Yesterday's testimony on the DC Main Streets program

Yesterday, the City Council Committee on Economic Development held a hearing on funding for the DC Main Streets program, which for a time was in jeapordy, because the funding source originally provided is now fully tapped out.

I took the opportunity to raise some issues about additional steps the city (and community) needs to take in order to ensure greater success from such a program. I analyze the success of Barracks Row Main Street, to make indirect comparisons of other programs that are less likely to be successful.

And I point out the need for the creation of design overlays to ensure that public and private investment in these commercial districts isn't wasted through the ill-considered decisions of others. Included are photos of various sign installations, which illustrate the limited gains obtained through other city programs, because clearly good examples are not enough. More must be required to ensure a quality design environment on H Street and in other neighborhood commercial districts throughout the city. (The sign photos were also distributed to the Zoning Commission with regard to their hearing on the proposed H Street Neighborhood Commercial Overlay.)

Testimony Submitted to the DC City Council (slightly edited)
Committee on Economic Development
Thursday April 21st, 2004

Regarding the DC Main Streets Program and coordinating DC Government Policies and Actions to Ensure Successful Community Revitalization

My name is Richard Layman and I am a resident of the H Street NE neighborhood. I am a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Main Street Center, and other local and national organizations concerned with cultural heritage and tourism, new urbanism, and placemaking.

I was one of the founders of H Street Main Street, and currently I assist local community economic development efforts in Ivy City, Brookland, and Columbia Heights. However, these comments represent my own views and not those of any of the organizations with which I am affiliated.

The DC Main Streets program was created to direct financial and technical assistance towards the revitalization of neighborhood commercial districts throughout the city of Washington.
It is based on an intricate model of community economic development honed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation's National Main Street Center, beginning in the late 1970s*. The program's genesis was in the desire of preservationists to "save" dying small town downtowns.

Very soon into the program, the Trust realized that the issue wasn't saving the buildings as much as it was righting the economic model of the local commercial district, refocusing on how to make businesses successful, because it is the revenue of successful businesses that is required to be able to allow for proper building maintenance and property tax revenues great enough to pay for the kinds of services and communities that citizens desire. (*Some people consider Cornell New York to be the first Main Street program because in 1974, the City was the first in the country to hire a downtown retail coordinator. Certainly this influenced the National Trust's conception of how to develop the Main Street program in 1977.)

While the Main Street program started in small Midwest towns, by 1985 big city neighborhoods such as Pittsburgh's East Carson Street, and Boston's Roslindale, home of then City Councilman, now Mayor, Tom Menino, began participating.

Success in cities small and large proved that the Main Street model--based on ground-up citizen and stakeholder involvement, focused on assets of all kinds--people, organizational, and physical, partnerships between public and private organizations, committed to the Four Points of the Main Street approach--rebuilding the economic strength of the commercial district and its businesses through simultaneous attention on organization development, a high quality design of the physical environment, and promotion of the businesses and the district--would work anywhere.

The Main Street approach adapts the coordinated marketing model of the shopping center to the local commercial district, which is typified by independent property owners and independent businesses, as opposed to the one property owner of the Mall, standardized leases, and branches of national chains.

While each neighborhood commercial district and its history is unique--in DC and around the world--the trends that buffeted DC's commercial districts--upwards of five decades of neglect and disinvestment in the face of suburban out-migration, post-integration white flight, and business flight in response to development of the suburbs as well as the civil disturbances following Dr. King's assasination--are not.

DC is fortunate to have a strong employment center, behind only Manhattan and Chicago in terms of the number of people and businesses located and thriving at the center, even though our population is 5 to 13 times smaller than these cities.

Because of our great public transportation system, historic residential building stock, and an urban design that makes Washington neighborhoods walkable, livable, vital, and exciting, with of mix of uses throughout the day and into the evening, and a renewed interest in urban living, people want to live in our city once again, and people are moving back to the city in droves.

