National Community Planning Month | Civic Involvement

Public meeting in Denver.  "Ten Steps for a Great Community Meeting"

Community Involvement.  Can take so many forms.  

From DIY self-help, to Friends of the Library, Friends of the Parks organizations, grassroots councils like DC's Advisory Neighborhood Commissions or LA's Neighborhood Councils--both elect members to represent small sub-districts of the council, or to sit on various city committees, Planning and Zoning Commissions ("Few people vote in LA neighborhood council elections. And this year, turnout hit a historic low," LAist) and the like.

Outsiders tend to criticize such boards as anti-change, and against appropriate development (nimbys).

One of my criticisms of DC's ANCs is that the city doesn't invest much in the professional development of the representatives.  Theoretically there is technical assistance available, but a training infrastructure is not ("Setting up DC's Advisory Neighborhood Commissions for success").

Theoretically, a training infrastructure could help representatives be more objective and capable.

Unlike Seattle ("Building civic engagement systematically: Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods"), Los Angeles, or Calgary ("ommunity association planning committees a hidden gem?," Calgary Herald).  Even so, the LA Neighborhood Council system has issues ("L.A.’s Neighborhood Council members decry lack of City Hall support at annual Congress," LA Daily News).  

Like DC, LA's councils don't get much money ("Budget Reductions Proposed for Neighborhood Councils," Larchmont Buzz).  LA's don't get enough voter turnout because unlike DC, the elections aren't held during the normal election cycle, but specially.  That being said, DC's ANCs don't get tons of votes either.

New York City has Community Boards, but people are appointed by council members and Borough Presidents.  That has to effect their ability to be independent.   

WRT DC, and Friends of Libraries and Friends of Parks groups, I argue we should focus on the power of the network, and build out from it.  

WRT Library and Parks groups, I think there should be one formal organization with affinity groups/subcommittees devoted to each unit, rather than incorporating separate ones for each, with the parent group providing back office support, 501(c)3 status etc.

One thing about single commissioners is that they should be required to hold at least one public meeting per quarter (usually the overarching Commission meets monthly).  I argue that one of the meetings could be a community service event of some type, such as picking up litter.

Wendy Kheel from the NoHo Neighborhood Council volunteers at the Clean California community cleanup on Oct. 11 in North Hollywood at Lankershim and Sherman Way. (Photo courtesy of Clean California)

The LA Daily News article, "Thirty volunteers picked up two truckloads of litter and trash in North Hollywood," about a community cleanup mentions in passing that one of the participants is a member of the North Hollywood Neighborhood Council. 

Which gave me the idea that ANCs/Neighborhood Councils should also do at least one community service event, followed by a barbecue or block party each year as well.

Separately, the Mayor of Los Angeles has created a monthly cleanup day event ("Mayor Bass kicks off Shine LA clean up initiative with event in Hollywood," CBS-TV).

-- "Want to get connected in Denver? Joining your registered neighborhood association might be the move," Denverite
-- "Is a Better Community Meeting Possible?," Century Foundation

Washington Trust for Historic Preservation publishes a quarterly magazine.

Historic Preservation Groups.  States, cities, counties and/or neighborhoods may have historic preservation or local history associations, focused on presenting community history and maintaining historic buildings and neighborhoods.  

Often advocacy is organized on rehabilitation or new projects, as a neighborhood or city-wide committee is charged with reviewing and commenting on them.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has an annual conference.  So do many state level groups.  They can be great opportunities to learn a lot very quickly.

Main Street Commercial District Revitalization Program.  Was originally created out of a desire by residents "to save local neighborhood business district historic buildings," but the National Trust for Historic Preservation soon recognized the issue was fixing broken micro-economies, because the reasons buildings were empty was because the local downtown economy wasn't working.  

Now the organization is separate from the National Trust, called Main Street America.

-- Washington Trust for Historic Preservation Main Street resources

The program is organized into committees focused on business development, organization, business promotion, and design (technically the committees may have different names).  

The groups bring together residents, business owners, property owners, the city government and other stakeholders to work together on improvements.

I think the way Main Street groups are organized is a good model for other types of organizations.  I know some museums use the model.  I'd like to try to use it as a guide to restructuring the Sugar House Park organization.

The Main Street program has an extensive technical assistance program and some publications (sadly mostly out of print) that are very good.

Biking and walking/Sustainable Mobility.  Many communities have bicycle and/or walking advocacy groups.  Active Transportation Alliance in Chicago and Transportation Alternatives in NYC focus on biking, walking, and transit.  Many communities and/or states have bicycle groups, but few communities have walking advocacy groups.

A variant is Safe Routes to School ("Why isn't walking/biking to school programming an option in Suburban Omaha? | Inadequacies in school transportation planning") which is a way to improve a community's infrastructure for kids getting to school in ways that also support broader community improvements.

Some schools organize group walk to school programs or "bike buses" ("Make Way for the Bike Bus," New York Times).

Neighborhood Planning Guidance.  I argue that neighborhoods, especially those with "recognized community organizations" like Philadelphia or Salt Lake, and sanctioned commissions ought to have at least a thumbnail plan of what they want to be, what to focus their energies on, what consensus priorities are, etc.

-- Neighborhood Planning website

It doesn't have to be a full blown master plan requiring hundreds of thousands of dollars, it can be based on some community meetings with a facilitator, ideally with some training about best practice, and the production of a framework or action plan for the community.

