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Downtown Revitalization Planning Resource
Drawn from a wealth of writing and websites on urban
revitalization, this report brings together background information that might
be helpful in the development of plans for downtown Tulsa.
URBAN MODELS TASK FORCE
© 2002 TULSANOW
Importance of A Vibrant Downtown
One of the biggest issues for revitalizing Tulsa is creating a vibrant
downtown. Recent studies have focused on the return of the central city and its
role as over-all contributor to the well being of the larger community. A
thriving city center is not just about a single big project or a concern for
only the people who live or work in the immediate downtown area. Citizens need
to be aware that they have a stake in the future of the whole community not
simply their own particular demographic group or part of town. Some of the
reasons that the city center is vital to a region follow.
1. Economic Centers
Mounting evidence shows that the health of neighborhoods and suburbs is closely
tied to the downtown. A number of studies show that the better the city center
does, the better the suburbs do, and conversely, a declining city center is a
likely drain on the economic and social vitality of a region. Increasingly,
economists speak of the crucial role of cities in the economic growth of their
regions. The metropolitan region is a fundamental economic unit of the
contemporary world and the central city is its hub.
The city center offers a competitive advantage with a strategic location at
the core of major urban areas and their transportation and communication
networks. Governmental cooperation, public policy, physical planning and
economic strategies must reflect the interdependence of entities in a
metropolitan area.
2. Reduction of Urban Sprawl
Urban sprawl has many costs. Sprawl is expensive. It requires more roadways,
firehouses and schools, sewer lines and other services (in some parts of the
country the costs of providing public services and infrastructure will soon
exceed tax revenues).
Environmental costs include traffic congestion that in turn causes long
commutes and air pollution. As whole regions are re-graded, paved and channeled,
there is a high risk of flooding, soil erosion, greater temperature extremes,
falling water tables and contaminated aquifers. Also natural resources are
required to sustain sprawl.
Sprawl contributes to isolation and loss of community identity as one town
merges with the next. Sprawling development separates people by race and class,
moving new jobs farther from city center and people most in need of productive
employment.
In addition to the economic, ecological, and social costs of sprawl is the
aesthetic one — parking lots, strip shopping centers, and whole aging
developments being abandoned for new growth areas.
3. Urban Lifestyle Attractive to High-Tech Workers
A critical factor in regional growth is the ability to attract and retain a
knowledgeable and skilled workforce. A recent report by the Milken Institute,
“Knowledge-Value Cities in the Digital Age,” (which mentions Tulsa as
an “emerging technology” city) says that we are entering a new phase of the
digital economy, and it offers some great opportunities for cities over suburbs.
Attracting these skilled workers is a means to create higher wages and better
jobs while improving quality of life and expanding opportunities for all of a
region’s citizens. (The plan for redevelopment of the East Village area is
an example of the kind of project that addresses issues of livability attractive
to workers in the new economy.)
4. Destination for Culture and Entertainment
Downtowns can be vital centers for local citizens as well as places that attract
regional and national/international visitors — important to economic
health. Tourism is an important economic tool, bringing new money (not
re-circulated) into an area.
Many cities build upon cultural and architectural assets as a strategy for
economic development and increasing livability. St. Paul follows a
recommendation “to recognize and proclaim itself the Cultural Capital of
Minnesota, a place ‘owned’ by every citizen of the state by virtue of its
history, its architecture, its creativity, its warmth.”
5. Focal Point for Community Life and Identity
A cohesive well-developed city center provides a sense of place for the whole
city. Cities with strong centers have been called “habitats” for civilized
life. They provide public spaces (unlike privately owned shopping malls) and
important civic forums. Preservation of buildings and blocks gives a sense of
orientation to our society. The use of structures and objects of the past helps
to establish values of time and place. In speaking of the importance of the city
center, Neil Pierce in Citistates writes: “It is the meeting place of all the
components of a region likely to be ever more ethnically and socially
diverse. It does provide a lively, compact area where leaders in business,
communications, the arts, and government can interact. It sets the image of the
entire citistate for all potential business partners, tourists, visitors, and
opinion setters in the new world economy.”
