Chicago Neighborhood Revitalization and the Opportunity presented by the 2016 Olympics

(I just spent one hour writing this entry and accidentally shut off the computer totally erasing it, let's see if I can "quickly" recapture it)

Chicago doesn't have a comprehensive plan. I would aver this is to enable developers and local politicians, a la the Growth Machine thesis "to have their way," much like developers in DC have more suasion capability because DC doesn't equip neighborhoods with a system for structured grappling with community benefits/proffers related to zoning and development matters.

This is incredible!!!!!

Like DC and the L'Enfant Plan, Chicago is a seminal example in the history of land use planning in the United States, because of the Plan of Chicago, produced by Daniel Burnham (creator of the City Beautiful movement) and Edward Bennett, in 1909. (This is commonly called the Wacker Plan.)

Most states require comprehensive plans, but often many states write exceptions in general laws for the largest city in the state (most laws are written that apply to cities of X population or below). Chicago takes the lack of such planning to a new level, because the system of Wards and Alderman (councilmembers) comes with Aldermanic privilege and the locally elected officials are the kingpins/caudillos/dictators of their wards, for good or bad, and most are staunch members of the Growth Machine.

The Chicago Tribune has published two excellent series on the problems that can result from this wild wild west approach to planning and zoning:

-- Neighborhoods for Sale
-- Squandered Heritage.

Chicago might as well be Houston, which is nationally known for its lack of a zoning code. Previous year's versions of Preservation Chicago's most endangered buildings list, the Chicago 7, have listed neighborhoods and commercial districts to call attention to this broad problem.

So, last night I hooked up with two neighborhood activists/bloggers in a neighborhood on Chicago's blue line L and went around part of a particular neighborhood (which I won't directly name, given how I've learned to not write immediately about issues I get involved in, because that can telegraph too much to the potential opposition).

Chicago has five times the population density of DC and a more balanced economy. On the other hand it is so much larger, denser, and the arterials have so much extant liner retail spaces, that it presents a challenge that goes far beyond the typical situation in a DC neighborhood. Here are my recommendations:

1. Because of the failure to have a comprehensive plan guiding neighborhood stabilization and revitalization, the lack of a set of defined neighborhood priorities, and the ability of Aldermen to be terrible or good;

2. and the crying need for a framework that gives neighborhoods the ability to shape and frame their response to development proposals and zoning issues;

3. and the once in a century opportunity presented by the 2016 Olympics for community (re)building and community (re)visioning, especially in the context of the Placemaking Chicago initiative from the Metropolitan Planning Council, which provides technical assistance and support for neighborhood placemaking (planning) initiatives based on the How to Turn Places Around workshop and book from the Project for Public Spaces;



"Vision Driven Development" is another initiative of the Metropolitan Planning Council that can provide Chicago neighborhoods with a planning template and framework to guide the development of focused neighborhood revitalization efforts.

4. Neighborhoods need to come together and write their own neighborhood revitalization plans; focused on rebuilding the local economy and maintaining economic, social, racial, and ethnic diversity at the level of specific neighborhoods;

5. With subplans for commercial district revitalization (including a retail plan), residential revitalization (including historic preservation), culture, arts, and heritage, and transportation;

6. Including a robust action/implementation plan that brings together community organizations and other stakeholders

7. around a set of catalytic projects (see the Main Street publication Community Initiated Development: A Manual for Community-Based Real Estate Development as a resource) to direct, shape, and drive additional private investment and propel comprehensive revitalization (note to Lynn, we should have put the neighborhood comfort station on that list, plus the interior lighting and floors at the Jewel supermarket at State and Ohio Streets is a good example of how to refigure the interior of that Hispanic supermarket);

