Panorama 2010: Overlays and Intersections

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PANORAMA

PANORAMA 2010

THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF DESIGN DEPARTMENT OF CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING 127 MEYERSON HALL 210 S. 34TH STREET PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA 19104-6311

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

SPRING 2010 JOURNAL OF THE CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Malls

page 16

Wilderness page 72

VOLUME XVIII: INTERSECTIONS AND OVERLAYS

Food Systems page 10

Ghana page 24

Expressway page 62

PANORAMA SPRING 2010 JOURNAL OF THE CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

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The Urban Realm Studio Selected Work

In Defense of Manufacturing

A New Model for the Future of Manufacturing in Post-Industrial Cities

Whither Capitalist Development:

Michelle Lin

Coloring Community: The Future of Community-University Partnerships for a Global Century Jeffrey P. Tiell

Getting Them on Board: Marketing Tools for Attracting New Riders in an Age of Increased Environmental Awareness Meg Merritt

Does that look right to you?

An Inquiry into the Law of Aesthetic Regulations Bryan Rodda

76 56 48

The Wilderness Act of 1964: Strong Legislation for Land Preservation Andrew Dawson

The Consolidation of SEPTA and Its Impact on Public Transit in Philadelphia Boris Lipkin

Blight or Flight Without a Fight: The Untold Story of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway Laura Podolnick

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72 10 68 62

Liberation or Conquest?

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Lauren Faber

Why Food Systems Planning is a Fad That Should Not Fade Beth McKellips

The Affect of the Built Environment on Democratic Discourse Rachel Van Tosh

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Financing Suburban Retrofits:

Strategies for Dead & Dying Letter from the Editors Mall Redevelopment Author Biographies Joseph M. Portelli Image Citations

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Land Tenure and Planning in Accra, Ghana Akua Nyame-Mensah

02 03 84

FROM THE EDITORS Dear Readers, It is with great pride that we entrust to you Panorama 2010, the Journal of the City and Regional Planning Department at the University of Pennsylvania. The theme of this year’s issue, Overlays and Intersections, developed by considering the multiplicity of engaging essays we had before us seemingly with little direct interconnectivity. How extraordinary we thought, that this issue would be a palimpsest of the breadth and depth of study within Penn Planning. Certainly, the pieces within this volume each stand alone as representative of what we the Editors feel to be erudite and meaningful writing from the halls of the department. Beyond their singularity, and what we hope the reader will wrestle with, is the capacity of the pieces within this volume to explode into one another, to forge a syncretism, to interact, engage, and contribute to one another, indeed, to overlay and intersect. In large degree, overlays and intersections serves as a metaphor for the academic experience within Penn Planning— we are constantly rubbing ideas against one another, engaging our shared talents and minds, and finding linkages and connections through praxis.

A number of articles in this year’s volume were furnished from students’ experiences working in the field. Michelle Lin, in her article, In Defense of Manufacturing, engages her audience to envision a new model for manufacturing in postindustrial cities based on her summer internship with the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center (GMDC) in Brooklyn, New York. Beth McKellips discusses the potential of innovative food systems in her lucid article, Why Food Systems Planning is a Fad That Should Not Fade stemming from

her experience working at the Intervale Center in Vermont this past summer. Moreover, Joseph M. Portelli provides for a robust economic development view on mall redevelopment in his article, Financing Suburban Retrofits: Strategies for Dead & Dying Mall Redevelopment.

Akua Nyame-Mensah and Lauren Faber write on issues of international relevance in their articles, Land Tenure and Planning in Accra, Ghana:Two Case Studies and Whither Capitalist Development: Liberation or Conquest, respectively. Rachel Van Tosh uncovers the dialogue of public spaces and considers its implications for democratic discourse, while Bryan Rodda engages the reader to consider the planning implications of fundamental questions such as: “Does the government have the authority to regulate beauty?” and “Is architectural expression entitled to First Amendment protection?”

Meg Merritt discusses the marketing of increasing public transit ridership in her article, Getting Them on Board: Marketing Tools for Attracting New Riders in an Age of Increased Environmental Awareness, while Laura Podolnick writes on transportation from a historical lens in, Blight and Flight Without a Fight:The Untold Story of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Boris Lipkin appropriately brings it all back home to Philadelphia in his article, The Consolidation of SEPTA and its Impact on Public Transit in Philadelphia.

In his article, The Wilderness Act of 1964: Strong Legislation for Land Preservation, Andrew Dawson details the legal evolutions of the protection of wilderness in the United States. Jeffrey P. Tiell considers the growth of colleges and universities as both local and global civic anchors in his piece, Coloring Community: the Future of Community-University Partnerships

for a Global Century.

We would be incredibly remiss without thanking department coordinator Kate Daniel, who has been a great resource for us throughout the publication process. We also appreciate the support and sage advice of the department faculty.

We leave you with a quotation from Michael Walzer, political philosopher and public intellectual, from his essay, “The Civil Society Argument.”

Walzer writes,

Bryan Rodda

Lou Huang

Laura Podolnick

Anjuli Maniam

Jeffrey Tiell

Marie Park

MCP ‘10 Editor

MCP ‘10 Design Editor

MCP ‘11 Associate Editor

MCP ‘11 Associate Editor

MCP ‘10 Associate Editor

MCP ‘11 Associate Design Editor

Civil society is sustained by groups much smaller than the demos or the working class or the mass of consumers or the nation. All these are necessarily pluralized as they are incorporated. They become part of the world of family, friends, comrades and colleagues, where people are connected to one another and made responsible for one another. Connected and responsible: without that, ‘free and equal’ is less attractive than we once thought it would be (1992, 107).

Connected and Responsible. Our intent is that Panorama’s content will leave you with a heightened appreciation and humility for the challenges and conditions that we will confront in the years ahead, as connected and responsible professionals and citizens. We must continually strive to learn from one another, to question others’ tacit presumptions and to wrestle with our own. More poignantly, we hope and expect this integrative knowledge and comprehensive understanding will empower us all to shape our communities and our changing world.

AUTHOR BIOS Andrew Dawson is in the MCP class of 2010. His coursework has been split between land use/environmental planning and urban design. The topic of land use and wilderness was part of a semester focusing on growth management and land preservation issues. As an avid skier, his interests include planning and design in mountain environments, and he is currently working on a second-year capstone project evaluating mountain resort town design.

Lauren Faber studied development in North and East Africa as a political science and economics double major at Bryn Mawr College. She has experience working and studying abroad in Egypt and Tanzania and served a year as an Americorps Construction Crew Leader for Habitat for Humanity. At PennDesign she concentrates in public/private development and is interested in the financing and development of housing and infrastructure and emerging markets and the use of GIS in studying the effect of policy on urban spatial development.

Michelle Lin will graduate PennDesign in 2011 with dual degrees in city planning and landscape architecture. Her planning focus is in community and economic development. Michelle interned with GMDC in summer of 2009.

She would like to thank Grace Lee Boggs, Cassandra Smith, Professor Laura Wolf-Powers, and Monique Luse for sharing and contributing their feedback and insights for this article.

Boris Lipkin (MCP ’11) is concentrating in transportation.

He grew up riding the metro, trolleys, trolleybuses, and buses of Moscow before moving to California. He became interested in SEPTA’s history and approach to system operations after moving to Philadelphia from California and seeing the unused trolley infrastructure in the city that places like Los Angeles are paying millions of dollars to replicate.

Beth McKellips (MCP ’10) focuses in community and economic development. As such, she expanded her curriculum to include a study of how environmental and economic issues weave together and overlap. This exploration has led her to cultivate a comprehensive understanding of urban food systems, which she continues to develop.

Meg Merritt (MCP ‘11) is a concentrating in transportation. She joins PennDesign by way of Louisiana and Texas and is most interested in investigating ways to attract new riders to transit. She worked as a TOD planner in Austin, Texas during the construction of the city’s first commuter rail line and as a real estate analyst for ERA in New York.

She holds a Bachelor’s in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin and is a struggling golfer.

Akua Nyame-Mensah is a sub-matriculate in the (MCP) program at PennDesign and a senior completing her degree in growth and structure of cities at Bryn Mawr College. She is half-Ghanaian and grew up next door in Cote d’Ivoire and therefore has always had an interest in the development of sub-Saharan African cities. Her submission is based off her undergraduate thesis research that was made possible through a summer research grant from the Hanna Holborn Gray Undergraduate Research Program in the Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences at Bryn Mawr College.

Outside of studying human settlements, she enjoys running, frisbee, and soccer and is looking forward to the FIFA World Cup. Laura Podolnick is a first-year MCP student focusing in transportation. In addition to writing papers about highways, she also writes fiction.

Joseph Portelli (MCP ‘11) is a student concentrating in public private development. His hometown of Wayne, New Jersey has its own dead mall, which provided inspiration for his article. He has worked in affordable housing development and urban design and is a sub-matriculate from Penn’s urban studies program.

Bryan Rodda (MCP ’10) is concentrating in transportation planning. He comes to Philadelphia by way of Ohio, and to transportation by way of his interest in geography, bridges, transit systems and cycling. His strong interest in the public realm of cities and the U.S. Constitution led to his article on the legal interface between architecture and urban environments.

Jeffrey P. Tiell (MCP ’10) is concentrating in community and economic development. He is interested in the intersection between communities, schools, globalization, and economic development. He has lived in Louisville, Providence, Copenhagen, Washington, DC, and is proud to presently call Philadelphia home. Hobbies include reading and writing both fiction and nonfiction, as well as trying to attend as much live music as his meager budget will allow.

Rachel Van Tosh (MCP ’11) is concentrating in community and economic development. Her paper stems from her interest in the politics of public spaces, and it allowed her to review some of the wide breadth of theorists who write on this topic and then apply them to concrete places within a city she knows well. When not writing about public spaces, she is interested in immigration, economic development, and international housing and infrastructure provision.

In Defense of

Manufacturing A n e w m o d e l f o r t h e f u t u r e o f m a n u fac t u r i n g i n p o s t- i n d u s t r i a l c i t i e s

by

M

anufacturing can save our

part of the solution to what ails post-industrial economies.

We should not view manufacturing as a dying economic sector because we cannot dismiss all manufacturing.

Demonstrating the viability of manufacturing, the nonprofit industrial development corporation Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center (GMDC) is leading the way in showing how cities can strengthen local economies by rehabilitating abandoned industrial facilities into affordable spaces for small manufacturers. This article will examine GMDC’s innovative role in New York’s manufacturing sector and its decision to launch a Philadelphia Project. The article concludes with a discussion about how the time is ripe for the City of Philadelphia to consider and incorporate GMDC’s model of economic development where manufacturing can be an integral component for the renaissance of our de-industrialized cities.

Through a complex process of technological advancement and globalization, one in three American manufacturing jobs has disappeared

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cities; it can be

Michelle Lin

in the past decade (Greenhouse, 2010). Contemporary discussions of economic development solutions for de-industrialized cities broadly fall into two categories. The first one looks at the physical conditions of the city to address the thousands of derelict buildings sitting idle across the city’s landscape (Vey, 2008). Programs that rehabilitate neglected industrial buildings for commercial or residential uses fit under this approach. In particular, market-based strategies and the rezoning of industrial land use have become primary mechanisms to encourage developers to redevelop abandoned, moth-balled properties.

The conversion of industrial loft spaces into luxury condos is one of the most recognizable outcomes of this approach.

The second approach to the economic development of de-industrialized cities focuses on job creation and economic growth by shifting the city towards a “knowledge-based” economy (Court, 2002). A knowledge-based economy refers to jobs associated with the information technology (IT) sector. Advances in digital technologies have sped up the process of globalization, thereby placing a premium on managerial, professional,

and service jobs that support the IT sector. To become a “knowledge city,” cities commit large investments into research institutions that can develop technological innovation and advances in science and engineering. As the knowledge industry grows, job growth will follow. Advocates of this approach believe that cities with a strong knowledge economy will increase its competitive edge in the global marketplace.

A Model for New Manufacturing The Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center is a Brooklyn-based non-profit industrial developer is demonstrating the relevance of manufacturing and light industry in today’s economy. Since 1992, GMDC has been creating affordable spaces for artisans and small manufacturers in the Greenpoint area, which is a historical stronghold for manufacturers and light industry in the area. Through the acquisition, rehabilitation, and management of underused and neglected industrial spaces, GMDC has carved out an important space for manufacturers to remain in the New York market. To date, GMDC has rehabilitated six and currently owns four properties,of

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Developing craftsmanship ties back into economic development because it supports artisanal manufacturers who typically use apprenticeship models to develop skills. Community-scaled manufacturing recovers the societal value of jobs in which people make things.

top-rate facilities. These facilities are supporting the existence of manufacturing enterprises and custom-made artisanal operations, such as furniture designers, jewelry makers, upholsterers, woodworkers, and fabricators.

Through the use of new market tax credits and historic preservation tax credits, GMDC is able to restore industrial spaces into productive economic generators. As evidence for its contribution to the job market, more than 100 businesses currently reside in GMDC’s buildings, and together they support over 500 workers. Furthermore, GMDC has found that a large percentage of people employed by their tenants are residents from the surrounding community. These findings show that industrial conversions and small manu-

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facturing businesses can co-exist with existing residential communities. GMDC’s redevelopment model is proving to be a successful method of rehabilitating abandoned industrial buildings and growing local jobs.

The GMDC Philadelphia Project In recent years, the GMDC board of directors and staff underwent a strategic planning process.

Out of this process, one of GMDC’s goals is to identify ways to share its economic development approach beyond Brooklyn. Philadelphia, with its vicinity to New York and its challenges to redevelop abandoned industrial spaces, became a place of interest for GMDC. With the help of the William Penn Foundation, GMDC began a

pre-development phase to better understand the Philadelphia market and cultivate local partnerships. In particular, the North Philadelphia area was very attractive because of its rich industrial history, large inventory of underutilized or abandoned industrial properties, and the continued presence of manufacturing operations in the area.

Incidentally, GMDC’s pre-development phase was well-timed to connect with several initiatives already taking place in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation had begun an extensive survey of existing industrial land use that covers over 15,000 acres of property.

Its final report will also inform the city of how these lands could be used within the city’s effort to rewrite the city zoning a number of future land

The current work of city agencies and PIDC’s industrial land use survey have the potential to incorporate this type of economic development approach within a larger comprehensive planning strategy as they reshape the city’s zoning code.

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use planning decisions. From the design aspect, the Community Design Collaborative had initiated its three-part InFill Philadelphia project. Finally, at the neighborhood level, the Eastern North Philadelphia Coalition, comprised of many community groups and residents of Northern Liberties, Old Kensington, and Kensington South, was undertaking a community planning process to develop economic development and land use goals for the area. For GMDC, these local initiatives reflected an existing interest and inclination to explore GMDC’s economic development model.

GMDC began its pre-development phase by interviewing existing small manufacturers in North Philadelphia and implementing a property survey of industrial buildings in the area. Interestingly, the building survey revealed that Philadelphia has a well-maintained stock of abandoned industrial facilities that remain structurally sound for manufacturing uses, suggesting that appropriate future uses can include small manufacturing enterprises.

In addition to field observations of individual buildings, GIS maps of physical conditions, tax revenue, and demographic data were created for spatial analyses of the larger area of interest. Unlike New York, most industrial buildings in North Philadelphia were one or two-story buildings, indicating a lower density of industrial buildings and suggesting different needs for potential tenants. Data from the 2000 Census provided demographic context to the area in terms of poverty level, unemployment rates, and average household median incomes. Though dated, these demographic and economic indicators have likely

privately-owned buildings that provide studio spaces for small manufacturers and designers. In the former group of craft-based manufacturers, for example, is Bahdeebahdu, which is a studio and gallery space to showcase unique lighting and furniture designs for the design community.

John Pomp Studios, one of the newer enterprises in the area, relocated its production space from Brooklyn because of Philadelphia’s affordable real estate environment and its easy access to regional

GMDC’s work demonstrates that their economic development model of targeting small manufacturers produces tangible results for places with underutilized manufacturing areas while simultaneously addressing physical and social aspects of development in de-industrialized cities. remained the same, if not gotten worse, due to the recent national economic crisis. Together, these maps provided the information for GMDC to build a stronger case for the compatibility and implementation of their economic development model in North Philadelphia.

During the pre-development phase, GMDC found that there were a number of recently established small manufacturers and existing privatelyrun operations in North Philadelphia that have similar goals to GMDC. In the latter group, the Crane Arts Building and Global Dye Works are

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markets. John Pomp Studios manufactures custom hand-blown glass works, as well as metal and lighting sculptures. What is unique about GMDC is that they would be the first to establish a nonprofit industrial developer in this arena, centering a social component to their project.

GMDC’s pre-development planning phase for its Philadelphia Project is building momentum as the organization continues to assess properties of interest and collaborate with local organizations. GMDC’s work demonstrates that their economic development model of targeting small

manufacturers produces tangible results for places with underutilized manufacturing areas while simultaneously addressing physical and social aspects of development in de-industrialized cities.

Physically, this model is a place-based strategy because it prompts adaptive reuse of supposedly archaic industrial buildings and preserves historic architecture. Fortunately, economic development conversations in Philadelphia are already recognizing the role of manufacturing as part of the equation to the success of the city. Rather than viewing all industrial zones as places of obsolescence, the existing assets in these areas can serve as fodder for innovation and economic development (Christopherson, 2009). The current work of city agencies and PIDC’s industrial land use survey have the potential to incorporate this type of economic development approach within a larger comprehensive planning strategy as they reshape the city’s zoning code.

Recovering Manufacturing The familiar narrative about manufacturing in the U.S. is one that begins at the turn of the 20th century. Manufacturing gave us prosperity; it was the foundation for this country’s global economic power. The growth of manufacturing during the industrialization of the United States expanded the economic mobility for many citizens by creating a robust middle class. Quickly, manufacturing ramped up at unprecedented scales to meet the demands of mass production, particularly in the automobile industry. During WWII and the postwar years, cities in the Northeast and Midwest became industrial strongholds. With a strong manufacturing base, cities like Philadelphia

(Workshop of the World) and Detroit (Arsenal of Democracy) were hailed as the success stories of the Industrial Revolution.

This revolution did not last forever. By the middle of the 20th century, the process of de-industrialization in these cities was already taking place (Sugrue, 1996). Increasingly, the integration of automation reduced the number of workers required on the line, resulting in a significant decline of jobs (Sugrue, 1996). As the labor movement grew in strength and demanded increased benefits at the workplace, companies began leaving inner cities and headed for the suburbs to establish new factories and operations. Today, corporate urban flight now extends overseas, and the bastions of the American industry are still struggling with the effects of disinvestment, shrinking tax bases, and rising unemployment rates. Some cities have attempted to create, “...planned manufacturing districts” to recruit and retain industry with mixed success (Rast, 2005). We can take the lessons from past efforts and infuse them with policies that support innovation in manufacturing, rather than promote

those that compromise it.

GMDC’s approach to economic development—what I am calling “community-scaled manufacturing”—provides an alternative to the current universe of economic development solutions. The community-scaled manufacturing framework can address job creation goals by tackling one of the contemporary labor force development issues of the lack of “middle-skilled” workers—those with some education after high school but not a college degree (Lerman, 2009). This model could be a small step towards broadening the hands-on opportunities needed for the training of technical and vocational skills.

Developing craftsmanship ties back into economic development because it supports artisanal manufacturers who typically use apprenticeship models to develop skills. Community-scaled manufacturing recovers the societal value of jobs in which people make things (Boggs, 2009).

Furthermore, the community-scaled manufacturing model provides more strategies for urban planners without neglecting the city’s existing assets (Christopherson, 2009). This

model’s inherent small scale demands a more localized economy and local relationships, as well as increasing the social capital of communities.

For example, small-scale manufacturing requires that overhead be kept minimal and raw goods be brought in small quantities at low cost. This model geographically roots the manufacturers in

commondreams.org/view/2010/02/08-5 Lerman, H. J. (2009). The Future of Middle-Skilled Jobs.

Washington: Brookings Institution.

Milani, B. (2002). From Opposition to Alternatives: Postindustrial Potentials and Transformative Learning.

In A. M. Edmund V. O’Sullivan (Ed.), Expanding the Boundaries of Transformative Learning: Essays on Theory and Praxis (pp. 47-58). New York, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rast, J. (2005). Curbing Industrial Decline or Thwarting Redevelopment: An evaluation of Chicago’s Clybourn Corridor, Goose Island, and Elston Corridor Planned Manufacturing Districts. Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Economic Development.

Schumacher, E. (1979). Good Work. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers.

Sugrue, T. J. (1996). The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Vey, J. S. (2008). Revitalizing America’s Older Industrial Cities: A State Agenda for Change. In R. M. Vey (Ed.), Retooling for Growth: Building a 21st Century Economy in America’s Older Industrial Areas (pp. 33-60).

Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

Wolf-Powers, L. (2005). Up-Zoning New York City’s Mixed-Use Neighborhoods: Property-Led Economic Development and the Anatomy of a Planning Dilemma. Journal of Planning Education and Research , 24, 379-393.

Manufacturing can, should, and is taking place in our urban cities. their local area, providing an incentive to rehabilitate derelict buildings, improve educational outcomes, and create local wealth.

Manufacturing can, should, and is taking place in our urban cities. As planners and designers, it is our role to address contemporary challenges of post-industrial cities and to imagine alternatives that can transform these places. GMDC has effectively shown that cities can retrofit its existing industrial infrastructure to support innovation and economic development within the manufacturing sector. Increasingly, communities are recognizing the need for the localization of our goods and services. The local food security movement is a testament to this awareness, and manufacturing can realize similar benefits that the local food movement has already demonstrated in many communities. The future of manufacturing has the potential to increase the quality of goods, decrease the ecological footprint of manufacturing, improve local economies, and encourage self-sufficiency. There are endless possibilities to introduce new life into our existing industrial infrastructure. We can let go of the old way of manufacturing—the polluting factories, noxious fumes, and menial labor. Let us embrace the future of manufacturing—one that is socially, environmentally, and economically conscious.

Bibliography Boggs, G. L. (2009, February). Why Return to Local Economies.

Michigan Citizen .

Christopherson, S. (2009). Manufacturing: Up from the Ashes.

Democracy Journal , Fall (14), pp. 25-30.

Court, R. D. (2002). The 2002 State New Economy Index.

Washington, DC: Progressive Policy Institute.

Greenhouse, S. (2010 12-January). Will the Economy Rebound in 2010? Talk of the Nation. (R. Roberts, Interviewer) NPR. Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center. (2008). 2008 Annual Report: A Model for New Manufacturing in Urban America. Brooklyn.

Hartmann, T. (2009, February 8). Globalization Is Killing the Globe: Return to Local Economies. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from www.commondreams.org: http://www.

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WhY

Food Systems Planning is a

fad

(that should not fade) by

Beth McKellips photos by ANJULI MANIAM

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F

ood systems, and particularly a shift

toward local food, has gained significant public awareness in recent years. Food system issues have been elevated into mainstream discussion by individuals such Alice Waters and Michael Pollan, and now examples abound in the media.

Some highlights include Will Allen, the founder of “Growing Power” in Milwaukee, who received a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant for his work; the Seattle city government recently declaring 2010 to be the “Year of Urban Agriculture” and Hollywood’s recent foray into the food debate, Food, Inc. Not surprisingly, given urban planning’s “green” roots in landscape architecture, led by key planners such as Jerry Kaufman and Kami Pothukuchi, the planning field has followed the national focus on food systems. In 2007, the American Planning Association (APA) released a Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning and even more recently published a Planning Advisory Service Report titled, A Planners Guide to Community and Regional Food Planning:Transforming Food Environments, Facilitating Health Eating as well as dedicating a special issue of Planning magazine entirely to food systems.

A “food system” refers to all of the processes and transactions that bring food to people, including: farm inputs (feed, seed, fuels), and the production, processing, distribution, selling of food and discarding of the waste products.

For the the purposes of this article, sustainable, resilient and local will be used to describe agri-

cultural practices that generally preserve rather than deplete natural capital, which is defined as a

Producing food has far greater environmental impact than the distribution of food, which is the part of the food system chain that the “localvore” movement has focused on changing. supply of natural ecosystems that yields a flow of valuable ecosystem goods or services for future generations.

A SUMMER IN VERMONT My first year in planning school sparked a serious interest in food systems, and I had the opportunity this past summer to study food systems in what I imagined to be the sustainable food system Mecca, Burlington, Vermont. Through an internship with The Intervale Center, a national leader in agricultural economic development, I was able to spend the summer researching the local food system in the greater Burlington area.

My research included determining how much food was consumed and how much was grown in this region, and what land use changes would be needed to bring food production and consumption into alignment in Greater Burlington. As I packed up my apartment in West Philadelphia, I pictured dirt roads, small family-operated farms, and bustling farmers’ markets bursting with fresh, sustainably-produced fruit and vegetables, all basking in the Vermont sunshine. As a state known for farming and rural character, I predicted that Vermont had the capacity to show the rest of the country how a local food system could be achieved. I couldn’t wait to dive into the data. As I rode my bike down the hill into the beautiful valley where The Intervale Center is located and pulled up to the farmhouse, I was positive I would soon discover that while farmers faced certain challenges, in general, the local food system in Vermont was alive and well and geared towards benefitting small-scale farmers that grew food the old—and new—fashioned way, with local production and consumption.

FOOD SYSTEM CHALLENGES Fast-forwarding to ten weeks later when I had finished my study, I was, in a word, wrong.

While Vermont exhibits a strong cultural commitment towards local farms (local food is not considered new or unusual there), there are few products that are produced in volumes that are high enough to meet local demand. My study area included Chittenden County, where the popula-

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Figure 1.

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tion hub, Burlington, is located, and the five adjacent counties: Addison, Franklin, Grand Isle, Lamoille and Washington. Specifically, according to my findings, sweet corn, eggs, milk and apples are the only items produced in quantities significant to meet demand (McKellips, 2009).

The study methodology included four basic parts: an analysis of existing data sources and precedent studies; a statistical look at food consumption, production and land use in the six-county region; the completion of qualitative interviews to investigate how food moves throughout the study area; and the development of recommendations based on the study findings. While my research did not consititue a fully comprehensive academic study, it did strive to find the best data sources possible given the time and resource restraints. Further, the study sought to move the local food conversation forward through the exploration of a possible methodology of assessing how much food is consumed and produced within a given area.

Based on the 2007 Agricultural Census, sweet corn accounts for 49 percent of vegetable production, followed by pumpkins at 17 percent, while

the most-consumed vegetable is white potatoes (McKellips, 2009). The pumpkins, of course, are not for consumption, but do indicate the popularity of agro-tourism, a growing sector of agricultural economic development. Apples constitute 91 percent of fruit production (McKellips, 2009). In dairy, an area where Vermont farmers are particulary hurting right now, there were approximately 80,000 more cows in the study region than were required to meet local demand (McKellips, 2009).

