Effective Crusading for New Urbanism
Toronto is one of the busiest metropolitan regions in the world yet it has one of the most under-built transit systems for a city its size – and growing. Today’s post features a journalist who’s crusade for new urbanism ideals provides practical (and visual) insight into the issues and strategies for improving transit, community life and cities as a whole.
For too many political reasons, transit has never had held the financial priority for this particular city, until now. City officials are about to make some major changes to help move people better and get at least 20-25 per cent of the cars off the road. But they are unfortunately very close to repeating some of the ridiculous transit mistakes they’ve made in the past.
I’ll stop trying to explain the situation and let you listen as the Toronto Star’s urban critic, Christopher Hume, fills you in.
Caribbean Indulgence
Since we’re in the midst of winter I thought I’d indulge myself with some pictures from a country I love to visit. Jamaica. It’s also the birthplace of my parents and where we sent my home for her final rest after her sad and unexpected death last year (cancer is a terrible, terrible thing).
One thing I am happy about is the gift she gave in her appreciation of Jamaica. Now time for me to indulge.
This may be an odd picture for me to post, but it is a bitter sweet image. People from my mother’s town, along with a few friends from Canada walking together down my Mother’s childhood street, on route from the Church to my Mother’s home. Never in a million years would my mom have envisioned this: older people who knew her as a girl in the village, and friends from Canada who knew her as a neighbor and colleague – all together in the little place that filled her heart…always.
My mother’s sweet neice Donna with her husband…they are neighbors in this village too.
My Dad with his brother-in-law Ian. Ian was a godsend during our time in Jamaica. He kept my Dad in constant discussion which was a welcome distraction from the funeral he dreaded more than anything else in his life. In the end it was a beautiful farewell to the love of his life.
My mother’s beloved Tooting Hall United Church – where we held her second and final service.
A view of mom’s piece of heaven…Inverness
Residents Who Choose to Invest in Cities
We’re in the midst of a movement designed to encourage businesses and the government to make strategic investments in urban centers to help make our cities the regional economic drivers they were designed to be. But when it comes to the residents who will actually be living and personally “investing” in cities, I think we (urban cheerleaders) do a less than stellar job of “marketing” to this target group.
We can’t afford to overlook the fact that people will choose city locations in order to satisfy any number of common life goals whether that be to raise a family, develop a career, grow a business or live out one’s retirement. We need to make the connection stronger between those common life goals and the ways in which our cities can meet those goals.
Part of the problem in marketing this message has to do with some concrete challenges most akin to the old “chicken vs the egg” quandary. Logically it would seem prudent to ensure we have in place in our cities the kind of infrastructure that will attract families, working people and retirees – e.g. schools, transit, healthy shopping choices and reliable health care.
Unfortunately cities can’t afford to invest in comprehensive transit systems without a viable tax base (working residents) and companies won’t invest in the kind of shopping and service amenities tax-paying residents demand unless these they can be assured of a viable market in advance of their investment.
When potential urban stakeholders fail to make bold moves to invest their resources our cities’ exciting development initiatives stall…and we’ve seen that again and again. We have to do something different to break the cycle.
I’m not sharing anything new here, but where I think we fall short is the people we target with our marketing efforts and the ways in which we market to them. First and foremost, we should be targeting the people more apt to have the patience, flexibility and resources to make the move to communities that need their kind of faith, commitment and dare I say…courage.
I have to think that there is more we can do to attract families, young professionals AND retirees. In fact, I think we need to put more thought into analyzing the needs and motivations of various demographics, most especially the enormous group of retirees in North America.
Baby Boomers–those primarily 50 and above–total nearly 80 million in the U.S. and they have not only the income, but the experience to contribute in meaningful ways to the urban centers so many of us are trying to grow in inner cities across the United States.
My husband and I are a few years shy of this core Baby Boomer group but we share more in common with them then the generation following us. We’re both more than half-way through our careers and looking seriously at where we want to live and work during what will be our traditional pre-retirement /retirement years.
Our children will be finished college soon and will be ready to live on their own so we have not only more freedom but more flexibility and greater willingness to invest in areas we might not have chosen had our children been younger. This is not to say that we’re ready to settle for an area any less safer or enjoyable than our current neighborhood, but we do believe in the potential and power of our cities to revitalize our regions and drive local economies.
I think it would be wise for cities to identify others like us and reach out to our demographic using the resources they’ve been given to build up the residential tax base in urban centers.
When I look at the beautiful architecture and neighborhoods, enterprising organizations and businesses that were conceived and developed during the early part of the 20th century in cities like Cleveland, Akron, Baltimore, Providence, Pittsburgh and other cities, I’m not only nostalgic for a period I never knew personally but hopeful for a rebirth.
