Urban Alleys

I think we've talked about Chicago's green alleys before — especially when the stormwater flooding/Overton Park detention basin plan came to light — but USAToday has an interesting story about how cities across the country are beginning to see alleys in a new way:

"Rather than dismissing them as dark, dank and often dangerous spots used mainly for trash pickup and garage access, they're treating them as valuable real estate that can help the environment and improve city life.

Cities are getting rid of unsightly trash bins and creating things such as gardens and sidewalk cafes to attract people to these long-ignored spaces. In many cities, alleys are being resurfaced with porous materials that can absorb rainwater and reduce runoff."

In Los Angeles and Chicago, they're using alleys to reduce runoff; in Seattle, they banned dumpsters, recyling bins, and compost containers in the city center.

(Speaking of that, Memphis' Center City Commission took a similar step last fall as part of a pilot program and is actually modeled after Seattle's program. Read about that here.)

With Midtown's drainage issues, and its abundance of alleys, it might be worth looking at what Chicago's doing. I don't know what percentage of the alleys are paved and what percentage aren't, but with the storm water problems some neighborhoods experience, it would be better than nothing.

Making it Less Miserable

For me, yesterday's theme was "Making Memphis a Better Place to Live."

After giving a speech at the Naval Base on the environment for Women's History Month with the Wolf River Conservancy's education director Cathy Justis, I went to Second Presbyterian for the Leadership Academy's Memphis 101 session.

County mayor A C Wharton said one of the area's main challenges was we have "too much government for too few people," a reference to our dual-headed system.

Wharton said he had recently met with a minister in Singapore and asked if the country didn't want an office in the middle of the United States to go with their current offices on either coast. The minister was interested and wanted to know how to make it happen. Wharton said he could sign immediately, but they'd have to also get the city on board.

"His attitude was, 'I'm busy.' Why can't we just take care of it now?" said Wharton. "If we could get rid of that, we could do business ... Our government is, as I see it, the ice on the wings of our plane to success."

Wharton also said he felt the county should be responsible for both funding the schools (as two separate systems) and the health department, budget items that the two governments have been squabbling over recently, among others.

"We've brought in experts to see how much our share of the Pyramid is worth, so we can see how much money to take out of our left pocket and put in our right pocket, so we make sure we don't cheat ourselves," Wharton said.

Also, I found this interesting: former chamber pres told the group that Norfolk Southern is apparently double-tracking (so they can have trains traveling in both directions) from here to Dallas. Just a little logistics/transportation info for you.

After Memphis 101, I hit up the Next American City URBANEXUS event at the Stax Museum. Panelists John Weeden of UrbanArt, New Path's Cardell Orrin, LaunchMemphis' Eric Mathews and Stax's Tim Sampson, among others, each gave a four-minute presentation about their organizations and civic engagement.

Before the standing room only crowd, many of whom were fairly young, the panelists told what they were doing — painting murals, helping entrepreuners, envigorating the political process — to make Memphis a better place to live.

I think it's interesting that so many people are invested in making Memphis better. We obviously acknowledge that we have deficiencies (no thanks to all the lists) but instead of leaving, there are so many people who want to stay and fight. (Fight might not be the right word, but you know what I mean.)

And I think if we could figure out what makes them want to stay and fight, then I think THAT — whatever it is — is what we should build a brand around.

Because, really, if people are interested in staying, despite the problems with crime and eduation, there is obviously a very powerful lure here. But what is it?

Center City

This won't be surprising to anyone here (tho you should keep reading, just in case).

A new government report finds that a substantial amount of new housing shifted from suburbia back to the center city in the past 15 years.

From USAToday:

"In more than half of the 50 most populous metropolitan areas, communities at the urban core have captured a significantly larger share of their region's new residential building permits since 2002 than in the first half of the 1990s, according to an analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency."

A large amount of residential construction still occurs on former farmland, but there was a consistent increase in new urban housing from 2002 to 2007. Analysts attribute the change to demographics, high gas prices, and congested roads. The change may also reflect the investment cities have made in public transit systems.

Of course, the housing collapse and the overall economy mean that most housing developments are struggling, no matter if they are in the city or the suburbs. But it is an interesting trend, one that gives me hope for less sprawl in the future. But we'll just have to see where people want to live once the economy picks back up.

Even With the Pyramid ... Nothing

James Blakeway has spent the last 20 years photographing skylines.

So when he picks his favorite cityscapes, people tend to listen.

