Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighborhood Revival

1
Comeback Cities A Blueprint for Urban
Neighborhood Revival

• By Paul S. Grogan Tony Proscio
• A report by
• Jessica Dunne, Courtney Kissinger, Colin
  McCormack

2
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

3
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

4
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

5
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.
• Peoples Development Corporation
• Carter left office before sending significant
  aid.

6
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.

7
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

8
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.

9
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.

10
Urban Doom

• Four Waves of Urban Doom
• Middle-Class Flight
• Evaporation of Inner-City Jobs and Businesses
• Outward-Creeping Blight
• Social Implosion

11
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.

12
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.

13
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

14
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.

15
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

16
The Grassroots Revival
17
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

18
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.

19
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.

20
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.

21
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.

22
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

23
Emerging Markets
24
Keys to Market Rebirth

• Renewed Housing
• Flow of Capital
• Retail Revival
• New Populations

25
Capital Flow and Housing
Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) 1977

• Requires every bank to meet
• The credit needs of its 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
• 1990s surge of mergers

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Overall Results

• Improved relationship between banks and
  communities
• Low-income lending increase
• Banks have benefited from investment

27
Credit Flow

• Community re-investment is the key to the
  economic mainstreaming of minorities and working
  class

28
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

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Helping Retail Revival

• Attract Business
• Immigrant populations (Federal level)
• Working age citizens and flow of goods and money
• Attention to public safety (Local level)

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Take Home Lesson

• Migration brings capital, capital funds housing,
  and the residency brought by housing supports a
  healthier, more vibrant retail market.

31
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

32
Public Order
33
Public Safety

• Crime in Cities
• Youth crime boom in 1980s
• New Strategies found results in
• Boston (61.2 fall in homicide rate)
• New York (58.7 fall in homicide rate)
• Main new goal Reduce peoples fear of
  residential and business investment.

34
Public Safety

• Broken Windows
• Phillip Zinbardo 1969 study
• George Kelling and James Q. Wilson 1980s
  application
• Physical disorder crime or flight
• Broken Windows applied literally to housing

35
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

36
New York Police

• 1986 Ed Koch
• 4.2 Billion to ten years of housing building and
  renovation
• 1990s 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

37
New York Police

• New Technology
• Compstat- Increased communication with
  neighborhood residents
• Bad publicity
• Cases of excessive force- Led to mistrust from
  minority communities

38
Boston Police

• Police-Community partnership
• Ten-Point Coalition
• Focus on youth
• Incorporated all levels of community
• Zero-tolerance applied to criminals and police
  force

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Take Home Lessons

• CDCs working with police- key to future of
  community policing
• Broken Windows
• Works in both directions
• Disordercause and symptom
• Shows what will not be tolerated
• Shows that someone cares what happens

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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

41
Deregulating the City
42
The Fall (and Rise) of Public Housing
The Cabrini Green Experiment

• Most of you are afraid of our neighborhood.
• But did you know? So are we.
• But we are here, you see
• Not because we want to be.
• -Anonymous resident

• 1981 Mayor Jane Byrne moves in to improve the
  neighborhood
• 1 year after Mayor Byrne left
• Homicides decreased by 25
• Aggravated battery decreased by 40
• Robberies decreased by 75

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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

44
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

45
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

46
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

47
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.

48
The Schoolhouse Door Opensa Crack

• The Problems with Public Schools
• Discrepancies between city schools and suburban
  schools are too large
• City families are fed up and favor alternatives

49
The Schoolhouse Door Opensa 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

50
The Schoolhouse Door Opensa 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

51
The Schoolhouse Door Opensa 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.

52
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

53
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

54
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

55
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

56
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

57
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

58
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

59
The Third Way in City Hall

• Take Home Lesson
• The most successful metropolitan mayors have
  embraced the "Third Way"

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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.