Despite this increased interest in urban living, the retail and development industries are still focused on and comfortable with the suburbs, not to mention these industries have become incredibly concentrated. In a time of hyper-competition impacting even the largest companies--we all know Hecht's is likely to become but another branch of Macy's--it is clear that neighborhood commercial districts need greater attention, organization, and citizen and stakeholder involvement and investment in order to be able to rebuild.

Because of the way the retail industry works, most of the city's funds and efforts have gone towards attracting large retail companies and developers, as signified by the efforts of the DC Marketing Center, the city and the Mayor exhibiting at the International Council of Shopping Centers annual meeting in Las Vegas, and the monies and incentives provided to attract various companies such as Home Depot or Best Buy.

This makes the DC Main Streets program, and the other programs in the ReSTORE DC program, and allied small business development programs in other agencies, all the more important.

DCMS directly serves 12 DC neighborhoods that have created "Main Street" programs that were designated by Mayor Williams as official Main Street communities. The DC Main Streets program serves as many other neighborhoods through the CD-TAP program, which helps to build the capacity of emerging commercial areas, such as Deanwood, Capitol Hill East, and Columbia Heights.

I implore you to take the time to correct this great oversight and ensure that these programs, to which the Williams Administration ostensibly made a minimum five year commitment, continue.
At the same time, I thought I would take a few moments to alert you to some gaps in how the city has approached the revitalization of our local commercial districts, in hopes that the City Council and the Committee on Economic Development can direct attention and effort to ensure that all District agencies are working towards the same objectives of building, extending, and enhancing a livable city for all.

Everyone talks about the great success of the Barracks Row Main Street program and I agree, it's great. But I think it's important to figure out why this is. In my analysis, I would argue that it is based on eight interconnected factors:

• High-quality community leadership, including residents and stakeholders at all levels; who are

• Committed to working together, despite the existence of pre-existing, possibly competitive organizations; and are

• Committed to implementing and following the Main Street Approach;

• Securing of additional financial support to supplement and extend the impact of monies awarded by the DC Government;

• Enlightened property owners;

• Business proprietors that know what they are doing;

• DDOT investment in and upgrading of the streetscape (a significant infrastructure investment greater than $8 million); and

• the fortuitous implementation of the Capitol Hill BID to provide daily cleaning and maintenance on the newly constructed sidewalks and streets of Barracks Row.

(It strikes me that the Mayor's "Great Streets" initiative is but a repackaging and extension of the great strides that the DC Department of Transportation is making throughout the city to recenter our "main" streets and commercial districts towards the resident and the pedestrian as opposed to a focus on helping cars, usually driven by commuters, in and out of the city as fast as possible. But implementation at the ground level, without using the ground-up citizen asset-based approach that the Main Street Approach is all about, should be of great concern.)

Skipping over the key investment in infrastructure that Barracks Row experienced, it is clear that their commitment to the Main Street model, to resident and stakeholder volunteers, based on a quality base of property owners and business owners is essential.

Unfortunately too many people throughout the city, the Main Street model is but one more in a long line of community revitalization programs, no better or no worse than any other.

The Barracks Row experience demonstrates that, with commitment to and implementation of the model that the Main Street program is (or can be) truly different, and successful in the face of myriad failures throughout the decades in this city, and across the country. (I have testified before City Council a number of times about these failures, as typified by the experience of community development corporations in this city and the use of CDBG monies.)

The Main Street districts that are having difficulties are not likely to share the success factors that make Barracks Row Main Street a contender for this year's "Great American Main Street" designation, which will be awarded at next month's National Main Street conference.
One of the difficulties is a failure to ensure that other District government agencies are equally committed to the development of exemplary programs and projects.

In 2003, I provided an extended testimony to the DC Department of Housing and Community Development, which discussed how a lack of concern on achieving quality in various CDBG projects actually reduced the likelihood of successful neighborhood revitalization. This is certainly the case on H Street, where in the past few years, close to $2 million has been expended on run of the mill efforts that have contributed little to the revitalization of the corridor, meanwhile the H Street Main Street program was working with less than $150,000 over the same period of time. (The testimony also focused on the execrable design of the new HSCDC constructed building at 721-727 H Street NE.)

