Community Development

There is a new buzz word in the battle against urban decline and vacant retail space—“pop-ups.” Simply put, a pop-up is a short term use of a retail space. Sometimes they come in the form of holiday stores, which close down after the season, while Target and other large retailers use them to promote specific products or lines.  Urban development initiatives, however, have begun to use pop-ups as a tool to reinvigorate declining shopping districts and main streets by changing perceptions of the neighborhoods they open in and demonstrating to potential investors and entrepreneurs the value of investing in these communities.

Pop-ups fill under-utilized retail space, and often feature works of local craftspeople and artists. They also may feature community outreach and events that bring community members together and encourage new collaborations.  Pop-ups not only serve the immediate neighborhood, but often draw visitors from surrounding zip codes, providing an opportunity for an entire business district to attract new patronage.

The September/October edition of Main Street Now, the bi-monthly magazine of the National Trust Main Street Center, includes a center piece article on pop-ups, detailing a number of projects across the country, strategies for implementation, and their impact on the community. One of the pop-ups featured, the Mt. Pleasant Temporium, ran from February 18 to March 13 and was directed by Partners’ senior program officer Jessica Scheuerman, with Partners’ Liz Bieber coordinating special events and Brian Miller directing marketing.

The Temporium was made possible by a grant from the DC Office of Planning’s Temporary Urbanism Initiative, which funds pop-ups across the city. The Main Street Now article highlights some of the strategies that brought success to the Temporium such as recruiting arts organizations and other partners that have ties to local artists and other potential vendors or that provide marketing opportunities.

For more on the Mount Pleasant Temporium, please visit:

http://mtptemporium.com

or contact Jessica Scheuerman at:

jscheuerman@livable.org

More than a decade since the release the innovative original, Partners for Livable Communities announces the release of the second edition of its Community Empowerment Manual (preview copy). Expanded and reorganized by former staff member, Carly Grimm, the new edition builds on the tried-and-true approaches to community development showcased in the original, and invigorates the document with new case studies and a new section that helps readers better understand the challenges to livability—aging population, deteriorating infrastructure, and declining local economies—that exist in American communities.

Free preview here. 

Purchase Print Edition

($10, available in orders of 10)

PURCHASE PDF VERSION

($5)

For more information, please contact Jessica Scheuerman at jscheuerman@livable.org.

"So, what is the point of public art? ” This question, posted online by Voice of San Diego's Kelly Bennett, came in response to the city of San Diego’s recent pull from public art funding; after its release on Twitter the post quickly turned viral. Responses to the post ranged from views of public art as superfluous and its place in the public sphere as luxury, to public art as necessary for community well-being, safety, and cohesiveness. 

Many of us believe in the arts as integral to the livable community— but when measuring out our federal dollars,  the arts are usually the first to go. But what if we could prove that in addition to instilling neighborhood pride and value in our public space, public art could actually serve as a deterrent for crime and violence?

Founders Award for Civic Leadership

For his contributions to the Baltimore community through his leadership at MICA and local organizations involved in the arts.

Entrepreneurial American Leadership Award

For his 21 years of visionary leadership and devotion to the social and economic wellbeing of Louisville, Kentucky.

William H. Whyte Award

For his contributions to creating more environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable communities through his work as a developer, academic, and author.

On September 22, 2010, at the Building Livable Communities forum , Beth Osborne, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Transportation Policy at USDOT and James Lopez, Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary at HUD, answered some questions about the new HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities.  The Partnership should be seen as a model or case study for other government agencies. The Partnership for Sustainable Communities does not need to be the only interagency government partnership focused on the development of livable communities.

Osborne and Lopez explained why only HUD, DOT, and EPA were involved and pointed to some of the logistical problems that have arisen in the developing of the Partnership. Simple communication between agencies is made difficult with modern email firewalls and other cyber security screening processes. Also, when you have too many people working on the same issue, efficiencies break down and it becomes difficult to please everyone. There is a saying, “too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the soup.” In other words, too many people working on a single project can ruin it. Minimizing these difficulties improves the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the collaboration.

“When you start with everything, you start with nothing,” Beth Osborne, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Policy at the US Department of Transportation (DOT), stated of the importance to narrow the focus of a livability agenda in order to be effective.

At Partners’ recent forum on September 22, “Building Livable Communities: Creating a Common Agenda”, many discussed livability’s ubiquitous nature on both macro and micro levels. The panelists spoke of the need for access and affordability to the many factors that serve as part of a system to create livable communities: transportation, housing, and education, to name a few. But when does a boundless agenda for livability, incorporating all relatable factors that serve to shape a livable community, become unproductive? In brief,  what is the ‘tipping point’ for livability?

President of Partners for Livable Communities, Robert McNulty, was quoted in The Wall Street Journal article “Artists vs. Blight ,” discussing artist occupations of blighted homes and neighborhoods in transitioning communities such as Cleveland and Detroit.

What if your refrigerator gave you breakfast suggestions? Or your bed checked you for health problems while you slept? Our aging population is spurring the creation of a host of friendly household gadgets, including everything from floors that absorb the impact of falls, to mattress pads that assess vital signs and alert health care professionals to any irregularities. Outside the home, technology is in the works to create personalized radio frequency identification cards, which can tell grocery shelves to lower to your eye level or help gym machines adjust to your ability.

The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is exploring advances like these, along with the physical and emotional experience of aging, in their project “Brave Old World.”