Those cities became the great economic and social engines of their age because of the vision of “individuals” – from the dare-devil entrepreneurs to the everyday, dedicated mothers and fathers buying homes, shopping at local stores and generally taking an interest in the cities in which they and those they love would live out their lives.
In an effort to help more people think seriously about moving to our great or once great cities, following are some resources you might appreciate:
Initiative for a Competitive Inner City
Investing in Cleveland Neighborhoods
Big Ideas for Small Cities
Guest Blog Post By Amy McGinnis
I’m a mom of two, passionate cyclist and locavore, and can’t remember a time when the philosophy and principles of New Urbanism didn’t feel like self-evident truths to me – certainly I was a believer long before I knew it existed as an actual Concept.
I also love to connect people. Be it with another person, a job opportunity, a new restaurant or anything else that comes to mind as a great fit, few things bring me the satisfaction that a good connect does.
I’ll spend an hour tracking down someone I met at a party weeks ago to tell them about a house d I just heard might be going on the market in their neighborhood of choice. And when I met my husband, my first thought was, “Great guy – who can I set him up with?”
So today, I’d like to connect you with an amazing event that’s getting ready to happen in my city October 27 -29.
CityWorks (X)po is an interactive summit of place-makers and change agents; people doing innovative things in unexpected places to enhance their communities. Over three days, nationally renowned speakers and performers including James Howard Kunstler, Kennedy Smith, Christian Sottile, Mia Birk, Ben Hewitt and others are coming together to lead what we believe will be one of the largest place-making idea exchanges in the country.
By day, this “festival conference” will feature provocative presentations and engaging discussions; by night, attendees will experience spectacular local food and entertainment.
Come to the inaugural (X)po to collaborate and connect; leave recharged, with new ideas and inspired initiatives – and meaningful connections with colleagues from diverse disciplines who are making a positive difference.
For more information about this incredible event , including how to register for one of the remaining spots, visit www.CityWorksXpo.com. And if (X)po resonates with you – even if you can’t attend this year – please drop me a line so I know and can connect with you in the future.
The Year-Round Challenge of Urban Agriculture
I read a post on a blog recently that raised concerns about the real practicality of urban agriculture. The writer’s main criticism focused on the following:
- Urban farms look pretty in the summer/fall but in the winter the plots will simply look like vacant lots.
- The last thing struggling urban economies need is vacant lots through the 8 months of the year when nothing in the garden grows. Instead cities need amenities like businesses, local stores, etc.
- All the energy directed at educating city residents and nurturing urban farms could be better spent on lobbying municipalities and surrounding suburbs in an effort to prevent big box retailers from blanketing the landscape (and depressing the real local economy).
Needless to say I agree with none of the above points and here’s why:
- Anyone interested in being creative? When winter hits and gardens/farms go into dormant mode why not turn that vacant lot into something else? Mount boards that show images of the garden and explain the different produce to be grown in spring. Decorate the plots to highlight the different seasons and holidays. City dwellers can be creative – engage them! The payoff of urban gardens far outweigh the alternative (nothing).
- I completely agree that urban areas need amenities for residents in addition to urban gardens and farms, however, at present cities struggling the most just aren’t attracting businesses at the rate that they would like…at least not yet.So let’s be realistic. First a city has to be attractive to businesses to get the kind of amenities residents need. Right now urban farming is very attractive. It’s hot, it’s vogue and even New York has finally jumped on the urban farming trend in a big way with the passage of supportive legislation. Just as Cleveland did years ago… Also let’s not forget we have an obesity problem in this nation and urban farming promotes the kind of healthy eating that can help reduce obesity and improve the health of our kids and families.
- Efforts directed to nurturing urban farms do in fact help to build up local economies and influence shopping behaviors so that residents will be more inclined to shop local. Changing behaviors is in my mind a crucial step to pushing back the assault of big box retailers in regions. If the demand wains so will the big box retailing craze.
Frozen over urban agricultural plots need not be a burden to residents during the winter months especially after the experience of cultivating and harvesting local produce. Even after the harvest, urban farmers and residents have something else to enjoy… the gift of “anticipation” that comes after every harvest season.
The experience of spring and of harvest is hard to forget. We know what surprises the earth holds for conscientious gardeners and it is that education and “anticipation” that builds a community…feeds families…creates jobs and makes an ordinary city plot something truly extraordinary.
It’s Very Cool to Go Local
Our Local Jazz Festival brings revenue to many local businesses, including the venue, our local art gallery and the food courtesy of one of our local restaurants.