Meat, in general, is underproduced, most likely due to challenges in turning a profit in small-scale meat production. Overall, the study found that to bring food consumption and production in the area into alignment, the following shifts would need to be made: • 1,415 acres for additional vegetable production • Reduce apple crops by 1,110 acres for apple production • Reduce milk cows by 78,934 head • Plant 28,440 additional acres of grain just to feed steers and pigs • Plant 5,102 additional acres of wheat In addition, I had the opportunity to review precedent studies during my study. These studies indicated that overarchingly, there is no reliable data on food consumption. A recent study done in collaboration by The Intervale Center and the Univeristy of Vermont found that 97 percent of consumers bought their groceries from big-box chain grocery stores (McKellips, 2009). I had the good fortune to meet a regional manager of a big-box grocery story chain who requested to stay anonymous but was willing to discuss the chain’s sales data. The sales information included facts such as: the most popular type of fruit puchased—“ Western Bagged Apples”—and that the number one general grocey item was carbonated beverages. He also incidated that at least 90 percent of the store’s produce came from California and that organic sales had leveled off two years ago (McKellips, 2009). Even in a place that clearly values farms, as evident in the local culture as well as state policy measures, growing, selling and eating local food was not dominant.

Initially, after completing the research study and being exposed to the series of complex issues that apply to food systems, I was somewhat crushed by the sheer immensity of the problems.

Most of the farming in Vermont is small-scale and good deal of the farming is innovative, sustainable and following organic best practices. For example,

Figure 2.

some farmers have converted their tractors to electric power, using solar power and utilizing such “closed system” innovations as getting compost from a local school’s kitchen and using it to fertilize their grain fields, which are then used to feed their free-range pigs. However, across the board, growing food sustainably currently costs farmers more and, even in Vermont where the general consciousness about the benefits of local food is prevalent, few consumers are willing or able to pay more for food. In addition, a true local system would require local food processors, and there are few processors in the Burlington area. Any large volume of food must be sent to New York to be processed. Further, processors require a significant amount of capital investment so building new processors in the current economic situation is unlikely. In addition, even though goverment subsidizes dairy farmers, the farmers were still drastically suffering. Without

a doubt, government subsides added a serious level of difficulty and complexity to changing the food system. In addition, through the course of my project, I came to understand that producing food has far greater environmental impact than the distribution of food, which, of course, is the part of the food system chain that the “localvore” movement has focused on changing. However, moving food by boat, airplane and trucks all create very different carbon footprints and if local food is moved solely by trucks in small loads that require frequent trips, local food could potentially produce more carbon emissions. As I attempted to sort through the issues related to the food system, the complexity of the food system continually compounded itself.

A few months after finishing my research study, I have come to a realization that until climate and/or energy issues flat out demand that we take care of soil or until the federal govern-

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ment fundamentally changes course in its agricultural policy, the existing dominant food system will not change. Even with a powerful, national movement striving to change the food system to be more environmentally resilient and to expand the economic opportunities for sustainable food growers, actual changes to the commodity food system brought by the movement remain relative drops in the bucket. Even though I was left rather crestfallen by my findings, my research study ulimately only strengthened my committment to work towards understanding the complexitities of the food system and to nurturing the movement to change the food system, that remains for the moment, underground. Further, as I will explain below, the planning field contains the exact right mix of technical and professional skills that are capable of expanding and implementing impactful changes that will bring our communities towards a more resilient food system.

FOOD SYSTEMS AND PLANNING Despite local food’s continued presence in the national consciousness, actual progress on changing the way the dominant food system works appears slow and relatively impossible, even though the benefits of a local, sustainable food system are fairly well established. Growing food in an environmentally-friendly way and distributing it locally allows regions to remediate the soil, provides economic development and social building opportunities, and produces healthier, more nutrient-rich foods, which in turn improves public health. While planners have been involved with numerous food system success stories, including Phildaelphia’s Fresh Food Financing Initiative, Madison’s Troy Gardens at a low-income housing unit, and Lancaster County’s success with farmland preservation, planners have not always been the primary drivers for change and food system innovation remains a fragmented series of individual successes. The primary area of real innvoation and progress in food systems planning remains dominated by design solutions, evident in the popularity of urban agriculture designs.

While designing spaces for growing is a necessity, altering the existing dominant food system will require much more comprehensive and innovative planning work.

However, as is natural with any fad, there is evidence of skepticism over whether planning and food systems is here to stay. Courses on food systems within planning schools remain sparse and the upcoming APA conference in New

14 PANORAMA2010

Orleans featues relatively few seminars on food systems. It appears questionable if planning’s committment to food systems will endure. Yet, as described below, food systems and planning has the opportunity to be a real planning success, and should not be disregarded. Given the complexity of the current food system issues, changing the food system absolutely requires the interdisciplinary, comprehensive, integrative thinking at which planners excel. Below is a brief summary of why planners are right for the job.

DATA ANALYSIS Planners are taught the right mix of skills to use rigorous data analysis to help support and implement strong public programs. Planners are taught how to analyze data, understand what is problematic about any given data set, and tease out the real story behind the data. One of the major hurdles to changing the food system is the lack of data on food consumption and production that is accessible to urban planners, politicians, non-governmental agencies and other interested parties. A comprehensive methodology

for understanding the complete picture of what people are eating and where they get their food from is yet to be established. In many regions, there simply is no reliable data being collected on how much food is consumed or produced locally. Data analysis is greatly needed, to identify market opportunities, conduct valid surveys and perform other methods of statisical analysis that can provide accurate data for making real changes to the food system. Additionally, planners’ skills in communicating the “bottom line” of nuanced data sets could prove critical to maintain a public will to change the food systems in the future.

the water sources. Research indicates that serious environmental damage tends to come from Contained Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), which logically do not fall under sustainablyproduced agriculture.

POLICY

Goverment subsidizes are intricately conjoined with the food system and are not likely to disappear in the near future. However, there is serious room for improving farm subsidies. Imagine if the federal government subsidized soil remediation or carbon sequestration or sustainable growing techniques. Think about what might happen if the government treated access to healthy food TRANSPORTATION as a fundamental need, similar to housing. The As stated above, despite the popularity of the government might then strive to create innovative locavore movement, the level of environmental effects depends greatly on the mode of transporta- and impactful tax policy programs, comparable to tion food takes between farm and dinner table. In how the Low Income Housing Tax Credit spurred low income housing development. In addition, addition, there are climates in which a shortened growing season makes it difficult to grow enough access to land for growing continues to be an issue for food growers in urban areas. Urban food to sustain local popluations. Sophisticated farmers typically lack the capital to purchase land analysis of food distribution is needed to explore and tend to be renters, but often fear spending how to move food around quickly so that food their sparse funds on equipment or to make other doesn’t spoil, and yet also in ways that cause the investments if they do not feel secure in their least impact to the environment. Transportation land tenure. New programs are needed that allow planners are needed to help define how far food should be transported and what the various types access to long-term and low-cost land with access to markets. of transport should be utilized.

nology or other materials that would allow them to enter the mainstream workforce. Community economic development planners are needed to understand how to weave growing food into workforce development in hurting neighborhoods, which can lead to better health as well as revitalized communities. For example, while vertical farms may make sense in a densely populated areas where people need healthy food more than jobs or green space, in places like Philadelphia, where unemployment is high, growing food the old-fashioned, labor-intensive way may make the most sense.

DESIGN Lastly, evident in the workshops and studios at Penn, urban designers have begun to insert urban agriculture into the urban fabric in a variety of ways. However, urban agriculture requires a certain mix of land use policies, populations and markets. Specifically, urban farming requires laborers who want to and are capable of farming, access to water, plots that are secure from vandals, and a viable market for farm products, and should not be treated as a “green band aid” to decrepit neighborhoods. That said, there is infinite room for improving the way human habitats interact with natural systems, and urban designers will be needed to create ways to grow food that blend and compliment people’s living patterns.

LAND USE

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

The skills land use planners have gained through farmland preservation work undoubtably bring invaluable understanding of land to changing the food system. Land use planners understand the need for large, contiguous parcels in large-scale farming, and how to create a successful package of agricultural zoning, urban growth boundaries, and purchasable development right programs (PDR) for a given area. They understand how to strategically target land for conservation, such as focusing on urban-adjacent areas to help contain growth while creating a market for a PDR program.

As we leave an era in which daily life patterns were dominated by auto-centric commute trips and single-occupancy car trips to retail malls in the suburbs and TV was the primary form of entertainment, settlement patterns are swinging back to cities. The “back to density” movement creates an opportunity for social connections, as evident in the success of farmers’ markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) groups.

Food simply contains powerful potential for bringing people together. The social capital capacity of food is also captured in urban agriculture’s less sexy cousin, community gardening. Community gardening has had a long and impressive presence in Philadelphia, which offers several local examples of the positive impact heathy food and healthy growing can have in building social capital.

CONCLUSION

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

McKellips, Beth. “Laying the groundwork: A Snapshot of a Regional Food System in Chittenden and Surrounding Counties.” Research study completed in collaboration with The Intervale Center. August 2009

ENVIRONMENTAL Regardless of agriculture’s environmental benefits, agriculture can also be practiced in environmentally-unfriendly ways which damage environmental systems, particularly water systems. However, relatively simple and inexpensive measures, such as creating riparian buffers, can dramatically improve the filtering of farming run-off and prevent them from contaminating

Next, growing food can provide jobs for people who lack either conventional education or training, or do not have the capital to access tech-

Altering the food system provides an outstanding example for planners to shine and raise their profile in the public eye. While changes will not happen overnight, the critical nature of the problems in the current food system do not allow for the proverbial dragging of one’s feet to avoid or delay possible solutions. Improving the food system will require a mix of data analysis, land use tactics, environmental system planning, policy innovation, economic development and urban design to unleash the power that growing food possesses for regional communities. The complex nature of the problem deems that creating positive changes to the food system is a good fit for planners. There is potential for food systems to be their next great success.

Works Cited

15

Financing Suburban Retrofits Strategies for Dead & Dying Mall Redevelopment

by

T

he redevelopment of dead and dying

were once the centers of community or significant sources of municipal tax revenue into large-scale mixed-use districts is one prescription for retrofitting suburbia. However, retrofitting the low-density, single-use, auto-oriented forms of suburbia with more sustainable urban forms is only an idea sans the ability to secure the financial capital required for its implementation. The ownership structures and the financial characteristics of these types of shopping centers and the overall complexity of the mixed-use programs that are proposed to revitalize them, among other things, can act as barriers to their redevelopment. Furthermore, the mixed-use district model for redevelopment is not a standardized development type that easily conforms to the underwriting models of most real estate development financiers.

The convergence of an increasing number of dying shopping centers, the wasteful consumption of land by conventional development, and global climate change explains the significance of malls that

16 PANORAMA2010

Joseph Portelli

this research. Green Street Advisors, a real estate research firm, estimated that the number of dead malls would exceed 100 properties by the end of 2009 (Hudson & O’Connell, 2009). Within the next fifteen years, approximately 2.8 million acres of greyfields will become available (DunhamJones, 2009). These greyfields represent infill development opportunities in aging, built-out suburbs as opposed to conventional development in fringe areas. Conventional development patterns result in land consumption that outpaces population growth by 6 percent. The transportation sector already accounts for 33 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions in the United States and accelerated consumption of land in “leap-frog� patterns increases the demand for the private automobile (Ewing, 2007). Suburban retrofits, particularly the transformation of dead malls into mixed-use districts, provide land use, building, and infrastructure programs that preserve land and the quality of the environment, reduce demand for the automobile, and lower carbon emissions in an era where a growing global population will place additional stresses on these factors.

The Rise of the Regional Mall The rise of the regional mall depended on the use of automobiles and growth and demographic changes in the suburbs. Household relocation to the suburbs accelerated the phenomenon of large-scale retailers moving away from downtowns between the World Wars (Jackson, 1987). For the commercial developers that built new, income-producing properties to serve these neighborhoods, a modification of the federal tax code in 1954 allowed owners to accelerate the depreciation of the value of the building in seven years rather than forty years. After multiple rounds of depreciation, owners abandoned these structures in favor of new buildings at more distant sites, such as new highway interchanges in undeveloped greenfields (Hayden, 2003).

Highway interchanges not only created additional links to previously inaccessible, unencumbered, and cheap land, but also provided access to an expanding customer base with rising incomes.

Between 1940 and 1950, the population of the United States grew by 20 million, disposable income grew from $979 per year to $1,314,

(facing page) The green promenade that organizes Mizner Park used to be the center walkway of the former Boca Raton Mall.

and buying power rose from $25.20 per week to $60.00 per week (Longstreth, 1997).

The regional mall, a form that could provide the complexity and vitality of the urban experience without the grit and chaos of the central city, was the form that could capture this mass consumer market most effectively (Figure 1, next page). It offered a wide variety of consumer goods because large-scale development could accommodate large anchor store relocation from the downtown as well as smaller stores looking to reach customers making the auto trip for the anchor store (Leinberger, 2008). The automobile dictated the size and configuration of the regional mall more than any other form of retail development because retailers and developers believed that the accessibility of the site and adequate free parking were more important for stimulating sales than exterior architectural design (Longstreth, 1997). As a result, from the perspective of advertising, there was no need to have the building front and establish a relationship with the street.

Retailers enjoyed the even distribution of parking spaces around a large lot because it kept walking distance to stores at a minimum.

The Greyfield Problem The modern retail landscape, which is a decentralized hierarchy of shopping center types and locations, is lined with dead or dying malls on greyfield sites. Greyfields are economically and architecturally obsolete properties with large swaths of parking that offer large infill redevelopment opportunities in below-average locations.

They are commercial ventures that no longer generate income and dampen the public realm.

Sobel has identified the processes by which malls become greyfield sites (Sobel, 2002). New and expanded centers with new retail formats and higher quality tenants compete in the market

usually lack owner investment in the property because the owner uses the losses as a tax shelter.

Demographic market characteristics sometimes change in a way that dramatically reduces the buying power of the trade area for a greyfield property. Greyfields also lack the direct freeway access of more successful centers, which have located at new or extended highway interchanges.

Urbanizing Suburbia: The Greyfield Solution According to the Congress of the New Urbanism, there are five common redevelopment models for greyfields (CNU, 2005). These models are: single-use development, adaptive re-use, mall-plus, reinvestment, and the mixed-use town center or district. The mixed-use town center or district creates a dense, pedestrian-scaled center, with a sense of place where it previously did not exist. This article focuses on the mixed-use model because it strives to reinvigorate the public realm through infill development. It is an approach to development that recognizes that the car will not disappear and that suburbs will not become traditional urban centers, yet provides the convenience of suburbia and the liveliness of urban streetscapes.

The Challenge of Financing Large-Scale MixedUse Development The concept and the potential benefits of greyfield redevelopment are quite impressive but are ultimately meaningless if developers cannot secure financing to build these types of projects.

There is no traditional practice of mixed-use finance. Historically, mixed-use was a term that described an older architectural vernacular that was financed by local investors (Lang, LeFurgy, & Hornburg, 2005). The challenge currently lies

public markets currently demand. Standardized product types are single-use projects that pose less risk due to simplicity and the long track record of repeated development (Leinberger, 2007).

Trading on the public markets is a high volume business that demands common understanding and a definition of products among investors and analysts. Participants in the public markets want commoditized items that fit these definitions, otherwise they are deemed too risky and complicated. Similarly, real estate investment trusts (REITs) demanded the commoditization of real estate products. Since auto-oriented suburban development was the prevalent model of development in previous decades, these forms became the traded commodities. Non-conforming products, such as pedestrian-oriented mixed-use projects, do not get financing or require more expensive financing.

A second reason that large-scale mixed-use projects are difficult to finance is that they have difficulty meeting four primary underwriting criteria used to assess all product types. These criteria are: the unleveraged yield on cost, the risk profile of the development, the developer track record, and the ability to pay for any construction cost overruns (Goodkin, 2006). Achieving a favorable unleveraged yield on cost is challenging because mixed-use districts typically require large upfront expenditures for the public space and infrastructure components that are essential in establishing the long-term value associated with a sense of place. This long-term value does not coincide with the time horizons of many capital providers.

Large mixed-use infill projects require a critical mass in place or a high probability of reaching a critical mass within a short period in order to support the project. Developers must balance the need for this critical mass with high risk of overbuilding and competition within a particular

“The rise of the regional mall depended on the use of automobiles and growth and demographic changes in the suburbs. Household relocation to the suburbs accelerated the phenomenon of large-scale retailers moving away from downtowns between the World War.” —Andrew Jackson with older, smaller, and architecturally obsolete centers. These new formats include the “category killers,” which are large big-box stores that offer discounted goods, and “power centers,” which are clusters of category killers, that expanded rapidly in the 1990s (Hayden, 2003). Greyfields

in connecting mixed-use projects to the requirements of national and international flows of capital in today’s marketplace.

One reason that large-scale mixed-use projects are difficult to finance is because they do not fit the standardized real estate product types that

use. In addition, the leases of ground-floor retail tenants are not large enough to eliminate the risk of failure, unlike a single-use retail building with a national, credit-worthy tenant (Jones, 2003, 33). Moreover, there are very few developers with the expertise to take on mixed-use projects.

17

Greyfield-Specific Obstacles Greyfield redevelopment has a unique set of obstacles that compound financing challenges (Smiley, 2008 Sobel, 2006). First, ownership agreements and the leases of anchor tenants contain restrictions on making changes to the physical layout of the mall without consent.

Second, since many greyfield properties are older buildings that have undergone multi-million dollar expansions or renovations, the value of the property is worth much more on paper than it is in the marketplace. In some cases, the market value is simply the value of the land.

Third, risk-averse owners do not want to pursue redevelopment because they are satisfied with a depreciating asset and low rents to cover operating expenses. Fourth, the secondary market for commercial mortgages reduces lender capacity to be sensitive to local market conditions.

Case Studies Winter Park Village—Winter Park, Florida Located in an affluent suburb of Orlando, Winter Park Village is a 525,000 square foot, $54

million, mixed-use lifestyle center redevelopment of Winter Park Mall. The mall began to fail in the 1980s when it lost market share to two newer, larger malls and an existing upscale, pedestrianoriented commercial corridor in Winter Park.

The owner of the property, which was comprised of three ground leases and a fee-simple parcel, sought out a redeveloper to enter into a joint venture. The municipality pushed for a mixed-use project that could transform the 34-acre site into an urban village and the developer responded with a pedestrian-scale streetscape with office, retail, entertainment, and loft housing in mostly two-story buildings. Winter Park Village has spurred development activity in the surrounding area and rents continue to rise, even in a depressed market.

Belmar—Lakewood, Colorado Belmar is a 104-acre, pedestrian-oriented urban environment that has replaced a 1.4 million square-foot super-regional mall in an inner suburb of Denver. Built in 1966, Villa Italia Mall was a focal point of community life and constituted as much as 50 percent of the municipal tax base.

Regional competition, bankruptcy, and anchor store closings led to its closing in 2001. The City of Lakewood and the project developer shared a long-term vision for creating a new downtown and entered into a complex public-private partnership that involved the use of eminent domain, the establishment of self-taxing districts, and tax increment financing. The first phase, which was completed in 2004, included 834,000 square feet of retail and office, 109 apartments and 12 loft condominiums over retail by the project developer and an additional 382 units in a joint venture, and a large amount of public space.

The current market has delayed the full build out beyond the originally scheduled date of 2013 or 2014, but the initial phase has performed well, with apartments renting at rates up to 20 percent higher than the submarket.

Mizner Park—Boca Raton, Florida Built in 1991, Mizner Park in downtown Boca Raton, Florida is the project that set the precedent for other dead mall redevelopments. Growth management legislation that had rendered Boca Raton a “no growth” city and newer, larger malls

Figure 1. Northgate Mall, pictured here circa 1960, was the United States’ first regional mall.

18 PANORAMA2010

doomed the Boca Raton Mall from the moment it opened in 1974. Aware of the Community Redevelopment Agency’s intention of replacing the mall with a mixed-use complex, the project developer entered into a partnership with the city to upgrade infrastructure to enable the transformation of the 30-acre site into a cultural and commercial village within downtown Boca.

Mizner Park encompasses two blocks on either side of a central green space that replaced the concourse of the old enclosed mall. The program incorporates mixed-uses horizontally and vertically across 398,000 square feet. Four main mixed-use buildings with either office space or apartments over retail face each other across the park. Entertainment facilities and restaurants anchor the retail component. A 1,800-seat concert hall and an outdoor amphitheatre enhance civic and public uses.

CityCenter Englewood—Englewood, Colorado CityCenter Englewood is a transit-oriented, public-private redevelopment of Cinderella City that opened in 2001. Once the largest mall west of the Mississippi River and 52 percent of Englewood’s sales tax revenue, Cinderella City closed its doors in 1997 after an economic downturn in the 1980s, growing competition, and shifting retail trends caused its anchor stores to vacate the mall. The city had originally selected a local

a multi-jurisdictional plan. Unlike a traditional retail tenanting strategy, the 750,000 square-foot development program accommodates anchor institutions in addition to an array of stores and services. The developer adaptively re-used one of the department stores on site for a public library and reused existing retail space for the regional branch of a community college. The site is also the home to multi-family housing, a large mailorder pharmaceutical company, a bank, and other retail tenants.

retail developer to build a large-format power center on the publicly owned site, but a lengthy and in-depth planning process redefined the project with New Urbanist and transit-oriented concepts. A former department store building is now a civic center with city offices, a library, municipal courts, and a cultural arts center. A new “main street” lined with a residential building on one side and offices over ground-floor retail on the other terminates at a two-acre public piazza.

The piazza connects to a light-rail station with an eight-bay bus transfer station. There are 440 residential units, 330,000 square feet of retail space, 300,000 square feet of offices, and 50,000 square feet of restaurant space at CityCenter Englewood.

Willingboro Town Center— Willingboro, New Jersey Willingboro Plaza, a former 54-acre open-air shopping center that originally served a Levittown, has evolved into the mixed-use Willingboro Town Center. The center’s decline began when the construction of Interstate 295 in the late 1960s started to draw larger malls away from older commercial areas. A major investment bank assumed control of the property in the early 1990s after foreclosure proceedings and the project developer approached the township with a vision that aligned with a smart growth strategy outlined in

Downtown Park Forest—Park Forest, Illinois In an inner suburb about 30 miles south of Chicago, the Village of Park Forest has transformed a 48-acre open-air regional mall originally built in 1949 into a suburban downtown. Competition from a new, enclosed mall at the intersection of two major highways and a large mortgage debt that prevented an appropriate level of maintenance and marketing were two important factors in the demise of Park Forest Plaza. The Village acquired the mall in 1995 after its owner had failed to meet terms set out in an earlier redevelopment agreement. It re-parceled the property into publicly-dedicated streets, publicly-owned parking lots, and privately-owned parcels so that it could implement a master plan that provided for pedestrian access, an interconnected network of streets centered on a new street through the

Table 1 ‐ Summary of Case Study Analysis Project

Acquisition

Entitlement

Developer Experience

Basis for Comps

Separate Ownership Patient Equity Entities Type Source

Winter Park Village

Joint venture between previous owner and new developer

Site consolidation; rezoning unnecessary; faced little opposition

Private master redeveloper

Redefine "comp": large‐ scale tenant mix and markets w/ similar level of competition

By use

Belmar

Negotiated discount purchase price; Eminent domain

High complexity due to unique zoning, architectural review board, self‐tax districts

Private master redeveloper

Redefine "comp": cross referenced mixed‐use in nearby & national submarkets

By building/group of buildings

Municipal sale‐leaseback @ less than market value

Opearting agreement; cooperative planning partnership w/ City

Public master redeveloper

Single‐use underwriting

By building/group of buildings

Land & building donated to muncipality by previous owner

Multiplie opearting agreements, parking most complex; very long planning process

Private master redeveloper

Single‐use underwriting

$1 purchase price from Municipality

Environmental remediation; cooperative process completed in 45 days

Private master redeveloper

Single‐use underwriting

By building/group Private of buildings

Land & building donated to muncipality by previous owner

Re‐parceling of site b/t public & private; covenants that permit sale

Public master redeveloper

Single‐use underwriting

By building/group of buildings

Mizner Park

CityCenter Englewood

Willingboro Town Center

Downtown Park Forest

By building/group of buildings

Private

Land

Private

Deferred fee

Public

TIF; Parking

Private

Cash

Public

Land; Infrastructure

Private

Cash

Public

Land

Local Public Finance No City Investment or Risk

Indirect Subsidy; Financial Assistance

Direct Investment; Indirect Subsidy; Financial Assistance

Direct Investment

Public

Exchanged fees; Cash

Direct Investment; Indirect Subsidy

Direct Investment; TIF; Infrastructure Financial Assistance

Summary of the six case studies.

19 Projec

Winter

former pedestrian mall, access to public transit, and a mix of commercial, residential, and civic uses. The downtown includes art galleries, a performing arts theatre, various offices, and other neighborhood-serving goods and services. Former department store properties were sold to developers to build 182 units of senior living and 65 new single-family homes. Civic uses include Village Hall and Village Green, a year-round venue for community activities. Project development to date has occurred over three phases and occupancy rates have risen from 31 percent to 83 percent.

The Strategies The redevelopers of dead malls into mixed-use districts must overcome a series of obstacles to obtain financing for their projects. The overall complexities of mixed-use, ranging from design to high upfront costs to phasing, and the unique nature of the design and development program are the source of these obstacles. The six case studies described and analyzed above provide insight into the ways that redevelopers can approach these obstacles and help secure favorable financing (Table 1, above).

Acquisition A partnership with the municipality, such as a ground-lease, a discounted acquisition price, or the threat or use of eminent domain, is a favorable strategy to overcome the challenges of dead mall valuation and acquisition. Land value is a particularly important input into the financial feasibility of phased mixed-use projects like the redevelopment of dead malls because the developer must absorb land carrying costs through each phase (Rabianksi, 2009).

Two of the cases were able to acquire land at a price below market value. After purchasing the land on its own accord, the developer of Mizner Park entered into a sale-leaseback with the municipality. One of the reasons Mizner Park has had financial success is because the developer substantially reduced its land acquisition costs with the sale-leaseback. Had the developer retained ownership of the land, the acquisition would have added an additional 50 percent to the total development costs. The developers of Belmar also acquired the land at a highly discounted price. Upon the successful remediation of underground storage tanks and contaminated soil, the developer of Willingboro Town Center exercised a purchase option to buy the land from

20 PANORAMA2010

Greyfield properties like this one in Benwood, West Virginia represent infill development opportunities.

the municipality for $1.

In the cases of CityCenter Englewood and Downtown Park Forest, redevelopment was possible because the land acquisition price was essentially free for the municipality. Although the master developer of CityCenter signed a longterm ground lease with single up-front payment, the owner of Cinderella City first donated its property to the City of Englewood in order to qualify for a tax-write off. In addition to a $2.6 million payment from Sears for “lost” sales taxes from vacating the premises, the department store also donated its land and building to the Village of Park Forest. At a value of over $6 million, the donation saved significant public resources.

Developer Experience Whether it is public or private, a master developer structure helps to clear the hurdle of developer inexperience because the master developer can sell parcels to developers that specialize in and have a successful history of developing and operating a particular product type. A redevelopment vision may be flawless but it will fail to attract capital if its developer is inexperienced.

Either a public master redeveloper or a private master redeveloper implemented the plan in five of the case studies.