6. Suits Changing Demographics
More people today, particularly in an aging population, want the option of
living in pleasant walkable communities with amenities nearby. Traditional
urbanism works better, and older communities, if well maintained, can retain a
timeless appeal. Traditional urbanism does not mean old-fashioned but does
provide a coherent public realm — streets, sidewalks, parks and gathering
places.
The Brookings Institution, in its Central City Initiative, is studying
emerging demographic and market trends such as aging of populations, the
delaying of child rearing among young couples, the ongoing influx of immigrants
as well as how changes in key sectors in the economy and in global and capital
markets are affecting and will shape local economic and social and economic
opportunities.
Basic Principles for Creating a Viable Downtown
1. Take a broad, regional perspective on metropolitan
development.
- Build new coalitions that include business, environmental, agricultural,
neighborhood, arts, sports, and grassroots interests.
- Make the case for the importance of a thriving downtown for the entire
metropolitan area.
- Identify the fiscal, environmental and social benefits of a thriving
downtown.
Understand that problems throughout Tulsa (streets, schools,
safety, parks neighborhood amenities, pollution, proximity to employment etc.)
are related to growth and sprawl and stress connections to maintaining existing
infrastructure, increasing inner city density and broadening the tax base.
2. City revitalization planning should be long-range
and comprehensive and encompass policies and financial incentives that bring
people downtown to live, work and play.
- Maintain and increase commercial tenants downtown (financial services,
civic and municipal services and other.
- Encourage residential living downtown.
Foster thriving art and cultural communities.
- Bring new entertainment to downtown and develop regional amenities that
serve area and increase visitors.
- Increase retail presence in downtown with emphasis on attracting creative
communities of artists, graphic designer, film businesses, theatre arts
people, as well as artisan businesses (furniture, food goods, crafts, ethnic
products etc).
3. Cultivate a downtown atmosphere as a place of
diverse uses and of public spaces that attracts people of all ages,
neighborhoods, levels of income, and cultures. Urban revitalization should
include policy and plans that encourage diversity of activities and uses as well
as a range of residential neighborhoods. Included in process:
- Public participation in urban planning and empowerment of neighborhood
groups.
- Policies that prevent gentrification.
- Pedestrian amenities— landscaping, bench placement, etc.
- Increase in sidewalk activities, cafes, pushcarts, and benches.
4. Encourage development that contributes to a
distinctive and attractive sense of place and reflects the history, values and
culture of the area.
- Restore city¹s basic urban fabric with a coherent and flexible vision of
how the whole downtown fits together. (While areas of architectural gems
need to be preserved, there is also a need to look at the whole downtown and
bordering neighborhoods.)
- Work with preservation groups to gain city support and secure financing
for rehabilitation of neighborhoods.
- Small steps can help - stylistic elements can be treated as valuable
assets to be enhanced. Low cost improvements to storefronts.
- Diversity in styles makes streets exciting.
- Urban revitalization cannot be formulized - neighborhood residents know
the strengths and characteristics of where they live which can be a basis
for future improvement.
5. Support downtown development with a transportation
network that maximizes access and mobility and reduces dependence on the
automobile.
- Role of community transportation needs to be fully understood.
Alternatives to the car need to be promoted. Public must be involved in
decision-making process. Give weight to energy conservation, congestion
relief, economic benefits and importance for downtown success.
- Treat improved bus service as a necessary public investment.
- Add new routes and improve old routes.
- Look at the many possibilities for related public transit — shuttles,
specialized van service to certain locations, enhanced bus stops/shelters.
- Promote public transit use through public service announcements.
- Improve bicycling and pedestrian-oriented design and infrastructure (also
promoting healthy lifestyle).
- Install traffic calming measures in downtown.
6. Support mixed land use and density in the downtown
area.