The City of Cleveland has created a zoning overlay called a "Business Revitalization District" to "...ensure appropriate design of buildings, signage, and property in business areas targeted for concentrated improvements. More specifically, it is the purpose of this [zoning] chapter to achieve among others, the following objectives:

a) To preserve jobs, tax revenues and local services through the upgrading of business districts;
b) To safeguard the public investment in revitalization through prevention of inappropriate signage and property design in business areas targeted for concentrated public improvements and rehabilitation financing: and
c) To protect residential and commercial property values, particularly for businesses and residents committing private funds to rehabilitation in designated revitalization areas (Ord. No. 1664-88. Passed 10-3-88, eff. 10-6-8)."

This reasoning seems indisputable. Scarce economic resources, and in places where investment can be risky, requires that we ensure that property design, construction, and signage is created that meets the highest standards of quality urban design. (In any case, it is the opinion of this writer that all projects in the city, regardless of location, should attempt to achieve the best urban design standards and expectations, following the intentions of both the original L’Enfant Plan for the City of Washington, and its "successor," the McMillan Commission in 1901.)

High standards can best be attained through the application of design guidelines and careful project review. In fact, projects funded by various agencies of the DC Government, and in particular the DC Department of Housing and Community Development ,should set the standard for "appropriate design of buildings, signage, and property in business areas targeted for concentrated improvements." These projects have significant impact in neighborhoods throughout the city, and it is imperative to ensure that they are uniformly excellent!

This is particularly true on H Street NE, which is the fortunate beneficiary of a great deal of public investment –the Main Street program, the development of the H Street Strategic Development Plan by the Office of Planning, the Transportation Enhancement Program initiated by the DC Department of Transportation, and other programs, in addition to significant amounts of private investment. However, the same argument holds true for every neighborhood in the city.

In the testimony to DHCD, I made a number of recommendations that the City Council needs to consider with the aim of ensuring that public and private investments truly work together to bring about true community revitalization.

Recommendation 1: That the publication Thrive: A Guide to Storefront Design in the District of Columbia, produced by the DC Office of Planning, provides excellent design guidelines for property owners, and that projects funded with DC Government monies or federal monies administered by the DC Government, including all projects initiated by DHCD, should treat the Thrive guidelines as REQUIREMENTS to ensure quality design and improvements that truly forward the objectives of commercial district revitalization.

Recommendation 2: That DHCD create a set of design guidelines to be used in the development and execution of all renovation, rehabilitation, and construction projects undertaken, licensed, or funded, in whole or in part, by the agency.

Recommendation 3: That, as part of the contract agreement between grantees, DHCD, and the Government of the District of Columbia, and as a condition of receiving funding, all grantees of projects funded in whole or in part by DHCD shall be required to adhere to design guidelines and related requirements to ensure the production of quality projects that contribute positively to community and commercial revitalization in the District of Columbia.

Recommendation 4: That for designated DC Main Streets communities, Mayor Williams promulgate an Executive Order holding all Executive Agencies of the Government of the District of Columbia responsible for ensuring that agency policies, programs, and actions are implemented in concert with Main Street precepts for successful commercial district revitalization. This shall be done in consultation with the DC Main Streets office and individual Main Street programs throughout the city.

Recommendation 5: That, when the design guidelines are created by DHCD as a result of Recommendation 2 above, Mayor Williams promulgate an Executive Order holding all Executive Agencies of the Government of the District of Columbia responsible for adopting the guidelines, and incorporating them into all agency projects involving renovation, rehabilitation, or construction, including contracts with third parties.

Creating a companion "Revitalization District" law, to ensure appropriate design of buildings, signage, and property in business areas targeted for concentrated improvements be it through the DC Main Streets or other ReSTORE DC programs, through the new "Great Streets" or "New Communities" initiatives, or other programs, is as necessary to the Main Street program as its continued funding, and I hope that you will consider adding this to your Committee's agenda.

Thank you.

ARRGH--Flickr, my photo database, is down until late tonight, so I will have to insert the photographs tomorrow. I guess I will just put them in a separate entry. RL