Blakeway, the author of Skylines of the World, recently listed his top 10 favorite viewing spots for USAToday. They include the Stratosphere in Las Vegas, the Montparnasse Tower in Paris, and the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

And the Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh:

"One of the city's more interesting architectural elements is the plethora of bridges, which span the city's three rivers: the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers, which meet to form the Ohio River. 'They're not your usual flat-deck bridges, but these beautiful older bridges that have been rebuilt,' Blakeway says. 'There's a lot of ironwork to them.' Take the Duquesne Incline up Mount Washington for a sweeping view of the city, rivers and bridges, he says."

Ramses, we've been robbed.


Then, again, not many people have been up to the observation deck, arguably the best view of the city from three out of four directions.

Pizza and Planners: What Could Be Better?

The Coalition for Livable Communities is hosting the second in its Pizza with Planners series tonight, this time with a focus on area transportation planning.

"In this session, Kimley-Horn transportation consultants will explain Memphis’ Long Range Transportation Plan and review current transportation options/opportunities. Learn how you can give feedback to the different kinds of plans throughout the process. Learn how implementation decisions are made. Hear from the citizen activists on Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Committee (BPAC) of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). Find out who makes the decisions about what gets implemented.

— Explore the concept of “complete streets” including public transit, bike lanes, pedestrian friendly crossing & sidewalks.

— What does a sustainable road system look like and how does that compare to what we have now?

— How does vehicle speed, road width, and road type effect a neighborhood.

— Explain basic concept of “connectivity” and the relationship between roads and development trends.

— Glossary of transportation terms: TIP, connector, arterial, collector, etc.

— Who designs the roads? How do plans response to and influence the needs of the city? [ed: and how many of us haven't been stuck on the road somewhere — cough, Union Ave., cough, cough — and thought, who the heck designed this? ]

—When/what is the most effective way to influence the process to ensure neighborhood friendly streets?

— How can citizens accomplish a specific goal? Who to call to fix a sign, add a median or cross walk."

All important information, I'd say.

In the first session of pizza with planners, residents learned about neighborhood planning and zoning.

At the time, CLC program director Sarah Newstok had this to say about the series:

""It's both a means to allow [DPD] to have access to the neighborhood and to give citizens the tools to make their neighborhoods better places," Newstok said. "[We want] to give people the skills to be active participants in the planning process — when to go to a meeting, what meetings they should be looking for."

The event starts at 5:30 p.m. tonight. It's free, but a reservation is required. I don't know if it's too late to RSVP, but the number is 725-8370 if you wish to do so.

Future topics include planning boards and commissions, public transit, the Sustainable Shelby vision, and economic development.

When the Suburbs Look Like Cities

This week, Newsweek asks about "The Suburban Challenge."

And, no, they're not talking about SUVs.

The majority of jobs are now located in the suburbs, as are the majority of foreign-born residents. More people living below the poverty line live in the suburbs than in the nation's cities. Add to that the mortgage crisis, urban-centered public services, and what President Barack Obama called an "outdated 'urban' agenda that focuses extensively on the problems in our cities."

From the article by Brookings Institution vice president Bruce Katz and Metropolitan Policy Program research associate Jennifer Bradley:

"Suburbs are middle-class family values expressed in stucco, brick and carpet grass. They're all the things that America's noisy, diverse, striving, poor cities are not.

But the suburbs as we think of them are vanishing.

They no longer represent a retreat from the tumult of American life, but the locus of it. What do we do now that they resemble our cities, in good ways and bad?"

Katz and Bradley say that all levels of government need to reinvent the physical landscape, creating more public transit and walkable communities, and treat metropolitan areas as a whole:

"America can't ensure its leading place in the global economy unless we grapple with the problems and opportunities of our suburbs. Nonprofits, long focused on inner cities, need to reach out to poor families and immigrants in the suburbs. The federal government should support the production and preservation of affordable housing there. Even more important, Washington needs to recognize that suburban governments are being flattened by the housing crisis — they don't have the experience or the capacity to slow the tide of foreclosures or deal with neighborhoods strafed by vacancies. The Feds need to use some of the billions in recovery funding to help local governments buy up foreclosed properties and put that land to productive use."

I don't totally agree with all of that, but as suburbs age, they definitely run into the same problems cities have — only without the inherent advantages of the urban core. Take Hickory Hill, for example. I think Dr. Janikowski and Dr. Betts with the U of M have talked about relocating site-based services (or having them relocated) to apartment buildings in Southeast Memphis.

The idea is that is where those services' clients are and, if the clients can't get to the service, bring the service to the clients.

