021 

-- "East County, Montgomery County, Maryland: Council redistricting spurs ideas for revitalization | Part 1 -- Overview," 2021

Cook County needs a similar program.  The current program, which has led to the rehabilitation of one property, is obviously a failure.  But a quick Google search shows a number of revitalization programs.  Obviously, they need to focus, while also address the property tax conundrum.

=====

In DC, my experience was that additions to transit infrastructure done right had the most and fastest impact on neighborhood revitalization.  Chicago and Cook County, though served by heavy rail and bus transit, as well as commuter rail service, like most everywhere, still has opportunities for transit improvement, and that should be leveraged as part of a "Cook County Works" program.

A bit about car sharing

Zipcar bought Flexcar and then was bought by a major US car rental company.

For profit car sharing has been in the US for about 20 years.  The original services were two-way--Flexcar and Zipcar--in that you checked out a car from a specific spot and returned it to that spot, paying for full use of the car from start to end, even if there were dead times within your possession.  Other companies entered the market, but have mostly ceased operations.

There were older nonprofit operations in Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.  All were sold to for profit operators as it turns out they didn't account well enough for the cost of replacing the initial fleet of vehicles.  And other fleet maintenance costs ("As fleet grows, Communauto navigates challenges of changing thousands of winter tires," CTV News).

Later, Car2Go, a Daimler Benz company with super small cars, came on the scene with one way car share.  Once you picked up the car, you could drop it and leave anywhere else in the "car zone." 

A Car2Go on Pennsylvania Avenue SE in Washington, DC.

charlie has pointed out that it was more about helping the corporation meet EPA fleet mileage standards than being an operative service.  But it was well received and for a time was in many cities including San Diego and Seattle--and I used cars in both.  Also places like Brooklyn, Chicago and parts of LA.

The great thing about Car2Go was their small size made them super easy to park in cities with parking space constraints.

I'd written quite a bit about how cities treat car share.  Many look at it as a revenue source and charge for each car, and access to parking, making it more pricey to use--e.g., sales tax on a car share in DC was more than for an Uber/Lyft trip-- in ways that both privileged car owners over car users, and failed to take into account that car share is a form of transportation demand management--each car supports 6-8 households, and reduces demand for parking.  By contrast Canadian municipalities are more focused on the benefits ("Ditch the second car, Communauto is here," QCNA)

Mostly, one way car share is now out of business in the US.  I guess Free2Move still exists (by Peugeot) in DC.  AAA of California tried doing it in SF, Seattle, and a couple other places, but I think it's shutting down by the end of the year.  Car2Go met its demise some time ago.

In 2018, I wrote how DC was a naturally occurring leader in Mobility as a Service (MaaS), in "DC is a market leader in Mobility as a Service (MaaS)."  Most of the for profit actors are out of business now, and without one way or free floating car share, MaaS is a lot less useful for people who don't want to own cars.

The fact is only some places, and certain areas within certain places, have the urban design and density conditions to support one way car share.  In the US, I'd argue that the "transport association model" ("The answer is: Create a single multi-state/regional multi-modal transit planning, management, and operations authority associatio," 2017) would be conducive to offering one way car share and e-scooters, as it is likely that like most transportation services, some subsidy is necessary for the services to succeed.

Plus, it could operate in multiple jurisdictions as one integrated service, rather than on a city by city basis, with different rules for DC versus Arlington County versus Bethesda, etc.

News that the Montreal-based carsharing company Communauto was setting up operations in Calgary was seen by many as a step in the right direction. Taylor Lambert says that all depends on where we're trying to go. (Scott Dippel/CBC)

Communauto as North America's nonprofit car share survivor.  Interestingly, Canada has a pretty successful nonprofit car share operation called Communauto, and it offers both one way, called Flex, and two way services.  

 It's in 15 cities, and Paris, including Montreal where it started, and Toronto.  When bike share was first introduced in Montreal, you could access bike share, car share and transit all with one card  ("Communauto expanding in Montreal to meet growing demand," City News). 

From the article:

According to the news release, Communauto had already expanded its vehicle fleet in Montreal in 2023 by adding 900 vehicles. Bringing the total number of vehicles in the city to 3,700 — with the expansion this year, the new total should be 4,800. 

