The Importance of Community

Rachel Armstead did some wonderful work interviewing colleagues around Melbourne - she has since left to do further work in the UK. Some of her thoughts follow...

The local community is becoming increasingly central as a focus for sustainability action in Australia. There are numerous recent sustainability initiatives and policies that address the unit of the community; the CSIRO Sustainable Communities Initiative, the Green Building Council Australia’s National framework of Green Star Communities, and the Australian Government department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency’s Community Energy Efficiency Programme (CEEP) to name but a few. 

Community as a key theme of current academic research and technical papers was also highlighted during the ICLEI annual Thriving Neighbourhoods conference held in November 2012.

These initiatives frame the community both as the beneficiary of sustainable development and as an agent of such change.

The community as a beneficiary of local government sustainability initiatives reflects more a change in terminology than in practice as local government is by definition in place to serve the local community. However, the local community as agent of sustainable development presents an interesting shift. 

Prof. Chris Ryan, speaker at the 2012 Thriving Neighbourhoods conference stated that a key characteristic of thriving societies is that communities are producing, not just passively consuming ‘[i]n the critical areas of life – in the provision of food, water, energy, mobility, shelter, information as well as in the power to shape development – thriving will see a shift of citizens to active roles in production and governance, a reversal of current trends that define the role of citizens as ‘passive consumers’.

For the average person who may not be particularly engaged with sustainability and self-sufficiency, the role of producer is a new one. In addition the act of working as a community rather than an individual – self-sufficiency where the self is a collective may also be a novel concept for many. Encouraging and coordinating such action is for many local governments and many communities unchartered territory and a there is currently a big learning curve being embarked upon. 

The importance of geography

Even in an increasingly global world (or perhaps because of it?), geography matters - so taking down a freeway is a big issue about communities, as reported from LA:

Taking down a freeway—as radical as that sounds—is not a new idea. Paris, Milwaukee, Seoul and New York are among the cities who’ve removed them. In San Francisco, two major freeways—the double-decker freeway that rounded the Embarcadero and the Central Freeway that cut through Hayes Valley—were demolished and replaced with surface boulevards after being damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake. These neighborhoods have since enjoyed a renaissance through freeway demolition that healed scarred communities.
In San Francisco, it wasn’t the earthquake that actually got the freeways taken down; there and in the other cities where such major pieces of infrastructure have been removed, it was the hard work of individuals who wanted to see something better in their city.
Changes in cities don’t just happen. People have to develop a vision for change, and convince others that such change is good. People with technical expertise need to weigh in to make sure the details work; politicians have to find the political will to make it happen. The people who had the vision in the first place need to hold on to that vision and push forward even when all hope seems lost.
San Francisco again finds itself with another opportunity to take down a freeway while creating major transportation infrastructure improvements in an important area of the city. Currently, the stub end of Interstate 280 creates a barrier between the developing Mission Bay neighborhood and Potrero Hill. At the same time, the Caltrain railyard—19 acres stretching from Fourth Street to Seventh Street between King and Townsend—divides Mission Bay and SoMa. These obstructions will worsen if current plans for California's high-speed rail proceed, forcing 16th Street and Mission Bay Boulevard into below-ground trenches beneath the tracks and the elevated freeway.

Brooklyn, New York City

The International Herald Tribune reported that 'New grass-roots efforts replace trickle down business-linked plans to revitalise neighbourhoods. One of the examples given was New Lots Ave, Brooklyn where the locals had supplanted cars for a people park. "New Yorkers deserve better...as with the public realm, the priority ought to be public service', said Ms Sadik-Khan, a local.  Learn more about neighbourhood action at the TN2013 Conference.

Conflicting land-use for sustainability

I can remember a bit of this from early days in St Kilda - bike paths and open space. Here is another version, reported by Streetsblog, with the need for housing close to public transport versus wild open space - both desirable in themselves. This process in Boulder, Colorado could be an interesting debate...