While my Silver Spring series on "Creating a Silver Spring "Sustainable Mobility District"

- Part 1: Setting the stage (2017)
- Part 2: Program items 1- 9 (2017)
- Part 3: Program items 10-18  (2017)
- Part 4: Conclusion (2017)
- Map for the Silver Spring Sustainable Mobility District (2017)
- (Big Hairy) Projects Action Plan(s) as an element of Comprehensive/Master Plans
- Creating the Silver Spring/Montgomery County Arena and Recreation Center (2017)

or New Carrollton ("Making over New Carrollton as a transit-centric urban center and Prince George's County's "New Downtown") "plans" were developed out of my thinking and field visits, you could argue they do provide some models.  

In "real life", the University District neighborhood of Buffalo created its own infrastructure plan, leveraging its transit connections ("Better on Bailey: Infrastructure Plan").  

So did the University District Neighborhood Council in Seattle, creating the University District Station Area Mobility Plan.

The summary is two pages.  It's a great model for what I think of as "thumbnail" plans, simpler than the plans engaging consultants costing many tens of thousands

I worked with residents to create a neighborhood priorities plan in Foggy Bottom, DC 18!!!! years ago etc.  Although it was more than two pages.

The PPS workshop "How to Turn a Place Around" and related Place Game planning tool are models of how to do a more simple kind of neighborhood planning.  

I also think the workshop serves as a potential training mechanism for interested residents, community associations, and city/county staff.  The idea is to move the workshop around a city or county, annually meeting in a different place.

I participated in an "informal" one more than 20 years ago, a training for Scenic America staff in 2004, and even though I was from the area and most of the participants were not, I found the insights and ideas developed by being on the site, but also infused by the reactions of others with a fresh approach (because they didn't live there), were powerful ("Eastern Market Metro Plaza").

In the blog entry "Outline for a proposed Ward-focused (DC) Councilmember campaign platform and agenda," I suggested that Councilmembers do this for their ward, obviously with citizen involvement, with recommendations about data collection and presentation (like where traffic accidents occur) and involvement structures.  But that can be ported down to the scale of neighborhood commissions.

Urban Design neighborhood plans.  Something else I've come to recommend, which does require a formal planning process, is the creation of urban design and placemaking plans for neighborhoods concerning streets, civic assets, and public space.  Instead of focusing on "a mode" I suggest "walkability" (which was just discussed in the previous entry, "October is National Community Planning Month | Thirteen characteristics of walkable neighborhoods | Characteristics of great places").

Besides my Silver Spring writings, I did a piece on the Dupont Circle neighborhood and 17th Street NW.  (They're iterative.)

-- "Planning urban design improvements at the neighborhood scale: Dupont Circle, DC," 2018
-- "More about making 17th Street between P and R a pedestrian space on weekends," 2019
-- "Planning for place/urban design/neighborhoods versus planning for transportation modes: new 17th Street NW bike lanes | Walkable community planning versus "pedestrian" planning," 2021

I also did a thumbnail plan, don't know where it is, for the greater area of L'Enfant Plaza and the now no longer new Wharf District ("The Wharf in D.C. Makes a Splash," Urban Land, "The Wharf, D.C.'s massive waterfront development, is now open," Architect's Newspaper).  

This 1990 photo shows the area.  L'Enfant Plaza is on top, next to it is I-695, the Southeast-Southwest Freeway.  On the bottom is the old "Waterfront District" dating to the urban renewal period.  It was redeveloped in the 2000s as "The Wharf".

The connections between the two can be much better, and taken to a quantum level with capping I-695.

The Bloomingdale neighborhood association in DC created a similar plan because the city's Office of Planning punted ("Bloomingdale Village Square Initiative will be holding its third Community Forum on the proposed North Capitol Deck-over Park").

Signage in Springfield, Missouri

Adopt-a-Street - Adopt-a-highway - Adopt-a-bus stop - Adopt-a-stream/creek - Adopt-a-storm- drain type programs.  Go for it. "Keep it Clean."

-- Adopt a Stream in Grand Rapids, Michigan
-- Adopt a storm drain, Salt Lake
-- Adopt a bus stop, Utah Transit Authority
-- Adopt a roadway, Murray, Utah

Transit stations as entrypoints to neighborhoods.  This is something that I've written a lot about.  For various reasons, stations aren't usually planned while considering their gateway, civic asset, and transportation infrastructure effects on neighborhoods ("Transit, stations, and placemaking: stations as entrypoints into neighborhoods," 2013).

Upholstered cushions affixed to a wall bench by a bus stop on wall by a bus stop on Hackney Road (Bethnal Green/Shoreditch, London) upholstered by the trainees in the Shoreditch Design Rooms upholstery program.

Bus stops and shelters too ought to be addressed in systematic ways to engage local residents and community associations ("Bus shelters as social spaces," 2020).

It'd be hard, because the stations can be quite noisy, but what about meeting rooms, office space for community groups, etc.

In the 1970s, there was an exhibit of artworks by employees of the NYC transit system, at the 57th Street Station.  

NYC Subway has big problems filling up retail spaces as the nature of ridership travel and work for home has changed how riders use the system.  They are offering some spaces to community groups, or for art exhibits ("MTA struggles to fix dead mall under New York City," Crain's New York Business).

I've also argued that transit stations should have some historical interpretation signage about the history of transit in that particular area.

Depending too on the nature of the station, there can be visitor information functions incorporated into stations.

Volunteers helping with plant maintenance at Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake City.

Formal volunteer programs.  So many.  Museums.  Parks.  Libraries.  Visitor Centers. Public Gardens. Etc.