Neighborhood planning meta-website

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Reprint from 3/24/2005 as a lead in to some stuff I am likely to screed out over the next couple days...
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Here is a website on Neighborhood Planning that seems to meld the approaches that I list in the introduction to this blog. It seems like it'll be a decent resource. This is the kind of learning that one needs in order to be able to weigh in and have substantive impact on planning and development in our neighborhoods and the city.

Another interesting resource, that again there doesn't seem to be the equivalent of in DC is the "Urban Information Center" at the Dallas Public Library. They describe this resource center as "Everything about modern Dallas and cities in general."

At last year's City Council oversight hearing, Chairman Cropp and Councilmember Patterson questioned then OP Director Andrew Altman about providing information resources to the citizens so they could be more informed. I thought his response was weak.

He certainly didn't suggest that the office was willing or interested in putting together a wide variety of independent resources in urban design and other topics that might help us focus on the livable city of Washington for the 21st Century. Granted, the Washingtoniana collection is a start, but only a start.

Think about having an urban information center in the city, along with educational and training programs for ANC Planning and Zoning Committee members, Commissioners, members of various community and neighborhood associations, etc., and think about the possibilities, especially in educating DC residents about what makes cities livable, rather than bringing suburban sensibilities to bear on issues of import in the center city (Washington, the District of Columbia).

Other model resources and programs include:

- Neighborhood Revitalization Planning in Minneapolis;
- Massachusetts Citizen Planner Training Collaborative;
- Planning Commissioners Journal (oriented to city-wide planning commissions but fully appropriate for ANC members);
- Neighbor Power: Building Community the Seattle Way;
- Georgia Tech's "Tech2Nite: Good Urbanism: Design Principles for Neighborhood Activists" training course; and
- the DOE Smart Communities Network, which proposes the idea of regional citizen planning workshop-workplaces outfitted with software tools and other resources.

Deepening democracy by building the capacity of citizens to practice empowered participation is what I think the planning profession and offices of planning should be about (and that is likely to be the focus of my work in graduate school).

Citizens ought to be more than customers of government services, aren't "we, the people?"

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Anyway, this is from the useful website:

Neighborhood Planning Topics

Topic: 1 Introduction to Neighborhood Planning

The goal of Neighborhood Planning is to build social capital, which is the ability of the neighborhood to organize itself to identify problems and solve them in partnership with...

Topic: 2 Neighborhood Planning Models of Action

Three approaches to Neighborhood Planning (or "models") are: Rational Planning, Community Organizing, and Assets Based Community Development (ABCD). Each of these...

Topic: 3 Metropolitan Forces Affecting Neighborhoods &Urban Growth Management

City and regional change have important neighborhood impacts. The region's vitality and economic development can slip away from older neighborhoods and focus on the urban fringe. Metropolitan governments can...

Topic: 4 Neighborhood Strategic Planning

"Ultimately it is the planning process, not the plan document, that brings about development". Neighborhood strategic planning can unify diverse community development activities such as...

Topic: 5 Background Information for Neighborhood Planning

Neighborhood Planning always involves collecting background information. This section covers a range of planning tools used to describe neighborhood conditions and inform planning. The tools include...

Topic: 6 Built Environment of Neighborhoods

People cannot plan or build the world without creating or changing themselves. The built environment is the physical counterpart of the social community. It reflects the neighborhood's history, culture...

Topic: 7 Neighborhood Housing / Making Housing Affordable

Neighborhood character is affected in large measure by its housing. While housing affordability is a sought-after goal, neighborhood housing policy must be consistent with...

Topic: 8 Neighborhood Economic Development

"At the very center of the community building challenge is the effort to revitalize the community's economic life". National and international economic trends have marginalized many low income neighborhoods and...

Topic: 9 Neighborhood Public Safety and Community Policing

"When people started protecting themselves as individuals rather than as a community, the battle was lost." Community Oriented Policing (COP) is the public safety counterpart of...

Topic: 10 Community Education and Neighborhood Schools

"Many schools are like little islands set apart from the mainland of life". Community Education, in contrast, is a philosophy (not a program) in which the school serves the entire community by providing for...

Topic: 11 Neighborhood Informal Helping and Community Human Services

People turn first to family, friends, and neighbors when problems arise in their lives....