There’s a proposal on the table in Boulder, Colorado, to preserve 25 acres in the heart of the city for agricultural purposes in perpetuity.Space that could be used for people to live near high-frequency transit should not be permanently preserved for agriculture, says Zane Selvans. Image: Flat Iron BikeThe problem, says Zane Selvans at Flat Iron Bike, is that from a sustainability perspective there are better uses for such a big parcel of urban land. Selvans says the proposal — on a property known as Long’s Garden in North Boulder — is at odds with the city’s goal to become more walkable and livable for people.

Our recent trip to Auckland in New Zealand revealed the growth of small local community farms and gardens. Boston looks like it is going to connect this sort of growth to policy:

The city of Boston is laying the ground work to grow and simplify the process for urban farmingthroughout the city. Mayor Thomas Menino and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) are introducing an amendment, Article 89, to the current zoning that would create opportunity for expandedurban agriculture activities such as rooftop farming and opening farm stands and markets.

THE FIRST PHASE OF THE MAYOR’S PILOT URBAN AGRICULTURE REZONING PROJECT INVOLVED ISSUING AN RFP SEEKING FARMERS TO CREATE A FARM ON TWO CITY-OWNED PROPERTIES IN SOUTH DORCHESTER. CITY GROWERS WAS SELECTED AND NOW OPERATES TWO FARMS IN BOSTON. (COURTESY OF CITY GROWERS BOSTON/FACEBOOK) 

Beginning in May, the Mayor’s office along with BRA launched a series of 11 neighborhood meetings to discuss Draft Article 89 with the public. This amendment change is part of the city’s larger Pilot Urban Agriculture Rezoning Project that was initially started in 2010: A group of farming experts and advocates were selected to participate in the Mayor’s Urban Agriculture Working Group to provide insight that helped inform a number of the recommendations included in Draft Article 89. This amendment tackles a range of urban agriculture issues from soil safety and rooftop and vertical agriculture to hydroponics and the care of animals and bees. Boston.com reported that the new zoning would allow for 1-acre ground-level farms in any neighborhood throughout the city, and then permit farms larger than one-acre in areas specifically zoned for industrial use. The amendment would also make it significantly easier for Bostonians to start a ground-level farm by requiring a special permit instead of mandating a public review process.
According to the BRA’s website, the Mayor’s Office and collaborating partners are hoping that this ambitious initiative will “increase access to affordable and healthy food, particularly for underserved communities” and “promote economic opportunity and greater self-sufficiency for people in need, including increasing the capacity of Boston residents and business and grow and distribute local and healthy food.”

Neighbourhood improvement and gentrification

Interesting views from Brent Toderian on the issue of neighbourhood gentrification, following Richard Florida's question: "if all economic development and neighbourhood revitalization is gentrification, how do we grow and improve our urban areas?"....

As the renaissance of cities and urban areas in North America continues, more and more neighborhoods are struggling with the challenges of change. Although the market's rediscovery of inner-city, walkable, mixed-use communities is an excellent thing in many ways, the word "gentrification" inevitably comes up in almost every discussion. But one person's gentrification is another person's revitalization, so the debate is always complex and heated.
Can you have revitalization, reinvestment, renewal without some level of gentrification? Probably not, as any perceived improvement in the eyes of the marketplace changes the economics. I do though, continue to believe that in planning for community change, there are reasonable levels of gentrification, that gentrification can be strategically managed, and that we can have "revitalization without displacement." In fact, this phrase has been the vision for Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES) for years.
Gentrification that involves sweeping away the past, and the people, is by comparison easy - you often just have to let it happen. On the other hand, revitalization without displacement, protecting the low-income community as well as the built heritage in the context of change toward a more diverse community - that's much harder, and takes much longer. In every community where it's tried, and certainly here in Vancouver's DTES, it creates incredible tensions and struggles, and rightly so - vulnerable people's homes and lives are often at risk.

