1-7: Berwyn Transportation Network

South Colton, California The South Colton Livable Corridor Plan53 aims to tackle long-standing necessities of the predominantly working class and Latinx community of South Colton, CA. The Plan identifies assets and improvements, suggests new uses for vacant and underutilized land, and recommends updates to land use policies and development guidelines. The Plan is mindful of the distinctive connection the community has with the built landscape and public realm. Additionally, the Plan guarantees that development approaches are supported by thorough market analysis rather than top-down urban design.

The Plan proposes “Latino Urbanism” recommendations, taking interventions that combine Latinx behavior patterns with the American suburban form and turn them into design guidelines. The recommendations focused on revising existing land use and zoning policies to bolster mixed-use developments and allow for a broader array of residential housing typologies, community This Plan is sensitive to the intimate relationship the South Colton community has with its physical landscape and built form, recognizing that the community’s residents have co-opted the landscape and layered their own unique approach to urbanism. The Plan advocates for approaches that offer cultural, economic, and spatial solutions to residents’ needs as they customize and personalize their homes and community.The Plan errs on the side of being less rigid, and less deterministic in setting design standards. While this approach is unusual, it is essential to preserving and maintaining the community’s already distinctive character.

Many elements from the South Colton Livable Corridor Plan can be mirrored onto Berwyn’s Ridgeland Ave. corridor. As a predominately Latinx community, an acknowledgment of this culture should be reflected within Berwyn’s built landscape. Small adjustments in the zoning code and spatial solutions can assist in this process.

connection through complete streets, and finally a neighborhood plaza or mercado as a civic anchor. Streetscapes can encourage residents to occupy their neighborhoods and increase visibility in the public realm. A pathway that connects to a larger communal meeting point, such as a plaza or mercado, as in South Colton’s plan, would provide an opportunity for Berwyn to have a much needed gathering space that defines the culture of the community and is not restricted to monetary exchange.

Bronzeville, Chicago As a community where revitalization is intrinsically about identity, Bronzeville represents a case study for Berwyn’s ability to celebrate multiculturalism through concrete initiatives. Bronzeville, of course, is the legacy of the Black Metropolis—the continual soul of a community that adapted from segregation to a congregation of Black wealth, innovation, and prosperity, only to be targeted by urban renewal. Through this, the Plan for Developing Vibrant Retail54 from 2012 offers an opportunity for how the revitalization of corridors through economic development and small business support can stabilize a region. Though less focused on the detailed spatiality of the public way, Developing Vibrant Retail describes successful strategies and community development partnerships that can transform corridors by addressing the land use along streets. Authored by a partnership between the local, ad-hoc Bronzeville Alliance and the Metropolitan Planning Council, the Plan identifies three corridors best suited for retail interventions—43rd, 47th, and 51st streets. Each is selected by its existing assets, such as a CTA stop, cultural institutions (Harold Washington Cultural Center), vacant properties, and spaces within the community development system’s capacity.

In short, the Plan sought to create a Cross-Ward Economic Development Arm of existing local organizations that helped define its goals: it focused on building small-business support infrastructure that highlighted local character instead of big-box retail, effectively determining the kind of retail it wanted from a land use scale; it set strategies and best practices that community actors could use to support the Plan.