The Revitalist

The US Conference of Mayors met last week in Washington DC. A couple of the mayors took a few minutes to sit in on a discussion on the Diane Rehm Show about the challenges that mid-size cities face today. It was a very interesting discussion about the effects that the housing decline is having on city revenues and their plans to take their cities into the 21st century.

Planetizen's Best of the Worst in Planning for 2007 recaps some this past year's most ridiculous planning decisions: the latest in eco-friendly burials (no gravestones, just gps coordinates!), public loudspeakers so that government employees monitoring cameras can scold you for spitting out your gum on the sidewalk, and $90,000 spent in court over the difference between "sandy" and "creamy yellow."

The Planetizen Podcast lists the top planning issues of 2007: transportation and resource scarcity (e.g. water) were top of the list.

The National Trust's blog PreservationNation looks at the Best and Worst of 2007 in preservation: bests included celebrities using their star power to raise money for preservation issues and the public opening of Philip Johnson's Glass House; worsts included the loss of several mid-century modern structures and the city of Buffalo's Five In Five plan to demo 5,000 buildings in five years. The Paschal House here in Raleigh got a mention as a worst. The gorgeous, landmark, mid-century house has been languishing on the market and is in danger of being the latest teardown.

Protesters breaking down the gates at City Hall.

Even before Hurricane Katrina, HUD had taken control of the housing authority in New Orleans and had planned to demolish several of the city's housing projects to make way for mixed income housing – much to the dismay of residents and the architecture critic of the New York Times. Following the big storm, the condition of some of the buildings was significantly deteriorated, leading to an even greater push for demolition. Yesterday, the New Orleans City Council voted to approve the demo of three complexes. Angry residents showed up at City Hall to protest, and the police were waiting for them. The confrontation escalated to protesters breaking through the locked gates to the building and police responding with pepper spray and tasers. Fifteen people were arrested, and the Council voted for demo anyway. Here's hoping that 2008 brings better things for N.O.

There has been talk lately about how little time the presidential candidates spend talking about "urban issues." In an effort to get some of these big tent topics on the agenda, there is MayorTV.com, a joint project from The Nation and The Drum Major Institute. They interviewed mayors from ten cities around the country and asked them what they thought the candidates ought to be talking about. The cities are Boston, Rochester, Buffalo, Baltimore, Atlanta, Miami, Minneapolis, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles. Boston's Menino says that candidates should focus on education, economic development, housing and public safety – common topics across the board. And as he points out, if the nation's cities are doing well, the country as a whole is as well.

I'm a sucker for this kind of story.


One of the Alhambra Creek beavers.

The city of Martinez, CA, in the Bay Area, is wrestling with what to do about a family of beavers who have dammed the Alhambra Creek (via Planetizen). Downtown business owners are concerned that the creek could flood their properties. The city had proposed an elimination plan (kill the beavers, destroy the dam) but changed the plan to waiting and seeing when public opinion turned out to be strongly in favor of the beavers. A public meeting drew so many people they had to move to the high school to accommodate the "raucous crowd" complete with pro-beaver t-shirts. One local suggested that "the beavers will pay for themselves" in tourist revenue. Sensing the tide of public opinion, the city is going to leave the beaver family in place and closely monitor the water levels in creek (which has a history of floods), reserving the right to demolish the dam as needed.

It is one of the essential truths of human nature that people will show up to a city council hearing with custom t-shirts for an issue like beaver self-determination, but not for lot line setbacks, even if there is a McMansion looming over their patio.

The Mass House of Representatives voted on legislation that resolves the open issue around development on filled tidelands. In February of this year, the Mass Supreme Judicial Court ruled on a case where Cambridge residents sued the developers of the massive NorthPoint complex. At issue is whether development projects that are sited on filled tidelands but that are not on the waterfront (waterfront properties are regulated by Chapter 91) are subject to the state's environmental and public benefit review just as waterfront projects are. The Court ruled that all filled tideland projects are subject to review and left it to the legislature to sort out the ensuing mess. Well, the House passed a bill that is meant to resolve the question and settle the titles of already existing properties (like One Post Office Square, for example). An earlier version of the bill had called for the creation of a new office under the Director of Tidelands and Great Ponds that would review the overall public benefit of projects on filled tidelands but falling outside the purview of Chapter 91. Thankfully, the passed version of the bill doesn't require the creation of a new office (such a Massachusetts solution), but gives the thumbs up or down power to the EoEA. Filled tideland projects will still have demonstrate that they provide public benefit (elements like economic development and jobs are included in the calculus, along with the traditional public access and environmental protection). The Senate has yet to weigh in, but it appears to be headed for approval and signing by Gov. Patrick.

