Ah, the H Street Community Development Corporation

The Washington City Paper reports that the former director of the H Street CDC paid himself more than $1 million of unjustified bonuses, without notifying the board ("Former Housing Nonprofit Director Found To Have Diverted Funds for Six-Figure Bonuses").  

This was complicated by the fact that a long time ago, the CDC created a for profit division which allowed them more shenanigans with little oversight.  A previous director had created a janitorial service which got the contract to maintain facilities, but as the potential conflict of interest was disclosed, it was allowed, etc.  So top staff were able to generate additional revenue streams beyond their paychecks.

The DC Superior Court ruled that Kenneth Brewer, Sr. has to return more than $1.2 million.  Looking over the board members mentioned in the article, and on their website, I recognize a bunch of the names still, not all, even though that was 20+ years ago.   And I think it's interesting that on the current board there are no white people to reflect neighborhood demographics.

But as the neighborhood improved, the HSCDC could no longer compete in the market for property, so it moved to doing projects in still distressed areas of the city.

Things haven't changed much from 20 years ago.

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Community development corporations were created in the 1960s to stabilize inner city neighborhoods  in the face of outmigration.  Back then cities had two main types of neighborhoods: 

-- areas that could be stabilized: those with building stock that was attractive and that in turn attracted "urban pioneers,"-- basically white people willing to live in the center city when housing choice trends favored the suburbs.  Interest rates were high, neighborhoods were run down, city services constrained, and overall the city faced a loss of population.  Historic preservation efforts were the primary tool for neighborhood stabilization.

Preservation had the benefit of being low cost to cities.  Some regulation and staff time--supported in part by the federal government, and some investments in elements like brick sidewalks and historic facsimile light poles.  Otherwise the residents bore the costs of rehabilitation.

-- more distressed areas with a lot of population leakage and a preponderance of low income residents.  Cities tended to put their limited resources in these areas on equity grounds.  But the return on investment was minimal.

The areas were CDCs were directed to act were istressed and challenging economically. This was complicated/accentuated by and in areas of cities that experienced riots.  Riots decimated commercial districts especially, destroying the local micro economy.  A lot of housing stock deteriorated.

CDCs were created to address these issues in distressed areas, but mostly focused on what I call "building housing for poor people." Great on equity grounds, but didn't have much positive effect on the micro economy.

Some addressed commercial district issues but mostly focused on housing.

DC did create historic districts in two historically black areas of the city, one East of the River, that remains impoverish, and Le Droit Park, which is better situated in the NW quadrant is pretty central, abuts Howard University and became "gentrified" by income if not originally by race.

Lack of accountability.  Many CDCs lacked accountability and much success.  Although to be fair, CDCs were given difficult areas to try to fix.  The New York Times Magazine ran a cover story, "The Myth of Community Development" in 1994, in excoriating CDCs as an economic lever.

Some were good, some places had too many, there was always more demand for action than money, and the process of financing these kinds of deals was hard, even though back then the US Department of Housing and Urban Development actually provided money to cities for these purposes, which is a far cry from how it's been the last 20 years.

Leinberger's book made the point that before the change in attitudes, 70% of people wanted to live in the suburbs.  With the change, it was 30% cities, 30% suburbs, and 40% either.  That's changed though since covid.

Times changed: c. 2000 and the new demand for urban living.  OTOH, with the change in willingness to live in cities around 2000, momentum from private investment of large real estate developers and individual households reached a point of critical mass and was self-replicating.  Although distressed areas still lagged, and needed city and other subsidies to fund improvements.

Improvements also came through gentrification and displacement, where relatively low cost housing was bought by people with more money--they weren't necessarily rich but they definitely had more money than the people they may have replaced.  

For a long time you didn't see displacement in DC, because with the exception of converting four unit apartment buildings to condos, a lot of the housing that was acquired and renovated had been vacant.  After all, the overbuilding of housing in the suburbs left a massive inventory of vacant housing in the cities.  

But this started to change after 2000.  For example, one subsidized development in Columbia Heights with great views was warehoused to be able to upscale it ("HUD Set To Seize D.C. Housing Complex," Washington Post).  I visited that complex as a Census worker in 2000 and I was astounded at the number of vacant units. And the beautiful hill over the city from being on the hill of the escarpment.  From the article:

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros announced plans yesterday to seize ownership of a federally subsidized apartment complex in Northwest Washington that he said is one of the 100 worst-maintained developments in the country.

There was a reason  Now it's a fine example of a market rate development

CDCs are a mixed bag.  An organization created in response to urban poverty, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, was created by the Ford Foundation to provide technical support and access to funds.  In some cities, LISC branches were robust and demanded accountability.  In other cities LISC was so so and definitely not pushing internal improvement.

