Transcript Comeback Cities: - Cornell College

Comeback Cities:
A Blueprint for Urban
Neighborhood Revival
Acknowledgements:

Authors
• Paul S. Grogan
• Tony Proscio

Presentation:
• Brian Hatvick
• Nicole Soboleski
• Teri Carrigan
Comeback Cities







Introduction
The Case for a Turnaround
The Grassroots Revival – 1st Main Pt.
Emerging Markets* - 2nd Main Pt.
Public Order* - 3rd Main Pt.
Deregulating the City* - 4th Main Pt.
Conclusion
Introduction


Inner cities are rebounding
Bleak picture is not wrong, just
misleading
• Something different is happening
• Rusk and Orfield – metropolitanists
• Cities are becoming more livable
• Four Trends – Main Pts.!!!
• The point is that cities are becoming
more livable due to the four trends.
The Case for a Turnaround

South Bronx, New York
• Past – Up in Flames
• Present – On Fire

Mass Exit: A Vision of Urban Doom
• “Evacuation bonuses”
• Four Waves

A Surprising Convergence of Positives***
•
•
•
•
Grassroots Revitalization/Revival
Emerging/Reviving Markets
Public Order/Falling Crime
Deregulating the City/Public Systems
The Grassroots Revival - #1







The Beginning of CDC’s
Today’s CDC’s
Recipe “4” Success
Not Too Much “2” Soon
Intermediaries
• Ford Foundation, LISC, & Enterprise
• National Community Develop. Initiative
• Three Vital Functions
Politics
• Public Officials, Mayors, & Government
• Low Income Housing Tax Credit
• Community Reinvestment Act
When Work Disappears
Emerging Markets –
Part Trois
 Sit by the fire, children, grandma’s going to tell
you a four-process story…
*Success of “comeback cities” is attributed to
1) Public & private investment in housing
2) Federal regulations draw big banks into
residences and small businesses
3) Businesses tap into the inner-city goldmine
4) Keep residents there and keep the visitors
coming!
(Does this sound familiar? How is it similar to the four things that Brian
talked about—the thesis of our presentation…think about this if you
want the candy). 
Markets Continue to
Emerge
 A revolution occurs in the inner-cities: The credit is coming, the
credit is coming!
*CRA is the acronym of the day! (Community
Reinvestment Act…learn it, love it!)
*Other acronyms are not as heroic as our
friend c.r.a.
 HOLC (Home Owner’s Loan Corporation)
 FHA (Federal Housing Administration)
 FNMA (Federal National Mortgage
Association…Well, hello Ms. “Fannie Mae”)
 FHLMC (Federal Home Loan Mortgage
Corporation…or just call him “Freddie Mac”).
*A Crew of Mapmakers and Discriminators! Boo hoo!*
HARD EVIDENCE!
“The best things in life are free, but you can give them to the birds and bees, I want
your money…that’s what I want!
–an obscure ’80s song by The Flying Lizards
 First Union/Corestates: $14 billion, five-year
commitment…
 Wells-Fargo/First Interstate: $45 billion, ten-year
commitment…
 Chemical/Chase Manhattan: $18 billion, $70 million to
charity, BUT…
 May 4, 1998: “Citicorp and Travelers Group today made
a ten-year, $115 billion commitment to lending and
investing in low and moderate income communities and
small businesses” (107, New York headline).
But Most important is the fact that…

“The home-ownership rate for native-born young black African American
households increased from 31 percent to almost 44 percent between 1980 and
1990. For native-born young Hispanic households, the rate increased from 38
to 52 percent” (122).
New Stores & Customers on Main Street
 Why inner-city business is profitable:
*Previous non-existence of good retail to urbanites.
*Density vs. Wealth (Take that, you suburbanites!)
Who is taking part in this inner-city
retail crusade?
*Rite-Aid: $230 million in investments.
*Payless ShoeSource and McDonald’s are experts in sniffing
out safe, but deprived neighborhoods.
*And even our friends, The Gap, markets hip-hop artists to
sell their clothing in inner-city, minority neighborhoods.
(Remember L.L. and the Misdemeanour decked out in Gap?)
A neatly packaged lesson to
take home to the Family…

Inner city neighborhoods, previously depressed are
making an economic comeback because—
*Public & private investment in housing
*The CRA pressures banks into giving back
to communities.
*Businesses have finally tapped into the
inner-city goldmines!
*Identify the way to keep residents there
and keep the visitors coming!
Chicago’s Cabrini-Green in its darkest days—crime and poverty ravish the
housing development.
Photo source: http://www.chicagohauntings.com/cabrini_green.jpg
Public Order: Part Four

Stories of Hope—Inspiration for Improvement
*Cabrini-Green, Chicago’s worst neighborhood—now greatly
improved.
*The South Bronx—another success story.
William Bratton: Head of NYPD—sweats the small stuff and
seizes the “Broken Windows” ideology.
“Broken Windows” advocates fix up houses, therefore
Nicer homes=Feelings of community respect
Community respect + Small-crime policing = Better
neighborhoods!
Public Order Continued

Crime Reduction Statistics:
*New York crime falls 12% in 1994, 16% in 1995.
Between 1990 and 1996, the homicide rate fell:
54% in Houston
27.9% in Los Angeles
17.7% in Philadelphia
15.9% in Washington, D.C.
*Since 1973, violent crime at its lowest in 1998.
*National Homicide Rate is 6 per 100,000 (the 1967
rate).
Deregulating the City - #4

Public Housing
• Community Involvement

Public Schools
• Breaking up the Monopoly

Welfare
• Breaking Down the Cycle
Conclusion: Four Positives





Grassroots Revival
Emerging Markets
Public Order
Deregulating the City
Seize the Moment
--------*THE END*---------