A columnist in the NY Times writes to say that the 2008 Presidential campaign should be a moment to talk about urban issues, but the candidates aren't (via CEOs for Cities). (We're hitting the op-ed pages lately.) As he points out about 80% of the US population lives in cities or suburbs. So aside from the big picture, easy soundbite topics like terrorism and health care, the candidates ought to address issues that are on the minds of urban dwellers. That would be transit, pollution, homelessness, public infrastructure, police and municipal services, among others. I suppose the candidates are afraid of turning off those fabled middle America primary voters who don't relate to New York City in all its concrete and steel weirdness. It would make for an interesting debate theme, though. What questions would you want asked?

Cleanup after the Sept 12th steam pipe explosion on Otis Street.

There was another steam pipe explosion in downtown Boston over the weekend. A pipe in front of the Brooke Courthouse on New Chardon Street burst and sent chunks of asphalt flying into the air, along with a small amount of asbestos that was part of the pipe insulation. No one was injured. This is the second pipe explosion this summer, following on the heels of a massive explosion in NYC in July. After that incident Mayor Menino proposed to have the state Department of Public Utilities regulate Boston's steam system. And after the September explosion here, Trigen, owners of the network of steam pipes beneath the downtown, said that they would immediately begin inspections of the entire 22-mile system. I guess they hadn't gotten to New Chardon Street yet.

With the Big Dig, we became briefly aware of the chaotic and deteriorating state of the utilities underneath the city. But this kind of thing doesn't capture the public imagination for long (especially not when there are stories like this). Let's hope that multiple exploding steam pipes is enough to get some action before someone really gets hurt.

Sunday's Globe had a gloomy article about Lowell entitled What Renaissance? The most recent demographic data seems to suggest that Lowell's great revival is stalled. The city's poverty rate has increased over the past 20 years at much higher rate than other second-tier cities in the state. City officials say that this is due to the fact that Lowell has not forced out through gentrification many of its poorer residents. And they say that this moment is just a plateau in a overall upward trend: "Lowell almost takes two steps forward and one step back constantly," says city manager Bernard Lynch.

But a recent report from The Brookings Institution and MassINC points out the problem that is the crux of the issue. While the state is doing a pretty good job overall of transitioning to the knowledge economy, the new growth has been focused almost exclusively on Metro Boston. (Clustering of knowledge economy businesses in the main metro in the region is the normal pattern.) So while the average knowledge economy worker can't afford to buy a house in Metro Boston, the Gateway Cities with lots of potential, existing infrastructure and housing stock aren't seeing the economic growth or investment. This pushes people to live in the sprawling fringe of the metro area, not a geographic growth pattern that the state wants to encourage, and leaves the other cities out of the loop. The trick is going to be attracting more knowledge economy workers to live in these Gateway Cities, which is what groovy mill conversions like Washington Mills are all about.

In a recent post on Planetizen's Interchange blog, former Maryland Governor Parris Glendening talks about his efforts to utilize the power of state government to promote smart growth. Since leaving office, he has founded and runs the Governors' Institute on Community Design, which works to develop smart growth initiatives on the state level.

This reminded me of a short news item I heard on the radio yesterday: the state's Smart Growth fund is facing insolvency. In the 2004 the state created the "smart growth housing trust fund" to make incentive payments to communities with 40R projects under development. The fund is reportedly almost empty, no provisions to refund it have been made, and there are several projects in the pipeline expecting incentive and per-unit payments. Perhaps Gov. Patrick should call Gov. Glendening for advice?