Cities: Rebuilt or Reborn?

A lot is being written these days about the renewal of cities. Surely, considerable new construction is visible in many places. Surely, the number of tourists, commuters and daily visitors is up, along with the national economy. And surely, the press attention and the dropping national crime rate has changed a perception that more than anything else kept people away from downtowns. But does the return of tourists, commuters and suburban visitors mean a rebirth? Does the construction of big, headline-grabbing, costly projects represent rejuvenation? A distinction must be made between downtowns rebuilt and downtowns reborn. the magic bullet syndrome The so-called comeback cities heralded in the national press have at least one of the latest magic bullet grand projects — a stadium — a convention center, an enclosed mall. But the city’s population is often still hemorrhaging. The promised tax revenues rarely materialize. The school system is often in shambles. School and public service budgets are still being cut, even in a boom economy. These are cities rebuilt, but not reborn; rebuilt according to expensive plans — what I call Project Plans. The result is a collection of expensive, big activity places — visitor attractions — connected to each other and the suburbs by a massive auto-based network, reinforcing an already excessively car-dependant built environment. Some of these projects are beautifully designed and a few even connect reasonably well to the urban fabric. But a well-designed Project Plan is still a Project Plan. When the elusive goal is merely tourism, perceived efficiency, and big copycat civic projects, little real energy and downtown life follows, just single-activity places. The complex multidimensional urban fabric has been replaced, not renewed. A collection of visitor attractions does not add up to a city. Project Plans are about politics and development profit for a few, not about developing local economies, enlivening downtowns or stimulating meaningful and enduring revitalization. creating sustainable growth But positive change and sustainable growth are occurring in many American downtowns, commercial streets, old manufacturing districts, and traditional neighborhoods. These are often the only sites of new population growth in cities still declining overall. Enduring, positive change evolves — slowly. In fact, that is the only way enduring change takes place. Where citizen initiatives or resistance to official oversized plans occur and where existing resources and character of place are added onto instead of substituted, positive rebirth happens. Sometimes it is civic leaders and elected officials who resist excessive plans. Either way, new life, excitement, economic activity and out-of-the-ordinary occurrences have a chance. New life spreads to adjacent areas where the cycle can repeat itself. The fabric is renewed. I call this Urban Husbandry. The new urbanists have helped direct a critical spotlight on the automobile-centered development path this country has followed since World War II. They have reshaped public expectations, broken through conventional planning dogma, and shaken up developers’ rigid, standardized assumptions — a no small task. beyond design But many of the components of rebirth are not design issues. Some of the deadest places are beautifully designed. This is by no way meant to imply that good design is not important. Good design is important. But too many design professionals do not give enough weight to non-design issues critical to the functioning of a viable city. They include: 1) Public schools. No more important agenda exists than investing in public schools. In any city, if schools were the only target of public investment, considerable improvement would follow. 2) Importance of local economy. The importance of locally-owned businesses committed to and rooted in the community is neither understood nor valued sufficiently. No chain-based downtown can anchor a real community, give it character and shape a real sense of place. 3) Density is key. Jane Jacobs has berated orthodox planners for confusing high density and overcrowding and for assuming they always go together. She observes that overcrowding is frequently found in low-density neighborhoods, and shows how the liveliest and safest city streets are often the densest. Suburban density was never meant to support local business and uses. The corner store and integral commercial streets are urban phenomena. Sprawl cannot be contained adequately without redensification of existing and new communities. Mass transit, as well, is a pipe dream without density. 4) Being educated by the community. Important lessons can be drawn from the complex assortment of successful communities, rebuilding themselves from the inside out, from the bottom up, and with a community-based process that will endure long after a developer completes a “new community,” sells out, and moves on. Design and planning precepts are not enough to bring about the full, very rich new urbanist vision. An alliance with the racially, ethnically and economically-mixed neighborhoods of existing cities would produce a social and economic substance of broadest value to American society. u Roberta Brandes Gratz is an urban critic and author of Cities Back From the Edge: New Life for Downtown and The Living City: Thinking Small in a Big Way.