The new cars, will also include 85 electric cars and 70 minivans. Towards the end of the year, 400 vehicles are set to be replaced with newer models. 

They say that these additions allowed 14 per cent of Montreal households to use Communauto services, an increase of 22 per cent compared to the previous year.

In Chelsea and La Peche, boroughs in Quebec, the municipality actually paid subsidies to Communauto to bring the service to their community.

“It costs residents $12,000 per year to own a car,” said Delage, referring to maintenance costs, insurance, gas and other repairs. With Communauto, residents can sign up for a number of various membership packages from as low $0 per month and $12.75 per hour, or up to $30 per month, which will allow residents to use the cars for just $2.75 per hour. And users won’t have to pay for gas. The packages are built to cover the cost of gas through membership fees. Each car will have a Communauto credit card for users to fill up when they need to. But all the cars are hybrid – 12 Prius’ and two RAV4 SUVs.  

Equity as a burden.  One of the problems with calls for equity--making the services accessible everywhere in a community--is that in many places, it's not profitable to offer, and the places where it does work don't generate the level of extranormal profits necessary to subsidize the loss making parts of an operation.  Even in Montreal, Communauto is criticized for not offering its services in every part of the city ("Is car sharing stuck in neutral in Montreal?," Montreal Gazette, "The case against carsharing," CBC).

From the CBC article:

The need to get around the city, for different reasons and at different times of day, is universal. 

So is the right to feel and be safe as we do so. But ours is a heterogeneous community, with a wide range of physical abilities, degrees of financial security, access to technology, and other important factors that influence how each of us experiences the city. 

Therefore, if we were to try to define a transportation ideal to aim for, it ought to include access to safe, reliable, frequent transportation for all people. 

This is where the shortcomings of carsharing become sharply clear. I previously made use of car2go, and I could choose to make use of Communauto. I am able-bodied, an experienced driver with a valid licence, I live within the service zone, I have good credit and a smartphone, and though my modest income means I wouldn't make a habit of using the service, I can afford the occasional trip. That's a pretty long list of personal details, but every one is mandatory — if even one of those boxes was unchecked, I would be excluded from using carsharing. 

Another way to put it is that carsharing only serves those who can check all of those boxes. Excluded are those with financial insecurity or insufficient credit ratings; people who don't have a smartphone, including many seniors; people who live or work far outside of the service zone, which only covers about three per cent of the city; and people who are unable to drive, whether due to a disability or lack of licence. That's an awful lot of Calgarians left outside the circle.

These criticisms are comparable to those of creating bike infrastructure.  I'd argue that yes there isn't equal access, but that transportation demand management requires a number of strategies and tactics.  And it is possible to add some elements of equity to a program, like how bike share has either a low or no cost rate in some jurisdictions, for low income residents.

FWIW, this negative article assumes that car share users don't use public transit, which is the ideal service to use.  By contrast, in the MaaS entry I argue that car share is a key element of a broader sustainable mobility platform (Further updates to the Sustainable Mobility Framework," 2018) where the foundation is transit, and depending, on biking.

The way that Free2Move deals with that in DC is by having three zones, two, in less profitable areas, involve additional drop off fees of either $4.99 or $8.99.  Ouch.

Electric cars can be a burden.  Like with equity, car sharing firms are often called upon to offer only or a preponderance of electric vehicles.  But this makes the service a lot more complicated and costly.  Although I will say the electric Car2Gos in San Diego drove like a dream.  Most of the e-vehicle car sharing operations in the US have shut down.

However, Communauto is adding electric vehicles in a number of cities.

Should DC invite Communauto?  I always say when asked, that it was a privilege to live in DC, where you can live quite comfortably without a car, at least in the core of the city.  Yes it meant some constraints, depending on the reach of the transit system--before the Silver Line it was easier for me to take transit to Baltimore than to Tysons in Fairfax County.

DC should prepare for the possibility that Free2Move could go out of business.  In North America now it only operates in DC,  Scenario planning means covering the possibility.  Likely, it would require subsidy and without the transportation association approach, would be less successful..  For example, RATP, the transit provider in Paris, bought a quarter of Communauto Paris, supposedly as an investment, but it was probably more of a capital infusion.