Chattanooga Hearts Art

Last night, I hung out with a friend of mine — a talented metalsmith/jewelry designer — who is planning to move to Chattanooga.

She raved about how beautiful Chattanooga was, but part of the city's attraction for her was its commitment to the arts and artists.

Though she chose not to participate in this program, she was telling me about ArtsMove Chattanooga, a initiative to relocate practicing artists into five targeted urban neighborhoods. So far, the program — which gives artists a $15,000 five-year forgivable mortgage — has moved 24 artists to Chattanooga.

From the group's website:

"CreateHere’s vision is that people in all walks of life, from near and far, experience Chattanooga as a community that embraces a broad spectrum of artists, encourages their endeavors, and creates a dynamic space for them to live and work. Our city values creativity and inspiration and sees practicing artists as an essential part of our cultural renaissance. Every day downtown Chattanooga is becoming a more vibrant place to live, work, and play. Through ArtsMove we are inviting artists in all manner of disciplines to come downtown, where the next evolution of Chattanooga is already taking place."

She was also talking about applying for one of CreateHere's MakeWork grants, which help provide funding for studio rental, tools, workshops, or other things they may need:

"MakeWork is an arts grant program open to emerging and established artists and artisans within a 50-mile radius of Chattanooga. The core mission of the program is to stimulate our city’s creative economy and empower artists and artisans with the tools to exceed and grow."

So there you have it. Chattanooga isn't just giving lip service to the arts; it's putting its money where its mouth is. I don't want to say definitively that this is a type of program Memphis should be doing, but this is a type of program Memphis should be thinking about. Especially if we want to build on our heritage as a music/arts city.

I don't know where the CreateHere funding is coming from, but if I was an artist, the program would definitely persuade me to at least consider moving to the Noog. And if I liked it, great, and if I didn't, no big deal.

Saving the Suburbs?

With the mortgage crisis ongoing, NYT blogger Allison Arieff says the question now "isn't really how to better design homes and communities, but rather what are we going to do with all the homes and communities we're left with."

"In urban areas, there’s rich precedent for the transformation or reuse of abandoned lots or buildings. Vacant lots have been converted into pocket parks, community gardens and pop-up stores (or they remain vacant, anxiously awaiting recovery and subsequent conversion into high-end office space condos). Old homes get divided into apartments, old factories into lofts, old warehouses into retail."

But what to do with the disposable houses in the suburbs? Those neighborhoods that were never finished or the houses that have been abandoned?

Arieff mentions swimming pool skate parks, de-construction for material reuse, and subdivided McMansions, among others:

"I did visit a housing development last year that offered 'quartets,' McMansions subdivided into four units with four separate entrances. These promised potential buyers the status of a McMansion with the convenience of a condominium, but the concept felt like it was created more to preserve the property values of larger neighboring homes than to serve the needs of the community’s residents."

(Actually, Arieff's blog post touches on a lot of subjects near and dear to my heart: Dogtown and Z-Boys, Van Jones, Julia Christensen's book, 'Big Box Reuse.'")

It's an interesting post, but just as interesting are the ideas from her commenters: retrofit homes for senior housing, used abandoned neighborhoods for fire department training, or deconstruct the communities and let nature take its course.

After Steel, a Successful City

I have sort of a soft spot for Pittsburgh. When I lived in Ohio, we were pretty much on top of the PA border. And we were definitely in what was called the "Rust Belt," because of the decline of the area's steel industry.

The NYT has a story today about Pittsburgh and how it's succeeding without steel:

"Unemployment is 5.5 percent, far below the national average. While housing prices sank nearly everywhere in the last year, they rose here. Wages are also up. Foreclosures are comparatively uncommon.

A generation ago, the steel industry that built Pittsburgh and still dominated its economy entered its death throes. In the early 1980s, the city was being talked about the way Detroit is now. Its very survival was in question."

Now two of its biggest industries are education and health care (known as eds and meds). Both are fairly resistant to downturns, tho the story points out that Pittsburgh had the luxury of rebuilding while the county had a strong economy.

From the story:

"The question is whether Pittsburgh can serve as a model for Detroit and other cities in the industrial Midwest as they grapple with large-scale cutbacks in the automotive industry. Even with the federal government’s $17.4 billion bailout, General Motors, Chrysler and Ford are expected to continue shrinking."

Eds and meds are a good platform for a strong economy; hospitals and colleges, for instance, generate revenue, as well as jobs. They can anchor communities, as well as provide resources to them.

But the caveat with those sectors is that for them to create real economic development for a city, they need to bring in capital from outside the community.

