Notes

We take them for granted

that somethings improve or are enhanced with the passage of time,

and the changes that passage of time brings.

Trees grow larger, hedges growth thicker,

fine old buildings put to uses that were never

originally intended or anticipated as this building has been,

are increasingly appreciated as time passes.

But some other things

are too seldom enhanced or improved by the workings of time.

Now I'm thinking of American city and suburban neighborhoods.

On the whole, they have very chancy records of

dealing well with time and change. This afternoon

I'm going to discuss briefly four

common kinds of failure for city neighborhoods

and make a few suggestions. Of course don't expect me to be comprehensive on

such a subject

in half an hour. The best I can do is mention some thoughts

and in the hope that they'll stimulate more thoughts

and maybe better thoughts by others.

My first suggestion concerns immigrants.

Right now, right this minute,

in locations extending from the Virginia metropolitan fringes of Washington,

and the Jersey metropolitan fringes of New York,

and the Los Angeles fringes of Los Angeles,

striving immigrants

from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India,

China, the Philippines,

Latin America, the Caribbean,

and Africa are settling in woebegone city suburbs

to which time has been unkind. Right now,

right this minute, these newcomers

are enlivening some dull and dreary streets with tiny grocery and clothing stores,

secondhand shops, little importing and craft enterprises,

skimpy offices, and modest

but exotic restaurants.

Now either of two fates

can befall these newly minted immigrant neighborhoods.

On the one hand, if members of the new populations and their children

melt away as they find their feet, the sequel

for these neighborhoods will be a second influx

of immigrants. Immigrants at the bottom of the ladder,

probably followed by yet another influx.

Ample experience informs us

that neighborhoods serving only as immigrant launching pads

repeatedly take a step or two forward,

followed by two or three steps backward,

while dilapitation inexorably

deepens with time. In contrast,

as many a Little Italy and Chinatown attest,

along with less celebrated examples,

immigrant neighborhoods that succeed in holding on to their striving populations

are neighborhoods that improve with time.

They become civic assets

in every respect social,

physical, and economic. Progress on the part of the population

is reflected in the neighborhood. Increasing diversity

of incomes, occupations, ambitions,

education, skills, and connections

are all reflected as increasingly diversified neighborhoods.

Time becomes the allay, not the enemy,

of such neighborhoods. Self-respecting people,

no matter what their ethnic origins,

abandon a place if it becomes fixed in their minds

that it is an undignified or an

insulting place to be. Here's my suggestion

smart municipalities ought to contradict that perception

before it takes firm hold.

No time to lose. By making sure that newly minted

immigrant neighborhoods receive really good municipal housekeeping,

public maintenance, and community policing

and fair Justice Services,

along with some respectful amenities, too

traffic taming and street trees come to mind.

And especially quick hassle-free permissions for people to organize

open-air markets if they want to

and ask to, or run jitney services,

or make whatever other life-enhancing and improving adaptations

they want to provide for themselves.