Cities are typically not in the business of managing real estate; they are in the business of municipal governance. In the case of Mizner Park, Boca Raton’s Community Redevelopment Authority, a public entity, purchased the entire mall site and maintained ownership of all the land that would be developed as public infrastructure while

it entered into a ground lease with a developer that wanted to improve its mixed-use experience. The Village of Park Forest used its expertise in governance to establish flexible operating covenants and invest in public infrastructure.

Similarly, Belmar’s developer functioned as a master developer when it built the public space, which comprises 25 percent of the land area, and transferred its ownership to the municipality.

Belmar’s developer also entered into a 50/50 joint venture in the residential component, which, as a long-term owner, decreased capital requirements. At the same time the local retail developer built-out its office-retail parcel at CityCenter Englewood, it negotiated land purchases with Wal-Mart to build the discount retail parcel and an experienced residential developer to develop the residential uses.

Project Appraisal It is commonplace among real estate lenders and investors to underwrite a project based on the past performance of a similar development in a geographic market. Data is regularly available on rents, sales prices, and capitalization rates for various single-use property types. The primary problem with a mixed-use project is that it is not a widespread product type and there is a small basis for a comparison. Furthermore, mixed-use projects have multiple streams of income with different time horizons. The large-scale nature and the unique development programs of mixed-use mall redevelopments exacerbate the problem of identifying comparables. During the appraisal process, both developers and financiers should

Table 2 ‐ Presence of Patient Equity Project redefine comparable projects by examining projects outside of the immediate market area and by making comparisons based on urbanism, neighborhoods, main streets, or downtowns rather than suburban single-use.

The developers of Winter Park Village and Belmar redefined what their appraisers and financiers considered as comparables. Winter Park Village was a unique and untested concept in all geographic markets so the developer looked for markets with limited competition and similar large-scale tenant mixes to assess sales densities.

In the case of Belmar, there was no data in the local submarket to support the higher rates projected by the developer-built model. As a result, the developer had to convince the banks and the appraisers to buy into the vision. Appraisers first examined each use individually in the immediate submarket and then cross-referenced mixed-use projects in surrounding submarkets and national submarkets.

The remaining projects underwrote each use separately from one another because developers that specialized in a particular product type purchased and built-out smaller parcles within the site. Single-use comparables demonstrated pent-up demand for Mizner Park while each party involved with the development of Willingboro Town Center looked at each use as a standalone, single-use building. While this approach reduces difficulty in securing financing, the developer risks having a end product that is nothing more than a collection of conventional, single-use suburban products combined on one site. Financing

Source

Winter Park Village

Land

Winter Park Village

Belmar

Municipality Municipality Joint Venture Partner

CityCenter Englewood

Land Cash

Municipality REIT

Willingboro Town Center

Exchanged Fees Cash

Professional Services Developer

Downtown Park Forest

Infrastructure Tax Increment Finance

Municipality Municipality

Sources and uses of patient equity used in redevelopment.

strategies must coincide with design strategies to ensure that the project will build the critical mass necessary for uses to enhance one another.

Managing Market Risk The redevelopment of dead malls into mixed-use districts typically occurs over a long time horizon with multiple phases. Each use of each phase is subject to market changes. Two ways that the redevelopers of dead malls can manage market risk are by establishing separate ownership entities and by utilizing project-specific zoning.

Belmar

Mizner Park

CityCenter Englewood

X

X

Willingboro Downtown Town Park Forest Center

X X

X

Indirect Subsidies Tax Credit or Abatement Other Tax Incentive Special Taxing District Land Write‐down Demolition & Site Preparation

X X

Financial Assistance Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Loan Guarantee

X

X X

X

Developer Municipality Developer/Municipality

Land Infrastructure Cash

Mizner Park

Direct Investment Construction of Public Infrastructure General Obligation Bond Issue General Fund Transfer

No City Investment or Risk

Joint Venture Partner

Deferred Fee Tax Increment Finance Shared Parking

Table 3 ‐ Local Public Sector Finance Mechanisms Public Finance Mechanism

Provider

X

X

X X

X

Separating ownership entities by use or by building helps to manage market risk because the developer has the ability to sell different components at any stage of the market cycle. Developers of mixed-use districts can use separate ownership entities to their advantage by selling project components at a premium when the market is strong.

Separate ownership entities provide a benefit to the lender by ensuring that the developer is wellcapitalized to service debt, and by assigning risk to each component. Each of the six cases surveyed established separate ownership entities. For example, at Winter Park Village, the developer bifurcated the multi-story department store into a residential component and a retail component. This required detailed operating covenants. The other projects established buildings or groups of buildings as separate assets.

Belmar, for example, allocated its permanent financing from six different banks to take out a single-source construction loan.

Zoning with provisions that are unique to the project can help underwrite market risk when it comes time to obtain financing because of the inherent flexibility of the project to evolve through market cycles. Belmar required a rezoning that would allow a mix of uses, density, and bulk requirements that previously had not existed in the municipal code. The new zoning had unique rules and regulations tailored to the design of the project.

*INDICIATES PUBLIC DEVELOPER

Local public sector finance mechanisms.

21 Project

Acquisition

Enti

A streetscape in Belmar lit up at night.

The development program can thus respond to market cycles through time by shrinking or growing certain types of uses within the project.

However, this makes the entitlement process significantly more complex.

Pursue Patient Equity Private and public sources of patient equity can help reduce the financing requirements of conventional debt and equity. According to Leinberger, the presence of patient equity in the capital structure of a mixed-use redevelopment can overcome the existing orientation of real estate finance towards short term acquisition, repositioning, and re-selling of assets (Leinberger, 2008). Public and private entities have provided a range of sources of patient equity in each of the case study projects (Table 2, above).

Private entities have deferred fees, contributed land, and provided cash. The developer of Belmar deferred $8 million in fees and contributed $26 million in their own equity because they intend for long-term ownership of the project. Together, this money comprised nearly 20 percent of the total development costs of the initial phase.

The engineer and lawyer for Willingboro Town Center earned a portion of their fees below the cost of services and exchanged the remainder for ownership in the project. The project developer contributed his own cash because he also plans to retain long-term ownership in the project.

Long-term ownership means that they can participate in the creation of value associated with a critical mass, which, as described by Leinberger might command higher rents and sales prices (Leinberger, 2007).

The public sector has provided patient capital in the form of land, infrastructure development, and other local public sector financing

22 PANORAMA2010

mechanisms. Patient equity provided by the public sector is typically at the bottom of the capital structure and earns returns in the form of increased tax revenues and improved quality of life for the municipality (Leinberger, 2007). For instance, Boca Raton spent $29.5 million, or 49.5 percent of the total development cost, on new infrastructure and public space for Mizner Park, and it will receive a steady stream of cash flows from the ground lease. However, by the completion of the project in 2001, the assessed value of Mizner Park had nearly doubled from $35.2 million to $68 million while the overall assessed value of the downtown grew from $83 million to $229 million (Sobel, 2006). Local governments finance this patient equity through mechanisms that fall into four categories: direct investment, indirect subsidies, financial assistance, or no municipal risk (Table 3, above; Pagano & Bowman, 1995).

Besides writing down land costs and financing the construction of infrastructure, the most common type of financial assistance is tax increment financing (TIF). TIF is a mechanism that harnesses future tax revenues from new development to pay for current expenditures. However the new revenue is reallocated from the general fund of a municipality to a smaller “district” (Weber and Gooderis, 2007). TIF is ideal for dead-mall-tomixed-use redevelopment because the mixed-use program is typically a high-density program that quickly transforms an underutilized parcel to more active and intense uses.

Three case study municipalities utilized two different types of TIF. “Pay-as-you-go” forces the developer to take on some risk and pay for their own development expenses up front.

The municipality reimburses the developer for TIF-eligible expenses as the TIF district produces incremental revenues. The developer of Belmar,

which built the infrastructure and public space upfront for the municipality, is receiving property tax revenue and sales tax revenue on an annual payment schedule from the municipality. Mizner Park and Downtown Park Forest utilized TIF bond financing, which requires the municipality to issue bonds to pay for expenditures within the district. The subsequent increment, a dedicated revenue stream, repays the bonds over time.

Each of the developers noted that it could not have implemented their redevelopment plan without municipal financial assistance. According to the developer of Mizner Park, a single developer could not have transformed the downtown with links to the highway and rail. The municipality had to build the infrastructure to encourage new development. Downtown Park Forest could not have happened without TIF financing because it attracted both the senior housing developer and the single-family developer. The residential projects have provided a critical mass to support the retail component of the redevelopment.

Conclusion Areas for Further Research Dead mall redevelopment finance is a topic that requires further exploration and analysis.

First, since the universe of dead mall redevelopments is so small, a more exhaustive survey that includes all projects would be helpful in identifying additional or similar approaches to overcoming the obstacles to obtaining financing. Second, further research should obtain the perspective of project financiers to determine real and perceived risks involved in the redevelopment of dead malls into mixed-use districts. Third, real estate professionals should have a greater understanding of the financial performance of these projects over time. A multi-year comparative analysis of the various uses within a redevelopment project to its conventional counterparts would provide insight as to whether the mixed-use programs command a premium and if they accrue value over time.

Similarly, further research should compare the rates of return during the life cycle of single-use development to the life cycle returns of mixeduse development.

An Evolutionary Process Obtaining financing for mixed-use development will become less of an obstacle as financiers gain a greater understanding of the mixed-use

The Regency Mall in Augusta, Georgia has sat vacant since 2002.

district model. Mixed-use financing will become less of an obstacle if two things happen. First, at the market level, there could be more standardization for mixed-use development. Mixed-use can be its own product type and asset class in the same way that regional malls or a strip centers are currently classified. The mixed-use asset class might further subdivide by size and location, such as “urban infill—15 acres or less” or “urban lite.” Standardization would allow the industry to track mixed-use project performance in the same way that developers, investors, and brokers track the performance current standard product types.

However, this is not to say that developers would be able to build a large-scale mixed-use project in any location like other standardized product types. Successful mixed-use projects, particularly at the large scale discussed in this article, have unique development programs and designs that respond to the local market and that could not be

replicated in all contexts. Second, at the project level, appraisers need a greater understanding of and education on mixed-use dynamics. As mentioned above, appraisers should be able to compare large-scale, mixed-use redevelopments on urbanism and products in the urban market.

Implications for Urbanism The financing strategies that dead mall redevelopers pursue have a direct relationship to the type of urbanism that results from the build out of the redevelopment plan. In other words, the preceding analysis of the six case studies confirms the notion proposed by Leinberger and Lang that form follows finance. While the master development structure allows a developer to reduce development risk and find specialized developers to build different components, the resultant project might be a hybrid of conventional, autooriented, single-use suburban products combined

all on one site. By contrast, establishing separate ownership entities and the presence of patient capital within the financing structure allows project developers to take the risk of implementing a unique site design with quality public space and urban forms. As the project evolves, the urban forms will establish the sense of place that is the requisite for price premiums and strong financial performance. Financing strategies must coincide with design strategies to ensure that the project will build the critical mass that is necessary for mixed-uses to enhance one another. As suburban growth continues and retail development trends continue to evolve, the incremental urbanism built into in the phased redevelopment of dead malls into mixed-use districts is an important step forward in the journey towards more sustainable suburban development.

Bibliography Dunham-Jones, E., & Williamson, J. (2009). Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbia. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Ewing, R., Bartholomew, K., Winkelman, S., Walters, J., & Chen, D. (2007). Growing Cooler: Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change. Washington D.C.: The Urban Land Institute.

Goodkin, A. (2006, January). Financing Mixed-Use Development. Urban Land , pp. 94-95.

Hayden, D. (2003). Building Suburbia. New York: Vintage Books.

Hudson, K., & O’Connell, V. (2009, May 22). Recession Turns Malls Into Ghost Towns. The Wall Street Journal , p. A1.

Jackson, K. (1987). The Crabgrass Frontier. Oxford University Press.

Jones, D. H. (2003, Spring). Financing for Mixed Use/Planned Development Projects. The Real Estate Finance Journal, 33-37.

Lang, R., LeFurgy, J., & Hornburg, S. (2005). From Wall

Street to Your Street: New Solutions for Smart Growth Finance.

Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities.

Leinberger, C. (2007). Back to the Future:The Need for Patient Equity in Real Estate Development Finance. Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.

———. (2008). The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream. Washington D.C.: Island Press.

Longstreth, R. (1997). From City Center to Regional Mall. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Pagano, M. A., & Bowman, A. (1995). Cityscapes and Capital:The Politics of Urban Development. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Rabianski, J., Gibler, K. M., Clements, J. S., & Tidwell, O. A. (2009). Mixed-Use Development and Financial Feasibility: Part II - Physical, Phasing, Design, and

Public Policy Factors. Real Estate Issues , 34 (2), 17-21.

Smiley, D. J. (Ed.). (2002). Sprawl and Public Space: Redressing the Mall.

Washington, D.C.: National Endowment for the Arts.

Sobel, L. (2002). Greyfields Into Goldfields: Dead Malls Become Living Neighborhoods. Pittsburgh: Congress for the New Urbanism.

———. (2006, June 29). Greyfields to Goldfields: Development Strategies for Success - 3 Trails Village Community Improvement District. Kansas City, Missouri.

The Congress for the New Urbanism. (2005). Malls into Mainstreets: An In-Depth Guide to Transforming Dead Malls into Communities.

The Congress for the New Urbanism.

Weber, R., & Goddeeris, L. (2007). Tax Increment Financing: Process and Planning Issues. Cambridge: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

23

&

Land Tenure PlanNing

Accra, Ghana

in

Two case studies

by Akua Nyame-Mensah with photography by Edward Faustin

G

hana was one of the first

sub-Saharan African countries to gain independence from the British Empire, becoming a sovereign nation in 1957.

Ghana, or the Gold Coast as it was then known, previously had been the site of several European trading posts because its coastal location meant that vast human, material, and agricultural resources could be extracted. Since becoming the capital of the Gold Coast in 1877, Accra has continued to expand in both population and size.

According to the Accra Institute of Engineers, more than 51 percent of the population in Ghana will be living in urban areas by 2010. As Accra is the commercial, industrial, educational, and administrative center of the country, the majority

24 PANORAMA2010

of the population will migrate to this capital city.

Like many cities in developing nations, Accra, officially known as the Accra Metropolitan Area or AMA, is rapidly urbanizing: phrases like “rapid urbanization,” “sprawl,” “insufficient infrastructure,” “overcrowding” and “degradation” are common descriptions. Researching past government planning practices, measuring their impact, and evaluating their results are an essential part of developing and instituting more effective policies.

Plans can only be effective if they are respected, enforced, constantly updated to reflect the current possibilities and constraints, and are supported by compatible land tenure types.

There are four main types of land tenure in Ghana: public, vested, customary, and private land, all of which are officially recognized in

Ghana though its constitution (Figure 1). The Lands Commission is responsible for the management of public and vested land and certifies customary and private land transactions (“Ghana Land Administration Project”). There is a separate Office of the Administration of Stool Lands that is responsible for keeping track of Stool Lands.

Planning In Ghana The initial comprehensive colonial planning legislative document, the Town and Country Planning Ordinance: Chapter 84, was introduced by the British in 1945 and continues to be the primary planning document in the country. This outdated planning document is used in conjunction with other planning-related ordinances to give the current Town and Country Planning De-

Above: An intersection in Accra.

LGS set up local administrative institutions and assemblies in sub-metropolitan districts of cities.

Administratively, Ghana is divided into regions.

Those regions are sub-divided into districts (or metropolitan, municipal areas). Within those districts, there are further geographical divisions known as the sub-metros. Planning responsibilities were decentralized and the degrees to which planning schemes were created and carried out vary greatly within sub-metros. As development Ownership Type Description usually occurs faster than plans can be made or planning resources can be distributed, many State/ Public Land Acquired and administrated by government. Makes up about 22% of sub-metros do not resemble their local plans. In land in Ghana. addition, there is a strong connection between Vested Land Previously customary land but declared under the Land particular types of land ownership and the resultAdministration Act (Act 123) to be vested and administrated by the ing physical development.

State for the 'benefit' of indigenous In the District Assemblies, a team of developcommunity. ment agents, representatives of the people, and Customary Land Stool/ Skin Land: Land is held in a stool and administrated by a other agencies were meant to create plans to paramount leader for the indigenous community. address local development issues (AMA Planning Family Land: Land administrated and Office, 2009). In practice, however, decentralizadistributed by Family head. tion has simply transferred the responsibility for Private Land Land is owned by an individual providing basic services and planning to local governments, “…in the absence of demonstrated Figure 1. Types of land tenure in Ghana. Sources: leadership capacity…and also without the transfer Paul Van Asperen & Jaap Zevenbergen 6; Katherine V Number of Number of Households/ GoughPopulation & Paul W Houses K Yankson 2488; A. Gambrah 23, 24. of necessary decision-making power and financial Geography Households House People/House partment (TCPD) in Accra its legislative mandate.

A centralized planning system was carried on into independence when the government decided to de-concentrate planning decision-making in the hopes of speeding up planning decisions and allowing them to be made at the local level.

To address the issues related to having a centralized planning system, a Local Government System was implemented in 1988. The

East Legon

7681

1340

1750

1.31

5.73

Jamestown

13617

691

3336

4.83

19.71

1,658,937

132,355

356,550

2.69

12.53

A.M.A

resources” (Beard, Miraftab, & Silver, 2008). A representative from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the organization that selects World Heritage Sites around the world, wrote, “...while the colonial powers had the administration and resources in place to manage, maintain and develop cities…a great deal of know-how and resources simply were not there to pursue the effort after independence and urban centres [such as Accra] started to decay” (Lefevre, 2002).

Since the collapse of the First Republic, after independence in 1957, local government in Accra has been incapable of servicing and providing basic infrastructure, such as paved roads, to this expanding city. Several complementary infrastructure departments were created to try to fix these issues; for example, a department solely for urban roads was established. These departments were created to try to deal with infrastructure issues, but they too have not been successful and have led to the further fragmentation of planning duties.

Ghana’s Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources launched a Land Administration Project in 1999 to fix the “…regulatory framework, [and] weak land administrative regime [of] both public and

25

customary lands.” The hope was to decrease the “multiplicity of land disputes [that have] clogged the court system, and general indiscipline in land use development and disposition” (GLAP, 2009).

A Lands Commission Act was enacted in 2008 and consolidates four Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources departments: Survey and Mapping, Land Registration, Land Valuation, Public & Vested Lands Management Divisions.

Traditional Land Ownership in the Accra Area Customary land tenure operates alongside Western land tenure systems in Ghana. Accra was carved out of an area initially inhabited by the Ga of the Ga-Dangme ethnic group (Amenumey, 2008). Family groups founded villages along the eastern coast of what is considered Ghana today (Pellow, 2001). The Ga settled in villages that were, “...concentrated eight miles northwest of modern-day Accra” and were divided into compact quarters that each, “...maintained clan identity and authority.” Seven quarters (villages) made up Old Accra and were later overseen

by British and Dutch officials. The seven villages became known as Ga Mashie and were, “...comprised of small kinship groups [that] overtime…absorbed immigrants and became heterogeneous.” Accra became the capital of the Ga Federation in the early 1700s and, “...extended from the plains to the Volta River” (Pellow, 2001).

The families, which had initiated the villages that made up Accra, “...reorganized themselves into nuclei [leading families] of [the] towns” (Pellow, 2001).

All land in Accra was initially tied to sacred objects known as “stools.” Stools are symbolic of lineages. Among the Ga, stools are in the possession of particular extended families. Within one political unit or clan, there may be a number of stools; even one extended family may possess more than one stool (Pellow, 2001). This traditional system of land ownership clashes with the externally imposed system of private and government land tenure, therefore weakening the extent to which planning can be implemented in Accra and Ghana as a whole.

Though traditional chiefs and family heads are expected to, “…seek the consent and concurrence of the Lands Commission” before they sell or de-

26 PANORAMA2010

velop their land, many do not. In addition, many are only, “...willing to pay for unqualified personnel...to prepare substandard planning schemes” if they even decide to seek approval (Akoto-Bamfo, 2008). Planning is even an issue on land that is meant to be distributed and managed by the government. Many of the state-owned areas do not have approved planning schemes and once land is sold, “...individuals do not consult the Assemblies [local government bodies] to prepare a scheme...for proper development” (Akoto-Bamfo, 2008). The different land tenure types have led to tenure insecurity and the mismanagement of land registration. Reluctance to register land properly has led to ownership conflicts, the double selling of land, and large variances in the extent to which

plans are implemented in sub-metros.

The Introduction of Western Tenure Systems Issues with land administration and the current planning system in Ghana can be traced to Accra’s involvement in the international economy.

Before the first Europeans arrived on the coast of Ghana, “African capitals were located inland, away from the sea and mostly looked northwards, concerned with...the trans-Saharan trade. The first Europeans to arrive in the Gold Coast were the Portuguese in the 1470s” (Amenumey, 2008).

Various other European powers came to the coast of the country to trade but ultimately it was the British who were able to impose their author-

(top) Independence Plaza in Accra. (bottom) Tigo corporate headquarters, also located in Accra.

ity on what they called the Gold Coast. Formal colonial rule by Britain began on July 24, 1874 and lasted until March 6, 1957.

British interest in limiting French influence in, and extracting valuable resources from, the region led to the development of communities outside of the original British command center in Ghana, Cape Coast (Metcalfe, 1964). European trading companies, financed by their respective governments, set up forts along the Ghanaian coast. Warehouses and other physical buildings were also built to help support the extraction of slaves, valuable metals and agricultural products.

Traditional leaders and heads of family gave these European merchants land in Accra and traded with them.

After declaring that Accra was the new capital city of the Gold Coast in 1877, “...the European traders and administrators increased in numbers and began to segregate themselves; living among the Africans was deemed unsanitary and unhealthy due to malaria, especially once the male administrators were joined by their wives” (Pellow, 2001). After the British introduced the concept of private land and decreed that land could be seized for “appropriate” government purposes, they began to build their residential settlements inwards, leaving behind their initial settlements on the coast. One settlement that was “abandoned”—first by the British and then by the independent Ghanaian government—was Jamestown, is a sub-metropolitan area of Accra that has suffered from disinvestment because families that own the land refuse to coordinate with government development efforts.

The British obtained land by compensating paramount traditional leaders as their settlements moved inwards. They only planned for areas where they lived or had economic interests, such as on the coast. Those spaces were also bound by the regulations set out by the British to control the construction and design of structures. As a result, islands of “planned” areas emerged on the coast of Ghana and were surrounded by spaces without government provided services or utilities, such as running water or paved roads.

Today, over fifty years after gaining independence from the British in 1957, there are still pockets of unplanned areas in Ghana without basic infrastructure and government provided utilities.

One such sub-metropolitan area that continues to remain under developed because of issues of land ownership is East Legon.

Case studies

current physical and demographic data of these sub-metros support those classifications and have developed partly as a result of ownership conflicts.

While parcels of land in Jamestown are held by hundreds of families, traditional leaders and then the government held land in East Legon.

The sub-metropolitan districts within the AMA are classified from first- to fourth-class Residential Districts (AMA Planning Office, 2009). First-class Jamestown: Initial British districts tend to be low-density districts and land Settlement and Family Ownership that was or currently is administrated by the Jamestown is located on the coast of the Government. These areas also tend to be high- and AMA. It was the initial British settlement in middle-class non-indigenous (that is, non-Ga) the Accra area that grew around a British fort. areas. East Legon is considered a first-class district Before becoming an important colonial port city, in some parts, while Jamestown is categorized Jamestown was the site of a Ga fishing village and as a fourth-class, with high-density, low-class part of a series of villages that were considered and indigenousOwnership housing space in the city.

The the “cultural epicenter” of the Ga people (WelType Description

State/ Public Land

Acquired and administrated by Sub-metropolitan East Legon government.

Makesareas up ofabout 22%and ofJamestown are outlined in the context of Ghana and its regions. land in Ghana.

Vested Land

Previously customary land but declared under the Land Administration Act (Act 123) to be vested and administrated by the State for the 'benefit' of indigenous community.

Customary Land

Stool/ Skin Land: Land is held in a stool and administrated by a paramount leader for the indigenous community.

Family Land: Land administrated and distributed by Family head.

Private Land

Geography

Population

Land is owned by an individual

Number of Houses

Number of Households

Households/ House

People/House

East Legon

7681

1340

1750

1.31

5.73

Jamestown

13617

691

3336

4.83

19.71

A.M.A

1,658,937

132,355

356,550

2.69

12.53

Greater Accra

2,905,726

287,840

626,611

2.18

10.09

Table 1. Housing and household statistics from 2000 census. Source: Ghana Statistical Service.

1

27

Street vendors by the beach, outside of Jamestown.

lington, 2009). Jamestown’s location on the coast and proximity to a lagoon made it an ideal site for industries and trade.

A study carried out by Ghanaian students for UNESCO in 2001 indicates that the current condition of housing in Jamestown, which is located in Old Accra, is dire. The majority of the structures and infrastructure in Old Accra have, “...gone beyond bearing capacity and have structural defects or were failing apart and in ruins due to old age and neglect” (Wellington, 2009). A visiting urban planning professional concluded that the removal of the area’s economic basic and complicated family ownership rights led to the, “...lack of maintenance and the generally poor condition of the building fabric” in Jamestown (Bremer, 2002).

Development of Jamestown A British company built James Fort and the resulting Jamestown community with grants from the British Government in 1673 (Wellington, 2009). The fort was constructed on land given to the British by local leaders and was designed to protect European merchants, settlers, and their goods. European interest in the coast led high numbers of Ga migrants to coastal areas, “...to seek protection [from enemy ethnic groups]...and obtain direct trade intercourse with the European dwellers” of the coast (Wellington, 2009). The construction of this British trading post along with other European forts on the coast, “... coincided with the ultimate collapse of an inland Ga Kingdom” (Wellington, 2009).

The British were the last European power to set up a settlement in the Accra area and quickly became the most powerful. Through British

28 PANORAMA2010

British laid down wider roads throughout the district, Jamestown continues to be characterized by unpaved and paved “narrow, crooked” paths.

Global economic trends affected the amount of money the British government allocated to the maintenance of Old Accra: “...during the years of the Great Depression, even fewer funds were marked for the improvement of inner-city [Old Accra] needs. Migration to squatter settlements in Jamestown...increased [but] moderate relief for overcrowding was provided in the form of resettlement to outlying communities” (Hess, 2003). British government interests within the Jamestown area also declined during World Wars. During WWII, British officials were more Government support, merchants and later British interested in further expanding the outlying officials bought the majority of all remaining residential districts (Hess, 2003). forts and Gold Coast possessions from the other British officials used traditional leaders to European powers. In 1844, traditional Ghanaian leaders were persuaded to recognize British juris- keep the streets of the new capital clean, but were diction in Jamestown and other areas acquired by usually reluctant to allocate funds for maintenance. It took natural disasters and pandemics for the British officials (Metcalfe, 1964).