I can’t recall when in recent memory there has been such a concerted effort to build up the local economy. The teetering global economy no doubt has a lot to do with this trend.
While being interconnected on a global scale has done amazing things to raise awareness about the needs of our human community, the impact of global trading on our local economies has been a mixed blessing.
We’ve seen enough 60-Minutes TV specials on the impact of big box stores on the demise of the mom and pop shops in our communities, but perhaps we’re in for another change…the re-emergence of the local entrepreneur.
The local food craze and new urbanism are making it cool to work, shop, play and do business close to home. A few years ago that was a concept for the communities and cities that had their act together through chance or the will of a few.
Now “going local” has gone mainstream and we have politicians passing legislation to make it easier to start and thrive in fast growing local businesses making the best of current commercial trends like “urban agriculture.”
Just last week the Mayor of New York, Michael R. Bloomberg, passed legislation to support and protect businesses that fall under the urban agriculture category. That’s one of the few times the Big Apple followed the trend of smaller
Jazz in our Town at the McKay Art Center
cities setting the pace for urban agriculture…cities like Cleveland. Read the article I wrote about Cleveland’s experience in the Initiative for Competitive Inner Cities‘ blog.
I’m feeling a chain reaction here and I’m hoping this is just the beginning. Go local!!
Industries Offering Business, Job Opportunities for our Cities
Photo by Chet McMillan
Job creation is one of those buzz terms that we all hear and understand only too well during this period of economic restraint. The reasons no longer need much explanation. North America has become too expensive a place to manufacture those products that traditionally provided our communities with jobs that helped our nation’s economy to soar. What’s worse, the areas of the country where many of these industries are closing shop are the places that can least afford it – our cities.
The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) reports that in the next 10 years one billion square feet of industrial space will become vacant reflecting a huge loss of jobs we are already feeling. But it get’s better as the ICIC reports that as vacant industrial space is on the rise so too is the need for industrial space from new and burgeoning industries.
According to ICIC, growing industries today will require almost one billion square feet of industrial space over the next 10 years! So the challenge to cities is to identify those companies and prepare local population to have the skills needed by these new industries.
Here’s a list combining data from The Atlantic (co. employment growth over the past year) and Huffington Post (co. revenue growth 2000-2012) re: current top U.S. Growth Industries:
- Voice over Internet Protocol Providers (e.g. Skype) (revenue up 193.9% !!)
- Internet Publishing and Broadcasting (revenue up 25.2%)
- Metals Manufacturing (employment up more than 6%)
- High Tech Equipment Manufacturing (employment up almost 4%)
- Solar Power (revenue growth up 2.7%)
- Wind Power (revenue growth up 6.9%)
- e-Commerce and Online Auctions (revenue growth up 12.2%)
- Video Games (revenue growth 6.2%)
- Biotechnology (revenue growth 11%)
- Third Party Administrators, Insurance Claims Adjusters (revenue growth 6.9%)
- Health Care (employment up 4%)
- Auto industry ( auto parts employment up 5.3%; retail sales employment up 2.7%)
- Plastics and Rubber Manufacturing (employment up 3.5%)
- Transportation (rail transportation workforce up 4.7%)
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (employment up up 3.7%)
- Clothing Retailers (employment up 4.2% may be cyclical)
- Performing Arts and Sports (employment up 6.6% may be cyclical)
The above list offers a good basis for identifying those types of companies that could offer opportunity for entrepreneurs and jobs for urban residents. As residents and advocates for urban communities we can promote and lobby for these kinds of industries to come to our communities, support appropriate skills training to make our local labor force more attractive to employers and, keep abreast of developments in our cities that relate to or might have impact on new business/job development.
Urban Farming in Cleveland
Urban Farming is a hot topic today but the really good news is that it’s more than a temporary fad for transient professionals living in the city.
It’s part of a movement that is including core urban residents and families. Cleveland, one of the most challenged rust belt cities, has an estimated 325 urban market and community gardens. In fact, Cleveland was one of the first major urban cities to pass urban farming legislation back in 2007. According to city councilman, Joe Cimperman, the legislation “ensures that no one can rip out the community’s investment overnight.” (The Faster Times).
The city’s zoning laws anticipate changing trends and priorities and safeguard against future landowners with competing priorities. That kind of legislative support bolsters the confidence and enthusiasm of local gardeners who see community gardens as a way to improve community life.
The Business Component
Access to local garden space also offers opportunity for business minded residents. The City of Cleveland offers $3,000 forgivable loans to gardeners cultivating crops for the market. Many market gardeners in the city are cultivating honey and raising chickens.
