The building blocks of neighborhood revitalization (reprint from 2005)

For the past few years, I've tried to append in the comments threads on entries of relevant articles, resources, etc., that I've come across since (so long as I remember the article).  While searching for an article to append I comment, I came across this one, from March 2005.  

I didn't blog in earnest til February 2005, so it's one of my earliest entries.  Meaning I've been blogging for almost 17 years.

The book House by House, Block by Block: Rebuilding America's Urban Neighborhoods, by Alexander von Hoffman, details success stories in urban revitalization. According to the book, there are five common threads to stitching a challenged community back together: 

• A sense of place. A community has to see itself as worth saving. It needs a central idea around which people can coalesce - whether it's a history visible in cobbled streets and gaslights, a central church or school about which people who've stayed in the neighborhood have fond memories, or something as simple as a name. 
• A group of tenacious leaders, reflective of the whole community. Reviving neighborhoods need "people with a certain kind of courage - maybe even foolish courage - in the face of devastation," says von Hoffman. That doesn't mean one charismatic leader. It means a broad coalition, including the "usual voices" - activists, religious and political leaders, philanthropists, developers - and voices less commonly heard: members of all the area's major ethnic groups, ordinary citizens who've never been politically active in their lives. 
• A problem, and good conversation about it. Groups start with a shared sense that their community has a problem. They probably don't agree on what that problem is, and they certainly don't agree on what to do about it. So the first step is to facilitate an exchange in which every voice gets heard, every grievance aired. This is a slow process, as everyone who's taken part in such a conversation acknowledges, because fundamentally it's about trust, and trust doesn't happen on a deadline. If participants have the patience to see the process through, however, they almost invariably arrive at a common sense of the problem they're facing - and a common vision of how to tackle it. 
• A sustainable plan, and the people who can implement it. At some point, though, it's time to stop talking and get practical. Community groups that aim for less - rehabbing a single building, constructing a swimming pool, repaving a street - often stop there, having failed to look systemically at what their area needs and what steps might really get them there. 
• Political support. The strongest coalition with the best plan is worthless without political leaders who take it seriously. Realistically, Chrislip says, you can't expect politicians to be behind every new neighborhood initiative that starts up. But the sooner they start coming to meetings, seeing a group's seriousness about change, and being engaged in the process, the better for that neighborhood's future.

Coyotl-Coyote, a 14-foot sculpture done by artist Larry Gonzalez Rivas, is unveiled during the Willits & Sullivan Beautification Project celebration at the intersection of Willits and Sullivan Streets in Santa Ana on Saturday, January 22, 2022. The sculpture is the first to be commissioned by the city’s Arts & Culture Office. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG).

The article I wanted to append is from the Orange County Register, "Santa Ana unveils new sculpture, part of a neighborhood beautification effort," because it's relevant to this series:

-- "The need for a "national" neighborhood stabilization program comparable to the Main Street program for commercial districts: Part I (Overall)," 2020
-- "To be successful, local neighborhood stabilization programs need a packaged set of robust remedies: Part 2," 2020
-- "Creating 'community safety partnership neighborhood management programs as a management and mitigation strategy for public nuisance programs: Part 3 (like homeless shelters)," 2020
-- "A case in Gloucester, Massachusetts as an illustration of the need for systematic neighborhood monitoring and stabilization initiatives: Part 4 (the Curcuru Family)," 2020
-- "Local neighborhood stabilization programs: Part 5 | Adding energy conservation programs, with the PUSH Buffalo Green Development Zone as a model," 2021 

White Tower, Thessaloniki.  Photo: Herbert Frank, Wikipedia.

Another very interesting article in my email feed yesterday is "Conceiving monument networks through lighting design" (Academic Letters, 2021).  It's relevant to various past entries on lighting as an element of activation and master planning:

-- "Philips Lighting changes name to Signify," 2018
-- "Lighting as an element of urban design and community identity: Cleveland chandelier + Chicago lighting design framework plan design competition," 2014
-- "Night-time safety: rethinking lighting in the context of a walking community," 2014