Buildings weren't valuable.  Design wasn't valuable.  Only the ability to assemble land.  When I started getting involved, the H Street Community Development Corporation was the primary revitalization actor in the neighborhood.  The leadership didn't see any value in the historic building stock and the attractive architectural design it represented, either in the commercial district or the neighborhood, even though just a few blocks south, Capitol Hill was revitalizing because of people attracted to the "pretty buildings" and proximity to the US Capitol Complex and Downtown.   

H Street NE from the top of the Hopscotch Bridge (over the Union Station railyard.

Flickr photo by Mr. T in DC (he's in Maryland now).

They tore down one of the oldest and most historic buildings to build a s**** looking 3 bay retail unit.  And the strip shopping center, now replaced with an amazing building, was typical crap.  None of the buildings they constructed were designed sensitively in a manner that would complement and extend the historic architecture of the commercial district and the neighborhood.

It wasn't pretty, but this similar building in Brooklyn that tends to be a restaurant on the ground floor with apartments above show that rehabilitation was possible.  The building that replaced it is terrible, and the "second floor" is fake, it's just an extended facade.  In fact, I came across that building when it was the Hope & Anchor Diner, and I immediately thought it was relevant to the 8th and H Street NE intersection

Two more examples of historic preservation driven rehabilitation.  The now defunct Taylor deli on the 1200 block of H Street NE and a corner building at 7th Street and New York Avenue NW.

H Street Connection has since been replaced with...

The Avec Apartments on the 800 and 900 blocks of H Street NE.  

Now the corner space is operated by an Aldi Supermarket.  

Interestingly, Aldi still operates its first DC store which is just over one mile to the east.

Live Baltimore used to run ads in the Express, making the point that Baltimore houses were often bigger, but definitely cheaper, compared to rising prices in DC.

The Greater H Street neighborhood had the same conditions, except for poorer residents, and at the time maybe it could have flourished with a residential recruitment program like Live Baltimore, but it would have come with displacement.

In any case, the H Street CDC only saw value in the opportunity to capture and assemble land for bigger projects, and they rebuilt housing that had been frame (worth a lot more today) in 1980s style rowhouses in a number of places around the neighborhood, helped fund a suburban style shopping strip, etc.  

Houses built by the H Street CDC on the 700 block of 8th Street NE.  While I think they're ugly, some have an asking price of $1+ million.  Maybe I'm the person whose position is wrong-headed.

They did buy and hold the Atlas Theater, but they wanted to convert the interior to parking, or to build a roller rink.  Creating an entertainment focus for the business corridor never crossed their minds.

So when we created the historic preservation focused Main Street commercial district revitalization program for the corridor, complemented by a revitalization plan commissioned by the rejuvenated Office of Planning, we were at odds.  

(I wrote about this tension on the anniversary of LISC, "The community development approach and the revitalization of DC's H Street corridor: congruent or oppositional approaches?," in 2013, in response to a laudatory op-ed, "The seeds of the H Street ‘miracle’," in the Post.)

Banner from the Montana Community Development Corporation.

I thought CDCs sucked by definition ("The Community Development Corporation Model of Urban Redevelopment: A Political Economy Critique and an Alternative").  

But then I went to the National Trust for Historic Preservation conference in Cleveland in 2002, and their CDCs blew me away.  It turns out that the philanthropic community joined together to demand accountability and for a bunch of the CDCs to merge, since they covered similar areas, and would have more heft.  Funding was dependent on these changes.

That never happened in DC.  LISC was weak.  A couple CDCs did some decent work, but even then they had a hard time showing quantum improvement.

The Washington Post did a hard hitting series in 2002 ("Falling up -- Accountability and DC Community Development Corporations").  We thought we were vindicated but nothing came of it.  And this was when the Post was still doing important local coverage and investigative reporting.

-- "Federal Money Flowed With Little Oversight: City Promises to Cut Off Ineffectual Groups"
-- "D.C. Revitalization Promised, Not Delivered: Nonprofits Collect Millions as Work Goes Undone, Neighborhoods Left With Eyesores"
-'"Risky Ventures, Little Accountability: After Years of Public Funding, Nonprofits Have Completed Few Projects"
-- "Blighted Sites May Revert To D.C.: Revival Has Stalled Under Nonprofits"
-- "$100 Million Down the Drain" [Editorial]
-- "D.C. Housing Authority Fines Nonprofit: Development Group Sold Two Row Houses, Meant for Individuals, to Investor"

I guess that's when I learned that $100 million didn't go very far anyway, let alone when grift and graft is involved. 

Conclusion.  A few years later the groups won awards from the DC Building Industry Association.  And in 2011 the Post ran similar stories ("(Some) Community Development Corporations still screwing up").

Now in 2026, we basically have embezzlement.  That's 39 years of experience all right.

All the stuff I've experienced gets referenced in my thinking.  The point about accountability mechanisms that I wrote about in terms of best practice revitalization, was based on good and bad examples in Europe in a series I wrote for the EU National Institutes of Culture Washington Chapter on culture based revitalization in Europe.