British officials to decide to plan, as their primary The decision to move the colonial capital concern became the “good health and prosperity from Cape Coast to Accra was made in 1875 of the European population” (Hess, 2003). because the British felt that Cape Coast was, In 1962, the independent government further “...a particularly unhealthy town...[and that] the developed and planned a neighboring town, open grassland behind Accra, together with the Tema, to house the national port. After transferproximity of...hills, was thought to constitute an environment suitable for European residence, per- ring the port to Tema, Jamestown quickly lost its economic base (Ga Mashie Development Agency, mitting exercise and sport...”(Parker, 2000). The 2009). Many of the regional headquarters of other European districts within Accra developed international companies that relied on shipping rapidly as well but Jamestown became the most moved to Tema as well, leaving behind empty important colonial port district. warehouses. Though Jamestown is still a mixedThe initial English settlement in Accra was unique in that it was not a segregated community use commercial district the old port is nothing more than a poorly maintained fishing harbor. and it was mixed use: “...colonial merchants and The British fort is now a World Heritage site administrators established permanent residences and many of the warehouses that were used by and commercial institutions among existing [merchant family residences] to facilitate trade...” companies sit empty or have been converted into other uses.

(Hess, 2003). As a space that was never planned, The last governmental regime in Ghana was the British attempted to impose a more regular interested in improving the living situation in network of roads in the sub-metropolitan area Old Accra. The government invested money in of Jamestown to better facilitate the extraction of resources. From the 1860s to the 1920s Accra “ac- widening roads and restoring colonial buildings. quired the attributes of a typical colonial port city, The Ga Mashie Development Agency (GAMADA) was established in 1999 and is responsible for its built environment fashioned by the requirements of imperial control and the capitalist world the redevelopment projects in Jamestown and neighboring sub-metros. They developed an Old economy”(Parker, 2000). Europeans made sure Accra Framework that is meant to guide developto create and maintain infrastructure—“roads, ment within the Old Accra sub-metros. The railways, harbors, telephone lines—to facilitate national government approved the redevelopment the export of products and enable the movement Framework in 2000. The Framework, written with of migrant labor” (Pellow, 2001). Though the

the help of AMA, UNESCO and other international organizations, outlines how the agency would, “...raise awareness...to advocate for the reinvestment of the Cultural Heritage for the Redevelopment of the heart of the Capital City” (Ga Mashie Development Agency, 2009). In addition to preserving colonial buildings and fixing Jamestown’s crumbling road network, GAMADA wants to redevelop the harbor to help boost the fishing industry of Jamestown. The government believes that by having this area become a viable tourist destination, families will once again invest in their properties, or at least sell them to individuals or companies that will.

Ownership in Jamestown In the area of Old Accra, Ga families who have members that are well respected socially, economically and/or politically own much of the property. Unfortunately, the physical condition of the district does not reflect this because of multi and intra-family property conflicts (Bremer, 2002). There is a, “...connection between the predominance of multiple-owned family houses and the prevailing generally poor living conditions” in the Jamestown area (Bremer, 2002).

Family homes continue to provide residential space for the descendants of rich merchants in Jamestown. Some rooms in the homes, however, have been leased out to institutions or non-family members. This has decreased the amount of

rooms available for newer family members. For example, in one large house that was visited, a deceased family member had leased out eight different rooms to eight different churches for varying time periods. This renting and subletting of property and individual rooms created a housing shortage, and many newer members of families are being forced out of the houses to informal settlements on the Jamestown beach or other places in Accra.

The issue of joint ownership has led to a situation where, “...rights and responsibilities are commonly shared by everybody but—in fact—nobody is responsible.”(Bremer, 2002).

Family members who are better off, or not currently living in the residences, are not willing to invest because those living in the house might not be actual family members. In addition, family members do not want to allow other members to invest for the fear of “losing influence over the commonly inherited family house”(Bremer, 2002).

declining commercial opportunities and lack of maintenance due to conflicts over ownership.

As well-off family members move out of the houses, or are not able to stay in the multi-floor homes because they have been rented out to others, the maintenance of the housing decreases.

“With each prosperous resident who leaves [Old Accra], the area loses a bit of its economic potential.”(Bremer, 2002). The large number of family properties in this area, “...is a hindrance in urban development” (Bremer, 2002).

Government administrations post-independence have been unsuccessful in trying to purchase and redevelop the entire (or at least large sections of) Jamestown because families who own the land each have their own competing interests.

If there was some sort of coordination or harmonization in the district it would be possible to redevelop but politicians are not interested in forcing the purchase of this area through eminent domain because it could have political ramifications in the future (Asiedu, 2009).

Jamestown Summary

East Legon, Uneven Development: Traditional vs. Government

The “...intensification of business transactions between the local populations and their foreign counterparts, as well as a surge in international trade linkages” led to the development of mixeduse building landscape that continues to dominate the district today (Wellington, 2002). This landscape has suffered from disinvestment because of

East Legon, once known as Abotsiman, is in the traditional area of Labody (or the La Stool) and is located on the outer rim of AMA (Yemoh, 2009). Before colonial interest in the area, there were about seven small villages dotted around

Homes in sprawling peri-urban Accra, in the mountains outside East Legon.

29

A shopping center near East Legon.

East Legon. The colonial government acquired land from the Labawaleshie, Okponglo, Shiashie, Abotsiman and Mpehuasem villages. Originally acquired to extend the airport, East Legon is in the flight path of planes landing at the Accra International Airport. East Legon is a relatively new, low-density area with a high number of migrants and expatriates living in specific parts. Planned to be a mixed-use and walk-able community, development in East Legon has been marked by controversy because of conflict over land ownership (Doe, 2009).

Development of East Legon The colonial government acquired about six square miles of Labody in 1944 through eminent domain (Gough & Yankson, 2000). The official purpose for the acquisition was that land was “required for Anti Aircraft Aerodrome Extension” (Doe, 2009; Yemoh, 2009). A Notice of Land for the Service of the Colony was placed in The Gold Coast Gazette on August 19th, 1944 informing the public about the executive acquisition and, according to official British documents in the archive, those living in the area were adequately and comprehensively compensated. The Paramount chief was given about 17,000 pounds sterling, and individual villagers and residents, whose

30 PANORAMA2010

income was based on cash crops grown on the land acquired, were identified and compensated as well. The war ended before the British could really use the new airport and they quickly lost interest in the East Legon area.

The colonial government did not show interest in the area after the World War II and this indifference continued into post-independence. Though official ownership of East Legon had transferred to the Ghanaian government after independence the population of villagers who had lived on the land throughout the colonial period had grown.

Ostensibly, they had no other place to go and, “... in the interpretation of law of properties to some people ‘if you go to sleep’ you cease ‘owning’ the land” (Yemoh, 2009). In 1960, the Tema-Accra motorway that borders the district in the south was constructed. The highway connected Accra to the new port city of Tema and made East Legon an easier and more desirable section of the growing Accra to reach. Though the government legally owns the land, their approach to the welfare of the La villagers has been harsh and inconsiderate (Yemoh, 2009).

Due to three coup d’états and corrupt government officials, Ghana’s economy struggled in late 1960s and early 1970s. Having received foreign aid, Ghana was encouraged to open up its

economy to foreign companies and to restructure administratively. Ghanaians who had left during the previous political upheavals began to return and invest in property distributed by the government (Amenumey, 2008).

It was not until after the second coup in 1975 that the Government decided to make East Legon a first-class residential area. They felt that any more lights, in addition to those from the vehicles on the motorway, would distract landing aircrafts (Doe, 2009). As such, the Ghanaian government demarked road networks and uses for plots in East Legon and the TCPD designed the area for high-income residents with half- and quarteracre plots (Doe, 2009). The government began bulldozing through the villages and establishing road networks. Villagers who were still on the land could do nothing because they were technically squatters.

Many of the well–to-do, nouveau riche migrants, or expatriate Ghanaians who bought land from the government did not wait for official building permits or building approval (Willington, 2009). Some describe East Legon, especially in those parts still administrated by the stool, as having more or less spontaneous development (Willington, 2009). There are many non-residential uses that have been injected into

the district. Wooden shanty structures, containers, kiosks, and unfinished but occupied homes stand next to large concrete McMansions (Willington, 2009). Signs and spray paint on walled properties and unfinished homes indicate the owner of the land, in an attempt to scare those who would try to resell land that is not theirs.

East Legon Summary East Legon still is popular because of its proximity to Tema, the airport and Central Accra.

Though it does have a modern planning scheme, it is still marked by uneven development because of conflicts over land ownership. Even those who “lawfully” own land are not respecting planning schemes. This has resulted in seasonal flooding, large homes that cannot be supported by the services provided by the government, and clusters of villages without basic provisions. East Legon was planned on paper but the entire sub-metro would be an even more desirable place to live if the land ownership situation on the ground would have allowed for the actual plan to fully implemented.

Conclusion The various types of land ownership that now exist in the West African country of Ghana have ultimately led to islands of planned and unplanned spaces even in the capital city of Accra. The Ghanaian government could simply nationalize all the land in the country so there would be one consistent form of land ownership.

This, however, would be very difficult to do in a country with such strong traditional leaders whose wealth is tied to land.

While Jamestown suffers from a lack of ownership investment, land tenure issues in East Legon have caused uneven, and in some places, dangerous, development. For the planning system in Ghana to be effective, citizens must also be aware and informed of the benefits of following through with land registration procedures and respect uses laid out by officials. It is difficult to convince many in Ghana to go through official means to obtain land and building permission and there is no real enforcement compelling developers to abide by building/development permits (Akoto-Bamfo, 2008). The process of

buying and developing land in Ghana is a long and difficult one and by consolidating departments dealing with land the Government hopes to streamline this process.

Land disputes are not the only barrier to planned development in Accra. Districts are also in need of planning staff, resources and data as, “...land is being sold at a far faster rate than [the TCPD] can produce the plans” (Gough & Yankson, 2000). The lack of monitoring and mobility makes it difficult to enforce planning and development schemes. The Ghana Institute of Architects also points to corruption in the planning process as a barrier, “...‘there are several interferences from persons from higher authority’ in both approving and disapproving construction” and development (Akoto-Bamfo, 2008). There needs to be regularized methods of obtaining and managing land so that getting permission for development is not cumbersome and so land owners can be held accountable for unplanned or undocumented development.

Works Cited Alf Bremer. 2002. Conflicts Moderation and Participation Prospects and Barriers for Urban Renewal in Ga Mashie, Accra. In , 106-115. 2002: Woeli Publishing Services.

Ali Anum Yemoh. 2009. Former AMA Assembly Member. August 8.

AMA Planning Office. 2009. An Overview of Planning and the Preparation of a Structure Plan.

Ben Doe. 2009. Land Use and Management Project Deputy Director. Speaking. August 5.

Bruno Lefevre. 2002. The Role of Historic Centres in Urban Development. In , 129-133. Accra, Ghana: Woeli Publishing Services.

D.E.K Amenumey. 2008. Ghana: A Concise History from Pre-Colonial Times to the 20th Century. Accra, Ghana: Woeli Publishing Services.

Deborah Pellow. 2001. Cultural Differences and Urban Spatial Forms: Elements of Boundedness in an Accra Community. American Anthropologist 103, no. 1 (March):

59-75.

G.E. Metcalfe. 1964. Great Britain and Ghana: Documents of Ghana History 1807-1957. London, UK: Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd. Ga Mashie Development Agency. 2009. Background Information on Ga Mashie (Old Accra) Development Project.

Ghana Land Administration Project. http://www.ghanalap.gov. gh/index1.php?linkid=47&sublinkid=94.

H.N.A. Wellington. Housing and urban development initiatives for the urban poor by means of conservation rejuvenation and densification. In Housing and Urban Development for Low-Income Groups in Sub-Saharan Africa. Accra, Ghana: Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies.

———. 2002. A Random Search for Accra’s Urban Quality in a Sea of Globalisation. In , 79-89. Accra, Ghana: Woeli Publishing Services.

Janet Berry Hess. Imagining Architecture: The Structure of Nationalism in Accra, Ghana. Africa Today: 35 -58.

John Parker. 2000. Making the Town: Ga State and Society in Early Colonial Accra. Social History of Africa. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Josephine Akoto-Bamfo. 2008. Advocacy Programme Addressing the Adverse Impact of Non-Enforcement of Building and Development Controls - Draft Report. Draft Report. Accra, Ghana: Ghana Institute of Architects, November.

Katherine V Gough, and Paul W K Yankson. 2000. Land Markets in African Cities: The Case of Peri-urban Accra, Ghana.

Urban Studies 37, no. 13: 2485-2500.

Professor Asiedu. 2009. Professor of Geography. Speaking. August 3.

Professor Willington. 2009. Professor of Archeology, University of Legon. August 10.

Victoria A. Beard, Faranak Miraftab, and Christopher Silver, eds.

2008. Planning and Decentralization: Contested spaces for public action in the global south. London, UK: Routledge.

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32 PANORAMA2010

Whither Capitalist

Development Liberation ~ or ~ Conquest?

by Lauren

faber

photos by James R. G. Bowman

Making the Cut “But if you are certain the loan will be repaid, why do you need collateral?”

“That is our bank rule.”

“So only those who have collateral can borrow?”

“Yes.” “That is a silly rule. It means only the rich can borrow.”

M

—Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor

calibrates its underwriting standards, such as the interest rate, loan term and collateral requirements, to balance the risk a borrower represents based on numerous indicators. An ideal borrower would possess a lengthy and flawless credit history, be able to document enough income to comfortably cover payments, and have significant assets to collateralize the loan. These characteristics have more to do with existing wealth and successful participation in the formalized economy than with trustworthiness or incentive to repay ainstream commercial finance

borrowed funds. They hinge on the assumptions that future behavior will be consistent with past, that someone who does not particularly need a loan will be more likely to pay one back than someone whose subsistence may well rely on future access to credit (De Soto, 2000). As incomprehensible slums consume new urban landscapes and most of a continent’s economy goes underground, it seems time to acknowledge that formal, global capitalism faces a crisis in parts of the developing world. Economists Hernando de Soto and Muhammad Yunus highlight the lack of collateral as the main hurdle obstructing the

poor’s access to capital. Their remedies have been tallied and touted by bankers and books that have accepted their arguments; however, development literature has less to say about the value of their alternatives. This paper will examine these two acclaimed interventions that seek to win access for the world’s poorest to the capitalist system.

In the exploration of whether these interventions truly improve the lives of the poor, this paper will argue that the world’s poor are not absent from the formal economy simply because they cannot meet its prerequisites, but because it does not serve them well.

33

Hiding in Plain Sight Our Mission: To provide governments with the technical assistance—and the local capacity— to furnish all their citizens with the legal tools to gain access to the market and thus pull themselves out of poverty: inclusive property systems to hold and leverage their assets, legal forms to organize their businesses, devices to identify themselves and operate in expanded markets.

—Institute for Liberty and Democracy

A

Hernando de Soto, the world’s poor are rich. His acclaimed 2000 work, The Mystery of Capital, estimates that if the United States increased its development aid to the level recommended by the United Nations, it would be 150 years before the amount of wealth transferred equaled the resources that the worlds’ poor already possess (De Soto, 2000). In his view, the poor lack not assets, but merely the means by which to transform them into capital.

In Peru, Egypt and Haiti, de Soto and his Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) “discovered” billions upon billions of dollars in physical assets in the extralegal possession of the poor (Figure 1). Because their land rights and employment ccording to

US$ 248 billion of assets in the extralegal sector is: 6 times greater than total savings and time deposits in commercial banks in Egypt 30 times greater than the market value of companies registered in Cairo Stock Exchange 55 times greater than the value of direct foreign investment in Egypt up to 1996.

116 times greater than the value of the 63 public enterprises privatized between 1992 and 1996.

Figure 1. Source: ILD.

exist outside the formal sector, the possessions and incomes of the poor cannot be represented with titles or tax returns. “Without representations, their assets are dead capital.” (De Soto, 2000) They remain without life because corrupt or ineffective bureaucracies make formalization nearly impossible. It took ILD staff almost two years to navigate the labyrinthine process necessary to legally open a bakery in Peru. Registering construction rights to a piece of Egyptian desert land required 77 encounters with thirty-one public and private entities (De Soto, 2000).

Insecure land tenure and undocumented income do more than obstruct entry into financial life; Hernando de Soto offers a laundry list of the costs of living outside the system. In order to hold onto an illegally occupied house, an extralegal household must always keep someone at home.

This can translate into lost income or absence from school. The prospect of mass evictions or

34 PANORAMA2010

simply being replaced by equally illegitimate squatters disincentivizes investment in homes and communities. This, de Soto posits, explains why the poor do not turn more of their ingenuity and resourcefulness toward improving the quality of their built environment in the developing world’s sprawling slums. Having no recourse to the law, extralegal households avoid attracting the attention of government bureaucrats/thieves by accumulation possessions of value or accessing public services. De Soto offers a solution to these issues that is exceedingly appealing to members of the technocratic development “jet set.” It requires no politically radioactive income or asset transfer, only augmented bureaucratic capacity.

Intervention De Soto recommends comprehensive land and business registration initiatives believing that, if the cos t of formalization is lowered, the poor will flock to the formal sector and bring their wealth with them. His Institute of Liberty and Democracy is presently leading just such a project in Peru. From 1992 to 1994, a Japanese-funded World Bank grant supported a pilot program that registered more than 150,000 properties in rural areas and informal urban settlements like those pictured below. “Building on this success,” the Urban Property Rights Project scaled up and created “new, independent titling and registration agencies (Commission for the Formalization of Informal Property, COFOPRI; Urban Property Registry, RPU) to overcome resistance from Peru’s

traditional system.” (World Bank, 2007) By 2004 more than 4.6 million Peruvians had registered 1.2 million properties. The registration process, which had previously cost over $2,100 and taken up to six years, took just fifty days and cost $56.

The World Bank’s website on the project reports the following effects on participating households (World Bank, 2007): • Property values rose by 25%, representing US$523 million in added values.

• 78% of those receiving titles reported feeling greater security of tenure.

• With tenure security, loan applications increased by 20% and formalization mobilized about US$400 million in mortgage credit to marginal communities.

• Households receiving titles were twice as likely to invest in home improvements as those without titles.

• Newly titled households worked an average of 17% more hours than squatter households, had a 47% decrease in the probability of working inside the home, and a 28% reduction in the likelihood of child labor.

In March of 2006, the World Bank approved financing for the Real Property Rights Consolidation Project (World Bank, 2007). The project is tasked with the creation of a unified property registry and reintegrating the municipal titling and land use planning entities that had to be excluded and replaced to register the properties in the previous project. The outlook for this “Consolidation Project” remains uncertain.

Results

in the private sector. Increases in the value of land often did not benefit the poor. Kawaga (2001) The increases in property value, personal observed that they resulted in higher rents or wealth and perceived improvement in tenure to insecurity of tenure, as we often witness in security should be understood as intermediate revitalizing neighborhoods in the United States. metrics in an endeavor to understand how participation in the formal economy affects the most Tenure has had a weaker than expected influence on the availability of services and utilities and the poor. Quantifying the increase in titled property actual strength of legal ownership claims rests or time spent in formal employment simply measures how well the intervention was executed, on unsettled legal questions (Kawaga, 2001). The benefits predicted by Hernando de Soto have not not the quality of its formulation. World Bank project evaluations are generally light on the latter materialized.

Ownership of land on which one lives is consideration, but other studies have considered the broader impacts of land formalization in Peru. not typically a short-term investment. Timothy Mitchell of NYU examined the history and shortIn general, they fail to find evidence that titled term fallout of formalization in Egypt. De Soto’s land significantly increases the poor’s access to Institute for Liberty and Democracy worked with credit, undermining de Soto’s main argument (Kagawa, 2001). Erica Field and Maximo Torero’s the Egyptian Center for Economic studies to develop a “Formalization Action Plan” that led to the study (2004) found a small increase in public parliament’s passing of numerous reforms meant sector construction loans, but only a slight to facilitate mortgage financing, property titling decrease in interest rates—not loan availability—

and small business licensing in 2001 (Kagawa, 2001). Mitchell comments that while the impact of the legislation “was uncertain, the PR campaign was an immediate success.” (Mitchell, 2004) In his eponymous magazine, Steve Forbes predicted that Egypt’s new legislation would “dramatically transform its economy into a wealth-creating, wealth-distributing dynamo” and “deal a devastating blow to global terrorism.” (Forbes, 2004) In reality, the reforms were a flop. The nation’s first mortgage company, established by the legislation, remained alone and undercapitalized. Mitchell declares, “there was no dead capital to unlock… so the reforms stalled.” Beyond this, investment in the new mortgage industry was lackluster because of “a fear that new provisions giving mortgage companies the power of foreclosure would not be enforced.” (Mitchell, 2004) De Soto’s theoretical assertion that formalized ownership would lead to the possibility of property foreclosure and

The world’s poor are not absent from the formal economy because they cannot meet its prerequisites, but because it does not serve them well. therefore creditworthiness did not hold true.

Mitchell’s discussion of why these reforms failed suggested that Egypt’s relative lack of progress was not based on a social and cultural rejection of the attempts to reform the system.

He suggests that the current land tenure system, a result of a mid-1950s coup, granted tenant farmers and urban residents extensive security, and served as a strong resistance against modern investment in the Egyptian land market.

Banker to the Poor When she finally receives the twenty-five dollars, she is trembling. The money burns her fingers.

Tears roll down her face. She has never seen so much money in her life. She never imagined it in her hands. She carries the bills as she would a delicate bird or a rabbit, until someone advises her to put the money away in a safe place lest it be stolen.

—Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor

I

1976, Muhammad Yunus began to visit the poorest residents of Jobra, the small village between the highway and the university where he headed the Economics Department. There he met Sufiya Begum, a twenty-one-year-old mother of three and a stool-maker. Wary of moneylenders and their usurious rates, Begum would borrow money from middlemen in the market to buy bamboo n

on the condition that she sell back what she made with it (Yunus, 2007). The initial loan for material was worth twenty cents. Her profit from the sale of each stool amounted to just two cents. Yunus sent his students to poll the village where they found forty-two people dependent on similar arrangements with traders. The sum of the debt, for which they were all bound in an endless cycle of hard work and poverty, was less than twenty-

seven dollars (Yunus, 2007).

Intervention As he tells it in Banker to the Poor, Yunus went to the local bank branch on behalf of the stool makers of Jobra and encountered the numerous attitudes and obstacles faced by poor “banking untouchables.” For example, a borrower had to be literate, but 75 percent of Bangladeshis were

35

not, and loans were only given granted in central offices to which the poor had no access and the trouble of travel plus filling out paperwork would cost more than the tiny loans they would seek.

(Yunus, 2007) So Yunus took out a loan himself, and Grameen Bank was born. The new bank awarded loans of twenty-five dollars to individual members of five-person groups. When each loan was repaid, the next member of the group was eligible for a loan, thus group members had reason to help each other with payments in order to get their own loans. This solidarity function replaced the need for financial collateral, giving the group something to lose: other members’ opportunity to borrow. The Grameen program included graduation to individual loans and saving programs, but it was the innovation of group-lending and the phenomenal repayment rates (above 98 percent) that represented a paradigm shift in the field of micro-lending (Robinson, 2001).

Micro-lending to the rural poor has been around since at least the 1970s, but it was only in the 1980s that organizations like Grameen Bank proved that returns could be realized at a large scale. The industry grew rapidly during the 1990s, and by December of 2002, microcredit institutions had reached “over 67 million clients, 41,594,778 of whom were among the poorest when obtaining their first loan.” (Fernando, 2007) In its recommendations for the Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006), the UN General Assembly declared that “microcredit programs have proved to be an effective tool in freeing people from the bondage of poverty, and have led to their increasing participation in the mainstream economic and political process of society.” (UN General Assembly, 1997) In yet another endorsement of the success of the microfinance revolution, Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

Results Again, repayment rates and numbers of clients is another intermediate measure of the success that focuses on the execution of the intervention.

These metrics do not address how access to credit affects borrowers’ lives. (Grameen Bank,

unlike most other banks, reports success when a borrower escapes poverty, a condition measured by both quantitative income measures and qualitative measures, such as the use of a sanitary latrine, access to clean water and bed to sleep on).

Qualitative studies suggest that microloans may not be reaching the most poor and may not be empowering those they do reach. Below market interest rates have attracted those who would otherwise have access to mainstream credit, leading many microfinance institutions to take the counterintuitive step of raising interest rates to reach the most poor or simply to serve those who make traditionally appealing borrowers (Schaeffer, 2009). Group self-selection and intrusive investigations of non-traditional collateral by bank staff appear to simply add local information and social divisions to mainstream-style underwriting

(Fernando, 2007). Even when loans are made to the most poor, typically women, there have been few evaluations of the extent to which the loans empower the recipients. Those who have looked into this question have often found that male relatives or even the leaders of so-called solidarity groups control the funds through violence and intimidation. High repayments rates may often be the result of “intense social pressure and tendency to violence and routine ‘shaming’ of female loan delinquents,” which “actually destroys social capital/solidarity in the community.” (Bateman and Chang, forthcoming). Far from harnessing the power of capital to help the most poor, microfinance policies tend to “ignore pre-existing fault lines” (Milgram, 2007) serving to “reinforce existing hierarchies and inequalities.” (Wright, 2007)

A Global Ponzi Scheme We may wonder, then, whether the universal has not already succumbed to its own critical mass, and whether it and modernity have ever existed anywhere other than in discourse and official moralities.

T

—Jean Beaudrillard, The Spirit of Terrorism

survey of literature on the impact of property formalization and microcredit banking suggest that interventions intended to increase the poor’s participation in state-facilitated he preceding brief

36 PANORAMA2010

capitalism has failed to help them. Access to markets and the unprecedented potent forces of capitalism has led to further exploitation and dispossession among the most poor. In most of the cases, positive intermediate metrics demonstrate

that the interventions, as envisioned, have been carried out successfully. In the case of land reform as promoted by Hernando de Soto, a profound miscalculation or misrepresentation of who was meant to benefit has occurred. Microfinance, as

exemplified by the work of the Grameen Bank, seems to have proven a tool with the potential to empower the poor. However, the growing industry as a whole seems to reinforce inequalities by failing to address the power structures into which their borrowers will take loan money. Given the profound shortcomings of both interventions as agents of empowerment, the ever-growing enthusiasm for them among dominant development practitioners suggests that their actual appeal arises from their “supreme serviceability to the neoliberal/globalization agenda.” (Bateman and Chang, forthcoming).

Arguably, coercive manipulation of ownership has always been the means by which the poor have been made to formally participate in capitalist economies—even where participation proved the most rewarding.

Marxist theory suggests that capitalism is

driven inexorably toward the accumulation of assets in the hands of capitalists, perpetually vacillating between crises of accumulation and crises of legitimation (Harvey, 2009; Habermas, 1980).

The former results when the surplus capitalists hold cannot find an outlet, because they have left insufficient buying power outside of their control to purchase their product, because of conflicts with labor that halt production, or any number of other “blockages.” (Harvey, 2009) The latter arises when capitalists seek new terrain from which to extract the resources they will invest and encounter resistance from those who challenge their rights to do so (Habermas, 1980).

Modern neoliberalism, Harvey (2009) asserts, is feeding capitalism’s ever-expansive appetite for extraction by “opening up new fields for capital accumulation in domains hitherto regarded off-limits to the calculus of profitability.” And if

the institution of capitalism itself is the problem, then it would make sense that even attempts at transformational participation changes like Muhammad Yunus’ microfinance reforms would fail.