many new immigrants bring along with them more expertise than Americans had

in organizing and using such things

looking at local jitney services for local people

not for tourists in the carribean for instance

I've wished that Americans had arrangements as well pale into

actually transportation needs and opportunities

in their suburbs and in city neighborhoods

simple straightforward municipal investments

I'm some kind just mentioned insensitive

flexible bureaucratic adjustments the kind just mentioned

i minor in comparison with the costs and adjustments demanded by city mega

projects

but if those minor costs and adjustments attacks newcomers

to neighborhoods in which they can feel pride and proprietorship

as they are finding their feet and afterwards

they carry a potential human civic payoffs

time and change you will then have been listed as allies in these neighborhoods

my second suggestion has to do with communities needs

for our hearts are centers and with a related problem

damage done to neighborhoods by commercial incursions

where they are inappropriate

the desirability of community hearts is well recognized nowadays

much thought goes into designing them

for new communities and inserting them into neighborhoods

that have lost community heart were never had them

the object is to nurture lo que house where people

on foot well naturally encounter one another

in the core some shoppin doing other aaron's

promoting their cause is airing their grievances

catching up on gas up and perhaps enjoying a coffee or beer

under pretty color umbrellas

let's think a min about the natural anatomy and community hearts

wherever they develop spontaneously

they are almost invariably consequences

of two or more intersecting streets

well used by pedestrians

on the most meager level

knows meager scale

we have the cliche on the corner store

or the corner pub that is recognized as a local hangout

in this cliche corner

is the significant educative corner

implies to streets intersecting in the shape of an ex

worldwide in traditional towns

the spot recognized as the sender and things

surprisingly often contains a triangular piece in grant

this is because in this where three main routes

converge in the shape the more I in communities where his story claimed much

traffic was water-borne

a hard often located itself

at the intersection I'm a morder Front Street

we're joined with an exit from a busy day back

where passengers disembarked when water travel declined

the heart moved elsewhere large cities of course

have typically develop not only localized

neighborhood our district heart but one

are several major hearts and is also have almost invariably located

themselves at Billy pedestrian street intersections

all but the very smallest hearts

the corner store typically provide splendid sites for landmark buildings

public squares or small parks

now the cambers logic doesn't work

if I had more time I agree Dale you with this morn

tales a wannabe hearts that lacked the anatomy

intersecting well-used pedestrian streets

they are poor but Cindy

they don't catch on

or hold up living

beating community cards can't be arbitrarily located

as if they were suburban shopping centers

for which the supporting an enemy is a parking

and perhaps a transit stop but given the anatomy

will use pedestrian main streets

hearts locate themselves in fact they can't be pro-business

prevented from locating themselves of course would be signed can greatly

enhance our reinforce them

as I implied with my remarks about landmark bill maynes

and public squares now for the related problem

have commercial our institutional facilities

intruding into inappropriate places

from time to time I glance

plans an artist's renderings for charmingly design community hearts

closely surrounded by charmingly designed residences

with their yards and I wonder where future overflow of Commerce can be

pleasantly accommodated

perhaps this consideration doesn't matter

in a village which is destined to remain a village

but it matters very much in a city neighborhood

or in a town or village which becomes engulfed by a city

in cities

successful hearts and track users from outside the neighborhood

and they also attract entrepreneurs who want to be where the action is

these things happen in fact is these things didn't happen

cities would be little more advantageous economically and socially then villages

they wouldn't generate urban surprise

fans I as and diversity so with time

and change originally unforeseen commercial and institutional overflows

can occur

in city neighborhoods where they go

they may have to find encumbered

makeshift quarters occasionally the makeshift are delightful

but most commonly they were just her as

ugly jarring intrusive smears

in the residential streets where they were never meant to intrude

watching this happen people think

the neighborhood is going to the dogs

so it is visually and soon as a sequel

perhaps socialite in the end perhaps economically as well

so much is this former deterioration dislike

and feared that one of the chief purposes longing regulations

is to prevent it even if the regulations succeed at home in time and change at

bay

as enemies any success they have comes at the cost of squelching City

potentialities

meaning new conveniences and innovations

here is where the anatomy natural neighborhood hearts can come to the

rescue

one important adaptive advantage

open-ended main pedestrian streets

forming intersections is that these streets