Obituary: David Perry, Great Cities Institute, University of Illinois at Chicago

 -- "David Perry, urban planner with a passion for strengthening Chicago neighborhoods, dies at 82," Chicago Sun-Times

When I got involved in DC's Brookland neighborhood, helping them to organize a Main Street program, and later being the Main Street program manager, I was obviously attuned to town-gown issues (which I had also been interested in in Ann Arbor) because of the presence of Catholic University and Trinity College of Washington, and with Howard University close by.

I came across the Great Cities Institute around then I think, which among other projects, had a program on colleges and cities.

Lack of a system breeds more of the same: Source Theater, Washington DC, up for sale 2006, 2024

 A lot of my thinking about arts revitalization and more generally as an element of a community's culture was influenced by the failure of a bunch of DC arts organizations around 2003-2006.  

The Source Theater was one of the failures ("Debt-Ridden Source Theatre Closes, Plans to Sell Building," "Source Theatre's Last Act: Building To Be Arts Center," Washington Post, 2006).

The actual Source Theater group disbanded, and with the purchase by Cultural Development Corporation later in 2006, the building was retained for use by cultural groups, more as a rental facility.

Ironically, the building has been put up for sale again, 18 years later ("Small D.C. theater companies have a challenge: Finding theaters The stalwart Source Theater is up for sale, shining a spotlight on the issues many under-the-radar companies face in post-lockdown Washington," Washington Post).  From the Post:

... the Source Theatre, an intimate 120-seat stage at 14th and T streets NW that has served audiences for nearly 50 years, is up for sale — a turn of events that has arts leaders pointing the finger at both city leaders and one another. 

“Since the pandemic, the arts community, specifically the theater community, has not bounced back,” says Kristi Maiselman, executive director and curator for the arts nonprofit CulturalDC, which owns the Source. “If the city wants arts spaces, they have to find a way to support them in this landscape.”

With audiences not yet returning at pre-pandemic levels, many small theaters are turning to the city government for support. And the D.C. government spends more on the arts per capita than any state. But it isn’t just small companies asking for help, which makes a race for resources that much tighter.

Gosh, I've been saying that for almost 20 years.

Also see "“Free Our Source”: Theatre Washington Calls on CulturalDC to Keep Source Theatre a Theater," (Washington City Paper).  The discusses how the Theatre Alliance of Washington has called on the property owner to sell Source Theater to them or a similar organization.

The failure to think about those failures in terms of rethinking the local arts ecosystem as a network led to pieces such as:

-- "More on (DC's) Cultural Infrastructure," 2009 
-- "Building the arts and culture ecosystem in DC: Part One, sustained efforts vs. one-off or short term initiatives," 2015
-- "The song remains the same: DC's continued failures in cultural planning as evidenced by failures with Bohemian Caverns, Howard Theatre, Union Arts, Takoma Theatre...," 2016

-- about discipline-focused approaches to the creation of arts districts and arts presentation:

-- "Reprinting with a slight update, 'Arts, culture districts and revitalization'," 2009/2019

and what I would do were I given the task of creating in DC a robust local arts ecosystem--as opposed to the federal arts institutions "given to" and within DC such as the Smithsonian Museums, National Gallery of Art, Kennedy Center, US Botanic Garden, etc.

-- "What would be a "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for DC's cultural ecosystem," 2019

DC spends a lot of money on the arts, but it doesn't protect its interests very well, especially because it's not interested in managing and owning property.  Ultimately owning facilities is key to protect the city's interest.

This piece, "Cultural resources planning in DC: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" (2007) on the failures of organizations back in 2003-2006,  includes an extract from a memo from 2006 on how DC should organize cultural planning and presentation  that I wrote for use in a board planning exercise by the then reorganizing Historical Society.  From that memo:

Proposals/Recommendations

1. That DC develop a comprehensive cultural development, management, and funding plan, setting priorities for the development, harvesting, and funding of cultural resources assets;

2. And consider the development of an allied tourism management and development plan, either separately or within the same framework;

3. create a comprehensive Cultural Resources Management office, likely merging a variety of programs and assets currently spread around various agencies

4. Provide funding, both for capital improvements and operations, that that also considers providing significant ongoing funding to cultural resources deemed important.

