Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Friday, December 30, 2022

If you want people to act, provide them with the means to do so: neighborhood historic district sign lacking contact information

Yalecrest is a neighborhood historic district in Salt Lake City.  The State oegislature makes it exceedingly difficult to create locally designated historic districts with controls over development.

A National Register historic district provides protections only against federal undertakings--urban renewal, a freeway, etc.--so it provides little in the way of substantive protection against incursions, demolition, inappropriate rebuilds, etc.

And those are the problems faced by Yalecrest and other neighborhoods of historically eligible building stock in Salt Lake City.

K.E.E.P Yalecrest--Keep Educating and Encouraging the Preservation of Yalecrest--is the organization focused on historic preservation matters in the neighborhood.

I write often about wayfinding and cultural interpretation signage systems. As well as neighborhood/commercial district branding and identity systems ("Basic planning building blocks for urban commercial district revitalization programs that most cities haven't packaged: Part 2 | A neighborhood identity and marketing toolkit (kit of parts)").

And I have written about historic district signage ("Reassessing historic preservation on account of it being National Historic Preservation Month," 2010).

As the Internet--URLs, and QR codes have been widespread, there is no excuse for erecting a sign in 2022 and not having a URL or QR code link, ideally to a website or app with more information about the community, a webpage on the historic district nomination (context statement), link to the sponsoring organization, meeting and events page, etc.

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