Capitalism conquers not by simple dominance, but by reorganizing the world to feed it surplus value. Giving the poor access to capitalism also gives capitalism access to the poor.

Some people do opt out of capitalism. So far those who have successfully escaped capitalist assimilation have done so through “everyday forms of peasant resistance” or by occupying frightfully inhospitable geographies. The modern conditions of rapid urbanization, slum dwelling, and massive informal economies may mark the arrival of an “other” system to the world’s cities, however what form these societies will take remains to be seen.

Bibliography Association for Social Advancement. Hardcore Poor in Microcredit: A Study on the Constraints to Reaching the Hardcore Poor with Microcredit. Dhaka, Bangladesh: ASA, 1997.

Bates, Robert. Prosperity and Violence:The Political Economy of Development.

New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.

Bateman, Milford and Ha-Joon Chang. “The Microfinance Illusion.”

Beaudrillard, Jean. The Spirit of Terrorism. New York: Verso, 2002.

Bebbington, Denise Humphreys and Arelis Gomez. “Rebuilding social capital in post-conflict regions: women’s village banking in Ayacucho, Peru and in Highland Guatemala.” In Microfinance: Perils and Prospects, edited by Jude L. Fernando, 112-132. New York: Routledge, 2007.

De Soto, Hernando. The Mystery of Capital:Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. New York: Basic Books, 2000.

Dictionary of Finance and Banking. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Easterly, William. The White Man’s Burden:Why the West’s Efforts to Aid to Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. New York: The Penguin Press, 2006.

Easterly, William and Ross Levine. “It’s Not Factor Accumulation: Stylized Facts and Growth Models,” World Bank Economic Review 15:2 (2001): 177-219.

Ehlers, Tracy Bachrach and Karen Main, “Women and the False Promise of Microenterprise,” Gender and Society 12:4 (Aug., 1998), 424-440.

Field, Erica and Maximo Torero. “Do Property Titles Increase Credit Access Among the Urban Poor? Evidence from a Nationwide Titling Program.” Harvard University Department of Economics, 2004. http://www. rwj.harvard.edu/papers/field/Field%20Do%20 Property%20Titles%20Increase%20Credit....pdf (Accessed November 26, 2009).

Forbes, Steve. “Mideast Miracle?” February 16, 2004. http:// www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5177 (accessed December 5, 2009).

Galiani, Sebastian and Ernesto Schargrodsky. “Property Rights for the Poor: Effects of Land Titling.” Ronald Coase Institute, Working Paper Number 7, 2009.

Ghatak, Maitreesh. “Group lending, local information and peer selection.” Journal of Development Economics 60 (1999): 27-50.

Goetz, Anne Marie and Rina Gupta, “Who Takes the Credit?

Gender, Power, and Control Over Loan Use in Rural

Credit Programs in Bangladesh,” World Development 24:1 (1995): 45-63.

Habermas, Jürgen. Legitimation Crisis. London: Heinemann, 1980.

Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri. Empire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000.

Harvey, David. “Exploring the Logic of Capital.” Interview with Socialist Review, April 2009. http://www. socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=10801 (Accessed November 26, 2009).

Honohan, Patrick. Financial Sector Policy and the Poor: Selected Findings and Issues. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 2004.

Kagawa, Ayako. “Policy Effects and Tenure Security Perceptions of Peruvian Urban Land Tenure Regularisation Policy in the 1990s.” Workshop Paper, ESF/N-AERUS International Workshop, Leuven and Brussels, Belgium, 23-26 May 2001.

Ledgerwood, Joanna. Microfinance Handbook: An Institutional and Financial Perspective. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 1999.

Marx, Karl. Das Kapital: A Critique of Political Economy,Volume 1.

Washington, D.C: Regnery Publishing, 2000.

Mitchell, Timothy. “The Properties of Markets: Informal Housing and Capitalism’s Mystery.” Working Paper No. 2, Cultural Political Economy Research Group, University of Lancaster, 2004.

Mumford, Lewis. “The Crystallization of the City: The First Urban Transformation.” In Readings in Urban Planning, edited by Jay Stein, 3-7. Chicago: American Planning Association, 2004.

Munro, John. “The Medieval Origins of the ‘Financial Revolution’: Usury, Rentes and Negotiability.” The International History Review, 24:3 (2003) 505-562.

Pinckney, Thomas and Peter Kimuyu. “Land Tenure Reform in East Africa: Good, Bad, or Unimportant?” Journal of African Economies, 3:1 (1994)1-28.

Rankin, Katharine. “Social capital, microfinance, and the politics of development.” In Microfinance: Perils and Prospects, edited

by Jude L. Fernando, 89-111. New York: Routledge, 2007.

Robinson, Marguerite. The Microfinance Revolution: Sustainable Finance for the Poor. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 2001.

Sampson, Robert. “What ‘Community’ Supplies,” in Urban Problems and Community Development, edited by Ronald Ferguson and William Dickens, 241-252. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1999.

Schaeffer, Peter. “A $9 Trillion Question: Did the World Get Muhammad Yunus Wrong?” Foreign Policy (August 18, 2009) http://www.foreignpolicy.com/ articles/2009/08/18/a_9_trillion_question_did_ the_world_get_muhammad_yunus_wrong?page=full (accessed on November 26, 2009).

Scott, James. The Art of Not Being Governed. New Haven: Yale University, 2009.

———. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven: Yale University, 1998.

———. The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University, 1976.

Smith, Phil and Eric Thurman. A Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking, and the Business Solution for Ending Poverty. New York: McGraw Hill, 2007.

Steinwand, Dirk. The Alchemy of Microfinance. Berlin: VWF, 2001.

Yunus, Muhammad. Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the battle against world poverty. New York: PublicAffairs, 2007.

———. Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. New York: PublicAffairs, 2007.

Weber, Max. “Bureaucracy.” In Critical Studies in Organization and Bureaucracy, edited by F. Fischer and C. Sirianni, 19-31.

Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984.

———. “Politics and Vocation.” Lecture (1918). http://www. ne.jp/asahi/moriyuki/abukuma/weber/lecture/ politics_vocation.html (Access November 26, 2009) Wharton School, “Microfinance at a Crossroads: How Best to Create Value for the World’s Poorest Citizens.” Knowledge @ Wharton (October 16, 2006), http://knowledge. wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid-1576 (accessed October 25, 2009).

World Bank, “PERU: Urban Property Rights - The Children of the Mother Earth,” Latin America and the Caribbean – Results in Action (posted May 9, 2007), http://web.worldbank. org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/ COUNTRIES/LACEXT/EXT LACPROJECTSRESULTS/0,,contentMDK:21134643~co ntenttypepk:64745485~dataclass:CNTRY~folderpk:64 748632~mdk:82503~pagePK:64750647~piPK:6475 0659~projID:P039086~theSitePK:3177341,00.html, (accessed December 12, 2009).

Wright, Graham. “Microfinance Systems: Designing Quality Financial Services for the Poor.” New York: Zed Books, 2000.

37

Exploring Design Theory

the Affect of the

built

environment

Democratic

on

Discourse story and photography by

38 PANORAMA2010

Rachel Van TOSH

O

ne of the central goals for

many within the planning profession is to create and promote an environment in which individuals can discuss issues and make decisions about the future of their neighborhoods and cities. It is within this public sphere that individuals discuss societal injustices, and society moves towards a consensus that can then influence democratic politics.

Following the work of Nancy Fraser, this paper argues that the ideal concept of the public sphere is one based on inter-counter public discourse, consisting of different styles and agendas. I then argue that public places are essential to the interaction of these counter publics. Public places, especially in cities, are the physical sites that allow for the expression of different social and cultural views and styles. They provide a physical local for the public space, in which people can present and advocate for their viewpoints.

Many authors, including Michael Davis and Alan Sorkin, have argued that the “colonization” of public places throughout cities—and the creation of a set of “non-places” in which public interaction cannot thrive—poses a threat to the maintenance of a vibrant public sphere. Taking a different view, James Holston, Don Mitchell and others have suggested that through the “minor politics” of everyday interactions, it is possible to create a public place that allows for diversity of social interactions within the confines of highly controlled environments.

In this paper, I examine the validity of these two viewpoints, and examine the extent to which the design of a space can dictate the scope of interactions that occur within it. By performing a direct qualitative study of two dissimilar Philadelphia spaces, the Reading Terminal Market and the Greyhound Bus Station, I conclude that design does influence the interactions of individuals, but not nearly to the extent suggested by the above authors. In fact, there are liberating elements to the place of the bus station and an opportunity for dialogue that does not exist even within more “open” places.

The Public Sphere: The Space of Public Dialogue Defining the Public Sphere It is first essential to define the concept and delineate the characteristics of a public sphere that would promote desirable discourse. Jurgen Habermas defines of the public sphere as “‘a domain of our social life where such a thing as public opinion can be formed, [where] citizens... deal with matters of general interest without being subject to coercion...[to] express and publicize their views'" (Habermas, 1997, as quoted in Mckee, 2004). Habermas argues that the within the ideal public sphere, discussion occurs through non-selfish rational-critical dialogue amongst equal members who respect each others’ opinions; this expression is called “communicative action.” Individuals are expected to leave their biases and viewpoints "at the door" and agree to the logic of the best argument (Thomassen, 2008, 17).

Feminist authors, such as Nancy Fraser, offer an alternative model of the public sphere, which is more inclusive and accommodates the styles and interests of marginal groups: the subaltern counter public. Subaltern counter publics are “parallel discursive arenas where members of subordinated groups invent and circulate discourse, which in turn permit them to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests, and needs” (Fraser, 1992, 67). Subaltern counter publics are figurative spaces where individuals come together to seek refuge from dominant groups and to formulate strategies to assert their agenda in public. However, if counter publics are to form significant relationships with other counter publics, members must be able to relate to those in other groups; a larger public (and, in theory, one public that is “the” public) is still needed to incorporate the actions of members of counter publics (Fraser 1992, 69). The creation of subaltern counter publics would allow for the great diversity of viewpoints/identities to develop ideas and alternatives to cultural, economic and political forms; however, it does not preclude a

larger opinion-forming public.

Postmodern theorists have added several concepts to the ideas of Fraser and Habermas.

Villa, Lyotard, and Thomassen argue that the Habermasian concept of the public space may be coercive, and may suppress diversity, because all arguments must be “rational” and by communicative action, the “better argument” takes precedence (Villa, 1992, 719). In short, the public realm is still implicitly a space of coercion, though it is merely internalized coercion (Villa 1992, Lyotard, Thomassen 2008).

Another thinker, Iris Marion Young, notes that post-modernists such as Lyotard, “turn the merely different into the absolutely other. It inevitably generates dichotomy instead of unity” (Young 1990, 99). For Young, difference “emerges not as a description of the attributes of a group, but as a function of the relations between groups” (Young, 1990, 171). She points out differences as non-essentializing, allowing for people to have a variety of traits, rather than being defined as the “other.” Through recognizing that a myriad of relationships define an individual, Young argues that there can be a more nuanced understanding of difference. Relating to individuals through their active relationships to institutions, rather than through characteristics, allows for the coexistence of substantive differences and similarities within a single person or group.

Public Places: The “Actually Existing” Public Sphere The normative ideal of a public sphere, as we have outlined it above, is a space that maximizes the ability of a diversity of individuals to come together and discuss issues of public concern.

However, for this ideal to become a reality, individuals must interact in some concrete forum.

The requirements of the space itself are not often discussed by public sphere theorists. There are two broad categories in which such spaces can exist: the non-physical and the physical. Nonphysical spaces (such as the internet, literature, or audio-visual mediums) play an important role in the formation and continuation of public spheres,

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however, they are inherently somewhat exclusive. Books and magazines must be published, television shows must be produced. The internet holds promise, but there are barriers there as well (McKee, 2004; Nakamura, 2000; Calhoun, 1993; Dean, 2001). The non-physical space can easily be avoided—television shows can be turned off.

Physical public places provide a better forum for discourse amongst counter-publics. Public places “while far from free of regulation, [are] generally conceived as open to greater public participation” (Low and Smith, 2006, 3-4). In public places it is difficult to choose the people or ideas you encounter. One can distance oneself, and make oneself more or less available (by listening to music, for example) but as soon as you leave your private home one is forced to at least see others, and perhaps hear what they have to say.

While one clearly exercises some control over one’s engagements with others, it is more difficult to “turn off” people face-to-face than it is to click away from a website.

“Non-Places” and Their Threat to the Public Access to public places that allow for interaction are desirable for those who value the ideal public sphere. If places are built to enforce a certain type of interaction between individuals, then people using this space will—to some degree—be affected by it. David Harvey notes that: We do not...experience the city blankly, and much of what we do absorb from daily life in the city (be it the long drag of the commute, the jostle of the subway crowds, the blandness of the shopping mall, the elegance or grandeur of certain forms of urban architecture, the panhandlers on the sidewalk, or the peace and beauty of an urban park) surely has some kind of influence on how we are situated in the world and how we think and act politically within it.

(Harvey, 2006, 18) It is thus important to understand the intentions with which a place is produced in the contemporary world, and to understand the constraints such places might impose on public sphere interactions.

There is agreement across various fields that

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contemporary public places are becoming increasingly exclusionary in design. However, there are two schools of thought regarding what effect this has on the public sphere. One group argues that the changing design affects public interactions, while others argue that it is the actions of individuals that have always made places “public.”

Authors who are concerned that public places are endangered describe four main issues: a focus on design concepts that emphasize “panopticism” of public space; privatization; the creation of “spectacle” environments; and the proliferation of “non-places” (Lofland, 1998, 210-216). The first three of these trends have been thoroughly documented through case studies—such as New York City and Los Angeles—and are well-known to planners who focus on the public environment (see Davis, 1992, 2006; Zukin, 1995; Mitchell, 2003; Harvey, 2000; Czepcynski, 2008; and Boyer, 1992 for examples).

The fourth factor, the proliferation of the generic “non-places”—has been less well documented. Michael Sorkin argues that contemporary cities have become a “vast, virtually undifferentiated territory…a ‘non-place urban realm’ that provides the bare functions of a city, while doing away with the vital, not quite disciplined formal and social mix that gives cities life” (Sorkin, xii).

The work of Marc Augé gives definition to the concept of the “non-place” as a location that lacks history and identity. The individual’s ability to engage with others within the “non-place,” is highly regulated and controlled (Augé, 1992, 109). Within a non-place there are numerous distractions, such as games or advertisements.

No interaction is encouraged; signs and very formulaic interactions dominate discourse.

People are bound into contractual relationship that dictates their actions (Augé, 1992, 101).

They move as directed, speak rarely and only as directed, and engage only with themselves or the people they know. The individual loses identity, and is now defined by the various “contracts” into which he/she has entered. Augé argues that “[the individual] obeys the same code as others, receives the same messages, responds to the same entreaties. The non-place creates neither singular identity nor relations; only solitude, and simili-

tude” (Augé, 1992, 103). Such environments of mechanization exist in many settings including airports, hotel lobbies and supermarkets (Augé, 1992, 94; see Jameson 1991 for an account of this phenomenon at the Bonaventure Hotel and Ritzer 1993 in McDonalds restaurants).

Creating Public Places through Everyday Action The authors above all ascribe to the idea that changing physical characteristics of places can have a significant effect on public sphere discourse. However, others argue that actions can subvert the imposed order of a place. Frederic Jameson argues that “[physical] space notoriously underscores and reinforces whatever division of labor is active”—no building or design space could be “political once and for all, no matter how ostentatiously it labels itself as such, for there can never be any guarantee it will be used the way it demands” (Jameson, 1997, 258). Don Mitchell agrees with Jameson’s view, asserting that public spaces are not containers of the “public sphere” by design. They are not “given” as open places of interactions. Rather, he argues that: What makes a space public…is often not its pre-ordained ‘publicness.’ Rather, it is when, to fulfill a pressing need, some group or another takes a space and through its actions makes it public.The very act of representing one’s group (or to some extent one’s self) to a larger public creates a space for representation. Representation both demands and creates space (Mitchell, 2003, 35).

The physical alteration of space, while it may make certain interactions more difficult, cannot entirely destroy its “public” character, because it is the interactions of individuals that truly create public places. Foucault puts it thusly: “it can never be inherent in the structure of things to guarantee the exercise of freedom. The guarantee of freedom is freedom” (Foucault, 372). These authors argue that alterations to a physical place will not necessarily result in the death of public spaces— public spaces are created through actions. Many “traditional” public places were never explicitly public to begin with. Street corners and plazas, the ancient Greek agora and the marketplace,

were always exclusive to some groups that had to fight to make themselves heard (Mitchell, 2003, 131-132).

The efforts of a subaltern counter-public to “contest” or make itself visible within a public space have historically taken on different forms.

There are “major politics” and smaller, everyday methods of resistance which are referred to as “minor politics” (Amin and Thrift, 232). It is this latter form that is important for the concept of the public sphere. “Minor politics” are composed of the small interactions or contests that I will be focusing on in this paper. These actions constitute our most-often-experienced discourse with members of different subaltern public spheres.

Scholars focus on a variety of ways that this can occur—through small-scale games, carnivals, or merely through the act of walking (Debord; de Certeu, 1976; Scott, 1990; Killian, 1984; Low, 2000; Holston, 2007). However, they all agree on one essential point: seemingly small actions can contest the order of controlled non-places. These

actions can open even the most controlled places to allow individuals to express a variety of views.

Research Question and Methodology The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of design of a public place on counterpublic discourse, and whether individuals could subvert the intended order of a space through everyday interactions. I posited that design would limit dialogue, but would not stop it entirely.

I selected sites to research this question based on the Augé’s description of “places” and “nonplaces.” This dichotomy was selected because (1) there have been no fieldwork-based studies of “non-places” that have connected them to public sphere-like interactions and (2) the “non-place” is the most extreme contemporary example of a place that would limit interaction through its design. The Reading Terminal Market was the “place”; the nearby Greyhound Bus Station was the “non-place.”

These two places were studied through several means. I collected academic papers and scholarly and newspaper articles on both sites. In addition, over the course of two months, from FebruaryMarch 2009, I made frequent visits to both of the sites. During this fieldwork, I observed interactions between different groups, conducted three formal interviews and several informal interviews.

The Reading Terminal Market Throughout its history, Reading Terminal Market has been a public place that values its history and roots, and as a result it has been fastidiously cared for in a manner that promotes inclusivity.

The Market is certainly a “place” according to Augé’s definition, i.e. a location in which the physical design allows a community to flourish by providing a commonality and sense of belonging (Augé, 1992). The Market opened in 1892 and has remained largely the same in character (O’Neil); as one journalist notes, “the market is all rough edges and earth smells….in both

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style and content, the market is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the sanitized mall, the supermarket, the mass-produced hamburger and the hanging fern (Stevens, 1998; also Burros, 1988; Marchese). The Market’s executive director/ manager has made the conscious decision not to renovate the Market or bring in chain stores or “culinary” stands that would appeal to a wealthier clientele.

Market Society: Diversity, Interaction, and Flexibility The history and authenticity of the Market has allowed for the development of a vibrant social scene, a diverse gathering spot in terms of race, class, and viewpoint. Of course, the presence of individuals with diverse backgrounds does not necessarily mean that they will interact with one another. However, the atmosphere of the Market encourages openness, leniency of behavior, and unscripted dialogue. Anderson notes that: “Strangers engage in spontaneous conversation, getting to know one another as they do…people

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leave such encounters with a good feeling about the other…they have made human contact across the putative barriers of race, ethnicity, and other differences” (Anderson, 18). The diversity of the locale, the open atmosphere, and the lively discussions between regulars and merchants lays the groundwork for conversation between a multiplicity of individuals.

The flexibility of the Market allows social groups to form their own “unofficial” spaces where they can engage with each other; there are two such notable areas in the market: the created seating area, and the periphery in the back. The presence of such spaces encourages regulars to come to the Market and also gives them a “safe” space from which to reach out to other groups.

It is notable that the “peripheral” sections of the Market—those in the back near the refrigerators and the loading docks—are almost entirely occupied by the elderly or by ethnic minorities.

Younger, wealthier, tourist, business and convention center populations congregate in the Center Court.

Subaltern Counter Publics in the Market The diversity, interaction and flexibility of the Market create a prime atmosphere for the interaction of subaltern counter publics. The Market is seen as a place where people can disseminate information about their causes. During the course study, the author received information from Women Against Rape (WAR), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a new, smallscale, GTBLQ group starting up in Chinatown, and the Asian Arts Initiative (AAI). These organizations utilize the Market as a place to discuss their organizations and dispense information.

The Market also provides an arena for the unofficial dissemination of ideas between members of counter publics and parties that may be interested in listening to them. I observed numerous examples of this, but one highly illustrative incident was a conversation in which a young man explained basic Marxist interpretations of social divides and their influence on race relations to an older African-American next to whom he was sitting. After about an hour, the younger man gave the older one information about the next meeting of a reading group that he and his friends had started, which the older man was interested in. The young man had— perhaps—added another individual to his group.

The Market also provides a place for homegrown counter publics to flourish. There are numerous counter publics throughout the Market, and they vary in message, marginality and openness to non-members. The best example of this is the Miscellanea Libri, a small used bookshop in the back of the Market that is haphazardly created from old shelves and donated books.

The bookstore has a particular topical bent—one that Dexter, the salesman, was happy to explain to me. The bookstore carries works on multiple subjects, but the largest section is devoted to African history and culture. There is also a large display on Obama. This reflects the view of the owners, Isaac and Dexter, who believe Africa to be the origin of all ideas, and that the “African nation” holds the key to power and truth. Although Dexter and Isaacs’ beliefs appear to be a fringe theory/religion, when one listens to Dexter for a few minutes, he begins to relate

these spiritual beliefs to more concrete matters regarding race, class and politics within the United States. Miscellanea Libri, Dexter, and his large number of followers represent a homegrown, Market-based counter public. Whenever I stopped at the Miscellanea Libri, Dexter was surrounded by at least five or six people who wanted to talk to him or invite him to events throughout the city.

I was never able to sit down and speak to these individuals one-on-one, but when they saw him explaining his ideas to either me or others sitting with him, they would encourage and support him.

An (Almost) Ideal Site for Counter Public Interactions The Market is an example of a public “place” linked to its past—there has been no attempt to “sanitize” it by getting rid of old signs, stalls, or tables. The design is welcoming and flexible; it reinforces the interactive environment.

The frequency in which people are drawn into conversations attracts subaltern counter publics who wish to reach a wider audience. The Market’s nooks and crannies—which the administration of the Market consciously allows to exist—provide a home for a wide diversity of individuals, who present a broad spectrum of races and classes.

Many of those people engage in conversations regarding their political and social viewpoints; they coalesce to form counter publics that have their home within the Market.

The Greyhound Bus Station The Greyhound Bus Terminal in Philadelphia represents a salient example of the “non-place” as defined by Augé. As such, it offered me the unique opportunity to determine whether the physical characteristics of a locale could be so sanitized as to be entirely inhibitory to social interaction, shutting out all opportunities for subaltern counter publics to advance their message.

at a minimum: increase visibility with better lighting, bright signs and tiles; eliminate nooks and improve natural supervision by avoiding walls that obstruct sight, use glass for interior walls, renovate the food court and fill in empty spots with merchants; discourage loitering by installing a public address system, and remove benches (Felson, 1996, 70-71). These methods are supposed to “sanitize” the environment, thus eliminating the undesirable “underclass.”

The Philadelphia Greyhound Bus Station was to minimize “chaos” as well. In 1987, Ross Wilson, the head of the renovation of the station at the time, commented that the terminal was designed to “‘eliminate the loiterers usually associated with bus terminals…the only uncontrolled area we have is where a passenger buys his or her ticket’” (Lowe, 1987). Since its move in 1987, the interior of the building was renovated and the current configuration allows for even greater visibility and control of the site.

The Greyhound Bus Station can be characterized as an example of Augé’s “non-place.” The station’s design does not relate to any common history, and the place is filled with signs that— unlike the Reading Market—provide no character, only directions. Outside of the station, there are numerous signs that denote “No Loitering” with the threat of police action. When one first walks into the station, he/she is also confronted with numerous signs denoting the station as a place for “Ticket Passengers Only” and reinforcing the rules of behavior. Inside, it is divided into several “zones”—games, café, phone booth—each of which is designated by signs. As Felson et.al. note, such signs and zones allow for maximum control

of the crowd—one can immediately discern if a person is where he is supposed to be, and if he is doing what he “ought.” The seeming lack of interaction in the Station also aligns with Augé’s definition of the “non-place.” Throughout field visits, I observed that the majority of people read a book or watched the constantly-blaring television.

Subaltern Counter Public Interaction in the Station Although it was somewhat unexpected, there was evidence of counter-public interaction within the station. It was more difficult to discern “counter public” status in the station because people largely did not come as a representative of anything, like WAR or PETA did in the market.

Instead, the conversations between members of “counter publics” began as people chatting because they were in common positions. However, this sometimes led to substantive conversations.

For example, while standing in line waiting for a bus to New York City, three young black men struck up a conversation with a white student from Pratt. They subsequently talked about the explosives found in the station in October 2001, which lead to an intensely heated discussion about Guantanamo Bay and detention camps in general. Eventually, they exchanged e-mail addresses prior to boarding the bus. Other examples include conversations about immigration and organic gardening.

The best example illustrating this point involved the taping of a promotional video for a young rapper. One Thursday afternoon, a group of three well-dressed, young black individuals

The Design of Philadelphia Greyhound Bus Station and its Identity as a “Non-Place” The most comprehensive study on bus terminal design was completed in 1996. This resulted in several strategies to keep “chaos”

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came into the Station carrying a camera. They were waiting to get on a bus to New York, which was not going to leave for another forty-five minutes. Instead of going next door to the Gallery, or wandering around Center City, they decided to come and wait for the bus and film a short promotional clip. The arrival of these three caused a considerable commotion in the station. Everyone looked up from their respective conversations or reading and watched them walk to the back of the blue benches, closest to the bathroom. The first person to strike up a conversation was an older white woman who, between takes, asked what they were doing. The older man explained that they were making a promotional video, and she began to ask about the music. Within fifteen minutes there were about ten people surrounding Theo, listening to him explain his music. By the time the rapper had left to board his bus, he had spoken to about fifteen people, and several others had listened to his views on music and its ability to influence positive outcomes in people. The most interesting interaction within this setting was a brief moment when an older Asian man demanded to know if the rapper thought his music would reach beyond the black/Hispanic

community into the Asian one. Thinking for a minute, the rapper ultimately replied with a version of “I hope so.” He appeared to be mulling over what the older man had said; he had been challenged to think about his own message and mission.

Fostering Discourse in the “Non-Place” Despite the “non-place” design of the Greyhound Station, individuals of different background and viewpoints were able to interact across boundaries. To some degree, the social barriers that discourage people from getting involved in others’ affairs broke down in this space. One busy morning, I asked a man sitting next to me why he thought people would launch into these more personal conversations. He replied “Well, why not? We’re all sitting here.” This is the key to understanding interactions in the “non-place”— everyone is just sitting there. They could gain all of their information from the surrounding signs—there is no need to talk to anyone else. Yet, by the virtue of being in the same place, doing the same thing, people feel that it is acceptable to ask personal questions or divulge their opinions.