5. Develop an open and transparent grant process.

I guess I should have added to the list, the thread about arts facilities being owned by a city, county, or community development corporation as a portfolio, the series Buy the Mother Fucking Buildings Already: 

-- "BTMFBA: the best way to ward off artist or retail displacement is to buy the building," 2016

-- "BTMFBA: maintaining arts spaces in the face of rising real estate values | Seattle, New York City," 2024
-- "New form of BTMFBA in San Francisco," 2023
-- "A wrinkle on BTMFBA: let the city/county own the cultural facility, while you operate it (San Francisco and the Fillmore Heritage Center)," 2021
-- "BTMFBA: Baltimore and the Area 405 Studio," 2021
-- "Revisiting stories: cultural planning and the need for arts-based community development corporations as real estate operators," 2018
-- "When BTMFBA isn't enough: keeping civic assets public through cy pres review," 2016
-- "BMFBTA revisited: nonprofits and facilities planning and acquisition," 2016
-- "BTMFBA: artists and Los Angeles," 2017
-- "BTMFBA Chronicles: Seattle coffee shop raises money to buy its building," 2018
-- "Dateline Los Angeles: BTMFBA & Transformational Projects Action Planning & arts-related community development corporation as an implementation mechanism to own property," 2018

The town (or place) that art saved(?): arts as revitalization versus arts as community building

I suppose there is a book out there, modelled after The Town that Food Saved, about the arts.  The issue I have been attuned to going on 20 years is revitalization focused arts programming versus what I call arts as community building.  

The way of specifying the difference is a program versus a one off activity creating a mural, etc.  It's not that the latter isn't important, but it isn't a program with objectives, and it's the program that makes a difference in revitalization (Developing and Advancing a Cultural District Tools: Resources, and Templates for Creating a Successful Cultural District, Americans for the Arts)

Another way to think about this is sustained efforts ("Building the arts and culture ecosystem in DC: Part One, sustained efforts vs. one-off or short term initiatives," 2015).  My entry on arts districts and arts as consumption versus arts as production is about this kind of approach ("Reprinting with a slight update, "Arts, culture districts and revitalization"," originally 2009, revised 2019).  The entry discusses arts as production versus arts as consumption, relying on the writings of John Montgomery, the components of arts districts, and facilities as infrastructure.

Or from Urban Regime theory:

An urban regime can be preliminarily defined as the informal arrangements through which a locality is governed (Stone 1989). Because governance is about sustained efforts, it is important to think in agenda terms rather than about stand-alone issues. By agenda I mean the set of challenges which policy makers accord priority. A concern with agendas takes us away from focusing on short-term controversies and instead directs attention to continuing efforts and the level of weight they carry in the political life of a community. Rather than treating issues as if they are disconnected, a governance perspective calls for considering how any given issue fits into a flow of decisions and actions. This approach enlarges the scope of what is being analyzed, looking at the forest not a particular tree here or there. [emphasis added, in this paragraph and below] ...

By looking closely at the policy role of business leaders and how their position in the civic structure of a community enabled that role, he identified connections between Atlanta's governing coalition and the resources it brought to bear, and on to the scheme of cooperation that made this informal system work. In his own way, Hunter had identified the key elements in an urban regime – governing coalition, agenda, resources, and mode of cooperation. These elements could be brought into the next debate about analyzing local politics, a debate about structural determinism.

So much about the arts in community and revitalization is the lack of a program.  Also see: 

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Five | Planning for Public Art as an element of park facilities"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning, Part Six | Art(s) in the Park(s) as a comprehensive program "

Murals as community building: Philadelphia.  Can murals be a gateway to a more developed revitalization program?  Philadelphia is known for their mural arts program, which is massive ("Philadelphia's Mural Arts program will bring expertise, funding to Detroit," Detroit Free Press).  

But while it contributes to neighborhood stabilization and gets people involved, does it truly harvest the interests and needs of the community in terms of improvement of the local micro-economy?

I think it comes down to most artists involved in such programs not being interested in revitalization.  Often, city arts functions are part of the "economic development" cluster of city agencies.  But I'm not sure good the average arts council is on these functions either.  If, and that's a big if, cities want to achieve revitalization objectives from mural projects too, they're going to have to plan for it.  For example, Arts Councils probably need to add some economic development planners.