From "Updating the best practice elements of revitalization to include elements 7 and 8 | Transformational Projects Action Planning at a large scale":

1. A commitment to the development and production of a broad, comprehensive, visionary, and detailed revitalization plan/s (Bilbao, Hamburg, Liverpool);
2. the creation of innovative and successful implementation organizations, with representatives from the public sector and private firms, to carry out the program. Typically, the organizations have some distance from the local government so that the plan and program aren't subject to the vicissitudes of changing political administrations, parties and representatives (Bilbao, Hamburg, Liverpool, Helsinki);
3. strong accountability mechanisms that ensure that the critical distance provided by semi-independent implementation organizations isn't taken advantage of in terms of deleterious actions (for example Dublin's Temple Bar Cultural Trust was amazingly successful but over time became somewhat disconnected from local government and spent money somewhat injudiciously, even though they generated their own revenues--this came to a head during the economic downturn and the organization was widely criticized; in response the City Council decided to fold the TBCT and incorporate it into the city government structure, which may have negative ramifications for continued program effectiveness as its revenues get siphoned off and political priorities of elected officials shift elsewhere);
4. funding to realize the plan, usually a combination of local, regional, state, and national sources, and in Europe, "structural adjustment" and other programmatic funding from the European Regional Development Fund and related programs is also available (Hamburg, as a city-state, has extra-normal access to funds beyond what may normally be available to the average city);
5. integrated branding and marketing programs to support the realization of the plan (Hamburg, Vienna, Liverpool, Bilbao, Dublin);
6. flexibility and a willingness to take advantage of serendipitous events and opportunities and integrate new projects into the overall planning and implementation framework (examples include Bilbao's "acquisition" of a branch of the Guggenheim Museum and the creation of a light rail system to complement its new subway system, Liverpool City Council's agreement with a developer to create the Liverpool One mixed use retail, office, and residential development in parallel to the regeneration plan and the hosting of the Capital of Culture program in 2008, and how multifaceted arts centers were developed in otherwise vacated properties rented out cheaply by their owners in Dublin, Helsinki, and Marseille).
7. commitment and time.  Revitalization is a forever process that takes a long time to begin to see results.  It needs to continue beyond the vicissitudes of changing political administrations.
8. adaptive management. Visionary revitalization requires continuous process improvement.  Other ways to think about it are using the design method or adaptive management instead of remaining static.  Programs can always be improved and should be.

But we have plenty of our own good and bad examples in the US. DC CDCs and the H Street CDC in particular.  Fleetwood Mac sang the song, "You can go your own way."  That hasn't worked out so well for DC ("Urban economic development best practice is not found in DC").

Market on the Green nonprofit supermarket from ProMedica Health System, Toledo

Market on the Green is located in the ProMedica Ebeid Institute building, which is in a low income neighborhood, separate from but near some of the system's hospitals.

I was re-reading a past blog entry on hospital planning in the Salt Lake City area ("Hospitals as urban anchors/revitalization levers, not usually, but with great potential to serve communities in important ways: Examples are two forthcoming projects by Intermountain Health and University of Utah Health") and among the best practices it mentioned for activating the first and second floors beyond traditional medical series, I listed the "Market on the Green" supermarket in Toledo.  

I must have found out about it from this Wall Street Journal article, "Take Two Aspirin—and a Serving of Kale." 

Given that supermarkets run by cities--proposals in Chicago, New York City, and DC--are all the rage it's important to look at what works and what doesn't.  This piece discusses the failure of urban markets ("Grocery stores in cities: the failure of the "15 minute grocery store"").  Also the opportunity of food cooperatives as an alternative model ("Revisiting Takoma Junction and the Takoma Co-op development issue | A chance to start over").

Yard sign announcing a household's support for the Wasatch Community Food Co-op.

Food coops do need initial capital and that can be hard to raise.  

The Wasatch Community Food Co-op finally opens this month--they've spent 15+ years organizing, raising capital, and finding and building out a space.

And there is the public market model ("Eastern Market DC's 150th anniversary last weekend | And my unrealized master plan for the market").  

In distressed areas I think that model is adaptable and adoptable as a way forward because you divide the various functions into departments, called "market stands," and from an entrepreneurial standpoint they can be run by individuals rather than "the city," and with fewer capital requirements compared to running a grocery store as a single operator.

City-run supermarkets.  I am skeptical about city-run markets because the profit margins are so low--I tried to get a creative donation from the supermarket business cooperative in the Intermountain States, along with some of their local affiliates, and they lamented their extremely low margins of 1.5% or less, and that was before the effect of tariffs and now the War with Iran which impacts both transportation costs and consumer spending even more.

And because cities aren't known for innovative management in governmental matters.  Running a retail business is a stretch beyond that, although it can be addressed by hiring people with industry experience.  But letting people with a retail background act like retailers is still a tough decision for a city government.