With nothing else to do, people begin to speak.

Augé writes that the non-place can be liberating. He comments that “no doubt the relative anonymity that goes with this temporary identity (of a “ticketed passenger”) can even be felt as liberation, by people who, for a time, have only to keep in line, go where they are told, check their appearance” (Augé, 101). Augé somewhat dismisses this as unimportant, because the person must give up their autonomy to reside in this liberating space, and therefore no substantive conversation can occur. However, perhaps there is an alternative way to think about this: within the non-place, people do not lose all sense of identity. Rather, their mutual position as ticketed passengers allows them to approach people on equal ground, and with something in common.

The comment “Why not? We’re all just sitting here” demonstrates the other psychological affect such non-places have on the individual: They are equalizing. People perceive themselves to be in a similar situation, one in which there is little distinction between individuals. There is a heightened feeling of being merely a “bus passenger” who is sitting around with other passengers. And, since everyone is “just sitting here,” there is little reason to not engage with the person you happen to find interesting, or the person sitting next to you. With time on their hands and a sense of shared experience, people begin to talk.

The controlled and distracting configuration of the bus station has little effect on them. In this talking, they are able to find common ground and a space for discussing the issues important to them, where they are not bound by a particular discursive style or method of argumentation; they are, in short, able to create spaces conducive to a public sphere.

Conclusion My fieldwork in these two sites revealed that physical constraints of a place cannot eliminate the essential component of a counter public sphere: The ability of a diversity of people to discuss matters of social and political importance.

The “place” of the Reading Terminal Market allowed for a greater number of counter public interactions, and more conversation between

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individuals of diverse backgrounds. It is an open, diverse site that encourages discourse and provides a physical base to several counter publics.

However, within the Greyhound Station people also crossed racial and cultural lines. People were able to break from the rules of the “non-place” and debate topics of public concern. Within each place, individuals engaged in the “minor politics” of everyday actions, participating in conversation that transcended racial, ethnic, and economic lines.

What are the implications of this for the planning profession? Members of our profession who

are interested in the creation of public places in which individuals of any background—especially those who cannot easily make themselves heard in public—should think about what the essentials are in the design of such places. Reading Terminal Market is a unique place that is not easily replicated. However, the Greyhound Bus Station—and places like it—can be found throughout the United States. In the design of new places, it is perhaps best to try and emulate the flexible, gritty character of the market which allows groups to create their own spaces. However, when re-inventing the numerous places that are more akin to

the station, all is not lost. Planners and designers must look for the elements within these places that allow for interaction. If it is found within the seating area, then the design should be altered to allow for this; there should be sites in which people can feel that they have some common ground—that they are all “just sitting” with each other in some common experience. Perhaps in this way it will be possible to make sure of these places and promote the numerous interactions that are now only nascent.

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Aaron Kelley

SMART BY DESIGN gr oup 3

The DIG Philly project provides a vision for the vacant industrial lands on the lower Schuylkill River by capitalizing on Philadelphia’s largest infrastructural problem—combined sewer overflow—by creating a pilot community based on the hydrogen economy. This is a future where water treatment and energy production are one; together, they inform a landscape framework for sustainable industrial urban development. The project also celebrates the historical value of archaic industry in the urban landscape, as new technologies and accessible infrastructure colonize the rusting follies of the petrol era.

Christopher Bleakley, Rana Boland, Yang Dai, Lou Huang, Danae Tilghman, Yuangling Zhang

URBAN DESIGN

a project by

Philadelphia University

LaSalle University

Villanova University

Bryn Mawr College

Haverford College

Temple University

29% non-native students stay in Philadelphia

St. Joseph’s University

Penn State

Moore School Of Design Drexel University Curtis Institute Thomas Jefferson University University of the Arts

University Of Pennsylvania USP

Swarthmore College

213,000 students

18% of residents have bachelor’s degrees

URBAN PARKS

INDUSTRIAL BLIGHT

INFRASTRUCTURE BARRIERS

NOURISH. SUPPORT. PROTECT.

REPURPOSED SPACE

STRUCTURE. CONNECT. STRENGTHEN.

VISION

S Y S T E M // L A N D S C A P E

for the Lower Schuylkill

SYSTEM // INFRASTRUCT U R E

SMART AS PROVOCATIVE

SMART AS EFFICIENT

“The lower Schuylkill River will be a thriving research corridor for the arts and sciences aimed at stopping Philadelphia’s brain drain. Through improved accessibility, this river will weave together threads of ecology with the urban tapestry.”

STEMS OF PUBLIC

SPACE

PRINCIPLE #1: Public spaces will be landscapes that nourish, support & protect the city.

Schuylkill THE LOWER

SMART BY DESIGN

BRANCHES OF INFRASTRUCTURE

ROOTS OF COMMUNITY

PRINCIPLE #2: Infrastructure will be the connective tissue that structures development and promotes efficient movement throughout Philadelphia.

PRINCIPLE #4: Communities should be the anchors of the Schuylkill River corridor.

3 46 PANORAMA2010 group

a project by

URBAN DESIGN

LEAVES OF DEVELOPMENT PRINCIPLE #3: Development will incorporate all sectors of the knowledge industry in order to produce the greatest yield for the economy.

EXISTING TRANSIT SYSTEM lack of connectivity

EXISTING PARK SYSTEM

WETLANDS Wetland

22 miles of light rail transit

1,148 acres of new park

disconnected network

197 acres

PROPOSED TRANSIT SYSTEM

PROPOSED PARK SYSTEM

PILOT STUDY PilotSITES Study Sites

482 acres

WOODLANDS Woodland

285 acres

MAJOR ROADS

BRIDGES & CONNECTIONS

2 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

overflow point ANNUAL RAIN EVENTS

60

%

(inches)

city

of the is serviced by combined

sewer

systems

POPULATION

1940

2008 1970

2.1 million

2 million

1.4 million

 

 

  

TRANSIT SERVICE

1

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3

 

 

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 

5

 

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 



 



 

 

 





GLOBAL INTEGRATION

H2O SYSTEM

chris BLEAKLEY

GRAYS FERRY

yuanling ZHANG

PASSYUNK

Schuylkill THE LOWER

CONFLUENCE

lou HUANG

CONVERT. PRODUCE. CREATE.

SYSTEM // DEVELOPMENT SMART AS INNOVATIVE

danae TILGHMAN

PRODUCE LOGICAL INTELLIGENCE + RESEARCH / DEVELOPMENT + INNOVATION CENTER + INSTITUTION / BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS

rana BOLAND

CREATE ART / MUSIC / LINGUISTIC INTELLIGENCE + FLEXIBLE ART SPACE + MUSIC INSTITUTION + LANGUAGE INSTITUTION

yang DAI

CONVERT NATURAL INTELLIGENCE + URBAN AGRICULTURE + CONSTRUCTED WETLAND + URBAN FOREST / TREE NURSERY + CLEAN ENERTY

LEGEND

Existing Parks & Open New Parks & Open Space Pilot Study Site Forest Wetlands Water

Residential Commercial Institutional Industrial Existing Curblines Light Rail Transit

Trolley Broad Street SubMarket-Frankford SubRegional Rail Freight Rail New Bike Paths

MASTER PLAN scale

1” = 750’

SMART BY DESIGN Within the Urban Realm Studio, crossdisciplinary teams of five persons each work together to develop a master plan for the entire lower Schuylkill River site.

This project, called “Smart by Design,” envisions redevelopment along the Schuylkill that focuses on reversing the “brain drain” by retaining graduates of Philadelphia’s stellar educational institutions, who have been leaving the city for work elsewhere. It explores the idea of smart growth and smart design strategies in landscape, transportation infrastructure, knowledge-based industry, and community development.

group 3

a project by

URBAN DESIGN

47

D oes

T H A T

L O O K

R I G H T

by

a n

Law of 48 PANORAMA2010

T O

Y O U ?

BR YAN RODDA

I n q u i r y

i n t o

t h e

I

t is probable that an architect contem-

plates aesthetics as often as a judge contemplates fairness. The quest for the former is to create buildings that are attractive yet functional, while the latter seeks judgments that are fair yet practical. This paper explores what happens when these professions clash through land use regulations that attempt to regulate the aesthetics of the human built environment. These cases must balance the desire of private landowners to use their land in an unfettered manner against the desire of a municipality to retain certain architectural features or elements that it believes enhances the welfare of its public. The questions posed by such cases are deep and fundamental: Does the government have the authority to regulate “beauty?” Can aesthetic beauty be codified into legal documents?

Is architectural expression “speech,” and therefore entitled to protection under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution?

These are provocative questions, and intricate legal questions, as well. The U.S. Supreme Court has done relatively little to clear up the matter.

In no case has it definitively stated whether or not it considers architectural expression to be protected speech under the First Amendment.

Further, it has not yet considered a case where the central issue has been the constitutionality of a municipality’s design review process, even though the number of cities employing design review as part of the building approval process has steadily increased in the past forty years. However, the Supreme Court and other federal and state courts are not without guidance. When considering design review cases, they have often sought to follow the logic of cases from the law of zoning, such as Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. and Berman v. Parker, where the Supreme Court has established precedents regarding the police power and the public welfare (272 U.S. 365 1926; 348 U.S. 26 1954).

government unit, whether through informal or formalized processes” (Scheer 2006, 492). From her definition, the key elements of design review can be explained. It is a public process, occurring under the auspices of a local government, and it derives its force of law from that government’s ability to exercise the police power to control land development. Design review usually has “teeth:” Sheer found that among municipalities using design review in the early 1990s, more than fourfifths had a mandatory and legislated process, where design review decisions carry the same force of law as traditional zoning ordinances and subdivision regulations (Scheer 2006, 492). Most design review processes have two key elements: a set of written design guidelines that explain the aesthetic or social goals that the design review process hopes to foster, and a design or architecture review board to which a local legislative body delegates the administrative authority to

rule on design review cases. The written set of design guidelines is the crucial document of the design review process, and either stands alone or is integrated into the locality’s zoning ordinance.

In municipalities that lack a formal design review board, there is typically a hybrid of city planner, citizen advisory board, or elected official involvement in the process (Scheer 2006, 492).

Unlike zoning ordinances, which were widely based on standard zoning enabling acts passed by the federal and various state governments in the 1920s, design guidelines and design review processes have no standard model; nor do the end goals to be accomplished through better urban design.

Though it lacks this standard model, usage of design review has expanded dramatically in the United States since the 1970s (Punter 1998, 3).

Yet unlike zoning, which has been consistently upheld by American courts since the Euclid v. Ambler

What is Design Review?

Broadly stated, design review is a process whereby a municipality or other civic jurisdiction exercises legal control over the design and aesthetics of proposed development projects.

Scheer’s definition is worthwhile, “Design review refers to the process by which private and public development proposals receive independent criticism under the sponsorship of the local

49

case, design review remains more controversial and unsettled in the courts. Before exploring the courts’ opinions on design review, though, it is worth understanding why cities have adopted such regulations.

Why Do Cities Use Design Review?

The embrace of design review is a direct result of changing social opinions about cities and built environments, often as a reactionary push against large-scale urban renewal projects and modernist architecture. Punter, in his review of design guidelines in American cities, identifies several motivations for design regulations. Among these are “…dissatisfactions with modernist architecture and planning…with corporate franchise design and standardised building forms…[and] perhaps deeper dissatisfactions with the loss of local landmarks…the fake, the pastiche, the facadist, the gentrified and the ‘themed’ landscapes,” all of which have served, he argues, to obliterate local identity and sense of place in many communities( Punter 1998, 3). Places, in other words, have become more placeless in the modern world—a Wal-Mart in suburban Philadelphia or suburban Houston or rural Ohio, for example, exhibits the essential characteristics of a Wal-Mart, and not of Philadelphia, Houston, or rural Ohio. A similar effect has occurred in suburban housing development, where one housing type—the detached, single-family dwelling—has ruled to such an extent that suburbs are often visually indistinguishable from each other. Communities, Punter argues, have therefore sought, “...regulatory frameworks that can help retain local character, make the most of existing assets in the built and natural environments, and create developments that are safe, attractive and user-friendly” (Punter 1998, 3). Similarly, Sheer finds that the most common goals enunciated by design regulations include improving the quality of life, preserving and enhancing a unique place, maintaining or upgrading a place to keep it safe and viable, and providing for compatible or unified development (Scheer 2006, 492). In many of these objectives one can hear the echoes of the “public health, safety, morals, or general welfare,” rationale that provides the crucial legal basis for the separation of land uses though zoning. (272 U.S. 365, 1926). It is important, before wading into the particulars of the legal issues that arise in design

50 PANORAMA2010

Lack of adequate design review can lead to inappropriate neighboring development—as seen with large skyscrapers dwarfing Philadelphia’s historic Independence Hall.

Before Zoning: Invalidity of Aesthetics Before the landmark court ruling on zoning in Euclid v. Ambler Realty, explained below, a case before the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals invalidated a statue which had imposed setback The Constitutionality and height restrictions on signs (Mandelker of Design Review 2005, 855). In the case, City of Passaic v. Paterson While many modern courts view aesthetic Bill Posting Co., the court ruled that, “It is obvious goals as a sufficient basis in themselves to allow for regulatory land use controls, this acceptance of that the effect of the ordinance is to deprive the landowner of the ordinary use for a lawful design review lags behind the courts’ acceptance business purpose a portion of his land” (72 of traditional zoning and subdivision regulations N.J.L. 285 1905, 285-286). The sign ordinance (Mandelker 2005, 855). Mandelker notes that restrictions included a mandatory 10-foot setback the legal acceptance of the use of aesthetics as a for all signs, plus a maximum height restriction regulatory purpose has evolved in three major of eight feet above ground level, which the court stages: first, most courts in the early 1900s held that aesthetic regulations had no legal basis; later, said was not “reasonably necessary for the public safety,” and therefore was an invalid taking of courts began to recognize that aesthetics could private property without just compensation from serve as a supporting basis for regulation when the municipality (72 N.J.L. 285 1905, 286). combined with other valid zoning purposes; Further, the court specifically refuted the validity finally, many courts have accepted aesthetic regulations as a legitimate form of land use control on of aesthetic considerations as a basis for such an ordinance: their own merits (Mandelker 2005, 855). review cases, to understand how the opinion of the courts has evolved over time in regards to design review cases.

“No case has been cited, nor are we aware of any case which holds that a man may be deprived of his property because his tastes are

The concept of design review—governmental control over the aesthetics of the built environment— is a direct result of changing social opinions about cities and built environments, often as a reactionary push against large-scale urban renewal projects and modernist architecture. not those of his neighbors. Aesthetic considerations are a matter of luxury and indulgence rather than of necessity, and it is necessity alone which justifies the exercise of the police power to take private property without just compensation” (72 N.J.L. 285 1905, 287).

The court cites similar cases with similar holdings from around the country, as if to emphasize further the point that the courts at this time were strongly on the side of landowners. Even the slightest loss of possible economic value to a landowner was considered an unjust taking unless it could be justified as necessary for maintaining the public safety, and clearly any aesthetic considerations were legally baseless as the foundation for land regulation.

Zoning Arrives: Euclid v. Ambler Twenty years after Passaic, the landscape of land use regulations changed dramatically and forever with the U.S. Supreme Court’s approval of the practice of zoning. In Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., the court recognized and sanctioned the practice of separating and limiting particular land uses to particular areas within a municipality (272 U.S. 365 1926). The court reasoned that cities such as Euclid had “powers of its own and authority to govern itself as it sees fit,” and that these powers included the right to control which land uses it permitted to develop, and where (272 U.S. 365 1926, 389). The court was strongly deferential to the expressed will of the legislative body, saying that so long as the validity of the zoning classifications was “fairly debatable” and that the reasoning behind any zoning restrictions was “sufficiently cogent to preclude [a court] from saying… that such provisions are clearly arbitrary and unreasonable, having no substantial relation to the public health, safety, morals, or general welfare,” then the resulting zoning was a constitutionally valid use of the municipality’s police power (272 U.S. 365 1926). While the Euclid decision did not take up the issue of aesthetics directly, in its

discussion the court wrote: “There is no serious difference of opinion in respect of the validity of laws and regulations fixing the height of buildings within reasonable limits, the character of materials and methods of construction, and the adjoining area which must be left open, in order to minimize the danger of fire or collapse, the evils of overcrowding, and the like…” (272 U.S. 365 1926, 388).

to determine that the community should be beautiful as well as healthy, spacious as well as clean, well-balanced as well as carefully patrolled. In the present case, the Congress and its authorized agencies have made determinations that take into account a wide variety of values. It is not for us to reappraise them. If those who govern the District of Columbia decide that the Nation’s Capital should be beautiful as well as sanitary, there is nothing in the Fifth Amendment that stands it the way” (348 U.S. 26 1954, 103-103).

Douglas’ language is qualitative, expansive, and forceful, which perhaps accounts for why it has served as a particularly influential dictum in lending credibility to aesthetic regulations. It is worth noting, Lai remarks, that this decision is “tinged with irony,” since the case validated an urban renewal program that “…has since been largely discredited for its promotion of a This seems to show a court that is not offended by design regulations, as height and ma- rationalized, end-state urban design ideal with terials requirements are design elements; however, insufficient regard for the existing community” (Lai 1988, 242). Put another way, even while the reasoning for allowing such restrictions is Douglas was expanding the public welfare to narrowly tailored to just those cases when necesinclude “beautiful as well as healthy” communisary to insure the public safety, which reaffirms ties, the Berman decision provided legal support for the sentiment of the court in the Passaic case. On the development of many projects responsible for the issue of aesthetic regulation, the court would what are now considered among the most ugly remain silent for thirty additional years. and scarring buildings to stand in American cities.

The Public Welfare Expanded: Berman v. Parker It is exactly these urban renewal projects that Punter had in mind when he traced the beginIn the mid-1950s, the court took up the case nings of design review to “….dissatisfactions of Berman v. Parker, which presented the issue of with modernist architecture and planning…” and whether an ordinance allowing for the taking of thus the Berman decision inadvertently fueled the land for large-scale redevelopment of “blighted movement toward design standards in two ways: territory” within the District of Columbia was a legal one and a public one, where citizens began justifiable under the takings clause of the Fifth to clamor for ways to regulate and control the Amendment (348 U.S. 26 1954). The ordinance problems of urban renewal and other “placeless” was upheld, and the decades-long, country-wide building projects. program of urban renewal won its critical legal justification. Yet Justice Douglas, writing for a Aesthetics as a Contributing Factor: unanimous court, inserted a passage of dictum The Economic Rationale that was later used to justify regulation on the After the Berman decision, some state courts basis of aesthetic considerations alone. Douglas developed an intermediate view that aesthetic somewhat poetically wrote: considerations, while worthy of being considered along with other rationales supporting a land “We do not sit to determine whether a use regulation, were not sufficient in themselves particular housing project is or is not desirable. to justify land use controls. This opinion is well The concept of the public welfare is broad and elucidated in the case of City of Houston v. Johnny inclusive. The values it represents are spiritual Frank’s Auto Parts Co (480 S.W.2d 774 1972). In as well as physical, aesthetic as well as monthis case, Houston passed an ordinance that etary. It is within the power of the legislature

51

Elements that can be specified through design review include facade treatments, such as brick or window detailing, and maintaining distinctive features such as porches.

regulated automotive wrecking and salvage yards, which included both aesthetic and non-aesthetic controls. Frank challenged the constitutionality of the ordinance, saying that Houston had overstepped its police power authority. The court disagreed. It found that the city council established the ordinance on the basis of the public health, safety and welfare as well as on the grounds that automotive wrecking and salvage yards were dangerous attractions to children and could depreciate the value of nearby property.

The court wrote that the “unsightliness” of certain facilities, such as junkyards, has an economic impact on surrounding property and that this unsightliness is a partial justification for land use regulations, provided other legitimate public interests, such as public safety, are also present. This economic rationale for regulating aesthetics is cogently outlined in United Advertising Corp. v. Borough of Metuchen (42 N.J. 1 1964). Here the New Jersey Supreme Court wrote:

52 PANORAMA2010

“Much is said about zoning for aesthetics…There are areas in which aesthetics and economics coalesce, areas in which a discordant sight is as hard an economic fact as an annoying odor or sound. We refer not to some sensitive or exquisite preference but to concepts of congruity held so widely that they are inseparable from the enjoyment and hence the value of property” (42 N.J. 1 1964, 5-6).

The particular language is suggestive that the court views aesthetics as inseparable from the use and enjoyment of property, which is a common rationale underlying the common law notion of a private nuisance. In particular, the equating of a “discordant sight” with an “annoying odor or sound” implies that the court thinks of aesthetics of buildings as similar to the nuisance caused by particularly harmful uses of private property from which a property owner (or, in this case, the public) has a right to relief. The language of

economics is again used in the Metuchen case to justify aesthetic controls along with additional public purposes.

Aesthetics as a Valid Public Purpose: State of New Jersey v. Miller Finally, in the case of State of New Jersey v. Miller, the New Jersey courts recognized a third stage acceptance of aesthetic regulations in land use controls (416 A.2d 821 1980). Here the court allowed that aesthetic concerns alone were sufficient to justify a land use regulation. Rejecting the “luxury and indulgence” language of its earlier Passaic decision, the court wrote: “Consideration of aesthetics in municipal land use and planning is no longer a matter of luxury or indulgence. To the extent that our earlier cases may hold to the contrary, they no longer represent sound zoning law.

The development and preservation of natural

resources and clean, salubrious neighborhoods contribute to psychological and emotional stability and well-being as well as stimulate a sense of civic pride. We therefore hold that a zoning ordinance may accommodate aesthetic concerns” (416 A.2d 821 1980, 409).

of clear Supreme Court precedent accounts for the differing interpretations in the state courts, and leaves several unsettled areas in the law of design review. Two such issues will the subject of the analysis section below.

Two Key Issues in Design Review

The court goes on to cite the dictum in Berman to partially justify this new position, which represents the opinion of many modern courts.

The ordinance in question in this case, however, was stuck down as unconstitutional because of free-speech concerns, an issue examined in more detail later in this paper.

After a court accepts that aesthetic concerns constitute a legitimate area of government regulations, many other questions surface. Of particular interest will be instances where the courts do not seem to agree on a clear standard or rule, and two such examples are the issue of “vagueness” and the issue of architecture and free speech.

History and Context Summary

Vagueness: The Need for Standards When challenged in court, one hurdle a design review ordinance or decision must vault is the need for clear, precise and reasonable design standards and procedures. The typical posture of the courts is nicely summarized in Giaccio v.

Pennsylvania:

Design review with the purpose to regulate the appearance of the built environment is a widespread procedure and “planners’ tool” in modern America. As discussed above, design review developed as a reaction against urban renewal, modernist architecture, and the bland, placeless quality of much corporate architecture, such as that of “big-box” retailers. In this way its origins are not that dissimilar to those of traditional zoning, which also evolved as a reaction against a perceived social ill, namely the overcrowded, dirty and unhealthy conditions of early 20th century U.S. cities.

Legally, most U.S. courts have now accepted design review and aesthetic considerations as a legitimate exercise of the police power of a government. Some, such as the court in City of Houston, have not accepted aesthetics as a valid exercise of the police power on its own, but allows that aesthetics is a factor to consider along with other justifications for land use regulations.

Other courts, such as the New Jersey court in State v. Miller, have held that aesthetics alone provides sufficient justification for a land use regulation.

These two interpretations are the dominant positions of the lower courts today on design review cases. Both positions have generally been supported by the U.S. Supreme Court’s position in the Berman case, where it granted aesthetic concerns refuge under the umbrella of the “general welfare” rationale given in Euclid.

While the Berman case is often cited, the passage on aesthetics was dictum in that case, and the Supreme Court has never definitively spoken on the issue of design review, choosing instead to leave the issue to the various state courts. The lack

“It is established that a law fails to meet the requirements of the Due Process Clause if it is so vague and standardless that is leaves the public uncertain as to the conduct it prohibits or leaves judges and jurors free to decide, without any legally fixed standards, what is prohibited and what is not in each particular case” (382 U.S. 399, 402-3).

Lai discusses two ways in which this aspect of substantive due process is tested in design review cases. First is the case of a clear establishment of the authority of the design review body to act and rule on aesthetic issues. Lai says, “a common failing of local design regulations has been their inadequacy to channel administrative discretion…” and therefore the authority under which the design review board acts is considered arbitrary and vague (Lai 1988, 288). The essential requirement is that the legislative body delegating design review authority to an administrative body must make it such that decisions of the board cannot be seen as “...the purely arbitrary choice of the administrator” (American Law Reports 2d, 1087). In practice, the “purely arbitrary” phrasing has actually established a very modest standard for legislative and administrative bodies to meet.

Contrary to Lai’s statement, most modern courts hold that legislative bodies are able to confer

broad discretion on administrative bodies.

The second due process challenge that Lai outlines concerns the vagueness of the language in the ordinance or design guidelines themselves. This is an issue that has perplexed the courts, many of which have found the language employed to describe aesthetic judgments to be lacking in specificity and quantifiable measures.

Unlike a zoning ordinance, where provisions such as acceptable building bulk, height and floor-arearatios can be numerically specified, the language of aesthetic judgments often hinges on terms such as “harmony,” “similarity” (or “dissimilarity”), and “beauty.” Lai notes that “…design judgment defies the measurable specificity demanded by the law” (Lai 1988, 310). Further, he seems to feel that this problem is deeper than simple language: he identifies it as a fundamental tension between the fields of law and architecture. He writes: “Like all disciplines, architecture and law each have distinctive values, methodologies, and semantic practices peculiar to themselves. In contrast to the law, which places high esteem on accepted doctrine and historic precedent, architecture assigns its highest premiums to originality and innovation” (Lai 1988, 310).

From this divided perspective, judges and the courts may consider some design regulations impermissibly vague, yet architects and designers themselves are loathe to proscribe every last dimension for fear of losing any chance of legitimate architectural expression. But in both professions, the proper level of specificity is itself unclear. The courts have reached nearly polar opposite positions in cases with similar language.

For example, in Stoyanoff v. Berkeley, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld an ordinance requiring that buildings “…conform to certain minimum architectural standards of appearance and conformity with surrounding structures…” which is similar to the “proper architectural principles” terminology allowed under Reid (458 S.W. 2d 305 1970, 306.). But as a counter-example, in Pacesetter Homes, Inc. v.Village of Olympia Fields, an Illinois appellate court invalidated a design regulation that prohibited “…excessive similarity, dissimilarity or inappropriateness in exterior design and appearance of property” (244 N.E. 2d 369, 37).

It is hard to derive meaningful guidance from the courts from their interpretations in

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privately-owned buildings on privately-owned land exist in space and therefore they impact the public and the public realm.

The U.S. Supreme Court has made no clear judgment that establishes whether architecture is afforded the same free speech protections granted to other forms of symbolic speech (Scheer 2006, 495). “When and if the Court does take up the issue,” Gill writes, “they will undoubtedly have to wrestle with a clash of three interests: the individual interest in freedom of expression, the community police power, and the neighborhood Free Speech: Design Regulations interests enmeshed in the common law nuisance and Creative Expression A second issue put before the courts in design doctrine” (Gill 2003, 421).