Springfield Missouri Museum of Art.  Somehow I came across a program by the museum which had community members go through the collection, especially items in storage and create exhibits of their reactions.  Again, I think this is community building. nd building awareness and interest in the institution and the community ("House of Art(s) to open at the Springfield Art Museum," Springfield News-Leader), "Drury Students to help with De-Installation of Springfield Art Museum Exhibit," Ozarks First, "Space as event as ouevre," Gerard Nadeau).  But that isn't revitalization, and again ikely that's not a goal of the museum.  From the first article:

In collaboration with Drury University's Art of Space, led by assistant professor Gerard Nadeau, the museum is erecting the outdoor House of Art(s) on the northwest corner of the museum's grounds. 

 Sarah Buhr, the museum's curator of art, says the project has been in the works for months and is funded with money from Missouri Arts Council grants. Buhr says the idea for the outdoor exhibit was born after members of Art of Space visited the museum. "We gave them a small tour of our storage spaces in our collection and a challenge: Think of a project that would connect with the interior of the museum from the outside," she says. 

The Drury students came up with the idea for the House of Art(s). Large weatherproofed panels that were painted by artists throughout the community will form the walls of the space. Plexiglas panels will form a sort of roof, to protect the contents.

Arts as revitalization.  Below are listed programs that I think qualify as arts as revitalization.  The list is by no means comprehensive.  There are dozens and dozens of such districts in the US and abroad.

Murals as community branding: City of South Salt Lake.  In SLC, SSL is considered "inner city." If they only knew.  SSL has a bunch of industrial land, is adding apartments, doesn't really have a center but claim to be creating one ("South Salt Lake’s “downtown” has been a bust so far. Its new transit station areas plan aims to change that," Building Salt Lake), although they have the opportunity because of a heavily used Trax station just a couple blocks away from State Street.

Main Street in Salt Lake is more a dividing line between east and west than a Main Street per se, that function is fulfilled by State Street  (Hwy 89, which crosses the entire state).  In SSL, Main Street is mostly a lot of low rise industrial, and so in today's post industrial society, brewpubs qualify zoning-wise, so there are many.

Nothing Lasts mural and Apex Brewing.  It's hard to develop vitality in a corridor when most of the buildings are fronted by parking.

This corridor has been targeted by SSL as the site for an annual Mural Fest in May ("Mural Fest draws international attention to new art in South Salt Lake," KSL-TV), where artists create new murals to add to the outdoor gallery.  It's comparable to Wynnwood Walls in Miami (see below), but the large size of the blocks and car dependency make it hard to develop a walking culture, especially because many of the buildings still function as industrial.

While SSL has designated this area as a Creative Industries Zone, I don't think it's had the same kind of impact of Portland's Central Eastside industrial zoning for small and artisan businesses.  Still, the very visual murals have been a way for the city to differentiate and develop an identity separate from Salt Lake City.

Pittsburgh.  I read a bunch of articles over the weekend from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and these are about mural projects ("North Side mural project will bring a splash of color to blighted streets," "New Sharpsburg public art highlights the borough's vibrant community and indigenous history," "“TThe Strip Mural,” on the Hermanowski building in the Strip District.9MORE Strip search: A Penn Avenue mural is filled with Easter eggs to the neighborhood it honorss,")

Pittsburgh Glass Center is one of the anchor institutions that was recruited by the Penn Ave. Arts Initiative.

OTOH, Pittsburgh has at least two national best practice examples of arts districts, one is the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, operating Downtown and in other parts of the city ("The Howard and Lincoln Theatres: run them like the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust/Playhouse Square Cleveland model," 2012, "Pittsburgh Cultural Trust maintains diverse real estate portfolio to support arts," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; "How the Arts Drove Pittsburgh's Revitalization," The Atlantic) at a bigger scale, more arts as consumption, and the Penn Ave. Arts Initiative, which is more a bottom up effort focused on expanding the work and array of art as production, centered on artists who live in the neighborhood, complemented by the development of arts anchors, sponsored by two neighborhood improvement associations along the avenue ("Artists revitalized Penn Avenue by creating Pittsburgh’s longest-running monthly art festival," NextPittsburgh, "Creating Place: The role of Community Development Corporations in Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods," 

Artfields, Lake City SC.  There is an educational television program I saw over the weekend, "Towns in Tune," featuring two communities, one in Canada, one in the US.  

The US program focused on Lake City, SC, a town which crashed in association with the decline of tobacco and other crops.  An initiative, called ArtFields, is both an 11 day event, held in spots around the community, an organization, and an ongoing program including galleries, public art, and arts education.  