- By putting uses in close proximity to one another, alternatives to driving
become viable. It provides a more diverse and sizeable population and
commercial base for public transit.
- It can result in higher property values that help raise local tax
receipts. Businesses see increased economic activity.
- Neighborhoods attract a variety of workers who like urban quality of life.
- More people on streets enhance safety and security. Pedestrians are back
on streets and public spaces and community life is revitalized, etc.
7. Build on Tulsa assets
- River waterfront, Art Deco architecture, oil, Native American culture, OSU,
TCC, downtown churches, Cain¹s, visual and performing arts, Greenwood and
Brady district, etc.
8. Establish guidelines that include
expectations concerning quality of design and execution of projects as well as
achieving a balance between various economic, environmental and social
interests.
- Revitalization plans should include provisions for standards,
accountability, and project evaluation. Issues in design might include
relationship to history, topography, preservation specifications,
resource-efficient utilities, etc.
- Development decisions must be based on a mix of interests, but decisions
should be as timely, cost-effective and as predictable for developers as
possible.
Urban Models
This section provides a brief listing of model programs
selected to reflect the scope and variety of successful approaches to urban
revitalization. Hundreds of exemplary programs can be found in cities
throughout the world.
Examples cited are not intended for replication but to inform
the redevelopment process with ideas and inspiration for homegrown solutions
in Tulsa. Much of the material is adapted from best practices described in The
Livable City: Revitalizing Urban Communities, a publication of Partners
for Livable Communities.
Arts
The arts are a major part of redevelopment in most cities today
and considered a cornerstone to community and quality of life. Mayor Joseph
Riley of Charleston stated this vision:
“A city should be a place with such beauty and order that it
is inspirational. A key component of urban design is a belief in the value of
the public realm, which every citizen owns. If we are a nation where all the
finest zones are privately owned, then what we own together as citizens is not
very much. The greatest cities in the world are those with the most beautiful
public spaces...”
Across the country cities on the comeback have invested in
cultural resources. Many have created cultural districts. Included among
these are Denver and Providence, whose mayors led the effort. In Denver,
the mayor also brought back the symphony from bankruptcy through a public
concert initiative. In Providence the mayor secured funds to save the Providence
Performing Arts Center and to initiate new projects.
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
A model of civic renewal through development of the arts.
Spurred by an Urban Development Action Grant, the city developed a Cultural
District that promoted both business and the arts. Along with large venues,
small and mid-sized arts organizations have downtown space.
The Trust has outreach programs offering reduced or free
admission for students, the elderly and the poor. It promotes arts activities in
other neighborhoods and streetscape improvements.
Saint Paul Lowertown
Lowertown is an urban village encompassing housing,
entertainment, artists lofts and businesses in a once declining neighborhood.
The Lowertown Redevelopment Corporation (LRC) is a private organization with a
public purpose and includes civic leaders, the mayor, bankers, labor leaders,
and neighborhood activists. It serves as a development bank for public/private
partnerships.
It has given special attention to artists’ housing. Arts, in
return, help with many LRC projects. LRC also tries to attract high-tech and
cyberspace businesses to the area. A variety of elements have been combined
to “create an environment where creativity is cherished and entrepreneurship
supported.”
Grand Rapids Maya Lin Project
Long associated with use of public art to enhance the city,
Grand Rapids has hired Maya Lin to create sculptures and participate in
preliminary planning for a project within an existing park. The plan focuses on
water to reflect the city’s heritage and give its downtown an identity. A
foundation is a major contributor along with the city and a private sector
challenge grant.
Peekskill Artists District – Peekskill NY
The city of Peekskill has made a commitment to attracting and
keeping artistic and high-tech industries.
By encouraging artists to live and work in the downtown
district, the city has increased the number of new businesses and the level of
economic activity. A hundred artists have relocated in the Peekskill district
through a program that adjusts zoning codes, coordinates leases with owners and
artists and provides low interest loans and advice on renovations. Helping to
revitalize the city center, painters, sculptors, dancers, filmmakers and others
live and work in converted space suitable for studios and lofts.
