Transcript Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighborhood Revival

Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for
Urban Neighborhood Revival
By Paul S. Grogan & Tony Proscio
A report by:
Jessica Dunne, Courtney
Kissinger, & Colin McCormack
Introduction
• American Cities are making a comeback
• Four distinct trends are responsible:
• Grassroots Revitalization Movements.
• Rebirth of Functioning Private Markets
• Dropping Crime Rates
• Disconnection from Public Bureaucracies
The South Bronx: From the Bottom Up
Decline began in 1960s
• Robert Moses seized properties for expressways.
• Welfare recipients were stuck in the remains.
• 1967 – Decade of arsons began
• Most buildings were not restored, leaving tracts of rubble
• 300,000 left the neighborhood
• Roughly 3/5 of population
The South Bronx: From the Bottom Up
South Bronx at its worst
• Unemployment as high as 85%
• Chances of natural death – 5%
• One block had 34 murders in a single year.
• “Many city services taken for granted elsewhere
in New York, such as police protection, garbage
collection, [and] some semblance of civil order,
could not be predicted with certainty…” – New
York Times
The South Bronx: From the Bottom Up
President Carter Comes to Town
• In 1977, Jimmy Carter led a much-publicized
federal visit.
• He declared a desire to fund urban renewal
• Carter visited a building that had been recently
renovated by a nonprofit group.
• People’s Development Corporation
• Carter left office before sending significant aid.
The South Bronx: From the Bottom Up
• After Carter, no presidents visited for 20 years.
• “The place was politically toxic.”
• Some presidential contenders visited.
• In 1997, Bill Clinton visited the South Bronx
neighborhood Carter had visited, find a far
different neighborhood.
The South Bronx: From the Bottom Up
The New Bronx
• Area had been widely renovated by community
groups, with funding from City and Federal
Authorities.
• Crime was considerably lower
• Shootings down by 66%
• Robberies and Assaults down 50%
• Property values were dramatically higher
The South Bronx: From the Bottom Up
Community Groups Make the Difference
• Several nonprofit community groups took it
upon themselves to renovate the South Bronx.
• Using over $1 billion in city funds, groups
turned the South Bronx into a safe, thriving
neighborhood where lower-class persons could
live in relative peace.
The South Bronx: From the Bottom Up
Take Home Lesson
• The South Bronx should serve as an example
to naysayers that urban renewal is, with the
right elements, possible and worthwhile.
Urban Doom
Four Waves of Urban Doom
• Middle-Class Flight
• Evaporation of Inner-City Jobs and Businesses
• Outward-Creeping Blight
• Social Implosion
Urban Doom
Middle-Class Flight
• The appealing features of suburbia (newer
facilities, lower cost amenities, etc.) draw
the middle-class out of cities.
• Urban dwellers end up subsidizing
suburban amenities.
• Race also plays a part, with whites leaving
nonwhite neighborhoods.
Urban Doom
Evaporation of Inner-City Jobs and Businesses
• As an industry becomes more mobile, it will
relocate to where higher-skilled workers are.
• Combined with Middle-Class Flight, this means jobs
head to suburbia
• This results in a growing disparity which makes it
hard for city dwellers to find good jobs they can
easily get to.
Urban Doom
Outward-Creeping Blight
• Marginal communities between urban areas
and suburbs gradually succumb to urban
blight.
• A slowly decreasing property tax base
forces cities to choose between decreasing
services or increasing taxes.
• Either option expedites Middle-Class Flight
Urban Doom
Social Implosion
• Middle-Class Flight causes demand for middle and
high income housing to decrease while demand for
low income housing increases
• New lower-class residents require more social
assistance and can pay less for it.
• Cities must raise taxes to pay for increased services.
• Increased taxes cause more Middle-Class Flight, thus
starting the cycle anew.
Four Hopeful Trends
• The Grassroots Revival
• Community Development Corporations
• Emerging Markets
• The Revitalization of Urban Economies
• Public Order
• How Cities are Lowering Crime Rates
• Deregulating the City
• Separating from Monopolistic Bureaucracies
The Grassroots Revival
The Rise of CDCs
• Community Development Corporations (CDC) are
private organizations, composed of concerned
citizens, which take urban renewal into their own
hands.
• CDCs are typically born from community
dissatisfaction
• Successful CDCs are adept at working diplomatically
with governments and private organizations
The Rise of CDCs
• CDCs are free or many of the restrictive
procedures which governments suffer from.
• This makes them more adaptable and thus
better able to initiate urban renewal.
• CDCs still require investment, both from
governments and private organizations.
• CDCs also require committed individuals
and strong leadership to be successful.