They do interesting things, and is an example of a town that art saved, as business has increased, vacant storefronts have been occupied and became thriving businesses, a stream of tourists, etc.  Surprisingly the small community has access to a ton of money, through the generosity of Darla Moore, a hedge fund operator, who grew up there.

"Tin Man" by Bill Secunda, is on display at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids. At 17 feet tall, it towers above pedestrians and traffic and is seen "offering to us his most prized possession, his heart." Chris DuMond, Special To The Detroit News

Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Art Fields is modelled after the Art Prize program in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  It's  a two week festival, with decent monetary prizes for artists ("ArtPrize to transform Grand Rapids in two weeks," "Why ArtPrize had a bigger economic impact in 2023," WOOD-TV,  "ArtPrize returns to downtown Grand Rapids. Here's what's different this year," Detroit News, "15 years later, can ArtPrize still wow Grand Rapids?," Grand Rapids Press).

Amanda Browder’s Spectral Locus, 2016, included in ArtPrize’s Project 1 biennial. Photo: Tom Loonan/Project 1.

Last year, they had over 700,000 attendees at 50 events.  Pieces are placed at hundreds of venues across the city, from coffee shops to an auto body shop, helping to make connections and generating income for local businesses.

Like Lake City, the program had a big donor, originally the DeVos Family.  Grand Rapids didn't need saving, it's one of the most thriving communities in Western Michigan, but you can never be successful enough.

Unfortunately, with covid, the program started disbanding, but was revived by the city and other entities ("ARTPRIZE DISSOLVES BOARD, ENDS COMPETITION," ArtForum, "ArtPrize calls it quits after 13 years," Grand Rapids Press).  Obviously there is a lesson there too.

Baltimore.  The Station North Arts District, anchored by Penn Station, Maryland Institute College of Art and the University of Baltimore, has always impressed me.  It shines during Artscape, a weekend art festival run by the city through a separate nonprofit but government agency, but more recently Artscape has had problems because of city over involvement, rain wrecking most of one festival, and covid, "Artscape will return to Midtown and Station North in 2024; 11 new members join BOPA board of directors," Baltimore Fishbowl).

The Made in Baltimore market was part of Artscape 2023. Baltimore's Artscape festival returned in September 2023 after a three-year hiatus. Photo by Ed Gunts.

The district has many anchor organizations and buildings, with space for arts and organizations and programs ("Art Space: Former Station North Funeral Home Transforms Into a Community Art Hub," Baltimore Fishbowl).  Anchoring institutions include the Maryland Film Festival and theatres, and the Johns Hopkins theatre and film programs (the campus is a couple miles away).

A parking lot in the Station North arts district will become the setting for a six-story, 160-unit apartment building designed for artists, under a plan by The Severn Companies and CAM Construction..

Art House Baltimore is the name of the project.It  will house a community gathering space, management offices, a telework lounge, a fitness center, covered parking and about 13,000 square feet of commercial space that can accommodate a mix of artist studios, a makerspace and a café. The residences will be a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.

And there is a good program for developing live work housing for artists.  It used to be that Jubilee Housing of Baltimore was the main actor, but now for profit developers are active too ("Artists’ housing: Six-story, 160-unit, $37 million apartment building proposed for Baltimore’s Station North area," Baltimore Fishbowl).

Both Station North as an arts district and the Penn Ave.. Arts Initiative have "an advantage" in that they are still weak real estate markets, so property prices, while rising, aren't the same kind of hindrance as they are in strong real estate markets ("Central Baltimore Partnership and Johns Hopkins unveil new plan for Station North," Fox5 Baltimore).

-- 2024 Station North Economic Development Implementation Roadmap

It is interesting that the University of Baltimore and MICA weren't also conveners of the study.  And 10 years ago I suggested that Morgan State should have moved their architecture school to the district ("Morgan State University should move their architecture and planning school to Downtown/Station North Arts District," ).

Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts has sponsored other big annual festivals and events, including a book festival and winter light festival.

In 2025, Artscape will be run by the city, not  BOPA, and will move to Memorial Day weekend

The State of Maryland has an arts district designation program, which has some benefits to artists like tax exclusions on sales of art made within the district, but it's pretty limited.

