Creating Everyday Neighborhoods:
Redeveloping Urban Nowhere Zones Conference
September 21, 2006 ~ Atlanta, GA
What are Everyday Neighborhoods?
Communities throughout the country are struggling with solutions for their urban nowhere zones, those holes in their community fabric that were once vital shopping centers or industrial complexes. Many nowhere zones are being reinvented, but are they creating Everyday Neighborhoods?
Nowhere zones are areas that fall outside or between cities major growth districts. They do not have the appeal of renaissance redevelopments such as Harlem’s 125th St. or Boston’s Quincy Market, and lack the scale or the cache to attract investors, developers and press. Yet there are many attractive aspects of nowhere zone redevelopment. Years of neglect have created affordable housing prices, while high levels of thru-traffic support a variety of businesses, and public transit often already services the area.
With the growing national interest in urban living, the potential to redevelop nowhere zones is growing. At its best this could invite innovative developers and eager financiers to re-create traditional urban design, connecting marquee developments with the rest of the city and creating a livable urban environment. At its worst, more piecemeal development, speculation, inefficient land use, unbalanced development and unmet demand create more traffic, gentrification and environmental decay.
Everyday Neighborhoods have emerged from the need to create a standard of neighborhood redevelopment that puts equity first without jeopardizing growth and regional prosperity. The Everyday Neighborhoods concept has evolved into six well defined elements that focus on redevelopment of existing urban communities without the negative externalities often associated with economic growth.
Elements of Everyday Neighborhoods
They are mixed-use communities containing residences, businesses, services, and entertainment activities. It is possible for residents to live, work and play in their own neighborhood.
They are pedestrian-friendly and transit-oriented. It is possible for residents to walk safely and enjoyably to work, shopping and recreation. It is possible and affordable to travel to and from the neighborhood without owning a car.
They are lifecycle communities where persons can reside in the neighborhood throughout their lives and age in place. They can do so because there is a range of housing choices to choose from as household size and levels of self-sufficiency change, and because access to necessary services and retail outlets does not require the ability to drive. The young and the old have greater freedom living in such mixed-age communities.
They promote sustainability by ensuring that necessary environmental cleanups are undertaken, stormwater is controlled on-site, and by incorporating green building practices and green infrastructure.
They promote equity and social mobility by successfully connecting persons of all income levels within the community, by ensuring that existing residents are not displaced by new development, and that new economic development helps to meet the employment needs of existing residents.
They make use of good urban design to enhance their identity and to maximize the value and long-term appeal of physical improvements.