The city has attracted computer graphics and multimedia
businesses and large consulting firms who draw their employees from the highly
skilled residents. A scholarship program enables students to study and intern in
the businesses, further contributing to the labor pool of diverse skills and
talents.
HandMade in America, Inc. – Asheville NC
Developed out of a regional planning project, the program
capitalizes on the area¹s extensive network of artisans to stimulate economic
growth and revitalization by creating jobs and attracting tourists. They have
published a guidebook that directs readers along several routes and highlights
craft studios, galleries, restaurants and historic inns. The program has gained
state and non-profit support, which in turn provides loans for improvements for
craft businesses. Training programs have been developed and a schools project
encourages the use of crafts in schools.
Avenue of the Arts – Philadelphia PA
A $330 million capital improvement project to rebuild arts and
cultural facilities is designed as a catalyst for downtown revitalization.
Facilities include newly constructed buildings as well as major renovations.
Buildings also include space for arts business incubators. A nonprofit group
manages marketing, fundraising and streetscape improvements.
Arts and Cultural District - Lynn, MA
Community Development Block Grant funds were used to concentrate
an array of cultural and arts-oriented uses in a small area and is intended to
spawn secondary development. A diverse area with small-scale entrepreneurs from
all ethnic groups, the main components of the District are the Community
Minority Cultural Center, LynnArts, Inc. and Raw Art Works, a project for
troubled youth.
Parks
Good public places create interaction and build community, and
parks are seen as essential critical framework for every city’s redevelopment.
Bryant Park – New York City NY
Adjacent to the New York City Public Library, the park was
transformed from an underused old public park inhabited mostly by drug dealers
to an exemplary model of a well-functioning public space. Following suggestions
by William H. Whyte, author of City: Rediscovering the Center, relatively
inexpensive and simple changes resulted in the creation of an appealing place.
These included more and wider entrances to enhance accessibility
and pedestrian flow; removal of dense shrubbery, use of moveable chairs to allow
visitors to personalize the place, and the establishment of nearby food
facilities.
Bryant Park Restoration Corporation, a privately funded
organization of nearby landlords and property owners manages the park. They keep
it in immaculate condition: walkways swept, grass cut, flowerbeds tidy,
restrooms clean, etc. The park hosts frequent events, including festivals,
performances and films, has a new carousel and rents backgammon and chess sets.
Bridge of Flowers – Shelbourne MA
A 400-foot park-like bridge over the Deerfield River, once an
abandoned trolley bridge, displays flowers and plantings from April through
October.
Minneapolis Park System
By design, every home in the city is within six blocks of a
park. The Park and Recreation Board operates independently of the city
government and has a seat on the city’s tax levying body. Commissioners are
elected directly.
Flower City Looking Good
Gardening Program – Rochester NY
Program was started with a special trust fund for urban forest
restoration following one of the area’s worst ice storms in 1991. It has
since expanded with a vision to restore the city as a center for horticultural
activities, which it was 100 years ago. Thousands of volunteers, including
corporate groups and neighborhoods, have been mobilized for a variety of
projects including establishing 45 neighborhood gardens, planting bulbs and
annuals and sprucing up city park trails.
Pioneer Courthouse
Square – Portland OR
Funding and vision from Tri-Met (regional Portland’s transit
agency), this public space is the hub of transit for light rail and buses. Its
modern design includes public art, flowers, trees, a coffee shop and food
vendors and lots of seating.
Public Markets
Markets have been successful regenerators of downtowns with many
benefits:
- Encourage and support local economy
- Foster civic intercourse, bringing together many kinds of people
- Help support traditional family farms
- Provide alternative to plastic-wrapped food
- Catalyst for rebirth of neighborhood
- Multiplier effect for business expansion
They range from the seasonal weekly outdoor farmers’ markets
to the large daily public markets that once were a feature of most cities. They
can fill any space and evolve into year-round markets offering a variety of
goods, services and entertainment. Well-known markets include Faneuil Hall
Marketplace, Boston, and Union Square Green Market, New York City.