Public markets are a truly rare form of public-nonprofit management.  Most public markets are owned  by the city but operate with independent management.  For those that don't, half are probably successful and dynamic, like Reading Terminal Market and Lancaster Central Market, and the others, and I would include Eastern Market DC where I served on the board for 13 years, static--even though Eastern Market seems to always be rated highly in consumer voting contests ("Shop, savor, and stroll these 10 must-visit public markets," USA Today).

Managerially, one of my favorite examples is the Milwaukee Public Market.  

It was built by the city and run by a nonprofit, but the nonprofit was overwhelmed and management shifted to the Milwaukee Downtown Business Improvement District, and it gets high ratings ("Milwaukee Public Market gets back to business," "From one market to another: Milwaukee Public Market’s advice for Brookfield," Milwaukee Business Journal).

Reading the second article, archive.ph version for those without access, you can tell they really get it.

"I think taking this as a model and plopping it anywhere, it's not always going to work in every setting, every environment, every city," Schwartz said. "These are not always easy operations."

We've had the benefit of time, reputation and experience. We've also developed this into not just a place where people can get food, but we can host regular events and cooking classes. We embrace an outdoor element for experiences, whether it's the Palapa at St. Paul Fish Co. or a beer truck outside. So, I think you have to be multi-dimensional.

At Eastern Market in DC there is zilch innovative design associated with the individual stands.  

Not so for St. Paul Fish Company at Milwaukee Public Market.  

Brand promise is communicated and strengthened by a strategic choice of seafood creature sculptures.

Turnover and new tenants is not always a bad thing. It's sometimes a mutual, "Hey, I'm gonna do this for a few years, experience it, and then I'm gonna concentrate on another brick-and-mortar." There's a level of rotation that adds freshness and newness. It can be beneficial. Probably 34% of our tenants are originals. We always try to find a mix of not only the right food products, but also ownership, representation and businesses that will help add something from the neighborhood, not just the market.

If you are a true destination for residents and people from out of town, I think you need to embody as many types of experiences as possible and cast a wide net, whether it's for families who are coming in from out of town or somebody who lives in a condo that's popping over here to have a glass of wine, grab a steak and make it at home.

One of the problems with ratings is the tension between selling prepared food, more typical of what are called food halls, and fresh food to prepare at home, and maybe with some prepared food vendors.  A lot of the other markets do fresh food better, and most that specialize in it, like Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia or Grand Central Market in Los Angeles, do way better.  And Pike Place Market in Seattle didn't even make the top 10!

Why has Market on the Green been successful, when similar ventures fail?  

Compared to many nonprofit grocery initiatives, it's still standing after years, when many have failed long before that kind of tenure.  

It's not a grim space.  It has positive design qualities.  While it's one tenth the size of a for profit supermarket, it offers the same array of goods, even beer and wine.

It was funded by a donation from the lead philanthropist supporting the ProMedica System.  It's located in the Uptown neighborhood which is defined by USDA as a "food desert" and where they started their community development program ("Seaway standing strong," Toledo Blade). 

Originally the market didn't have a more traditional (and hopefully outdoor sign.  Now they do.

The building is owned by the health system, and the second floor has a teaching kitchen, other community services, and workforce training (two more floors for other stuff).  

They support local vendors and stock and market their products ("Farmers First Coffee release party at Market on the Green" and "Beer Sampling at Market on the Green," Toledo City Paper)--the beer sampling up in the teaching kitchen with better access controls.  

And they're innovative, unlike a lot of public markets, they offer online ordering and delivery ("Market on the Green offers online shopping and delivery," Toledo City Paper).  

I tried to have that done at Eastern Market and you wouldn't believe the pushback--"Eastern Market is all about the face-to-face experience" they said.  For some it is, for others it isn't.  Maximizing your ability to reach multiple market segments in the face of ever increasing competition is key.

The store has been open for 11 years, which is a great run so far.--and it's still going.

But it may have taxed managerial resources, because in 2023 outsourced management to a local grocery store operator ("ProMedica grocery store in UpTown Toledo gets new local management," Toledo Blade).  

As a whole the hospital system has run some  deficits and this saves them not just money, but "managerial burden," involved in running the store ("ProMedica scraps new Monroe hospital as losses mount," Toledo Blade).  Since they've cut back on plans for new buildings, sold off their nursing home division, and ended event and venue sponsorships.

Success factors for Market on the Green.  I think the key elements are (1) philanthropic donation to provide capital, (2) and to buy the building, (3) which means they can be patient, (4) because they have "patient capital" to support the business, (5) without interest fees (6) and probably no rent, (7) so, as long as it doesn't lose money on operations, (8) because of the high degree of management and board commitment separately (9) and as a key element of their place-based community development initiative, Ebeid Neighborhood Promise.

Initiatives at other hospitals include food stands within the hospital's first floor, food pantries offering free food to people in need ("Micro-markets inside health centers could be just what the doctor ordered," Grocery Dive), community gardens, and farmers markets held on campus.  St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan goes even further, allotting 25 acres on its campus to a local produce farmer, using some of the food in their food service program, donating to food banks, etc.