The Rise of CDCs
• CDCs are successful at a variety of functions for
four reasons:
• They are true public-private hybrids
• They become recognized anchors in their community
• They live amid the consequences of their work
• They embrace American values transcending political
ideology.
The Rise of CDCs
• CDCs have been successful all across the country, but
have not been the subject of a federal replication
program.
• A lack of federal support
• Helped CDCs develop creative fundraising practices
• Freed CDCs from cumbersome political restrictions
• Forced CDCs to start with smaller projects, which allowed them
to build momentum
• CDCs were also relatively obscure in their early years,
preventing overwhelming expectations.
The Rise of CDCs
Take Home Lessons
• CDCs are a powerful tool in Urban Renewal
• CDCs are proof that renewal programs do
not require, and may in fact be harmed by,
massive federal support.
Four Hopeful Trends
• The Grassroots Revival
• Community Development Corporations
• Emerging Markets
• The Revitalization of Urban Economies
• Public Order
• How Cities are Lowering Crime Rates
• Deregulating the City
• Separating from Monopolistic Bureaucracies
Emerging Markets
Keys to Market Rebirth
• Renewed Housing
• Flow of Capital
• Retail Revival
• New Populations
Capital Flow and Housing
Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) 1977
• Requires every bank to meet:
“The credit needs of it’s entire community,
including low and moderate income
neighborhoods, consistent with the safe and
sound operation of such institutions”
• Anti-redlining strategy
• Citizen participation in monitoring bank loans
• 1990’s surge of mergers
Overall Results
• Improved relationship between banks and
communities
• Low-income lending increase
• Banks have benefited from investment
Credit Flow
• Community re-investment is the key to the
economic mainstreaming of minorities and
working class
Retail Revival
Inner City Business Growth
• Michael Porter and the Initiative for a Competitive
Inner City
• Incentives for urban investment
• Pedestrian traffic
• Large social magnets
• Saturation in suburban markets
• Example: Harlem 1995, Pathmark supermarket
Helping Retail Revival
•Attract Business
• Immigrant populations (Federal level)
• Working age citizens and flow of goods and
money
• Attention to public safety (Local level)
Take Home Lesson
• Migration brings capital, capital funds
housing, and the residency brought by
housing supports a healthier, more vibrant
retail market.
Four Hopeful Trends
• The Grassroots Revival
• Community Development Corporations
• Emerging Markets
• The Revitalization of Urban Economies
• Public Order
• How Cities are Lowering Crime Rates
• Deregulating the City
• Separating from Monopolistic Bureaucracies
Public Order
Public Safety
Crime in Cities
• Youth crime boom in 1980’s
• New Strategies found results in:
• Boston (61.2% fall in homicide rate)
• New York (58.7% fall in homicide rate)
• Main new goal: Reduce people’s fear of
residential and business investment.
Public Safety
Broken Windows
• Phillip Zinbardo 1969 study
• George Kelling and James Q. Wilson 1980’s
application
• Physical disorder= crime or flight
• Broken Windows applied literally to housing
Police Strategies
• Community Policing
• Builds connections between police and residents
• “Order Maintenance” Policing
• Concentrates on crimes of menace
• “Problem Oriented” Policing
• Concentrated on crimes that reach a critical mass
New York Police
• 1986 Ed Koch
• $4.2 Billion to ten years of housing building and renovation
• 1990’s Bratton and Giuliani
• Precinct accountability
• Harsh policing of subway system
• Commitment to petty crimes led to:
• Bigger criminals
• Safety on subway
• Appearance of safety on streets
New York Police
• New Technology
• Compstat- Increased communication with neighborhood
residents
• Bad publicity
• Cases of excessive force- Led to mistrust from minority
communities
Boston Police
• Police-Community partnership
• Ten-Point Coalition
• Focus on youth
• Incorporated all levels of community
• Zero-tolerance applied to criminals and police
force
Take Home Lessons
• CDC’s working with police- key to future of
community policing
• Broken Windows
• Works in both directions
• Disorder=cause and symptom
• Shows what will not be tolerated
• Shows that someone “cares what happens”
Four Hopeful Trends
• The Grassroots Revival
• Community Development Corporations
• Emerging Markets
• The Revitalization of Urban Economies
• Public Order
• How Cities are Lowering Crime Rates
• Deregulating the City
• Separating from Monopolistic Bureaucracies
Deregulating the City
The Fall (and Rise) of Public
Housing
The Cabrini Green Experiment
Most of you are afraid of our
• 1981: Mayor Jane Byrne
neighborhood.
moves in to improve the
neighborhood
But did you know? So are we.