One case of interest in this area is the decision review cases is the possibility that a design review in State of New Jersey v. Miller (416 A.2d 821 1980). ordinance impinges the freedom of speech of an While this court accepted aesthetics as a valid architect or landowner to express their personal basis for government regulation, it struck down tastes and opinions via the medium of architeca sign ordinance because it infringed on the ture. As the First Amendment of the U.S. Constiplaintiff’s free speech rights. Miller had posted a tution provides, “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech” (U.S. Const. am. sign in his front yard “welcoming” people to his neighborhood, which he identified as a “flood 1). Whether the design review process violates hazard area” (416 A.2d 821 1980, 406). The this amendment depends on the answers to two court determined that the content on Miller’s sign questions, according to Speer. It must be known constituted “political speech” and thus should be if architecture and other aspects of the built afforded higher levels of free speed protection. environment are protected as “speech” under (416 A.2d 821 1980, 411-413). the Constitution, and if so, whether the governAnother famous free speech and aesthetics ment could then show a compelling legitimate interest to override such protection (Scheer 2006, case is Metromedia, Inc. v. City of San Diego (453 U.S. 490 1981). In this U.S. Supreme Court decision, 495). Gill asserts that “design review can censor the court ruled that a San Diego ordinance architectural expression” and then colorfully prohibiting non-commercial signs while allowing captures the essential tension between regulation commercial signs on business premises was and unfettered expression when he notes: unconstitutional on its face because it “reached too far into the realm of protected speech” “Being required to design to a specific style by trying to develop such a strict distinction runs counter to the freedom of expression between commercial and non-commercial speech that architects are trained and dedicated to (453 U.S. 490 1981, 521). This case is notable, pursue. Imagine telling a bunch of modern however, because of the concurring opinion of artists they had to paint in Rembrandt’s style.

Justice Brennan, where he laid out what is now You might get some close imitations, perhaps known as “Brennan’s Rule.” He wrote: almost as good as the original, but you would these cases. What, exactly, makes terms such as “harmony” or “excessive similarity or dissimilarity” any more vague and impermissible in a court of law than terms such as “minimal architectural standards” or “proper architectural principles” is murky, at best. The challenge—which still remains quite unresolved—is to delineate guidelines that are specific and clear enough to meet legal standards, yet not so proscriptive so as to impinge all design creativity.

also get a bunch of mediocre and uninspired work. Some might argue that the surrender to subjectivity is a small price to pay for a more orderly, quaint community. Others would argue that this is the height of Orwellian thought control…” (Gill 2003,406-407).

However, Gill glosses over a central point: an artist might paint, market, display and sell her wares entirely within a private sphere of art galleries or a home studio; by contrast, even

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“I think that the [City of San Diego] has failed to show that its asserted interest in aesthetics is sufficiently substantial in [its] commercial and industrial areas. I do not doubt that ‘[it] is within the power of the [city] to determine that the community should be beautiful,’ but that power may not be exercised in contravention of the First Amendment…Of course, it is not for a court to impose its own notion of beauty on San Diego. But before deferring to

a city’s judgment, a court must be convinced that the city is seriously and comprehensively addressing aesthetic concerns with respect to its environment…By showing a comprehensive commitment to making its physical environment in commercial and industrial areas more attractive…San Diego could demonstrate that its interest in creating an aesthetically pleasing environment is genuine and substantial. This is a requirement where, as here, there is an infringement of important constitutional consequence” 453 U.S. 490 1981, 530-533).

Thus Brennan argues that in order to sustain an aesthetic regulation that would impair an individual’s freedom of speech, a government must show a “genuine and substantial” commitment to improving aesthetics in a “serious and comprehensive” way that addresses a larger environment.

This is a much higher standard than the “fairly debatable” standards of traditional zoning cases, and seems to severely restrict a city’s power to regulate aesthetics when individual free speech rights are entwined with the aesthetic judgment in question. In Brennan’s logic, the individual’s speech is what presumed constitutional, and the burden of proof shifts to the municipality to justify that its regulations are comprehensive, genuine and substantial enough to overcome the individual’s rights. So far, the court has not adopted his logic in a majority opinion. Further, it is not clear that Brennan believes that architecture represents a protected free speech right in the way that a message on a billboard does.

In sum, then, we find that content-neutral provisions that restrict an individual’s freedom of speech will tend to be upheld by the courts, while speech that is deemed to be content-based will face a much higher standard, such as in State v. Miller. Yet in no case has the Supreme Court explicitly tackled the issue of whether architectural expression and built forms constitute “speech” under the First Amendment, and further, what sort of free speech protection should properly be afforded to it. If architecture is speech, is it content-based speech, and subject to a stricter free speech scrutiny? Justice Brennan’s logic may offer the courts a way to resolve these issues—and if so, it appears that cities would need to be more rigorous and comprehensive in their approaches to design review if they hope to see the practice widely sustained by the courts.

Analysis and Conclusions The nexus where architecture and the built environment intersects with the public realm and the public interest remains a fertile area of law.

Most modern courts accept that aesthetic considerations can be a legitimate basis for government regulation of the built environment. These courts have often drawn legal support form the Supreme Court decisions in Euclid v. Ambler and Berman v.

Parker. Euclid held that land use zoning was valid exercise of the police power of a municipality as long as zoning bears “substantial relation to the public health, safety, morals, or general welfare” of the locale. That decision further allowed that some design elements of the built environment, such as building height, methods and materials of construction, and required amounts of open space between structures, could be regulated under the provisions of the police power to protect public safety. Berman expanded the definition of “public welfare” to include the idea of beauty and aesthetics.

The problems of defining the vagueness of standards and the role of free speech remain in design review cases. With the vagueness of design guidelines or procedures, some courts have demanded extensively detailed ordinances and protocols while other courts have sustained remarkably discretionary ordinances and procedures. Similarly, First Amendment free speech concerns are ever-present in the design professions, yet the Supreme Court has never established whether it considers architectural expression to carry the same free speech protections afforded to other forms of symbolic expression. It is possible that if architectural expression were expressly endorsed as speech under the U.S. Constitution,

Cases

Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26 (1954) City of Houston v. Johnny Frank’s Auto Parts Company, 480 S.W.2d 774 (Tex., 1972) City of Passaic v. Paterson Bill Posting, Advertising and Sign Painting Company, 72 N.J.L. 285 (1905) Dolan-King v. Rancho Santa Fe Association, 81 Cal. App. 4th 965 (2000) Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365 (1926)

cases involving design review would be easier to adjudicate, as strong free speech precedents would be relevant to design review cases and cities would have to develop more robust procedures and guidelines tailored to meet the higher standards of a free speech case.

This hints at the concept enunciated by Justice Brennan in Metromedia. Like Brennan, I cannot presently find sufficient guidance in the case law that makes it clear to developers, the public, and government officials what, exactly, the law is in regards to design review ordinances. I feel that the nature of architectural design review is quite different from standard zoning cases. Courts that treat design guidelines in the manner of bulk or height restrictions are missing the point of design guidelines—that they are by definition more subjective than simple mathematical formulas that can be dispassionately applied by a zoning official. Besides, the more restrictive the standards, the more significant the challenge to individual freedom of expression posed by an ordinance. Yet simultaneously, we cannot allow such discretion to an administrative body that it could simply reject buildings it finds to be ugly, or worse, practice outright discrimination against developers and homeowners under the guise of aesthetic design review.

This is why Brennan’s Rule is appealing: he does not argue for mathematical or even objective standards, but he reverses the traditional equation of where the burden of proof lies in zoning or police power regulations. Instead of presuming that a city’s ordinance is valid, he presumes that individuals have a right to freedom of speech, and therefore a city must put forth a substantial and comprehensive argument to justify infringing

these rights. Brennan saw the Metromedia case as a First Amendment case, and not as a Fifth or Fourteenth Amendment case regarding property rights or takings. But his method is an attractive way to conceptualize the problem of aesthetic design review. It does require that the courts adopt architectural expression as a form of free speech, a position the courts have not yet fully endorsed.

Brennan provides another key insight: by imposing a much heftier burden on a municipality that wishes to regulate aesthetics and thus infringe on free speech rights, the possibility of wholly arbitrary or vague guidelines and standards will be minimized. Requiring that, to have a valid regulation, a city must develop “serious and comprehensive” standards that address “aesthetic concerns in regard to [the city’s] environment” implies that to pass such an ordinance the city must marshal considerable public support behind any such measure.

Therefore, I would urge that the courts recognize architectural expression as a form of free speech worthy of protection under the First Amendment. I would consider architecture a form of content-based speech, entitled to significant scrutiny, yet I would also argue that architecture has a direct effect on the public environment and therefore the regulation of architecture, including its aesthetics, is of legitimate public interest and within the rights of a municipality to legislate. Such a city, however, would need to meet a “serious and comprehensive” standard similar to the one advocated by Justice Brennan. I support a more rigorous and thorough test based on zoning precedent augmented by the requirements of free speech protection for architectural design.

Giaccio v. Pennsylvania, 382 U.S. 399 (Pa., 1966) Metromedia, Inc. v. City of San Diego, 453 U.S. 490 (Cal., 1981) Morrison Road Associates v. Borough of Bernardsville, 394 A.2d 157 (N.J., 1978) Pacesetter Homes, Inc. v.Village of Olympia Fields, 244 N.E. 2d. 369 (Ill., 1968) Reid v. Architectural Review Board of City of Cleveland Heights, 119 Ohio

App. 67 (1963) Riel v. City of Bradford, 485 F.3d 736 (2007) State ex. rel. Stoyanoff v. Berkeley, 458 S.W. 2d 305 (Mo., 1970) State of New Jersey v. Miller, 416 A.2d 821 (N.J., 1980) United Advertising Corp. v. Borough of Metuchen, 42 N.J. 1 (1964).

Punter, John, Design Guidelines in American Cities: A Review of Design Policies and Guidance in Five West Coast Cities (Liverpool, U.K.: Liverpool University Press, 1998), pp. 1-30 and 195-215.

Regan, Kenneth., “Note: You Can’t Build That Here: The Constitutionality of Aesthetic Zoning and Architectural Review,” 58 Fordham L. Rev. (April, 1990) at p. 1013.

Scheer, Brenda Case., “The Debate on Design Review,” from Design Review: Challenging Urban Aesthetic Control, reprinted

in The Urban Design Reader, Michael Larice and Elizabeth McDonald, Eds. (Routledge, 2006), pp. 490-499.

Schropp, Russell P., “Comment: The Reasonableness of Aesthetic Zoning in Florida: A Look Beyond the Police Power,” 10 Fla. St. U.L. Rev. (Fall 1982) at p. 441.

Works Cited Gill, Kevin G., “Note: Freedom of Speech and the Language of Architecture,” 30 Hastings Const. L. Q. (Spring 2003) at p. 395.

Lai, Richard Tseng-yu., Law in Urban Design and Planning:The Invisible Web (New York, N.Y.: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1988), pp. 241-319.

Mandelker, Daniel R., et. al., Planning and Control of Land Development: Cases and Materials, 6th Ed. (Newark, N.J.: LexisNexis, 2005), pp. 855-905.

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Getting Them

On Board Marketing Tools For Attracting

new riders in an age of

increased Environmental Awareness by

Meg Merritt

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M

ore than ever before, Americans are

increasingly aware that their lifestyle choices impact the environment.

Taking public transportation is one of the most significant ways of “going green,� yet still most Americans use their private automobile above all other modes. One tactic of enticing this burgeoning group of environmentally-conscious households to take transit is to use marketing. Of course, marketing alone cannot overcome major barriers to increased public transportation use among Americans. These barriers include inconvenience, poor funding, and a non-complimentary built environment, all of which are well-documented in transportation research. However, where a viable transit option exists marketing can help attract an emerging market of Americans with a desire for environmental stewardship, and it can help to dispel their misconceptions and prejudices of transit. This paper explores some successful efforts to attract this group; relevant examples are explored and future recommendations for marketing are described.

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A New Market?

The Yale Project on Climate Change and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication published a study that found American attitudes towards the validity of climate change are increasingly evident (Leiserowitz et al, 2009). The research studied a statistically significant group of American adults and divided them into the following categories based on their attitudes towards climate change and what they are doing about it: Alarmed (18%), Concerned (33%), Cautious (19%), Disengaged (12%), Doubtful (11%), and Dismissive (7%).

Additionally, 74 percent of both the “Alarmed” and “Concerned” groups said they believe that in order for a reduction in climate change to occur,

Switching to Transit—Part of the “Going Green” Equation Because one-third of carbon emissions in the United States are transportation-related (EPA, 2006), changing travel habits is a good way to reduce the country’s carbon footprint. Currently, it is estimated that 88 percent of Americans use their car to get to work (Casey Foundation, 2009). Thus, despite a growing awareness of climate change and energy issues, America is still a petroleum-dependent society (Puentas 2008) and increasing public transportation in the United States holds much promise as an instrument for curbing emissions. Increased transit use can also be coupled with increased bicycle use—two modes that research indicates are complimentary

there are many urban and suburban Americans who do live in proximity to transit networks and who are conscious of their carbon footprint.

Transit agencies must explore marketing tools to attract this market of environmentally-aware households to transit use.

Furthermore, since public transportation’s primary competitor is the private automobile, marketing public transportation must broach the realities of American car culture including, but not limited to: the historical government subsidy of an auto-supportive built environment, the consumer culture and self-identity related to the automobile (FTA, 2009), and a very powerful oil industry that encourages further auto-dependence (Puentas, 2009).

Using Market Segmentation to Target New Riders

Figure 1. Six Americas Report. Source: Leiserowitz et al, 2009.

individuals have to “make big changes in their life;” and changing how they travel was one of the five lifestyle changes these groups said they would be willing to do or consider (Figure 1).

This suggests that at least 51 percent of the U.S. population is a potentially an emerging market to capture for transit use whom may have never previously considered it a viable mode; and while some of this group probably already uses transit, they also have the potential to use it more frequently. The Brookings Institute echoes these findings noting that there is a “perfect storm” in the role of transportation in environmental awareness in their 2008 report A Bridge to Somewhere (Puentas, 2008). This milieu, combined with the realities of the global economic meltdown, is the opportunity transit authorities should capitalize on to gain ridership.

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to each other—to further reduce carbon emissions from transportation (TCRP, 1994; DeMaio, 2003; Beale, 2006).

Getting Them On Board Through Marketing An increase in transit ridership in the United States will not occur without reprioritization of ground transportation funding at all government levels, major improvements in convenience to users, and fostering transit-friendly design of the built environment. Any gains in marketing rely upon the gains in these areas. It is also important to note that there are many Americans willing to take transit, yet lack the option. A surprising 30 percent of those surveyed in the 2009 Yale study claimed they did not have access to public transportation (Leiserowitz et al, 2009). However,

Robinson (1981) suggests transit managers could increase the transit user base by using market research to pinpoint specific market segments and developing “marketing programs targeted to those segments having the greatest potential for increased ridership” (Robinson, 1981).

Further, Diana and Mochktarian (2008) asserts market segmentation is useful in understanding “which people could be more inclined to shift from individual motorized transport modes to transit or non-motorized ones.” Transit authorities have long identified market groups based on demographic profiles such as age, education, and income (Blankenship, 1976) but generally targeted campaigns have been more simply divided into the following categories: 1. Existing transit users are public transportation patrons either by choice or necessity and their attitudes towards transit are generally positive.

2. Transit-supportive non-users are favorable to transit, usually for its perceived social benefits and other positive externalities.

3. Transit-unsupportive non-users, who fundamentally disagree with any public subsidy of transit; and therefore this group is the hardest market to influence. (Fielding, 1981; Robinson, 1981) The new market segment of environmentallyconscious households brings a new dynamic to the effort of attracting non-user, transit-supportive households. Thus, transit marketing should tailor its message to appeal to these households’

newfound desire for environmental stewardship (proactive) while also aiming to dispel possible misconceptions of transit (reactive).

Proactive: Marketing that Says Transit is a Solution to Their Environmental Concerns One way of attracting new users to transit is through marketing directly to the environmentally-conscious households group with a proactive approach that suggests that transit is a solution to both their environmental concerns and their overall frustration with the automobile. A few past North American campaigns that have targeted this group include: How We Get There Matters from TriMet in Portland, Oregon; Dump The Pump and Green, Greener, Greenest from Capital Metro in Austin, Texas; and Green and Growing from Lane Transit District in Eugene, Oregon.

TriMet’s How We Get There Matters A Campaign with the Marketing in the Motto TriMet was established 1969 by the Oregon State Legislature in an effort to reprioritize public transportation planning in the Portland metro area. Today, Portland has the 7th highest transit ridership per capita in the country though it is only the 24th largest metro area, and TriMet reports that 83 percent of its riders are choice riders who either own a car and choose to take transit as well, or choose not to own a car at all (TriMet, 2009).

Since 1993, transit campaigns by TriMet have focused on attracting a group of new riders that are consciously making changes in their daily routine for environmental reasons. In a survey of potential riders, a group that responded that they “already made changes in the way they do things for environmental reasons” were the target of a new campaign called How We Get There Matters.

Originally intended to market to new riders, TriMet’s Marketing manager Yvonne Lyon said, “the participants helped us shape things for all

Figure 2. Ridership trends in Portland.

Source: National Transit Database.

rider groups.” (TCRP, 1998). Though no direct correlation in ridership was determined, Portland saw steady increases in overall ridership in the 1990s (Figure 2) and this should be attributed in part to Portland’s overall environmental awareness (Polzin, 2003).

Capital Metro’s Dump the Pump and Green, Greener, Greenest Pointing out the Obvious in a New Way Capital Metro was founded in 1983 and currently serves a 500-square-mile area in the Austin metropolitan region. With the highest per capita ridership in Texas, the authority is constantly in pursuit of creative marketing strategies to attract new riders. Recognizing that transportation is now the second largest expense for most American households, consuming on average twenty cents of every dollar (Casey Foundation, 2009), Capital Metro’s marketing department

EST: Riding Capital Metro saves 4,800 pounds of carbon per year (Capital Metro, 2010). The campaign is successful because it points out the role of transportation mode choice in making real changes in daily lifestyle. It suggests that while all the other efforts we make are good, the greenest is taking transit. To further demonstrate the point, the website also provides site visitors with a commute cost calculator and a quick and easy carbon footprint calculator.

Lane Transit’s Green and Growing

Transit is Green and Green is Catchy.

Lane Transit District (LTD), the transit provider for the Eugene—Springfield metro region, began in 1980. A bus rapid transit (BRT) pilot corridor called EmX between Eugene and downtown Springfield opened in 2001 to serve the high traffic volume on that corridor. Today, 60 percent of the corridor is exclusive bus lanes (LTD, 2009).

A 2009 commercial for the EmX BRT line shows an animated interpretation of a green utopia that transit could offer. The jingle in the commercial explains that the route from Springfield to Eugene is “Quick and Clean.” The 30-second ad ends with EmX’s logo and new slogan: “Green and began to appeal to cost-conscious Austinites Growing EmX Transit” (Transit Magazine, 2009). with their 2002 “Dump the Pump” campaign.

The campaign has been studied as a part of Campaign Director Rick L’Amie said, “We wanted a LTDs Point2Point program which “promotes to target an audience whom expressed they were and offers transportation options programs to the just so sick of spending money on gas (L’Amie, 2009).” The campaign has since been adopted by Lane County region’s businesses, organizations, and educational institutions for their employees, the American Public Transportation Association staff and students” (LTD, 2009). A 2008 survey (APTA) as an effective way to promote public conducted of Point2Point participants found transportation nationwide. that 38 percent of the 2,075-person sample had However, Capital Metro went further with their recent “Green, Greener, Greenest” Campaign. changed their typical mode of transportation to get to or from work in the 12 months prior to This campaign pointed out that while there are taking the survey. Further, “74 percent of the many things that one can do to become greener, the greenest of all efforts could perhaps be riding 2008 sample has used their Group Pass to ride the transit. The agency’s website says, “Riding Capital bus to work (compared to 58 percent in 2002)” Metro for just one day reduces your carbon emis- (Lockwood, 2008). The commercial’s message sions by about 20 pounds. The benefit to the envi- is so strong because it takes advantage of the fact that going green is en vogue and capitalizes on ronment is far greater than some of the common making an association between green and transit. actions people are encouraged to take,” (Capital Metro, 2010). The ongoing campaign appears in print advertising as well as the Authority’s website Reactive Marketing: Overcoming that breaks-down the logic for patrons, “GREEN: Perceptions that Deter Replacing an older refrigerator freezer with a non-users from Transit high efficiency one saves 335 pounds of carbon Outside of reasons inherent to the U.S. per year. GREENER: Home weatherizing and transportation debate, many potential transit adjusting the thermostat for heating and cooling users who have access to transit have not tried it saves 2,847 pounds of carbon per year. GREENbecause they:

59

a) Misperceive transit by overestimating travel time (Fielding, 1981). b) Have a bias or prejudice that favors other modes, (Diana and Mochktarian, 2009; O’Farrell and Markham 1974; Fujii et al.

2001; Beale and Bonsall 2007) including the perception that transit is a welfare function. c) Have little access to information on how to use transit thus further perceiving it as inconvenient (Dunbar et al., 1981; Lovelock, 1973; TCRP, 2003).

The Transportation Cooperative Research Program’s (TCRP) report, Enhancing the Visibility and Image of Transit in the United States and Canada, asserts that public transportation should first focus on providing unparalleled service, and then recommends creating an image of modern public transportation that is safe, efficient, clean, convenient, and easy to use. The report indicates that, “because people tend to avoid what they do not know, potential passengers must be given as much information as possible about the transit services offered” (TCRP, 2005). Thus, transit authorities should be more aggressive in overcoming conventional perceptions by attacking them head-on and promoting the user-friendly side of transit.

Previous marketing efforts that aided in overcoming these perceptions include: British Railway’s Ease The Strain, Go By Train campaign; Southwest Transit’s (Eden Prairie, Minn.), U Txt We Drive campaign; APTA’s Go Green: Go Public; and the Chicago Regional Transit Authority’s (RTA) direct mail route information effort.

concerned for public safety amid new evidence suggesting texting while driving is a very real threat to driver safety.

Southwest’s CEO Len Simich said of the campaign, “Originally, this campaign was to be targeted to students who ride our buses to the University of Minnesota. However, after reading the news articles about the texting while driving studies that came out this week, and learning that 53 percent of all texters are 35 or older, we decided to begin our campaign immediately and use it with all of our riders.” He continued, “while some of our riders have voiced concerns about too much mobile phone use on the bus, those who text don’t bother the other passengers.”

APTA’s Go Green, Go Public

the ad directly suggests that in fact, transit is the superior mode. Campaigns by British Railways and Southwest Transit are examples of campaigns from two different time periods that are effective in helping potential riders to see how transit can actually be more convenient.

Southwest Transit’s “U Txt. We Drive” Billboard Campaign Recognizing the New Market of Texters.

Southwest Transit (SWT) began in 1986 to serve a portion of the Minneapolis/ St. Paul metropolitan region (Southwest, 2009). A 2009 campaign titled “U Txt. We Drive” appeared in billboards across the region (Metro Magazine, 2009).

British Railways’ Ease The Strain — Go By Train Successful Competition with the Car For a 1956 advertisement campaign, British Railways created Ease the Strain—Go By Train posters that depicted travelers relaxing inside a train car while travelers who opted for auto transportation were stuck in congestion. At the time, British Railways was competing with the rise of the automobile and seeing heavy decrease in passenger rail traffic (Department for Transport, 2007). The advertisement, though dated, is a good example of countering the perception that the private automobile is more convenient. With bumper-to-bumper traffic in the foreground, and happy, stress-free train riders as the focus,

60 PANORAMA2010

The message is successful in that it suggests transit is more convenient way to commute and better compliments the busy commuter lifestyle. Furthermore, the billboard ads also appeal to those

Equating Green with Public Transit The American Public Transportation Authority, a community- and agency-based public transportation organization, tasked college students from eleven schools around the country to create a print advertising campaign and a series of public service announcements that would promote the environmental benefits of transit. Working directly with transit authorities to create videos for social networking sites, radio ads, and bus and rail posters, the campaign is progressive because it deliberately uses the term “public” to equate it

with “going green”.

Chicago RTA’s Direct Mail Campaign Making Transit Use Easier Chicago’s Regional Transit Authority is the second-largest in the nation with over two million passengers per day. In 2004, RTA used direct mail marketing to inform people about which route(s) go by their house. This was a response to a RTA survey that indicated many people do not ride transit because they are uncomfortable with trip planning (TCRP, 2004). Postcards were sent using address data that simply indicated: “Did you know? Route 12 stops a few blocks from your house?” The mailing directed recipients to RTA’s website so they could understand routes and trip planning. The campaign was a successful effort to overcome the barriers to a first transit ride by providing users with basic route information.

Conclusion and Recommendations The barriers to increased public transportation are vast and cannot be overlooked. If, as the 2009 Yale study suggests, there are Americans amenable to change, but 30 percent of them do not have viable access to transit, marketing can do little to increase ridership.

However, many Americans do have access to public transportation and are not using it. Transit authorities are in a unique position to capitalize on the interests of the new market of environmentally conscious households and their real willingness to change daily habits by marketing transit directly to this group. More than that, marketing has an ability to dispel non-users biases that convenience alone cannot solve.

Though there are several impactful marketing campaigns that have capitalized on the inherently sustainable function of public transportation, few are as effective in broaching the issue that many

non-riders see public transit as purely a social welfare function. Perhaps marketing campaigns should take this issue head-on by increasing imagery of socio-economic diversity.

If more transit authorities are going to follow the lead of the aforementioned examples, authorities that have experimented with this target marketing need to demonstrate a stronger correlation between the effectiveness of marketing and increased ridership. Since 2005, many transit authorities have mobile device texting applications and route planning integrated with Google Maps. The marketing of these tools has shown wide application in provoking the curiosity of non-riders.

Lastly, the preferences of emerging environmentally conscious households will likely become clearer as they increase in number and are studied more comprehensively. The transportation sector should follow other industries’ lead in examining the data on this group and use it to their advantage.

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(1994). TCRP Synthesis 4: Integration of Bicycles and Transit.

Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Transportation Research Board. (1998). A Handbook: Using Market Segmentation to Increase Transit Ridership. Transit Cooperative Research Program. Washington, D.C. : National Academy Press.

Tri-Met. (2009). Facts About Tri-Met. From http://trimet.org/pdfs/ publications/factsheet.pdf www.rideuta.com (Producer), & Authority, U. T. (Director).

(2007). UTA My Way [Motion Picture].

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Blight and Flight Without a Fight The untold story of the

Brooklyn-Queens Expressway 62 PANORAMA2010

by Laura Podolnick

I

n his great tome “Anna Karenina,” Tolstoy noted that happy families are all alike; but that every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. To bastardize Tolstoy, who lived and died well before the advent and eventual domination of the automobile, all well-liked highways are alike, but each despised highway is despised in its own way.