are logical places for convertible buildings to be four there is need to

convert them

they can be a design to form a Neighborhood insurance

so to speak for example

row houses can be designed to convert

easily and pleasantly to shops small offices studios restaurants all kinds of

things

several join together even convert well too small schools and other institutions

and of course many buildings originally put up for work

especially law bill maynes convert pleasantly two apartments

or living and working combinations

just as commercial and institutional enterprises in the city neighborhood

our town involved in the city can Bergen

unexpectedly so can they do in dole and whether

unexpectedly those things happened to

in that case if shops and other facilities can be easily converted into

and it hasn't stopped

to resolve is much better than boarded-up France

in some I am suggesting than urban designers and municipalities

should not even think about attractive hearts

with their pretty colored umbrellas without also thinking about the

indispensable Street anatomy required by heart

and they should not think about the street man to me without also providing

are encouraging easily convertible buildings on most streets

as opportunity to do this arises

this is a practical strategy for dealing with time and chains as well

Heights not enemies

my third suggestion concerns gentrification

I'm low-cost neighborhoods to which time has not been kind

but which have valuable assets nevertheless

typically the first outsiders to notice these assets

are artists and I are lessons

their joint by young professionals are other middle-class people

whose eyes have been opened by the artist discoveries

for a time gentrification brings heartening renovations

and other physical improvements into a neighborhood that needs improvements

along with new people whose connections

life skills and spending money can be socially useful to the neighborhoods

existing inhabitants

and often are as long as gentrification proceeds gently

with moderation it tends to continue beneficial

and diversify in every way

but nowadays especially and neighborhoods period or what might be

called its golden age and gentrification

can be surprisingly short

suddenly so many many new people want in on a place

now generally perceived to be interesting and fashionable

gentrification turns socially and economically vicious

in explodes into a feeding frenzy have real estate speculation and the Vixens

former inhabitants are you victim wholesale

price though I what Chester hartman aptly calls

the financial bulldozer even the iris

who began the process are priced out

DMN show Iran is result is that

even the rich the people being priced in

are cheated by this turn in the vents

they were attracted by what they saw as a lively

interesting divers and their main city neighborhood

insured by the results ok and all and modern gentrification

this kind ever Manna Dey is being killed as the place becomes an exclusive

preserve for high-income people

time is not kind it to high-income preserves in cities

unless they are small and cheek by jowl with livelier and more diverse

neighborhoods

one need only noticed that many up for and the left the day did neighborhood

contains once beautiful proud an ambitious dwellings

to see evidence an exclusive preserves

I love the rich do not necessarily hold up well in settings

the rich it seems to grow bored with on the verge dole so the neighborhoods

for their children were air still

this is not surprising because such places are boring

when gentrification turns vicious

and excessive it tells us first that demand for moderately gentrified

neighborhoods

has outrun supply a bomb by now

its appearance has revealed the basic attributes

have such places attributes that they are just discover

the streets have human scale buildings are various an interesting

streets are safer pedestrian use and many ordinary conveniences are within

pedestrian reach

and neighbors are tolerant I'm different lifestyles

a few weeks ago

I was in Richmond Virginia and I hadn't

taken a real good look at Richmond for quite a few years

when my nephews gave me a tour and I was astounded

and heartened to see neighborhoods that I remembered

from last time I had a tour as looking

quite hopeless now

very up and coming very attractive and people

doing a a lot to do it yourself repairs

and changes on it was quite wonderful

and I was also charm to say

that these neighboring

neighborhoods like this such as the fan district and the boulevard for those in

human Richmond

looks very much as if they had been designed

by new urban this that tells us something

it's pitiful let so many city neighborhoods

with these excellent basic attributes

have been destroyed for highway construction

some clearance urban renewal enhancing projects

nevertheless some currently bypassed transfused to remain

and where they do modern gentrification

I emphasize moderate could be deliberately

encourage to help take the heat of other places

being excessively gentrified another way and adding to supply

could be mine encouraging judicious in filling in neighborhoods with human

scale

but not enough compactness and then said they make good candidates

however more than increased supply have desirable city neighborhoods is needed

to combat socially vicious Eva kins

an existing inhabitants Artscape

and Toronto organization concerned specifically

with protecting and promoting the interests some Argus

has come to the conclusion that the only sure for not preventing artists from