Urban Agriculture – Not New
While urban agriculture is certainly not a new concept, it’s re-emerging popularity has everything to do with the knowledge we now have about much of the “fresh food” in our supermarkets. Food that must be shipped from half-way across the country or world creates transportation related pollution. The preservatives that must be applied to keep that produce fresh carries with it a whole slew of health hazards that are no longer acceptable risks for many people.
This widespread knowledge serves to give advantage to local farmers who can boast fresher, preservative free produce
This perfect storm of unprecedented access to information about the food industry, human health, and an increasing appreciation for the value of the people and places in our urban environments, has created opportunity for cities to grasp and uncover the long buried tradition of urban agriculture.
For more about urban farming you might be interested in reading a new book by environmentalist and farmer, Peter Ladner called The Urban Food Revolution. It has just been published and I haven’t seen a copy yet but I am looking forward to reading it.
The Garden Effect and the Eat Local Movement
When I attended the Congress for the New Urbanism in Madison this past June one of the themes that stuck with me in terms of leading trends was the role of the garden in changing our lifestyles.
Sure gardens have an aesthetic role to play in our lives, but the emphasis now is on so much more. Gardens allow us to grow food that we can eat…period. We’re not just talking about the odd tomato, but a deep change in our eating habits to purposefully grow, develop and eat the types of foods that can thrive in our local environments.
Gardens have an aesthetic and practical component that makes the principles of new urbanism even more attractive and in fact more “understandable” for today’s advocates for strong local economies.
New urbanism encompasses a desire to revitalize urban and suburban cores that need to refocus on community growth. What better way to do that for a challenging urban area than to introduce urban farms! Yes…eating local isn’t limited to far flung suburban areas that border on farmland, our older cities are able to offer the farm experience to residents as well.
The picture featured in this post is a great example taken from Cleveland’s Green Corps Learning Farms located in areas around the city and supported by the Cleveland Botanical Gardens.
State approved curriculum has actually been developed that helps students in local schools to learn about gardens, our ecosystem and the role all this plays in our lives. So not only are local residents encouraged to get involved and participate in the local urban farming program but the young people – our future – are learning about the importance of gardens and local food in the classes they attend in local schools.
What local initiatives to support urban farming and an appreciation for gardens are being promoted and delivered in your neighborhood? Please share as good ideas deserve to be spread far and wide!
Enhancing Buy Local Options for Residents
Enhanced Buy Local Options in Unionville
When I think about the “eat local” movement I often connect this to the notion of eating food grown locally, which is the intended meaning of the term. But this weekend I thought about another meaning of the term that is equally valid given the goal of supporting our local economies and that is buying food–even imported food– from local vendors.
There will always be those foods that we simply can not grow or raise locally but that many of us will want to purchase. If we can reduce the pollution created by making a trip across town to our favorite cheese vendor or bakery I think that’s a good thing. Every little effort counts.
So this past long weekend I went strolling down our Main St. enjoying the usual mix of people and entertainment, and I was thrilled to see a new store open up that was not yet ANOTHER restaurant or knick-knack store for tourists. We now have our very own, brand new, deli and bakery on Main. While this is standard fare for most sizable town thoroughfares, our Main St. was an “intentional” Main St. established to bring people to the street not through necessity but as a way of bringing to life the principles of new urbanism and sparking the development of a vital community.
We already have multiple shopping choices (a.k.a. supermarkets) a five-minute drive away in every direction. But if our “intentional” Main St. is to be more than a tourist haunt or seasonal festival stop for the residents in our neighborhood, we really did need more buy local options.
Thanks to an existing Main St. retailer (Mariani’s Clothiers for Men) we now have one more choice to make our Main St. even more walkable. Mariani’s made a decision to increase their investment on Main St., and for good reason. They’ve been doing business here for almost 30 years will benefit from efforts to make the street even more vibrant.
I gather they figured rather than waiting for another vendor to offer some real options for residents they’d make the stretch themselves. While expanding from a men’s tailor shop to a deli and bakery may seem like a questionable move from a business standpoint, I know the family is very entrepreneurial and creative–not to mention Italian. You should see the delicious choices of meats, cheeses, home made pasta and pasta sauces in this store. Mouth watering!
So the next time you worry about the limitations associated with a commitment to “eating locally” grown produce and other foods, I propose you think again. We can help our local independent vendors to thrive right alongside our local/regional farmers. In doing so we can get choice and value while contributing to the vitality of our local economies. Having such a variety of choices will serve to enhance our efforts to create healthy living environments for all.
I’m Also Here…