Banking a Billion

My friend Tom Jones of the Smart City Memphis blog recently forwarded me a very interesting presentation from CEOs for Cities and done by Portland economist Joe Cortright.

The CityDividends report looked at certain costs and savings associated with three components it referred to as talent, green, and opportunity (basically education, transportation, and poverty) in the 51 U.S. metro areas with more than a million people.

The question: If those components could be transformed, even very marginally, how much of a difference could it make?

The answer: $166 billion.

And $1.3 billion annually in Memphis.

Those economic gains could be achieved by:

1. Increasing the four-year college attainment rate by 1 percentage point
2. Reducing the vehicle miles traveled by one mile per day per person
3. Reducing the poverty rate by one percentage point

(The report makes clear that the study focused on the quantifyable benefits only, not the policies or programs that it would take to get there. BUT I think the CityDividends report shows how even a small change can make a big difference.)

For instance, Memphis had the highest poverty rate — about 18 percent — of the 51 metropolitan areas surveyed.

But if the poverty rate could be decreased by one percentage point here, the study says the economic gain would be $109 million.

The study hypothesizes that households living in poverty are a driver of public service costs and thus, reducing poverty, even by a percentage point, would reduce public sector costs:

"Each additional person in poverty is associated with $8,200 in spending on poverty-related programs for the entire metro area," the presentation says. "These savings come from shifting the entire distribution of income, not just moving a few households out of poverty."

When Cortright was in town last year to kick off the Sustainable Shelby intiative, he talked about how driving fewer miles meant savings in citizens' pockets ... and that equals more money that can be spent elsewhere.

That can be achieved by people simply driving less or carpooling, or, for a longer-term solution, building things closer together.

According to the study, if Memphians could drive one mile less per day, the area would reap a dividend of $232 million a year.

"Each vehicle mile traveled costs about 50 cents, including fuel, maintenance, and capital costs. At current gas prices, fuel represents about one-third of total vehicle costs," the presentation says.

In terms of education, the study makes the case that better-educated cities have higher incomes, better-skilled workers are more innovative and productive, and that each 1 percentage point increase in college attainment is associated with a $763 increase in per capita income for the entire metro area.

Of course, yes, the question now is how to attain some of these dividends. But having quantified economic benefits associated with the components — rather than just "drive less, it's better for the environment and it saves you money" — should make pursuing them all the more attractive.

Dark Days for Midwestern Towns

Forbes has created an interesting slideshow of America's fastest-dying towns.

(Don't worry, Memphis isn't on the list. Then again, the places ranked have a population between 20,000 and 65,000.)

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's three-year American Community Survey, Forbes tracked income growth, domestic in-migration, the change in poverty, and the percentage of the population with a bachelor's degree or higher.

Bensenville, Illinois, a town south of Chicago, tops Forbes' list. Other contenders include towns in Missouri, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, North Carolina, and Georgia.

Here's what Forbes said about Middletown, Ohio, which ranked 10th on the list:

"The town's median household income is $37,000, and its poverty level has jumped from 12% in 2000 to 22% in 2007. And it's not likely to get better anytime soon. With only 12.2% of residents possessing bachelor's degrees or better, the city isn't a prime candidate to attract highly skilled jobs that have lifted some other post-industrial cities."

Just for a comparison, I checked Memphis' 2005 - 2007 estimated stats with the American Community Survey. The urban area includes parts of Mississippi and Arkansas and has a median household income of $42,239.

About 16 percent of families in Memphis had an income in the past 12 months below the poverty level.

About 16 percent of the residents have bachelor's degrees, as well. Nine percent of residents have a graduate or professional degree.

Just in Time for the Holidays

Those of you with kids might have already seen this, but it takes the holidays to get me thinking about toys. That said, look at this cute, little New Urbanist LEGO set.



One of LEGO's town-themed sets, the Green Grocer is three floors of mixed-used LEGO development.

The first floor is the grocery with shelves and cartons of food (and a stairway that leads to the apartment above) and it has a small frontage to the "street" outside. There's also a roof terrace, a blue and white striped awning, and a lampost and fire hydrant.

Two caveats: it's hard to find and a little expensive.

But, according to the reviews, it might be worth it. The town-themed sets also include Market Street (below) and Cafe Corner.

Money Talks

Related to today's previous post, Memphis' budget will be the focus of tonight's Neighbor Talk on Comcast channel 18 WYPL.

Hosted by council chair Myron Lowery, the live, call-in program will feature city CAO Keith McGee and city finance director Roland McElrath. Callers can dial 415-2756 to ask Lowery, McGee, and McElrath questions.

