URBAN / DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION

* New parks and public open space can be the catalyst for revitalization of dowtown / urban areas.

Trust for Public Land. Background materials.

TPL assembled seven properties for sale to the city of Winston Salem to create the Southeast Gateway -- a complex of parks, plaza and commercial development that will rejuvenate a key sector of the downtown. The chairman of Wachovia Bank spearheaded the private fundraising to match city economic development funds.

The city of Santa Fe, with the help of the Trust for Public Land, recently acquired 35 acres of prime downtown real estate. Most of this land will be developed as part of a extensive business and economic redevelopment package, stimulated by ten acres that will be improved aspublic park land.

Suffering from economic decline and significant pollution problems, the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee successfully reversed its image in an effort to become the nation's first "eco-city." By investing in extensive cleanup and creating a more livable city, in part through transformation of derelict riverfront land into a greenway -- with TPL's help -- the city has attracted businesses and economic opportunities.

In Providence, TPL is creating a greenway along the Woonasquatucket River to foster renewed public and private investment in a low-income community.

Cashden, Lisa. July 27, 1994. Letter to Janet Maughn of the Ford Foundation regarding the Trust for Public Land's Powder River Greenway project in Baker City, Oregon.

The plan is to create "two miles of trails and parks through downtown Baker City as part of a larger regional economic development plan. With the highest unemployment and second lowest per capita income in Oregon, Baker County officials have established a regional strategy targeting tourism as the starting point for economic recovery. Parks and other historic and natural places will be developed as attractions to the area. The revitalization of the downtown district itself will be the centerpiece of the effort. In addition to the downtown Greenway, the city is committed to restoring building facades and promoting the area's favorable business climate.

"The Greenway is central to the revitalization of downtown Baker City which will become the centerpiece... With over 110 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, Baker City has undertaken an ambitious private/public partnership to restore the facades of 25 historic buildings. Local businesses and the City have raised $360,000 to match a grant from the Oregon Economic Development Department in this $600,000+ restoration project. ... The Greenway will be tied to the downtown historic district via the Court Street Plaza, a recently approved central plaza which will be funded by a $199,000 ISTEA grant. The Powder River Greenway itself will become the jewel in the crown of a revitalized downtown Baker City."

Trust for Public Land. The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. Excerpt from grant proposal from the TPL to National Association of African-American Heritage Program (NAAAHP)

The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site was established in October of 1980 with the help of the Trust for Public Land. In the mid 1970's, as the National Park Service and Congress were deliberating the area's potential as a national historic site, the city of Atlanta was preparing to demolish several historic but deteriorating, vacant buildings "critical to the historic integrity of the neighborhood." TPL purchased the buildings and with a loan from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, stabilized them. When the funding for the project lost support because of a deadlock between Congress and the new Reagan administration in early 1980, "TPL offered to donate the propertiesrather than recovering its costs through sale tot the government as originally intended."

"The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site became a catalyst for reinvestment in the community. New businesses were established, and many of the area's historic houses were upgraded or restored. The site became the second most popular tourist destination in Georgia, and it proved a magnet to attract conventions and other events appealing to African American businesses and cultural interests."

"in order to complete a greenway linking the King Historic Site to the nearby Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, and in part to eliminate a derelict building that had plagued the community's revitalization efforts for years." After four years of lawsuits regarding cleanup of hazardous wastes on the property, TPL purchased the abandoned factory and demolished it to make way for new parkland and a visitors parking lot."

The revitalization Atlanta and its popularity as a destination point for African -Americans (to which this TPL project contributes) was a key factor in the selection of Atlanta as the site for the 1996 Olympic Games.

TPL memo from Ernest Cook to Rand Wentworth. April 7, 1994.

"... the extension of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (better known as Gateway National Park) across the Mississippi River to E. St. Louis (in Illinois). JNEM is the most heavily visited NPS site in the entire Midwest system and generates substantial tourism dollars for St. Louis. I believe, but am not sure, that this park also is credited with having stimulated major commercial growth in the downtown of St. Louis. Across the river, East St. Louis is a total economic basket case. The theory is that enlarging the park by creating a new unit on the Illinois side will (along with a new light rail system under development that will cross to East St. Louis adjoining the new park) attract tourists and major new commercial development to this depressed city. ... The park in Eats St. Louis is supposed to be about 100 acres, with another 200 acres surrounding the park being designated as a major redevelopment zone."

Langdon, Philip. "The Leading Edge of Parks." Landscape Architecture. v. 85, no. 3.

" An estimated 1,500 greenways, or linear parks, are being built or planned in North America. There are now 564 hiking and biking trails on former railroad beds in 45 states -- a six-fold increase from 1987.