being priced out in their quarters

is ownership in this case

ownership by non-profit organizations

the same is probably true

for many other existing inhabitants

ownership by cooperatives

community development corporations slang for us

nonprofit organizations whatever ingenuity is can be direct and

to be a move retaining neighborhood diversity a population

my final suggestion concerns the hazard

the somewhat different form a popularity

as I mentioned earlier some community hearts

and their associated Street anatomies

attract many outsiders and are widely enjoyed

this is not a bad thing on the contrary

the hazard is this as leases for commercial or institutional spaces

expire tenants are apt to be faced with shockingly

increased rents property taxes

on the popular promises can soar to instigating even further increases

if his own improvements commercial overflow

so much the worse the upshot is that many facilities are priced

oh the mic's the hardware store goes

the bookstore closes the place the repair small appliances moves away

the butcher shops and bakeries disappear

as diverse a new dimensions

into its place comes a kinder monoculture

incredible repetitions or whatever happens to be most profitable on that

street

at that time of course these optimist on all seed

six on the new restaurants

say die off rather rapidly and five above the seven gift shops don't make it

through the next christmas

into their places come under Optimus

who hope something will be left in the tail after the Dec

costs on renovations an incredible rents are paid

but starting gradually well times are good

and rapidly when they aren't the street becomes dotted with vacant space

the load conveniences don't return to fill them

they can't afford to all this is not only into competition from also are big

boxes

but because s has priced

diversity a popular main pedestrian street name

to my own neighborhood is now afflicted by this dynamic

however fortunately the hardware store remains

so does the bookstore one butcher shop with its associate in European growth

rate and a large

general bargain and outlet store not only do these remain a flourish

won the hardware has doubled in space

the secret in their stability is that they own the buildings where they do

business

and so we're not vulnerable to being priced out by soaring rents

the banks also remaining they own their bill maynes

this has caused me to think about home ownership

when it became public policy in the United States to encourage homeownership

financial advice is such as long term mortgages

small down payments and more DJ acceptance corporations

mean agencies primarily the FHA

proved successful in promoting the policy

track has seen someone do homeowners under these arrangements

was spoiling an otherwise ill conceived for fostering much sense of community

but that is another matter at least for Spain ownership or

today some percent of American households

own their own hale's or apartments

the highest percentage in the world

this has made me wonder whether similar techniques

would enable or encourage small businesses

especially those whose success depends heavily on location

to own their own premises of course not all would want to

and among those that did all would not be able to

but that is also true households

why hadn't become public policy to foster business stability

instability a city streets and neighborhoods

by enabling enterprises to protect themselves

to ownership against abruptly rise in rents

in other words I've arrived

at once the same conclusion

as Artscape their ownership

is the shares protection against being priced out over play some work

these for suggestions may seem trivial

compared with other municipal concerns

such as racism poor schools traffic

unemployment illegal drugs at inadequate tax revenues

crime persistent poverty what to do with the garbage

how to lure tourists whether the bill mother stadium or convention center

and so on nevertheless neighborhoods that decline

are pretty serious too

two steps forward followed by three steps back

is no way for so the to progress

and it doesn't help solve other municipal problems either

the pattern makes them more intractable

this pattern isn't no it has practical cause us

and unless these forms and civic ineptitude

are faced and overcome American city neighborhoods are as

unlikely to deal well with time and change in the future

as they've been in the past

the suggestions I've made may not be politically possible

there may be better or at any rate different means of accomplishing similar

names

my purpose is to help stir up some creative thinking

now lacking about affect some time and change and city neighborhoods

a bomb all to stir up thinking about how to enlist

time and changes practical allies

not as enemies that must be regulated out and fended off on the one hand

or messily surrendered to on the other

we might as well learn how to make constructive alliances with the work in

some time

because time is going to continue happening

that's for sure

any living thing is involved with Sky

and the changes that time brings and that includes

human beings anybody who is raising children knows this

it involves repairing

are restoring ecosystems anybody

involved in their understands the hazards

and the opportunities and the whole course since

how things go is different

with time and it's true a city neighborhoods

so

to repeat myself we might as well come to grips with this I think

thank you