-- State Cultural Districts, Policy Brief, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies

Mural by Reinier Gamboa.

Wynnwood Arts District, Miami.  Was created by gallerists, but a few years later the Wynnwood Walls program of mural production was created to extend the arts district to the outdoors and increase foot traffic and visibility ("n Miami, the Murals Are the Message," New York Times).  

It's become one of the city's arts centers, with galleries, five museums, private collections presented to the public, artist studios, performance spaces, various festivals, and Art Basel Miami ("Breathing Life, and Art, Into a Downtrodden Neighborhood," New York Times).

Interestingly, as rents rose the number of galleries shrunk from 70 to 10.  So the Wynnwood district is an example of arts uses preparing a neighborhood for reproduction of space in ways that displace the pioneers.  

Prince Edward County, Ontario. A rural community development program that pre-dates Lake City is the Creative Rural Economy initiative in Ontario ("Canada’s underrated answer to the Hamptons – halfway between Montreal and Toronto," Telegraph).

This economic and community development program focuses on food, agriculture especially wine, arts and related activities ("Creativity, Tourism and Economic Development in a Rural Context: the case of Prince Edward County," Journal of Rural and Community Development)

North Adams/Pittsfield/Williams College/Williamstown: Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. In Western Massachusetts, between Albany and Boston, MassMOCA, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art was created to show large works over the long term, in previously abandoned very large manufacturing facilities.  

I think this was one of the first arts districts I came across, when I first started working on urban revitalization ("MassMoCA: What Dallas can learn from a museum in rural Massachusetts," Dallas Morning News, "Mass MoCA sees momentum through 25 years," "How can a museum grow a creative ecosystem?," and "North Adams and Mass MoCA look to the future," BTW Berkshires, "Mass Moca, the museum that almost wasn't, celebrates 20 years," Art Newspaper).

From Art Newspaper:

The museum does not collect, which is another break from the institutional norm. It has some long-term installations, such Sol LeWitt’s dedicated wall-drawing retrospective that has an astounding 40-year run (it remains up until 2043). Only Mass Moca had the space and entrepreneurial spunk to do it. 

... Mass Moca is an anomaly in another respect: the museum has 37 commercial tenants that now generate $50m in economic activity for the region annually. The commercial rents are an essential part of the museum's financial model. This hybrid use of space will—and should—inform future museum expansions. 

Mass Moca is also different in the role performing arts play in its programming. Around half the museum's resources go to dance, theatre, film, concerts and festivals. Of the museum’s 300,000 annual visitors, around a third come for the performing arts. ... Few museums truly integrate the performing arts with the visual arts, although almost all great artists have been passionately engaged with the music and theatre of their times. Though this seems like a no-brainer, so thorough and organically united a programme is rare.

(An educational film on the project, "Downside UP," influenced one of my H Street Promotions Committee members, and we came up with an expanded concept for an arts district on H Street NE in Washington, DC.  While there are some organizations and plenty of eating and drinking establishments that have opened in the two decades since, no way is it an arts district.

We proposed incorporating the schools, and off street buildings into the program, and a couple of then abandoned city-owned buildings, when property was still "cheap" but it didn't come to pass.)

While the museum is super cool and some related businesses have opened, the area hasn't succeeded in becoming an arts district draw in the way that the other districts.  From the Boston Globe article, "Has Mass MoCA accomplished what it set out to do 25 years later,":

Mass MoCA has delivered on its artistic promise. It now ranks among the largest contemporary art museums in the country. Innovative long-term loans ensure works by art-world heavyweights fill its galleries. Lively music festivals draw tens of thousands of visitors each year, while its cavernous halls enable contemporary artists to create exhibitions at a scale seldom realized in the United States. One 2017 study put its annual lift to Berkshire County at just more than $50 million.

But the numbers tell a less convincing story when it comes to the museum’s economic impact on the people of North Adams. The median annual household income here — according to the latest estimates around $49,525, or roughly half the statewide figure — has grown by about $2,300 when adjusted for inflation over the past quarter century. Though it’s impossible to say where the city would be without Mass MoCA, the median household income has grown statewide by roughly $10,000 during that time, nearly four and a half times greater than in North Adams.

The lessons here are (1) you need a revitalization plan to extend beyond an anchoring facility, to make purposeful connections between potential assets, because (2) trickle down isn't enough, and (3) regardless it can take decades to see results.