Pike Place Public Market – Seattle
An historic market saved by citizen action, it has become the #1
tourist attraction in Washington. However, its focus is on maintaining its local
personality and appeal. Parking is limited by meters (one-half hour is free).
The market offers classes on selection and cooking food and a
school program for 4th-graders. It supports a health clinic, childcare center,
food bank, senior citizens’ center and a day-old-bread outlet. A non-profit
development corporation lends money to new farmers for equipment, seed and
travel expenses.
Portland Public Market – Portland ME
A new indoor public market opened in 1998, it has won
prestigious national awards as an economic development project and for urban
placemaking. It combines a number of innovative concepts, including small
economic incubator, training for social service clients, quality architecture,
etc.
It holds an annual food festival with participation from the
area’s finest restaurants and area farmers and food producers, which raises
money to benefit local hunger relief.
River Market – Little Rock AR
The market is the centerpiece of an ambitious downtown renewal
area along the Arkansas River. It includes a 15,000 square-foot indoor market
hall with a 40-foot vaulted roof and skylight. Farmers set up in two large
open-sided pavilions adjacent to the market. It was built with funds from HUD
and a 1995 bond issue as well as foundation grants. The market is owned by the
city and managed by the Downtown Partners, a voluntary non-profit association
with a full-time paid staff.
Regional Alliances
Regional alliances help build strong cities. Many effective
organizations and institutions have been formed to control and direct the new
movement toward regionalism. Regional jurisdictions are vital for linking
transportation and other urban systems as well as for dealing with environmental
and social equity issues.
Portland Metro 2040 Growth Concept
This Oregon initiative begun in 1979 is an example of the Urban
Growth Boundary (UGB) strategy for management of resources to meet the demands
of a growing population. Formed by voter initiative, the directly elected Metro
government serves to preserve rural areas, farms and forests while also
providing living space in mixed-use urban centers.
Cleveland’s Framework
for Action 2025
An update of a comprehensive regional transportation plan, this
plan addresses not only transportation infrastructure needs but also works
toward environmental preservation, compact land use, and developing the urban
core. The agency governing board, comprised of mayors, county commissioners and
other elected officials, has worked closely with the private sector and the
public to guarantee public support.
Crested Butte Land Trust
A public-private partnership formed in 1991 to preserve land for
future generations, it relies on multiple funding sources including a 1% for
Open Space program in which business agreed to add an additional 1 percent tax
to every customer’s bill. The contribution is voluntary and customers
sometimes refuse, but the businesses often make up the difference themselves.
Waterfronts
Waterfront projects can be dynamic and transforming and should
embody the special history and character of a place. As public spaces, access is
important, as is citizen participation in planning and operation.
Chattanooga Riverpark
Citizens participated in design charettes, planning sessions and
citywide visioning to make recommendations for the creation of new parks,
trails, attractions, and industry to replace and revive abandoned sites along a
20-mile river corridor. As a downtown amenity, the corridor includes parks,
housing, shops, offices and attractions. Innovative partnerships among
governments, corporations, foundations, and individuals have been essential to
its success.
Historic Arkansas River – Pueblo CO
A city funded agency is returning the river to its original path
and emulating the successful River Walk in San Antonio. It has created a
diversion channel where the river had once flowed before a catastrophic flood in
1921 changed the river’s course. The new River Walk is a carefully landscaped
area with plentiful public art and with plaques marking historic sites and
events.
RiverPlace – Portland OR
This mixed-use place occupies a space where a major highway ran
(traffic was moved to the other side of the river). With one mile of linear
waterfront near the central district, it features a marina with a floating
restaurant, a 25-foot-wide promenade lined with cafe tables and shops,
underground parking, an athletic club and other recreational facilities,
residential units and office space, and a small European-style hotel. It is
considered a successful public/private collaboration that promoted quality
design and execution.