" One reason rails-to-trails and other greenways are becoming so numerous is their relatively low cost. 'Big urban public parks have become too expensive to build and maintain ,' says Diana Balmori, Associate, ASLA. 'Parks departments are totally overrun. Greenways are less costly, and because they're mostly 'edge,' they serve more neighborhoods. You can involve all sorts of citizens and organizations in their upkeep."

"In New Haven and its suburbs, the Farmington Canal, which began as a water transportation route to Northampton, Massachusetts, in the 1820's and was converted into a rail line in the 1840's, is being converted again -- this time into a multi-use greenway.

" 'This greenway will make the parks more accessible and will tie neighborhoods together in ways that streets do not.'

"The Trust for Public Land negotiated New Haven's purchase of 2.1 miles of canal corridor, generally 25 feet wide. In doing so the Trust was careful to retain below-grade rights. Utility and cable companies, Balmori says, may want to run their lines in the corridor for a fee. 'Whatever revenue comes from that will be used for construction and maintenance of the corridor,' she says.

"The trail idea at first received a cold reception in New Haven's poor, black Dixwell neighborhood, where some saw it as mainly benefiting suburbanites. Dixwell leaders dropped their objections when the plan added something they wanted -- improvements and beautification of a road that runs alongside the former canal, carrying vehicular traffic to and from Science Park, Dixwell's largest employment center. Accommodation and compromise are the norm in the greenway development.

"Many worry that in New Haven's poorer neighborhood where drug-related violence is common, people on the trail will be easy prey. Balmori thinks part of the answer is to give the neighborhoods a strong sense of involvement -- by using the residents to build and maintain the trail and by placing facilities they need, such as child-care centers, along the corridor."

"A former Canadian National Railways line along Casco Bay will connect downtown to Back Cove -- a jewel in the Portland (Maine) parks network planned in 1905 by the Olmsted Brothers. Ali? W. Hopkins, executive director of Portland Trails, describes the 3.5 mile Back Cove loop as 'Portland's most popular recreation path.'

"When completed, the trail network will give people stunning views of the bay and islands. An already finished portion allows people to weave through a soulful district of waterfront piers devoted to shipbuilding, fish processing and other brawny seaside industries. DeWan, who now heads Terrence J. DeWan & Associates, says that in the working waterfront the goal has been to give visitors opportunities to soak up the atmosphere without turning the port into a 'festival marketplace.'"

" The trails project is also sparking interest in rehabilitating neglected old buildings near the rail line. Nine miles have been completed in the last three years, and Portlanders express confidence that the entire 30 miles will be developed by 1999."

Greenberg, Mike. April 1995. "Downtown San Antonio Returns to Prosperity." Urban Land.

"By the end of the 1970's, downtown retailing was all but dead (in San Antonio), and unlike Dallas and Houston, San Antonio had no rapidly growing office market to take up the slack. as 1995 dawned, new construction was changing the face of every downtown quadrant, with many long-dormant buildings targeted for serious redevelopment proposals.

two public planning decisions have proved critical to downtown's renewal, the related pillars of an informal long-term strategy. The first was the decision to create a linear park that would come to be known around the world as the River Walk. The second was the decision to build the 1968 World's Fair, HemisFair."

"Anchoring the northwest corner of the fairgrounds were a convention center, an arena, and a theater, all linked directly to the River Walk and the downtown core by new, landscaped river channel

Extensive commercial development of the River Walk began after the fair. By the end of the 1980s, the River Walk had overtaken the Alamo as the most popular tourist destination in Texas."

"Extending the River Walk south from downtown, also planned by the river authority, may create new development opportunities in conjunction with the proposed Mission Trails, a federally funded project to improve street connections and create a hike-and-bike trails linking downtown with the four Spanish missions ... all near the river ... of the Missions National Historic Park."

Greenberg, Mike. April 1995. "The River Walk." Urban Land.

"During its first few decadesmost of the River Walk remained a lushly landscaped but crime-ridden back alley, with most of the buildings turning their backs to the river. As late as the mid-1960's, only three restaurants, a jazz club, and a folk art shop had River Walk frontage By the end of the 1980's, the eastern portion of the horseshoe bend was crowded with restaurants and shops at both river and street levels, and two major hotels During the 1970's and 1980's, scores of apartment units were created in new and historic buildings along the River Walk"

"So successful is the River Walk that it has been widely studied and imitated as a model for urban redevelopment around the world. Indeed, it has been imitated even in San Antonio: Artificial channels have twice extended the original River Walk to serve new development, and plans to extend the walkways and landscaping north and south of downtown are underway in conjunction with a new flood control project."

Leccese, Michael. November 1996. "In the San Antonio Mode: Inspired by San Antonio's success, the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk Project revives Pueblo, Colorado's river." Landscape Architecture.

"After a 1921 flood inundated sixty percent of downtown and killed more than a hundred people, the (Arkansas) river was literally moved and encased in levees several blocks away. Now the city is pursuing a $30 million plan to return the waterfront to city hall.