Social determinants of health.  The justification is what are called "social determinants of health," how lifestyle and other factors like place contribute to people's health/problems and providing food access reduces income hindrances that can make it hard to buy healthier and fresh foods.

According to Next City ("Why Health-Care Systems Are Funding (Or Building) Grocery Stores") such stores funded by, supported by, or run by hospital systems support both personal and community health, so it may help them when preparing their Community Health Assessment Plans required as one element of Obama Care.  From the article:

There’s been a lot of talk and research about the importance of access to healthy food as a social determinant of health. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease — all are linked to diet. So putting a full-service grocery store in the heart of low-income, under-resourced neighborhoods, where health disparities are high and persistent, seems like a sensible thing.

City incentive programs.  Rather than open and operate stores, many cities like DC and even states, like Pennsylvania (although it's not much money, especially when you consider how big the state is) have tax incentives and other programs to subsidize the cost of putting stores in less economically well off areas. This Reddit entry is great, listing the five incentive programs in DC.

There are also programs to expand the array of healthy foods available in corner stores and bodegas, who might not normally carry such products because of spoilage and other concerns, and familiarity as they mostly sold non-fresh foods.  

In NYC Shop Healthy NYC, formerly the Healthy Bodegas Initiative, is a city program.  In Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey programs are coordinated by the nonprofit Food Trust.  In a study of bodegas in New York City:

Most consumers shopped at the bodega because it was close to their home (52%). The majority (68%) reported shopping at the bodega at least once per day. The five most commonly purchased items were sugary beverages, (29.27%), sugary snacks (22.34%), coffee, (13.99%), sandwiches, (13.09%) and non-baked potato chips (12.2%). Nearly 60% of bodega customers reported their purchase to be healthy.

It would have been even cooler, but more expensive if the outdoor sign rendered the more detailed logo, in neon.

Conclusion.  While I think these initiatives are great, as the Milwaukee Public Market director said:

"I think taking this as a model and plopping it anywhere, it's not always going to work in every setting, every environment, every city," Schwartz said. "These are not always easy operations."

pertains here too.  The reason(s) for success of Market on the Green rather than failure is because the factors that are key to their success are usually opposite the conditions faced of other ventures, for example:

• patient capital versus impatient capital
• no interest on financing versus interest on financing
• no rent versus paying rent
• knowledge and skill in operations versus good intentions
• organizational commitment versus bottom line focus

are all key factors.  Government can be a source of patient capital, but they definitely lack operational expertise.  And government grant programs come with lots of strings and reporting requirements, and usually have more demand than funds.

ProMedica has tapped Summit Foods and owner Ed Beczynski to manage its Market on the Green grocery store in UpTown.  Mr. Beczynski is a local restaurateur whose family has run Summit Foods for 25 years.  Toledo Blade photo.

Because people have to eat, whether or not a store is immediately close by, even in food store deprived areas, people have developed ways to provide access and a means to travel to existing supermarkets (Lack of access doesn't deter shoppers from visiting large grocery stores," FoodDive,  "The Influence of Foodstore Access on Grocery Shopping and Food Spending," Economic Research Service, USDA).

Retail trade areas.  Plus people's complaints of lack of immediately accessible food stores runs into the retail trade area issue--an RTA radius for a supermarket in a city is up to 5 miles, even more for specialty stores.

Granted it presumes use of a car.  But an RTA of say 3 mile radius is still an area of 28 square miles.  That's almost half the size of Washington, DC.

A three mile radius or retail trade area, drawn with 6500 Piney Branch Road NW as the central point.

During our unsuccessful fight against Walmart entering DC ("Walmart closing one of its three DC stores," with links to 11 other blog entries, and my op-ed in the Washington Business Journal, "Temper Walmart Glee With Planning") the then planning director talked about the areas they wanted to locate being food deserts.  

They weren't except in SE DC, and they ended up not even opening that store even though they "promised."  

At that time, within the radius of the store for Georgia Avenue, there were at least four Giants, three Safeways, multiple ethnic markets (I used to cycle to them at University Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue to the great Latino market), a Save-a-Lot (since closed), at least two Shoppers Food Warehouse stores, two Aldis, a Price Rite (the cheap brand for Shoprite), and one Whole Foods.  Plus others on the west side of Georgia Avenue, and on the east further into Prince George's County.

There are even more options now, including an Aldi at Fort Totten, Lidl in Columbia Heights, a Whole Foods at Walter Reed, Wegman's on Wisconsin Avenue NW.

15 Minute City.  The reason the "15 Minute [Walking] City" concept bugs me isn't the aspiration--that most everything you want is within 3/4 mile walking distance which for able bodied people is about 15 minutes--it's because the provision of retail and services don't work, at least if you want them to be cost competitive at such distances.

Note that a "15 Minute Bicycling City" makes way more sense.  That's a 2.5 mile area radius riding at 12mph and an area of 19 square miles.  Pushing it out just a bit further, our Manor Park house is accessible to so many places, not just in DC, but across the border in Maryland like Silver Spring, University Boulevard, and the University of Maryland College Park, and 5 or so miles to Downtown DC, Union Station, etc.