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The Historic Aycock Strategic Neighborhood Plan and in particular the "Charrette Book" (Greensboro, NC) and the section on implementation from the Hyattsville, Maryland Community Legacy Revitalization Plan are pretty good models for neighborhood plans, although Arlington County Virginia also has some good neighborhood plans, and the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative in a couple neighborhoods in Pittsburgh is a model too. But the general PPS approach as laid out in the Placemaking Chicago initiative is also an excellent approach as well.
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8. Utilizing a wide variety of financial resources including neighborhood tax incentive financing (Chicago has created this but just lets the funds accumulate, one of the people last night opines this is to build up funds but not use them so that the funds can be tapped to build the necessary infrastructure improvements for the Olympics, but not neighborhood-based infrastructure improvements), state and federal historic preservation tax credits, New Markets and/or Low Income Housing or Senior Housing Tax Credits, Illinois Department of Transportation enhancement funds (note to Lynn, I didn't mention this last night, but the neighborhood wayfinding system I proposed should also be one of the catalytic projects and this is a funding source), foundations, etc., to make the catalytic projects happen;

9. Even though the Main Street approach has faults, it is probably the best way for neighborhood activists to bring together a wide variety of constituencies and stakeholder organizations to re-vision a more focused path going foward

10. and develop an organization that can implement a coordinated revitalization approach (note to Lynn, that L site project we talked about could be initiated by this organization and could be a key asset that could bring about a sustainably funded organization--New Markets tax credits, if the site is eligible, can be leveraged to provide a revenue-generating equity interest for the group that can be a long term funding resource);

11. and in the meantime, key neighborhood activists are going to have to step back from heavy and/or over-involvement in specific projects (festivals, art fairs, farmers markets, community concert series, neighborhood house tours, etc.) and focus on the meta-issues and develop the community organizing based framework that will enable the neighborhood to create the neighborhood revitalization plan and organization necessary to be able to carry it out.

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Resources a committed neighborhood activist should probably read to "learn up" in order to bring about such an effort:

1. the forthcoming Revitalizing Main Street publication from the Main Street center;

2. Marketing an Image for Main Street also from the Main Street center;

3. Community Economic Development Handbook by Mihalio Temali;

4. Cities: Back from the Edge by Roberta Gratz

5. These publications from ULI:

- Ten Steps for Developing Successful Town Centers
- Ten Steps for Rebuilding Neighborhood Retail
- Ten Steps for Rethinking the Mall
- Reinventing Suburban Business Districts
- Reinventing America's Suburban Strips
(they are all relevant for laying out broad principles and frameworks for commercial revitalization, even if each volume is seemingly directed to a different type of place).

6. Revitalizing Urban Main Streets by Karl Seidman (this tome has an agenda, laying out the belief that the Main Street approach needs modification for urban areas, but I think that agenda was forced by the funder, and was used to justify the LISC bolting from the Main Street approach, but I think that was because community development corporations didn't want to have an entity within their organizations that was focused on civic engagement and involvement, given that most cdcs are disconnected from community oversight and involvement

7. Business Recruitment Handbook by David Milder.

8. the aforementioned How to Turn a Place Around from PPS.

9. And probably Paths and Pitfalls: On the Way to a New Vibrancy in Older Retail Districts by Ed Crow. It's about the revitalization of the Manayunk district in Philadelphia. They didn't use the Main Street model, although they developed a similar model (their efforts started around the same time the Main Street approach was first tested). It's particularly good about focus and not falling into the trap of mission creep. (Commercial district revitalization efforts dealing with social issues is a paralyzing form of mission creep that can doom the effort.)

Plus contact the Coordinating Main Street Program of your state, and begin attending the training opportunities that are available (and if you are close to other states, attend their trainings when possible, for example, New Jersey has an incredible set of regular training programs for Main Street).

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It happens I am developing a more integrated, connected and broader approach to commercial district revitalization that integrates traditional commercial district planning with cultural heritage planning (cultural landscape and the heritage area approach) and tourism (see for example Tourism Development Handbook: A Practical Approach to Planning and Marketing by Kerry Godfrey and Jackie Clarke and the Tourism Destination Assessment Workbook from Nova Scotia) under the rubric of destination development planning.

I am finally developing a more rigorous and solid framework for carrying it out. It's taken four years. See the post "Town-City branding or 'We are all destination managers now'" from 2005, when I first started thinking this way.