Leimert Park, Los Angeles as a model of a POC centric commercial district.  Many years ago Leimert Park in Los Angeles was featured in the Washington Post as a black-business district ("Los Angeles's Black Pride: Taking In the Retro Vibe of Leimert Park," places, 2006).  

I visited it back then and wasn't impressed.  But it provided the bones for a model.  Especially with amped up investment.  The issue back then was disinvestment, not the concept.

-- "How a gentrifying Leimert Park is ending up in Black hands," Los Angeles Times
-- "Purchasing power: Leimert Park merchants come together to buy their building," Los Angeles Standard
-- "Leimert Park Art Village: The Struggle with a Sense of Place," PBS SoCal

Since 2007 when I saw it, there has been a lot of new investment in the district, not just adding rail transit service, but in revitalizing what had been an old theater into a multifaceted cultural center.

Leimert Park is decently organized, and successfully campaigned for a more directly accessible transit station as part of a new line being developed to serve their area.  Also see "Leimert Park plays to its own beat," USC, and "Leimert Park: where does it go from here?," KCET--the latter article discusses how since the approval of the transit station, an unknown buyer has purchased many properties in the district. 

The Vision Theater in Leimert Park Village will be a cultural anchor and will bring new customer segments to the commercial district throughout the day and into the evening,  Photo from Horizon and Skyline blog.  

Also see "Leimert Theater: Envisioning a Neighborhood Landmark," KCET.  

Key to the revitalization program has been the retention of existing businesses and the incorporation of new arts and culture anchors (Leimert Park's World Stage hopes to keep the music playing" and "Play festival heralds impending revival of L.A.'s Vision Theatre," Los Angeles Times), along with park refurbishments, streetscape improvements, and other public space improvements.  

Indianapolis.  Again when I first became involved in revitalization, I learned that Indianapolis was one of the first, if not the first, cities to create a cultural (arts) district program.  The state later developed its own program.

At that time, they designated 5 areas, invested a lot in urban design, public art,. and sustainable mobility connections between the districts and Downtown.  They've since added two more districts.

A key anchor is the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, which provides high quality biking and walking connections to and within the districts ("The new Indianapolis Cultural Trail is a masterpiece of bike-friendly design Cleveland should emulate," Cleveland Plain Dealer).

The trail connections are pretty cool.  Many business have created back door entrances to facilitate patronage by people on the trail.

The UK and London's Cultural Capital programs.  One of the things the UK lost access to with Brexit is the Cultural Capital program sponsored by the EU.  Liverpool very successfully participated back in 2008.  So the UK created its own program, and London followed, creating its Borough of Culture program..

The UK program designates cities every other year.  Next year it's Bradford ("Why Bradford is the UK’s most underrated cultural city break," Telegraph, "‘The UK is invited’: Bradford reveals 2025 City of Culture lineup," Guardian).

Wandsworth is the Borough of Culture for 2025.  Two programs are selected on a four year cycle.

My criticism is that two to four years isn't enough time to build a program and improve civic assets.  Bradford is finding it tough ("Bradford races against the clock to finish works in time for city of culture," Guardian).

Arabianranta in Helsinki.  Is a good example of an arts as production district, anchored by the Aalto school of arts and design, and various other ventures ("Developing Creative Quarters in Cities: Policy lessons from “Art and Design City Arabianranta, Helsinki," Urban Research and Practice, 2013).

Large institutional arts districts. All of the arts districts listed above are a kind of ground up district, whereas there are many "arts districts" across nations featuring multiple large institutions, usually presenting institutions focused on arts as consumption.  The Dallas Arts District, /BAM Arts District associated with the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  Arts districts associated with City Beautiful, like Cleveland, etc.

You could call the Smithsonian Museums on the National Mall in DC an example except it's not managed that way.

Not arts districts per se but a program of adding or improving cultural institutions on a city-wide scale.  A couple cities come to mind that have invested heavily in the arts and culture, although the facilities haven't been grouped together.  Bilbao is one example ("Why can't the "Bilbao Effect" be reproduced? | Bilbao as an example of Transformational Projects Action Planning".  Also, Edmonton and Toronto ("Downtown Edmonton cultural facilities development as an example of "Transformational Projects Action Planning"").