About food stores on the nonprofit side, there are at least five motivations, a lack of stores (without regard to retail trade area), campaign promises, ideology, good intentions, and market reality.

Balancing amongst them, and creating a store that remains successful in the long term is tricky.

Things I learn going to events by closely observing and analyzing them

Movable table, but no chairs.

As mentioned in the previous entry, last Saturday was the Celebrate at the Confluence event sponsored by Seven Canyons Trust, held at Three Confluences Park on Salt Lake City's West Side.

I went.  While I was there the turnout was pathetic, which underlies the recent entry, "There should be community bulletin boards in commercial districts (and other places)."

I found out about it from a posting on NextDoor.  Again, I don't subscribe to various social media sites, where I may have been able to get information about it.  But what about all the people that get those notices, where were they?

Compared to the "grand opening" event four years ago, there were way fewer public organization participants, only one food truck, BUT a beer tent, and like before, music on the plaza.

I still enjoyed it, not just because of the beer, but because part of my enjoyment comes from the analysis.

Some of the things I learned:

• Movable tables and chairs are really cool, pioneered by Bryant Park.  But put out more chairs than two per table.  Larger groups will take chairs from empty tables, leaving nowhere to sit.
• If you want to make that particular park great, it needs to be regularly programmed.  Including activities for Spanish speakers, who make up a goodly segment of the population in the Greater West Side.
• There were only four groups with booths.  Three were issue related: Seven Canyons Trust, Jordan River Commission, and Utah Rivers Coalition.  Plus booths for doing stuff by Make Salt Lake, a makers space.
• The City Parks agency and other city agencies like the Mayor's Office or the Councilmember weren't represented.  Neither was the Glendale Community Council, which has banners up on the street.
• In 2022, the independent convenience store across the street marketed bait for fishing.  They don't anymore.
• They had corporate volunteers from Goldman Sachs and Delta Airlines--the major operator at Salt Lake International Airport.  Sugar House Park needs to develop similar relationships.  A couple people from Delta flew in from NYC, probably mostly for a vacation and service credits, but they weren't needed based on the turnout.
• I need to bring my own bag or backpack to events and shouldn't expect a booth to be offering bags
• Too many temporary recycling cans, not enough trash cans.  It would have been a good time to put those posters about what is appropriate to recycle and what isn't as an environmental education opporunity (and SLCGreen, the sanitation department could have been an exhibitor)

• Provide larger rolling carts (like from Home Depot) to help exhibitors move stuff from their vehicles to the site and back more efficiently.
• Some big events--and this wasn't--have ATM machines.  What about creating temporary phone charger setups?  I guess my battery is getting too much use and is starting to lose its charge.
• Usually the corporate volunteers get lunch provided by their firm.  Do they contract with food trucks for it?  If not, they should because that increases the demand and profits for the food trucks, making it more worthwhile to come out to the site.

• The beer garden area, granted it was on a hill, didn't have chairs and just a couple of tables.
• This was an unusual event with beer in a Salt Lake City Park.  It's allowed, not brought in by individuals, but as a special event permit.  Usually in a fenced off area.  They didn't have a fenced in area, but "signs saying no beer past this point."  With monitors at those points.  It seems a lot more chill to do it that way.
• I figured a cheat code on beer--I don't drink much anyway so it wouldn't matter to me.  Bring a couple different plastic cups to be able to have the same type as they use on the site, and bring your own beer and surreptiously pour one for your own consumption.  
• Although to be fair, Fisher Beer, a great brewpub in the city, charged the same prices at the event that they do at their brewpub.  But if you drink a lot, and its cheap swill type beer, the idea of bringing your own might pay off.

Music

• The Main Street Approach trainings I went to said that special events have to provide something to do, something to eat and drink, music, and restrooms.
• The problem with music is that depending on how loud it is it competes with everything else.  The exhibitor booths were placed too close to the music--even though it wasn't particular loud--so that it was hard to talk and hear, especially as those of us who age are losing some of our hearing.
• Place the exhibitor booths farther away from the amplified music
• As part of the music offerings, why not have one or two slots for karaoke, to get more community involvement.
• Provide larger rolling carts (like from Home Depot) to help musicians move their often heavy equipment like amps and speakers from their vehicles to the site and back
• Does it make more sense to provide a set of speakers that people can just connect to?
• The handwashing station had soap and paper towels, but no water.
• Technically this is a design issue for tent manufacturers.  The stage was set up with a 20 foot wide? tent.  It had three poles on each side.  If the middle poles were replaced with hard clear plastic instead of metal, view of the performers would be less obstructed. You can't see it in this photo, but the lead singer/guitarist often stood right in front of that pole.
• The items in the Silent Auction weren't that great.