From a release about the show:

"The City of Memphis is not immune to the economic challenges being faced across the country. Lowery’s guests will discuss the city’s bottom line and highlight the strategies and plans they recently proposed to the Council to address the shortfalls in revenues and other critical areas of concern that have commanded the attention of the administration and the legislative body. Information presented will be of particular interest to current city employees."

Put like that, I think if I were a city of Memphis employee, I would definitely try to tune in.

Budget hearing for the upcoming fiscal year (which starts in July) typically begin in February. Final budget approval generally occurs in June.

City Shrink, part two

Something to watch for:

"Battered by record foreclosures and falling tax revenue, cities are laying off workers, raising fees and closing libraries and recreation centers," says today's USAToday.

A fall survey found that 79 percent of cities expect their finances to worsen in 2009 and that city finance officers expect revenue to decrease 4.3 percent this year.

At least we're not alone.

So what are other cities doing?

Philly is closing 11 of its 54 libraries, and 200 of its 23,000 employees will be laid off come the new year.

In Atlanta, they're cutting 4,600 employees' salaries, including the mayor's, by 10 percent.

In Seattle, they're trying to increase parking fee revenue and decrease spending on social programs.

What will we do? I guess we'll see. But popular targets from last year include libraries and community centers.

City Shrink

Last weekend's New Orleans Times-Picayune had a two-part series on what Nola needs to learn from Pittsburgh and Buffalo — how to cope with getting smaller.

"Lost population usually translates into widespread blight, crumbling infrastructure, stretched budgets and the loss of civic confidence and clout. But more than three years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans must confront the reality of a reduced population, as resettlement has slowed to a trickle.

Embracing or even accepting a downsized city can be painful for leaders and residents accustomed to seeing their town as the center of the universe -- with reason."

Reading that, I was reminded of something Councilman Kemp Conrad brought up several times when discussing the police residency proposal:

"Memphis has lost 7 percent of its population in the last 10 years if you don't count annexation. That's scary. ... We need rapid change," he said during a Leadership Academy forum.

Of course, New Orleans suffered a devastating tragedy, though the population was already declining before Katrina; our city shrink is more like a balloon deflating.

The story says that the process should be just as thought-out as smart growth, saying some call it "smart decline":

"The process offers opportunities, not just unpalatable choices.

When the warehouse is in disuse, should it be demolished? Can the site be reused in an inventive new way? Can green space be used to mitigate flood risk? Should we rethink zoning laws in lightly populated areas? Can we deed vacant land to neighbors so it will be better kept? Do we need to sustain the entire network of roads, sewer pipes, bridges and gas lines?

Perhaps the most direct — some might say draconian — approach to shrinkage has occurred in Youngstown, Ohio, which has lost more than half its population after a series of steel-mill shutdowns since the mid-1970s."

Youngstown (which, a personal note, was basically where I went to high school and, if memory serves, where Reid Dulberger, the chamber's vp for the MemphisED initiative, was the chamber's executive vp before coming here) has started decommissioning sections of town that have already begun to return to nature. City officials in Cleveland and Pittsburgh steer public money toward areas that have "a fighting chance."

Of course, if you're a glass-half-full-type person, growth has its own problems: sprawl, over-crowding, etc.

The second story in the series talks about ways New Orleans could slim down to match its smaller population. It might be worth Memphis taking a look, as well.

A Federal Focus on Cities

Valerie Jarrett, the co-chair of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, says that the new administration will include a new Office of Urban Policy. It will be charged with focusing on cities and will include a "comprehensive approach to urban development."

From Tuesday's All Things Considered on NPR:

"It is unclear who will lead the office, which will be tasked with advocating for cities and targeting programs in a 'logical and systematic way,' but it is a key position, according to Jarrett.

'For those of us who have worked in city governments across the country, we recognize how invaluable that person will be,' she says."

NPR's Melissa Block asked what the office would do that's not being done by other departments already. Jarrett replied, "What President-elect Obama recognizes is that it's really important that we take all of those different agencies and have a comprehensive approach to urban development. Having someone in the White House who is going to be an advocate for cities and who can take the variety of different federal programs and help target them in a logical and systemic way, I think is what president-elect Obama is trying to get at with this position."

According to Obama's website, the new office will strenthen the federal commitment to cities, with a strategy for metropolitan America and accountability that federal dollars earmarked fopr urban areas are "effectively spent on the highest-impact programs."

If you're interested in reading the new administration's plan for cities, click here (you'll have to download it as a pdf, however).