"After big steel pulled out in the early 1980s Pueblo fell upon hard times. Unemployment shot up to twenty percent. But through aggressive recruiting to attract high-tech industries, Pueblo has come back, and unemployment has dipped below the national average. Now the city dreams of what was once unthinkable: attracting tourists to the place known during the smokestack era as 'Pewtown.''

"In November 1995 voters narrowly approved the bond issue During phase one the parking lots will be torn up; the 1.9 acre Lake Elizabeth will be lined with impervious clay and the 1,500-foot-long channel in concrete. Rough blocks of chalk-colored limestone are being excavated from the historic channel to help build plazas and waterway edges. Several roadways are being removed or realigned to open vistas to historic buildings or to Pike's Peak. Bike path connections to twenty-mile Arkansas River Greenway are in the works At the project's northeast end DSW (Design Studio's West) spent eighteen months designing a natural area in collaboration with the state's Division of Wildlife. Planted in native riparian vegetation, this will become a fishing spot, as well as a place where kids can learn about wetlands and wildlife."

Hamilton, Pamela M. April 1994. "The Metamorphosis of Downtown San Diego." Urban Land.

"The balance of the Marina area faced a major problem: a swath of railroad tracks separated it from Harbor Drive and the waterfront. Implementing a concept in the community plan, CCDC (Centre City Development Corporation) began negotiations with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad; Southern Pacific Railroad; the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railroad; and the Metropolitan Transit Development Board to consolidate rail rights-of-way and track. Named in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., King Promenade is being developed as new housing is developed along it, making the old railroad right-of-way downtown's most prestigious address."

Schmidt, Max "The Incremental Development of a Downtown Park"

"King Promenade is an unusual park. It includes an operational railroad, a light-rail system, and a major street. Its design emphasizes the linearity of rails, a theme that is repeated in the planting beds, hedges, pathways, and rows of trees that parallel the rails Asphalt pavers for the 12-foot-wide continuous pedestrian pathway throughout the park symbolize the many miles King marched over the streets of the nation."

"The $25 million park is being developed incrementally with the development of adjacent housing and retail uses."

"Two residential developments along the parkhave been completed. The developers of both projects contributed to park improvements and have assumed maintenance responsibilities for parts of the park adjoining their property."

"Harbor Drive and the trolley right-of-way have been landscaped. CCDC has reached an agreement with the Santa Fe railroad under which the redevelopment agency will improve the railroad's right-of-way as a recreational path for cyclers and joggers. Plans are being drawn up to extend the park concept and recreational pathways along the entire two-mile edge of downtown, with construction money being provided through the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA)."

"What began as a one-half-mile enhancement of marginal land adjoining a proposed residential area has stretched two miles along the edge of downtown. With luck and determination, the park will become part of a downtown open-space system and a unifying element for downtown developments."

Ackerman, Jerry. September, 24, 1995. "Waterfront World: Planners Envision a Network of Waterfront Neighborhoods Revitalizing the City's Economy." Boston Globe.

"...because of an unusual meeting of minds within two otherwise combative agencies--the Massachusetts Port Authority and the Boston Redevelopment Authority-- a transformation of the waterfront is possible. Indeed, these agencies are together planning a waterfront that recaptures the vitality of Boston's almost forgotten maritime heyday in the 1940's, before the city turned its back and let its harbor frontage become almost a wasteland.

With the combined political muscle of Massport and the city behind them, and billions of dollars in public works investments underlying them, planners and officials are betting that Boston's waterfront can again be a strong economic force. They hope to build on the city's historic shipping and fishing heritage while introducing tourism and new types of business."

"...the BRA (Boston Redevelopment Authority) is eager to see an around-the-clock neighborhood develop. Master plans call for apartments and condos, retailing, restaurants, hotels--as well as protected open spaces that will invite visitors to take moonlight walks, then return home via an underground MBTA electric bus."

"...in East Boston another perspective is taking shape. Where underutilized shipyards and empty piers now dominate, planners see a recreational waterfront emerging.

There, a week ago, Massport dedicated its new East Boston Piers Park, a 6 1/2-acre plot that cost $17 million to build. Beyond its lavish playgrounds and gazebos, the park offers views of downtown that are worth the trip to see."

Chalkley, Tom. Spring, 1992. "High Tops and Tree Tops." The Amicus Journal.

"In three cities over the last few years--Baltimore, New Haven, and Detroit-- inner city communities have participated in a series of groundbreaking programs launched by the Urban Resources Initiative (URI) based at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. What is new about these programs ... is URI's concept of environmental restoration as a key to achieving urban revitalization. In New Haven, as in Baltimore, foresters from URI work with schoolchildren to create parks.