Park/Urban Design/Maintenance

• Note that the Park has great design features wrt "the water}, allowing people to get close to the water in some areas, to view it from higher up in others, and where you don't want people to walk, incorporates native plantings.  It's okay to have one off special treatments for particular parks, depending on land and design context.
• Speaking of plantings.  Damn good.  Pretty much damn good too for the interpretational signage, which makes sense because the park is one of the newest in the system, so it was able to get new signage following the more recent guidance in the Salt Lake City Parks, Open Space, and Trail Signage Guidelines.  They didn't have to pay to replace older signage, which is always put on the back burner.
• There isn't a good gateway sign for the Park.  Salt Lake City Parks don't have dominant gateway signs at parks.  They have a blade sign with small type as their newest version.  It would disappear among the plantings, and can't compete with the commercial signage next door and across the street.  I suggest using a sign sized just like the V&L Auto Repair location next door.
• The standard size is 7 feet tall and 18 inches wide.  Too small.

The V&L Auto Repair sign is in the distance, but on the street, would dwarf the typical 7 foot tall city park entry/gateway sign.

I'm just dying to be able to put a parking garage style neon sign at the entrance to Sugar House Park, or on buildings we hope to develop in the future.

• Speaking of gateway signage, there should be a sign on the east bank of the Jordan River Parkway Trail.
• The interpretation signage at the Park should have included gnarly photos of before.  Most government communications tries to be positive.  And planning documents.  Show bad practice. People need to be able to see before and after to understand the depth of improvements and change. 
• One interpretation sign is slightly broken.  Were I holding an event, I'd try to do a walk through with enough time beforehand so that such problems could be fixed in advance.
• On the Parkway at the trail point where the bridge across the Confluences connects to the east bank of the River, there is no Jordan River Parkway trailhead sign.
• Restrooms and signage would enable the site to serve as a formal trailhead as part of the Jordan River Parkway.
• There were temporary porta potties, but if you want to make the park great, it needs a permanent restroom.  
• There are a couple of blank walls, one for the scenic overlook on the north side of the confluence, one on the south side, the retaining wall separating the Park from the abutting auto repair shop.  Seems to me an opportunity for public art as a way to ward off the potential for (more) graffiti. 
• This also relates to my point about thinking creatively about incorporating public art into facilities.  This would be an art program, safety and maintenance program all in one.  See: "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Five | Planning for Public Art as an element of park facilities" and "Gaps in Parks Master Planning, Part Six | Art(s) in the Park(s) as a comprehensive program."
• Another opportunity may have been with a creative/artistic set of bicycle racks rather than the traditional hoops.

Fish decorative bicycle rack, Education Center with mural, 

Colorado Lagoon Park, Long Beach, California

A lot of empty space on that wall is perfect for graffiti.

• Even in 2022 I recommended that Parks invest better in walking and biking connections to the park, including crosswalks.  It still pertains.

 

• People had dogs, could we create street furniture appurtenance "hooks" for them to be tied to?
• As I have been recommending since 2003, electric plugs should be placed in tree boxes for more connections.  That would allow lighting for display booths and later hours.
• They do have a main box supporting electricity needs for the stage.
• Electrical connections should be provided for food trucks to reduce negative environmental impact including noise.
• As plantings have grown since the park opened in 2021, signage is obscured.  Make sure it's visible through pruning.
• The entrance to the park is set up as an upside down Y, connecting at an inner walkway.  Right there they have a bicycle rack.  A bicycle rack should really be placed more on the side of the space.
• Maybe they think it's okay in terms of its relationship to the Plaza, not the walkways.

Visitor center/trailhead/restroom facility

• Next door to the park is an old bungalow, that doesn't seem to be kept up very well these days.  But they allowed a bike valet service to set up in the front yard and there was an ambulance on call for first aid parked in the back yard.  I don't know if the City or Seven Canyons Trust or another entity owns that house.  But someone should.  It could be converted to a visitor and community center for the park.

• An example is how the University Neighborhood Partners program of the University of Utah has its office in a similar bungalow next to Jordan Park ("University of Utah University Neighborhood Partners program and community revitalization in West side Salt Lake City/County").  Although it doesn't seem as if it is designed to be a space open to the public.
• You could at least have some open hours and access to restrooms even if the building is closed.  The historic house across from Draper Centennial Park
• More parks should plan for this kind of co-location

Public restrooms for the Draper Historic Park, Draper, Utah

are located on the back of the Sorenson Home Museum

Conclusion.  All in all, I had a fun day.  I got to make many observations.  I picked up some great collateral materials which help trigger ideas for Sugar House Park.  (Couldn't get big printed documents from Utah Rivers Council, will have to go to their office.  I also noticed a printout for "Tabling Guidelines."  I hope I can get a copy.)  And a beer in a beautiful setting at a decent enough price.

Most importantly, incredibly great weather.  It was gorgeous day to be out.

Daylighting creeks in Salt Lake City: Creating the Three Confluences Park

Last Saturday was the Celebrate at the Confluence event sponsored by Seven Canyons Trust, held at Three Confluences Park on Salt Lake City's West Side.