• 1 year after Mayor Byrne left
But we are here, you see
• Homicides decreased by 25%
Not because we want to be.
• Aggravated battery decreased
-Anonymous resident
by 40%
• Robberies decreased by 75%
The Fall (and Rise) of Public Housing
The History of Public Housing
• 1930s: New Deal legislation
• Aimed to relieve Depression homelessness
• 1940s: Housing Act of 1949
• Used as a slum improvement program
• 1950s: Le Corbusier creates “vertical neighborhoods”
• Increased amount of apartments in each public housing complex
• 1980s: Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (1981)
• Created priority categories for tenants
• Rent must be 30% of tenant income
The Fall (and Rise) of Public Housing
The Problems with Public Housing
• Units are poorly managed
• “The Projects” are isolated from the rest of the city
Blind housing assignments give tenants no choice
in where they live
• Families pay almost 50% of their income in rent
The Fall (and Rise) of Public Housing
The Solution: Demolition
• HUD Hope IV (1995)
• Demolished 100,000 units
• This is 7% of the 1.4 million units
• Congressional viability test
• Complexes cannot have more than 10% of their units
vacant or they will be demolished
• Complexes with more than 10% vacant units must
prove that renovation and operation of the units is
financially viable
The Fall (and Rise) of Public Housing
The Solution: Rebuilding
• Replace demolished units with mixed
income and mixed use developments
• Neighborhood improvements such as parks,
new businesses etc.
• Involvement of community organizations,
private developers, and nonprofits
The Fall (and Rise) of Public Housing
Take Home Lesson
• It is urgent that the deconcentration of
poverty and social problems in public
housing take place.
The Schoolhouse Door Opens…a Crack
The Problems with Public Schools
• Discrepancies between city schools and
suburban schools are too large
• City families are fed up and favor
alternatives
The Schoolhouse Door Opens…a Crack
Community Based Schooling: Charter Schools
• Publicly funded and accountable but independently run
• Small classes and personal attention targets “difficult”
students
• Students attending free up space in overcrowded public
schools
• Difficult application process makes it a slow growing
movement
The Schoolhouse Door Opens…a Crack
Private Subsidization: Vouchers
• Experiments are dissimilar and small
• Milwaukee and Cleveland
• There is conflicting data about success rate
• It is too soon to gauge results
The Schoolhouse Door Opens…a Crack
Take Home Lesson
• The necessary steps to school reform are
not yet clear, but alternative community
based policies seem to be the most
promising.
Slipping the Welfare Knot
The Problems with Welfare
• Federally imposed rules are indifferent to
local markets
• Stigmatized status for recipients
• Structure makes it harder to leave than to
stay for life
Slipping the Welfare Knot
Federal Welfare Reform
• 1996: Welfare Reform Act
• Imposes work requirements
• 5 year lifetime limit for receiving public aid
• 1999: Number of Welfare recipients cut nearly in half
• 60% found employment
• Less than 30% returned to welfare
Slipping the Welfare Knot
State Privatization: Wisconsin
• Cut 100,000 cases to 7,700 cases in 10 years
• Spends more money per welfare recipient than in the past
• Money now goes to job placement programs and employment
counseling
• Offers incentives to keep people off welfare
• Subsidized health care
• Child care
• Wage supplements
• One of the top 5 states in employment among welfare recipients
Slipping the Welfare Knot
Take Home Lesson
• Welfare reform is necessary, but some
softening of the time limits and adjustments
for the least job ready are necessary
The “Third Way” in City Hall
What is the “Third Way?”
• Created by British PM Tony Blair
• Fuses the core ideals of both parties
• Rights and responsibilities
• Promotion of enterprise
• The attack on poverty and discrimination
• Also known as “triangulation”
The “Third Way” in City Hall
The Role of the Mayor
• Early Pioneers
• Ed Koch (NYC)
• George Voinovich
(Cleveland)
• Other Examples
• Richard Daly
• Rudy Giuliani
• Practical programs
• Decentralizing control
over public services
• Improving quality of life
for city residents
• Channeling investment
to the central city
• Creates a broad political
center
The “Third Way” in City Hall
Goals of the “Third Way”
• Stop subsidizing sprawl
• Conquer crime
• Encourage investment in housing and business
• Improve schools
• Allow residents to plan and improve their own
neighborhoods
The “Third Way” in City Hall
Take Home Lesson
• The most successful metropolitan mayors
have embraced the "Third Way"
Conclusions
• Urban Renewal is far from a hopeless
proposition.
• Through public action and reforms both in
the public and private sectors, an urban
revival can be accomplished.