Seats as informal bump spaces

While in Auckland last week, I came across the fascinating blog of Denise and Dylan, who travelled around America in 2012, documenting their approach as they went. All with a strong neighbourhood focus - such as the following:

Seats as informal bump spaces

After great conversations with Ethan Kent (PPS) and Mike Lydon (Tactical Urbanism) I really started to notice the informal bump spaces in NY, and realised there had been many in the other cities we had visited too.


Take seats for example. Plenty of businesses provide seating of all kinds here. And not just cafes. Clothing shops, plant shops, design shops, even those catering for space cowboys! Often nestled in front of shop windows and accompanied by plantings and bowls of water for dogs, some are simply set against a wall, unchained, or designed to fit temporarily around the pavement trees. These pics are all from SoHo and they are colonised by people lunching, talking, resting and re-organising before being brought indoors at the close of business. Inviting eh?

It's got to be good for business I reckon and even cheaper and easier than reclaiming streets (esp if you don't ask permission! Can always seek forgiveness later if necessary :-)). Plus each seat provider gets to add a touch of their personality to the street (a form of street art even) and provide a small bump space for community connection too! 

Do no evil (at least consciously)

Thriving Neighbourhoods, of course, run the risk of pricing out the very people and process that made them "thriving". Tech Crunch reported on a recent event in California saw some direct action:

"Sick of high-paid tech employees driving up rent prices, protestors in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood held a “Anti-Gentrification Block Party” and beat on a Google bus piñata before cops broke up the crowd. The area has long been home to artists and Mexican-American families, but they’re being forced out as techies move in, their employers set up shuttle stops, and housing prices skyrocket.
Mission district blog Uptown Almanac’s Kevin Montgomery was on the scene. He describes 30 to 40 people assembled at the neighborhood’s 16th street Bay Area Rapid Transit station. The spot is one of the dirtiest in the city — in stark contrast to fancy Valencia street just one block over where software engineers frequent posh restaurants and pricey bike shops.Google, Apple, and Facebook all have shuttle bus stops in the neighborhood making it easy for their employees to live in the hip district while commuting south to Silicon Valley in style. The buses have become a symbol of gentrification. Dozens of police officers surrounded the rally, fearing it might devolve into violence. Last May a riot broke out in neighborhood with many businesses vandalized with “Yuppies Out” graffiti."

Partnerships in "handmade urbanism"

An excellent and thoughtful review of Handmade Urbanism: From Community Initiatives to Participatory Models by the Project for Public Spaces notes the importance of partnerships, especially cross-sectoral approaches:

The case studies, all of which were selected through the Urban Age program, highlight a wide variety of interventions in slums and favelas in Mexico City, Istanbul, Cape Town, São Paulo, and Mumbai. Presented together, they lead the reader on a journey through a potential place: a city where public spaces truly belong to the public, and everyone is encouraged to contribute. The analysis of these projects looks at each city through a five distinctly different lenses, discussing the role of citizen-led projects with community actors, government officials, academics, artists, and intermediaries, defined by the editors as “those operating at the middle level (between top-down and bottom-up interventions) intermediating scales, and different layers of knowledge and action.”
One of the book’s many detailed diagrams / Photo: Jovis 

Unsurprisingly, given this staunchly multidisciplinary approach, there is a heavy focus on the role of partnerships in driving success with bottom-up projects. The success of any public space relies heavily on a strong network of partners, from individuals to organizations. This is especially true of citizen-led projects because unsanctioned improvements often require substantial public support to avoid being dismantled for any number of bureaucratic reasons once they are discovered. Thus, almost every case study presented in Handmade Urbanism involves some interesting examples of people from different constituencies working together. More importantly, several illustrate the power of partnerships and collaboration to transform and expand the reach of the groups that participate.

Cultivating communities

A well-produced introduction to cultivating community by cultivating locally (albeit Canada):