Seven Canyons Trust worked with the city to create the park by daylight the confluence of Red Butte Creek, Emigration Creek, and Parley's Creek at 900 West  ("Salt Lake City’s newest park is now open — see where three creeks meet on the west side," Salt Lake Tribune).  It opened in 2021.

The Trust grew out of a University of Utah planning design studio, which focused on the concept of daylighting creeks throughout Salt Lake Canyon.

The Wasatch Front is full of canyons and creeks.  The creeks, fed by snowmelt and rain, empty into the Jordan River which in turn flows into the Great Salt Lake.  Area communities capture this for the bulk of their water consumption.  (Once they are past the canyon, rain and stormwater, plus water releases from the canyons, make up the water flow.)

An 1800s citizen movement to protect the watershed.  Because of citizen concerns in the late 1800s about the quality of water supplies because the creeks and rivers were mostly used for dumping waste including dead animals, and the denuding of canyon forests for wood, they advocated for the creation of national forests as a way to protect the water supply.

Phillips Arch in the boundaries of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  Photo: Tim Petersen.

Today Utah is a leader in trying to overturn federal ownership of public lands.  These days that's particularly ironic, because at the State level and the State's representatives in Congress, including the particularly odious Senator Mike Lee, Utah is a leader in trying to get federal public lands given to the state.  And the state (and Senator Lee) want to develop these lands as much as possible ("Thanks to Utah, Americans are about to lose their public lands," Moab Times-Independent).  

For example, the State supports the reduction in size of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument ("Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Under Attack from Utah Members of Congress," Earthjustice).  And it suggested that the federal lands in the Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons--also used by for profit ski resorts in the winter, should be converted to state control.  To what ends...?

The State of Utah funded an ad campaign promoting its preference for federal lands being "returned" to the state.  Note that the State Constitution says federal lands should always be federal ("Here’s how much Utah is spending on a public relations campaign for its lawsuit seeking control of public land," Salt Lake Tribune).

Forest Service changes to increase for profit use of forests at the expense of conservation and public use.  Moving the US Forest Service to Utah ("The Forest Service Is Moving to Utah. Here’s What That Means for Our Public Lands," Outside) and the firing of scientists there ("Forest Service Sheds Research Capacity in Move to Utah," PEER) furthers this agenda.

How the Trump Administration is selling the move: "USDA Prioritizing Common Sense Forest Management, Moves Forest Service."

Undergrounding into pipes creeks and rivers.  But I digress.  In many urban areas, starting in the 1800s, creeks and rivers were covered and diverted into underground pipes.  

In DC, that's happened with Tiber Creek.  Someone who worked in a building abutting the old creek said you could hear it sometimes.  

In my Manor Park neighborhood, a creek at Fort Slocum was undergrounded--but the area still has a high water table and flooding--we had to install two sump pumps as a result of that and increasingly "robust" rain events.

DC still has other streams, even if it doesn't have an active daylighting program.  The Anacostia Watershed Society, Anacostia Riverkeeper, and Washington Parks & People lead efforts to remove litter and improve water quality for creeks that run into the Anacostia River.

Rock Creek Conservancy does the same for the DC and Suburban Maryland sections of the Potomac River Watershed, alongside the Potomac River Conservancy.

RFK Jr. may be willing to swim in it.  I think it's still premature ("Kennedy Swims in Washington Creek That Flows With Sewage and Bacteria," New York Times).  But ever closer, at least for the River, except that it took a major step backwards when a wastewater line burst, flowing into the River for weeks before it was repaired and contained ("A Huge Sewage Spill Is Over, but Contamination Lingers in the Potomac," NYT).

Daylighting.  For 20ish years at least, there has been a movement for daylighting--restoring these creeks and rivers.  Seoul is particularly famous for removing a freeway that had been built on a river.  In 2020, the Catharijnesgel Canal in Utrecht, Netherlands, was restored after being filled in during the 1970s to create a 12-lane freeway.  Etc.  

Before and after, Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project.

I think I first came across the concept in an issue of the Urbanite, a magazine that focused on Baltimore urbanism, which sadly went defunct as a result of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis.  

In "The Urbanite Project 2010" "Architect Gabriel Kroiz and environmental lawyer Eliza Smith Steinmeier proposed daylighting Harford Run, a stream that runs under Central Avenue, and turning it into a lively community recreational space."

 3 Confluences Park today and the site in 2007.

Jordan River.  Separately the Jordan River Commission has been charged with restoring the Jordan River (and Utah River in Utah County) as it flows to the Great Salt Lake.  One thing they did that's really cool is the Jordan River Parkway trail along the River from Utah Lake in Utah County to the Great Salt Lake in Davis County--I've ridden parts of it but then I got sick and couldn't bike ride--over 60 miles.

View of the 3 Confluences from the east bank of the Jordan River/Jordan River Parkway Trail.