Small Scale Projects
Urban critic Roberta Brandes Gratz uses the term Urban Husbandry
to describe the effectiveness of a focus on husbanding existing places,
infrastructure and resources.
She emphasizes small changes and short-term projects that result
in positive change, build public confidence that big changes can be made.
Convert a parking lot into a public square. Think in terms of the catalytic
efforts of creative citizens and projects that reflect the unique personality of
the local. “If the aim is to rebuild downtown America, the local economy
counts the most and locally-owned businesses are the backbone of Main Street.”
Her recent book Cities Back From the Edge makes a case
for indigenous urban renewal and the innovative use of existing resources.
Examples include
Home Grown Businesses In Downtowns
Producers
Producers of specialty glass items occupying downtown buildings
such as Vitrex glass in Corning, NY manufacturing and selling its products in
its storefront.
Food business
Organizations With Urban Development Services
These are some of the many national organizations whose
activities relate to urban revitalization who also offer services, mostly
fee-based, in specific areas.
TulsaNow also has a separate document of additional research
links — Selected List of National
Organizations Offering Services in Urban Development
Americans for the Arts
Provides extensive arts industry research and information and
professional development opportunities for arts communities’ leaders and has a
special Institute for Community Development in the Arts.
The Brownfields Non-Profits Network
A network of non-profit organizations helping to promote the
redevelopment of Brownfield properties throughout the United States.
Enterprise Foundation
Works with community developers, neighborhood residents and
partners and benefactors to provide low-income people with affordable housing,
safer streets and access to jobs and child care.
CEOS for Cities
A bipartisan alliance of selected civic leaders representing pivotal
institutions of America today: business, universities and hospitals, city
government and community-based nonprofit organizations. Focused on creating and
disseminating cutting-edge research to help us understand both the economies of
our cities and urban trends.
The Citistates Group
A network of journalists, speakers and advisors committed to
competitive, equitable and sustainable 21st century metropolitan regions. Services
include: Speeches, Regional Conferences, Citistates Convergences, Briefings and
Peirce Reports, the customized series for newspapers on the strategic
position and future potentials of citistate regions.
Initiative for a Competitive Inner City
Its mission is to help inner cities create jobs, income and
wealth for local residents with interrelated programs: Research, Strategy and
Communications; Business Development Delivery System; City Advisory Practice;
and Inner City Advisors.
International Economic
Development Council
The Advisory Services arm works with communities in projects
that range in scope and depth across a variety of economic development issues,
like strategic planning, technology-led development, economic development,
management, program analysis and finance, and real estate.
Main Street Program
A part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it
serves as a clearinghouse for information on preservation-based commercial
district revitalization with a technical services group that offers
comprehensive revitalization program development assistance.
National Civic League
Provides technical assistance, publishing, research and
All-America Cities Awards. Works directly with communities, including
neighborhoods and organizations, through its Commuity Services Program
National League for Cities
Provides a wide range of programs and services to strengthen the
ability of city officials to serve their communities. Offers a fee-based
comprehensive downtown assistance program.
The National Transit Resource Center
Offers instructional briefs, studies, reports, collected data,
legislative facts, professional peer support, advice and mobility assistance on
a variety of transit related topics.
Project for Public Spaces
Offers a variety of services that include professional
assistance in creating public spaces (with special areas such as public markets,
waterfronts, parks, streets, public art and amenities and others). A
community/place-based approach to planning and decision making is used.
The Trust for Public Land
Among other services, it works with landowners, government
agencies and community groups to create urban parks, gardens, greenways, and
riverways.
Urban Land Institute
Provides fee-based advisory services re: land use, development
and redevelopment problems. Also offers research, bookstore, and links.
The Waterfront Center
Among the ways it assists communities and professions in making
the best uses of waterfront resources for maximum public benefit is through
consulting services.
URBAN MODELS TASK FORCE
© 2002 TULSANOW
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