Young Urban Preservationist initiatives | May is National Historic Preservation Month

When I first started involvement in neighborhood improvement, historic preservation, and commercial district revitalization, my triggers (I had been interested in cities for decades, having lived off and on in Detroit when I was younger) were a report, Restore the Core, by the Sierra Club on DC area smart growth issues, a road trip from Miami to NJ with stops along the way in Savannah, Charleston, Beaufort, and Wilmington, and a phone call from a neighborhood preservationist looking for someone in the H Street NE neighborhood who might be interested.

From that call I acted on what I learned from that road trip, that my neighborhood was no less beautiful and historic than places we visit when we travel.  So I started reading up on preservation, went to conferences, etc.

Interestingly, when I got involved in the Main Street commercial district revitalization program, which grew out of the historic preservationist movement, I found that the people who were most involved tended to live within a block or two of the commercial district and were 10-15 years younger generally, compared to traditional preservation organizations.

Pittsburgh.  At one of the conferences, there was a presentation on the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh. I thought that was a good idea, because historic preservation group demographics generally skew pretty old, and new and younger demographics "need a way in."

Their activities include a speaker program, working with youth (separately the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation has an extensive youth education program), spiffing up buildings ("Painting for Preservation"), happy hours, and the Top Ten program, which identifies preservation opportunities ("priorities") for the year, with the aim of improving properties, etc.

Rochester, New York.  It turns out that there is a similar organization in Rochester, New York, the Young Urban Preservationists, under the auspices of the Landmark Society of Western New York.  They lead tours, organize classes, have happy hours, etc.

Midwest.  And a cross-state coalition in the Midwest, the Rust Belt Coalition of Young Preservationists, which organizes conferences bringing together various groups, like the Buffalo Young Preservationists (New York), Young Ohio Preservationists, Young Friends of the Preservation Alliance (of Greater Philadelphia), Great Lakes Bay Young Preservationists, the Skyline Council of Landmarks Illinois, Kansas City, Missouri, and Wheeling Young Preservationists (West Virginia).

And there is a group in Steubenville, Ohio too.  They started a fun run as a fundraiser (since taken over by another group), and a First Friday event for the commercial district.

Other areas.  There is the Pacific Northwest Young Preservationists, a group in Burlington Vermont,  I've probably missed others.

Charleston.   ... has the Young Preservationists of Charleston (YPC) Public Group.

Conclusion: More preservation groups need to create "young preservationists" affinity groups. Given that preservation (not unjustifiably) is frequently positioned as "against change/development" by younger "urban groups" typified by the recent dust up between preservationists and climate change/urbanists in DC over hideous solar panels affixed to the roof of a historic house in the Takoma neighborhood of Washington, DC ("When saving the planet spoils the charm of historic houses: climate change activists clash with historic preservationists," Washington Post), it behooves preservation groups to be more proactive and reach out to new and younger audiences as residents turn over and conditions change.

The Trust has a blog entry on the topic, "Building the Young Preservationist Movement," but again, I learned about this kind of effort c. 2002. The Trust also published Millennials and Historic Preservation: A Deep Dive Into Attitudes and Values, which should provide insights into the push button issues for younger audiences new to historic preservation as a movement and as a regulatory construct.

(I think this is South Scoville Avenue in Oak Park, Illinois.)

The preservation message needs to be constantly reinforced, because new entrants to historic neighborhoods typically are unfamiliar with the battles and efforts that likely were required to stabilize and improve the neighborhood that they now take for granted ("Owning in a Historic District," Time Tells).

A realization.  The reason I became a staunch preservationist is because I came to believe that historic preservation-based approaches were the most sustainable, with long term positive impacts, for urban revitalization.

Above I mentioned how Main Street groups, focused on commercial district revitalization, tend to have members significantly younger than those in traditional preservation groups.

Looking at the various websites of the aforementioned groups, the reality is that most seem to be in communities that have experienced significant disinvestment over the past few decades (e,g., "Young Preservationists cite places to save in Pittsburgh region," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; ).

In communities like Indianapolis, Wheeling, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, the planning priorities are more about revitalization than the maintenance of thriving neighborhoods.

These "young preservation" groups are more like cross-city revitalization initiatives, rather than neighborhood specific.

BY contrast, DC (and Charleston) is in a different stage for the most part.  Not in 2000, when I started out.

But today, most of the core city neighborhoods have stabilized and improved and since the turn in revaluing living the city, have experienced significant price appreciation to the point where only the well off can afford to buy a house.

The concerns in reaching out to younger, "well off" demographics in a city like DC are about building the support for historic preservation in terms of maintaining architectural quality and regulation, no longer is it about stabilization in the face of what was then a shrinking city.