"Trees are a means to get people involved and establish community networks. Among the neighborhoods that surround East Baltimore's Patterson Park, forestry projects have forged relationships between 'communities that normally wouldn't talk to each other."

"URI is the brainchild of two such visionaries, Yale professor William Burch, former director of TRI , and the late Ralph Jones, former director of the Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks."

"Baltimore is in many ways an average, post-industrial American city, and hence a good laboratory for urban experiments. One-fifth of its shrinking population falls below the federal poverty level. The middle class has largely fled the city due to rising crime, high taxes, and a debilitated school system. The expansion of the suburbs now threatens the Chesapeake Bay with deadly loads of silt and toxics. Meanwhile, strapped by a shrinking tax base and cuts in federal aid, Baltimore must still meet federal mandates to clean up air and water pollution. Dr. Jones (director of the Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks in 1992), struggling with budget cuts himself, thought that the city's 'green' programs should play a role in reversing the city's decline."

"To date, URI's most ambitious project is a plan for the total reorganization of Baltimore's Recreation and Parks Department. The "Strategic Plan for Action' ... attempts to merge social, economic, and environmental goals. At the city level, the plan would replace an arbitrary, overlapping mishmash of five recreation districts and four park districts with three unified park-and-recreation divisions that conform to the city's three natural watersheds. The change will help the city manage stream pollution problems while reducing bureaucratic rivalries..."

Lockwood, Charles. October 1995. "On the Waterfront" Hemispheres.

"With 578 miles of shoreline, New York City is a waterfront redevelopment showcase. Half a dozen major projects are under way or planned. The most spectacular is Battery Park City, located on 92 acres of landfill along the Hudson River in lower Manhattan. This vast development, begun 15 years ago, boasts soaring office towers (including the world headquarters of American Express, Dow Jones, and Merrill Lynch), apartment buildings and townhouses, parks, and a stunning 1.2 mile-long riverfront promenade."

"... some American cities' waterfronts started to decline after World War II. But now, the demand for these sites is growing rapidly because cities have realized that their waterfronts are an economic bonanza waiting to be unlocked."

"A generation ago, Baltimore was known only as a grimy industrial city... Its decaying Inner Harbor was largely abandoned.

Today the Inner Harbor is not only a worldwide tourist attraction, it is a source of civic pride and unity. Every day, thousands of Baltimore residents flock to its Harborplace, the National Aquarium, and much-loved Camden Yards. They work in the new office buildings and hotels. They live in the new apartment buildings, condominiums, and townhouses. They keep their boats in the marinas.

...the redevelopment has generated tremendous economic benefits: 36,000 permanent new jobs, hundreds of thousands of short-term construction jobs, and over $4 billion in public and private investment."

"As more and more cities redevelop their waterfronts, some observers realize that this phenomenon means a boost for local economies, the creation of new leisure and entertainment areas, and even the rise of new civic symbols....One thing still makes these cities unique and easily identifiable: their physiographic or natural features. Sometimes its the hills. But it's almost always the waterfront."

Hiss, Tony. Summer 1992. "On the Sunny Side of the Street." The Amicus Journal.

In response to widespread public dissatisfaction about the redevelopment of Toronto's (formerly industrial) lake front with luxury condominiums, the city's planning department set up a task force to "Bring Back the Don". The Task force said that "the only way to clean up the Don is by giving the river a mouth again, which means reestablishing the large delta marsh 'of cleansing marsh grasses and soils' that was destroyed many years ago, first by pollution and then by landfill, when industrialization first claimed the lakefront. And the Royal Commission proposes that the new delta, once established, become the centerpiece of a twenty-first-century industrial area devoted exclusively to 'green industry' uses."

Urban Land. December 1994. "The Pennsylvania Avenue Plan."

"Since its inception in 1972, the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation (PADC) has been the prime mover behind the revitalization of the (22 block) area between the White House and the Capitol.

PADC accomplished this by investing $149 million in public improvements and historic preservation and by attracting approximately $1.5 billion in private investment.

Today, the area that once encompassed rundown buildings and vacant lots now features offices, shops, parks, restaurants, apartments and condominiums, hotels, art galleries, and theaters It has become a desirable place in which to live, work, shop, dine, and visit."

Community Development Digest. August 6, 1996. "Olympic Bomb Site May Spearhead Revitalization of Downtown Atlanta."

"... the 21- acre Centennial Olympic Park that drew millions over 17 days could lead the way as Atlanta tries to transform about 100 acres in downtown into a place alive 24 hours a day with in-town residents, business parks, dining and entertainment.

An organization called Central Atlanta Progress (see contacts) creates COPA, Inc. (Centennial Olympic Park Area) to develop over 10-15 years four major components-- an entertainment and nightlife district, a sports business park, a blend of market-rate and subsidized housing and expanded conference facilities."

Page last updated 04/03/2000