The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, a classic Robert Moses project in planning, form, and function, is a despised highway. Upon its construction, it sliced through residential neighborhoods with all the finesse and delicacy of a machete, and today remains hovering over them—and in some cases, lurking beneath them—an exhaust-spewing, shadow-casting, constantly rumbling monument to car-centric transportation culture at the time of its conception. Because it was completed just before the development of the Interstate Highway system and its standards, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is also loathed for being rife with design flaws, such as substandard lane widths and low vertical-clearance limits (Environmental Review to Facilitate Rehabilitation of Key New York City Thoroughfare, 2009). Almost all of its ramp areas have accident rates higher than the statewide average (New York State, DOT 2005). Even New York Magazine, not known for its opinions on transportation infrastructure, referred to it as “the ghastliest highway imaginable” in December 2009 (Davidson, 2009).

The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway—“the BQE,”—is, to go back to Tolstoy, despised in a different way than another project the oft-divisive developer Robert Moses completed in the same era: The Cross-Bronx Expressway. The Cross-Bronx Expressway (CBE) is the brassy, loud paragon of a hated highway: ask a room of city planners if they’ve heard its story, and every hand goes up.

Ask the same room of city planners if they’ve heard the story of the BQE, and only a few hands tentatively remain in the air. The CBE comes

with a convenient narrative story arc fitting for a movie—a greedy highway builder rips apart a neighborhood that tried in vain to fight back, homes are razed, people are displaced, and blight descends upon the area, which is never the same again. Robert Caro spent two chapters detailing the story of the CBE in his exhaustive biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker, but the BQE earns only several off-hand mentions. Numerous people have written academically about the CBE and its impacts—a cursory Google Scholar search proves fruitful—but there has been very little written about the BQE, particularly its impact on North Brooklyn.

visibly than did Williamsburg and Greenpoint— and also more dramatically, because in the 1950s, the South Bronx had a lot further to fall than the already beleaguered neighborhoods of North Brooklyn. Lastly, the South Bronx has not recovered, whereas North Brooklyn has seen a revitalization in the past generation and is now healthier than it was in 1950, when the BQE arrived. Thus, it almost seems moot to discuss the BQE’s effects on Williamsburg and Greenpoint, because the ultimately happy result—thriving, revitalized neighborhoods—doesn’t seem to provide the desired moral conclusion of “highways are bad” the same way that the story of the CBE does.

Ask a room of city planners if they’ve heard the story of the BQE, and only a few hands tentatively remain in the air.

Williamsburg and Greenpoint in the 1950s, and How They Got There

This paper will argue that there are several reasons the BQE has received far less attention than the CBE: first, the CBE plowed through a neighborhood (East Tremont) that, despite being branded a slum at the time, was actually a stable lower-middle-class neighborhood that had the resources to at least attempt to defend itself, whereas the North Brooklyn neighborhoods that the BQE went through, Williamsburg and Greenpoint, had more industrial pasts and were already on the trajectory of becoming very poor and overpopulated. In addition, despite the fact that the two highways and their effects on the neighborhoods through which they ran was actually quite similar, other variables caused the South Bronx to suffer a lot more, and a lot more

Greenpoint and Williamsburg are the two most northerly neighborhoods in Brooklyn, which annexed them in 1855. Williamsburg began as a farming village—during the Revolutionary War, British soldiers had felled nearly all the area’s trees, so after the war, it was a convenient place to farm (Reiss, Williamsburg, 2005, 5). The area began to grow in population once there was ferry access to the markets of Manhattan in the late 1790s, and Williamsburg was incorporated as a village in 1827. Lower Manhattanites seeking refuge from overcrowding started to move across the river, and by 1851, when Williamsburg became a city, it had a population of 35,000 (Reiss, Williamsburg, 2005, 6). After the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, to which Williamsburg’s waterfront had a link, the area started to become heavily industrial.

It was densely packed with tenement-dwelling people who worked in the neighborhood’s many factories. By 1900, Williamsburg was home to over 100,000 residents, and, after the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903, which linked Brooklyn to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the population doubled again, reaching 250,000 by

63

1910 (Reiss, Williamsburg, 2005, 9). By World War I, Williamsburg’s population began to decline, as people left the neighborhood to move to betterquality housing in other parts of the city—by the end of World War II, Williamsburg had more substandard apartment buildings than any other part of Brooklyn (Reiss, Williamsburg, 2005, 10).

Greenpoint was North Brooklyn’s sparsely populated farming hinterland from the late 1600s until the mid-1800s, when bridges provided access from the area to booming Williamsburg and to Newtown, across the Newtown Creek, in Queens (Reiss, Greenpoint, 2005, 8-11). Like Williamsburg, Greenpoint became very industrial due to its waterfront access. At first, its main industry was shipbuilding—the U.S.S. Monitor’s origin is a Greenpoint shipyard—but ironworks, glassworks, and petroleum refineries appeared in the late 19th century. By the turn of the 20th century, Greenpoint’s population, which had flocked to the neighborhood for the plethora of jobs offered, was 80 percent of foreign parentage and 40 percent of foreign birth—mainly Polish and Italian (Reiss, Greenpoint, 2005, 20). However, in 1933, ferryboat service between Greenpoint and Manhattan ceased, which both signaled decline of—and brought additional decline to—Greenpoint’s industries. During the Great Depression, Greenpoint had the highest rate of unemployment in New York City. In a proposal to replace tenements in Greenpoint with public housing, the Citizens Housing Council referred to Greenpoint as “a grim district of cold-water flats” (Reiss, Greenpoint, 2005, 22). Jobs again became more plentiful during World War II and the neighborhood experienced an upswing (Reiss, Greenpoint, 2005, 24).

Despite suffering periodic economic decline and poverty, both Williamsburg and Greenpoint have had the benefit of enjoying close proximity to the central business district of Manhattan, as well as changing combinations of rail, bridge and ferryboat access to Manhattan.

In contrast to North Brooklyn, 1950s East Tremont—the South Bronx neighborhood through which the CBE plunged its way—was densely populated with people who lived in the five and six story buildings that lined its narrow streets. These people were largely Jewish and recent escapees of the squalid tenements on the Lower East Side (Caro, 1975, 851). East Tremont had always been a residential neighborhood—

64 PANORAMA2010

The BQE caused a dispersal of population and a destruction of businesses that started a prolonged drain of capital from the neighborhood.

1950s census tract map of neighborhoods impacted by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

there was no heavy industry like there was at the North Brooklyn waterfront—and most of its residents worked in Manhattan’s garment district (Caro, 1975, 851).

Advent of the BQE In America during the 1940s, highways were considered the way of the future. The popular consensus was that Americans would come home from World War II, have extra savings to spend, and want to buy things like cars and houses in the new, decongested, clean-air suburbs that were springing up around cities. However, because these people would still want access to cities, and because they wanted this access by car, and because nobody wanted congested neighborhood streets, the idea of the freeway came about (Kennedy, 1944). However, The New York Times contrasted the new freeways under construction with the

pre-war parkways by contrasting their purpose: whereas the parkways were built to allow for suburban commuting and to permit city dwellers to escape to countryside leisure on the weekends, the freeways were planned to permit commercial as well as passenger traffic to move rapidly in, out and around the city (Freeman, 1947).

In 1945, Robert Moses wrote in The New York Times, that the “great need. . . which we are at last ready to meet with the help of the State and Federal highways authorities. . . is for mixed traffic expressways right through town” (Moses, 1945). In Brooklyn and Queens, the idea was to move people and their cars in the most streamlined way possible to the East River crossings, and to keep narrow, local streets free of congestion.

The BQE would connect with all major roads in Queens and Brooklyn, and all East River crossings (New York City Arterial Program, 1958, 6). Moses described the proposed route of the BQE: it “will extend from the Kosciusko Bridge southerly to a connection with the Williamsburg Bridge, through Brooklyn Heights area to the BrooklynBattery Tunnel Plaza” (Moses, 1945).

The BQE was completed in stages: the first stage connected eastern Queens to Meeker Avenue in Brooklyn via the Kosciusko Bridge. This stage was completed in 1939 (Marwell, 2007, 38).

In 1948, Moses began to demolish buildings in the path of the highway in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, destroying a vibrant business district located on Williamsburg’s Broadway and “bisecting the cohesive community of Orthodox Jews, Italians, Poles, Slavs, and Russians” (Marwell, 2007, 38). This section elevated over Williamsburg and Greenpoint, connecting the Kosciusko Bridge to the Williamsburg Bridge, was completed and opened for traffic in 1952. In the mid-50s, the BQE section between the Williamsburg Bridge and the Manhattan bridge was built, and finished in 1960. In the name of slum clearance, as provided by Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, 45 acres of land—fifteen city blocks—were condemned in South Williamsburg to make way for the BQE and a housing project alongside it (Marwell, 2007, 40).

It is important to note that one western Brooklyn community—Brooklyn Heights—did successfully convince the city to reroute the BQE so it did not go directly through their neighborhood. Today’s New Yorkers can thank those Brooklyn Heights objectors for the Brooklyn

Underneath the BrooklynQueens Expressway.

Heights Promenade, which features a waterfront pedestrian walkway cantilevered over two levels of the BQE, a project much lauded and loved—at the Promenade’s dedication, Brooklyn Borough President Cashmore said he had never taken part in the dedication of a more beautiful project (Brooklyn Heights Promenade Opens; Moses Praised, 1950). Brooklyn Heights was a wealthier community and used its political and social clout to keep the highway from ruining its character.

Other neighborhoods were not so lucky—there is no evidence that the residents of Williamsburg or Greenpoint even started a campaign to have the highway routed elsewhere.

Meanwhile, in the South Bronx, East Tremont citizens organized and proposed an alternate route for the CBE that would result in far fewer of the neighborhood’s buildings being razed. The citizens, of course, were not successful, and the highway was built as planned (Caro, 1975).

Blight, Displacement, and Worse: Effects of the BQE There are not many writings about the BQE, and there are especially not many writings about the BQE’s effects on North Brooklyn. Articles, books, and papers that even mention the building of the BQE through these neighborhoods often do so in violent and alarming terms—the BQE “slashed through the heart of the neighborhood” (Marwell, 2007, 38), it “ripped through [Williamsburg’s] middle” (Ritterband, 1993, 202) it “cut a winding path through Williamsburg” (Perlmutter, 1955), its construction “through the heart of the neighborhood displaced homes and businesses” (Curran, 2003, 1249), it “cut through the heart” of the neighborhood’s Jewish community (Price 1979, 16), and it “cut Williamsburg in half” (Reiss, Williamsburg, 2005, 10).

Despite the visceral terms in which people have written about the BQE’s impact, there is very little concrete detail provided about what exactly the highway did. Marwell, in her book Bargaining for Brooklyn: Community Organizations in the Entrepreneurial City, devotes a page-and-a-half to the BQE’s effects on Williamsburg, which is a page and a quarter more than any other book on the subject. Marwell describes the effects of the highway as “less salutary” on Williamsburg as compared to the convenience it afforded the suburban residents of Long Island, and claims that the highway’s “fallout was massive.” She cites

the razing of the tenements along Broadway, and the resultant displacement of the working-class white ethnic residents—Italians, Poles, Orthodox Jews—as leading to the closure of businesses in the neighborhood. Marwell states that the BQE caused a dispersal of population and a destruction of businesses that started a prolonged drain of capital from the neighborhood (Marwell, 2007, 39). To get a better idea of the population dispersal and general decline of Williamsburg, the author looked at Census data for the area and for Brooklyn as a whole. Two years were examined: 1950—during the very early construction the BQE through North Brooklyn, and 1960—eight years after the Williamsburg/Greenpoint section of the BQE opened to traffic. The tracts examined were the ones bordering or straddling the BQE in residential sections of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Three factors were considered—population, median income, and median years of school completed for the population over age 25. The measure of population gain or loss among tracts bordering the BQE as compared to Brooklyn as a whole indicates dispersal. The measures of median income and median years of school completed indicate the prosperity and economic competitiveness of the neighborhood. A few of the tracts underwent boundary changes between 1950 and 1960, but fortunately, they underwent boundary changes amongst themselves. For example, tracts A, B, and C were studied, and due to a redrawing of boundaries, tract B lost some of its area to tract C. This shifting is accounted for in that the data is averaged when comparing the tracts to Brooklyn as a whole.

The assertion regarding population dispersal holds up: tracts bordering the BQE in North Brooklyn lost an average of 8.9% of their population between 1950 and 1960, and a median of 14.1%, compared with the 4% that Brooklyn as a whole lost. On average, the median income rose 32.2% among the tracts bordering the BQE, but 33.5% in Brooklyn as a whole—this is not a great difference, but the average median income among the tracts was $4,646.35 in 1960, but $5,106.00 in Brooklyn.

Between 1950 and 1960, the median years of school completed for the population age 25 and older increased 6.7% in all of Brooklyn, but among the BQE tracts in Northern Brooklyn, only an average of 2.8% (see Table 1 for all data).

The building of the BQE brought a greater tragedy to the neighborhood as well. In 1956, during the construction of the highway’s section south from the Williamsburg bridge—a neighborhood teeming with children and sorely lacking in playgrounds—six children were killed while playing in a construction-site sand bank, twenty-four feet below street level, that caved in (6 Children Killed As Sand Caves in At Brooklyn Cut, 1956).

The demolition that the CBE brought to East Tremont in the South Bronx was no less, and is much more widely known—residents moved away if they could afford it, and others were forced out of their homes in the path of the highway and into public housing projects.

The neighborhood became emptier, crime rose, landlords became negligent, and fires burned (Caro, 1975, 882)—“construction of the CBE

65

caused disruption along its access and hardship for many of the households that were displaced” (Ballon & Jackson, 2007, 219).

Prospering Beneath the BQE: North Brooklyn Now Both North Brooklyn and the South Bronx suffered blight in the mid-20th century at the hands of a highway. Today, the North Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Greenpoint are lively and healthy—after half a century of decline, this area’s population is increasing again, due to the thousands of new residents that continue to move to the community (Reiss, Williamsburg, 2005, 16).

The South Bronx neighborhood of East Tremont is a different story. Despite New York City’s falling crime, homicides were still on the rise in East Tremont as late as 1998 (Halbfinger, 1998).

The question, then, is why North Brooklyn has managed to succeed despite the invasion of the BQE, but the South Bronx has not fully recovered? The BQE certainly caused hardship and blight in its path in the fashion of the CBE—what is it about North Brooklyn that has allowed it to prosper anyway? There are several key factors that made it easier for North Brooklyn to recover.

First, North Brooklyn’s location—just across the East River from Lower Manhattan—makes it as attractive today as it did in the early 20th century, when thousands of Lower East Siders migrated over the Williamsburg Bridge. The South Bronx is far away from the central business district of Lower Manhattan. Whereas the L train can take riders from Williamsburg to Union Square—a major transfer hub—in three stops, it takes 13 stops for the express-service 5 train to take riders from East Tremont to the closest major transfer hub—Grand Central Station—and 16 for the 2 train to take riders from East Tremont to the major station at Columbus Circle (MTA New York City Subway 2009). A closer proximity, and more convenient access, to population and business centers in Manhattan means that it is easier for more people to travel to and from North Brooklyn than to and from the South Bronx.

Second, North Brooklyn also had infrastructure that helped attract new residents and new types of residents—the many waterfront factories to which the neighborhood was home in the 19th and early 20th centuries have been largely closed, but their buildings have remained. Many of these have been converted into large lofts for artists to work in and for people to live in

66 PANORAMA2010

(Rozhon, 1996). Real estate prices indicate that these large, historically interesting spaces near the waterfront are far more attractive to owners and occupants than are the aging tenement buildings surrounded by the projects that replaced other, razed tenements in the South Bronx.

Third, upon the building of the BQE, North Brooklyn was already in decline. The waterfront industries that had brought growth to Greenpoint had dramatically declined in the Great Depression, and though World War II had rekindled some of the industry, it was never to be the same.

Greenpoint was also becoming increasingly polluted due to the one industry that remained in the area through the Depression—refining petroleum (Reiss, Greenpoint, 2005). Williamsburg had the highest percentage of substandard housing in all of Brooklyn (Reiss, Williamsburg, 2005, 10).

Conversely, prior to the CBE, East Tremont was a residential, lower-middle-class neighborhood that functioned as a “streetcar suburb” to Manhattan— people lived there, but did not work there, for unlike North Brooklyn, there were no petroleum refineries or shipbuilding plants in the vicinity.

The BQE accelerated the decline North Brooklyn was experiencing already, but it was not a fulcrum the way the CBE was in East Tremont. In other words, North Brooklyn’s suffering from the building of the BQE was a less dramatic turn of events, because things were already going downhill, whereas in East Tremont, the decline was sudden and swift, less a roll downhill than a falling off a cliff. The sudden type of decline is more of a shock to the system of a neighborhood, and thus a quick recovery is more difficult to achieve.

The last reason is less one of infrastructure and location, but one of culture. David Ritterband’s article “Geography as an Element in the Historical Sociology of the Jews: New York, 1900-1981

Table 1.

477 497 499 501 513 515 519 521 523 591 Total Tract Average Median of Tracts Brooklyn Average of Tracts All or Mostly East of BQE Average of Tracts All or Mostly West of BQE Median of Tracts All or Mostly East of BQE Median of Tracts All or Mostly West of BQE east side of BQE west side of BQE

Total population 1950 1960 1,957 2,976 3,952 3,360 3,366 2,093 4,184 4,000 5,839 5,431 1,935 1,321 2,447 4,274 3,363 2,798 10,505 8,212 5,972 5,184 4,352 3,965 3,659 3,680 2,738,175 2,627,319

change 1,019 -592 -1,273 -184 -408 -614 1,827 -566 -2,293 -788 -387 -579 -110,856

%change 52.1% -15.0% -37.8% -4.4% -7.0% -31.7% 74.7% -16.8% -21.8% -13.2% -8.9% -14.1% -4.0%

The question, then, is why North Brooklyn has managed to succeed despite the invasion of the BQE, but the South Bronx has not fully recovered? and the United States, 1880-1980 discusses the cultural difference between the Jews who lived in North Brooklyn and the Jews who lived in the South Bronx, including East Tremont. He asserts that the Jews who lived in North Brooklyn— largely Hasids—were more traditional than the Jews who settled (briefly) in the South Bronx.

As they were more traditional, they created more networks of institutions that gave them a greater stake in the neighborhoods in which they lived. The South Bronx, he quotes Robert Caro as saying, was more of a “staging area,” “from which residents expected that they. . .or their children, would move out into more fashionable areas”(Ritterband, 1993, 201). Thus, when the CBE tore through their neighborhood and caused the razing of their homes in East Tremont, the Bronx Jews left, but when the BQE tore through their neighborhood and caused the razing of their homes in Williamsburg, the Brooklyn Jews stayed nearby, because they had more invested in the area. While Ritterband only discusses the Jewish communities in these neighborhoods, even one

Inflation-adjusted median income 1950 1960 $ 3,231.28 $ 5,104.00 $ $ 3,176.68 $ 5,100.00 $ $ 3,868.32 $ 3,171.00 $ $ 3,847.69 $ 5,247.00 $ $ 3,745.77 $ 4,720.00 $ $ 3,162.12 $ 4,895.00 $ $ 3,397.52 $ 4,538.00 $ $ 3,299.23 $ 4,716.50 $ $ 3,332.00 $ 3,686.00 $ $ 4,097.65 $ 5,286.00 $ $ 3,515.83 $ 4,646.35 $ $ 3,364.76 $ 4,807.50 $ $ 3,823.42 $ 5,106.00 $

change 1,872.72 1,923.32 (697.32) 1,399.31 974.23 1,732.88 1,140.48 1,417.27 354.00 1,188.35 1,130.52 1,293.83 1,282.58

%change 58.0% 60.5% -18.0% 36.4% 26.0% 54.8% 33.6% 43.0% 10.6% 29.0% 32.2% 35.0% 33.5%

Median school years completed 1950 1960 change %change 8.5 8.8 0.3 3.5% 8.3 8.6 0.3 3.6% 8.4 8.6 0.2 2.4% 8.4 8.7 0.3 3.6% 8.30 8.30 0.00 0.0% 8.50 8.70 0.20 2.4% 8.40 8.60 0.20 2.4% 8.30 8.65 0.35 4.2% 8.10 8.10 0.00 0.0% 8.50 9.00 0.50 5.9% 8.37 8.61 0.23 2.8% 8.40 8.63 0.25 3.0% 8.90 9.50 0.60 6.7%

3,983

3,942

-41

-1.0%

3,500

5,043

$ 1,542.39

44.1%

8.38

8.60

0.23

2.7%

4,598

3,980

-618

-13.4%

3,526

4,382

$

855.94

24.3%

8.37

8.61

0.24

2.9%

3,952

3,360

-592

-15.0%

3,231

5,100

$ 1,868.72

57.8%

8.30

8.60

0.30

3.6%

3,365

3,536

171

5.1%

3,365

4,627

$ 1,262.49

37.5%

8.40

8.63

0.23

2.7%

Change among BQE census tracts, 1950 to 1960. Source: US Census Bureau.

group’s constant and consistent presence in a neighborhood can keep the neighborhood more stable. A permanent community lends a culture of steadiness to a neighborhood, and thus makes it harder to permanently blight and scar, even with a highway like the BQE. Also, it is important to note that the correlation between the blighting of the South Bronx and the building of the CBE does not equal causation. While the CBE certainly had an effect, a variety of factors contributed to what happened in the South Bronx in the 1960s and 1970s— decades of disinvestment and suburbanization, ‘urban renewal,’ racism, and policies that favored Manhattan and the suburbs. Many of the most blighted neighborhoods of the Bronx were, in fact, nowhere near the CBE (Ballon and Jackson, 2007, 219). Likewise, there were neighborhoods in Brooklyn that suffered much more through

the 1960s and 1970s than did Williamsburg and Greenpoint, and they, too, were not on the path of the BQE.

Conclusion The saga of the CBE and the South Bronx is a much more captivating story than that of the BQE and North Brooklyn, and thus, it is much more heavily covered. It reads like a Greek tragedy. It has a beginning—a nice, safe, lower-middle-class Jewish neighborhood. It has a villain, Robert Moses, portrayed with all the cartoonish malevolence of an evil Disney queen. It has plucky, underdog heroes in the neighborhood association that attempted to have the highway rerouted. It has the tragic end. The failure of the heroes, and the destruction of the neighborhood (did the neighborhood association suffer from hubris? Was Robert Moses Zeus?). The BQE has no such tale

attached to it—nobody in the neighborhoods of Williamsburg or Greenpoint organized a coalition to keep the highway away. There was no political battle. There was actually hardly any coverage of the highway at all. Perhaps this story is not as classically plotted as that of the CBE—The characters are in the shadows: blurry, hulking masses of people, living in tenements soon to be razed, not doing anything about it. But there is a certain poignancy in this, and a certain poignancy in the fact that North Brooklyn has not only recovered, but thrived. The story of North Brooklyn and the BQE is not a tragedy, but, strangely, a comedy.

Today, you can rent a one-bedroom apartment in an old tenement building, barely a stone’s throw from the BQE, for upwards of $2000 a month.

The author would like to thank Lisa Filipek for her assistance in compiling the research for this paper.

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———. Williamsburg Neighborhood History Guide. Brooklyn: Brooklyn Historical Society, 2005. Print.

Ritterband, Paul. “Geography as an Element in the Historical Sociology ofthe Jews: New York, 1900-1981 and the United States, 1880-1980.” Papers in Jewish Demography (1993): 191-208. Policyarchive.org. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

Rozhon, Tracie. “Loft Market Grows, at Lofty Prices.” The New York Times 15 Dec.1996. Web. 17 Dec. 2009.

Sutcliffe, Anthony. Metropolis, 1890-1940. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1984. Print.

United States of America. US Census Bureau. Census of Population: 1950 ? Volume III, Part III Census Tract Statistics. Web. 13 Dec. 2009. <http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/ decennial/1950.htm>.

United States of America. US Census Bureau. Census of Population and Housing? 1960 Volume VII: Census Tracts. Web. <http://www. census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/1960.htm>.

67

The Consolidation of

SEPTA

and itS impact on

Public Transit

in Philadelphia

by Boris Lipkin

I

20th century, a theme emerged of newly formed public transportation agencies purchasing formerly private transit operators. Some examples include Boston’s MTA (now known as MBTA), which was formed in 1947; New York’s MTA, which was formed in 1965; and Philadelphia’s own Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), which was created in 1963. In Philadelphia, federal, state, and local policies towards suburbs, automobiles and urban transit combined to doom the private operators, which led to the legislators’ decision to create SEPTA. Since the consolidation of the numerous private operators, SEPTA has become the sole public transportation provider in the city. Unfortunately, SEPTA’s weak governance n the middle of the

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and historically poor decisions have led to levels of service below those offered by the private operators.

To get a better understanding of Philadelphia’s public transit system, it is useful look at it from its inception. The end of the 19th and start of the 20th century saw rapid growth in Philadelphia’s public transit, including the construction of many streetcar lines and the Market-Frankford SubwayElevated Line. Initially, most operators owned only one line, but in 1907, a group of them consolidated to become the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (PRT) (Cheape, 1980). PRT’s slogan was “a streetcar always in sight” and they adhered to it by having 46 streetcar lines all of which had headways of 12 minutes or better from 6 a.m. to midnight (Zearfoss, 2010). The PRT was later

renamed the Philadelphia Transit Company (PTC) which experienced its peak ridership during the Second World War. In the 1950s, National City Lines, which was wholly owned by General Motors, Standard Oil, and Firestone Tires—not historical friends of public transit—bought a controlling stake in PTC. Soon after that, PTC started converting trolley routes to bus routes, even going so far as to rip out the tracks and take down the wires so the trolleys could not be reinstated (Black, 2006). Ridership—which had been falling even before National City Lines acquired PTC—accelerated its decline, setting the stage for bankruptcy and the public takeover of transit in the city (Barnum, 1971).

In 1963, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed the Metropolitan Transportation Authorities

Old Route 34 trolley making its way from The Portal to the surface part of its route.

Act of 1963, which established SEPTA and other public transit agencies across the state. At first, the agency only took over the roles of two public entities: The Passenger Service Improvement Corporation and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Compact. These agencies were primarily responsible for mediating disputes between the different private operators but did not operate any services themselves. However, in 1968, after a 19-day transit strike crippled the city, the mayor pushed for SEPTA to start running public transit services. At that point, SEPTA jumped into the operating sphere by buying PTC’s lines, which became the City Transit Division (SEPTA, 2007). SEPTA’s new service comprised the Market-Frankford and Broad Street Lines, 12 trolley routes, and the city’s bus and trackless trolley routes (SEPTA, 1974). In 1970, SEPTA bought the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company, which operated the Norristown High Speed Line, two trolley routes (101 and 102), and several bus routes in the counties surrounding Philadelphia. These services are known as the Victory Division today. In 1976, SEPTA bought the Schuylkill Valley Lines, which became the Frontier Division. Finally, in 1983, SEPTA took over the former Reading and Pennsylvania Railroads from Conrail, and these became the current Regional Rail and Railroad Division (SEPTA, 2007). Since 1983, SEPTA has controlled all of the public transit based in Philadelphia, and for the foreseeable future, this is very unlikely to change.

Since consolidation, SEPTA has converted a large part of its trolley network to bus routes, reduced service, and made transfers less convenient on the City Transit Division. Although private owners started these trends before SEPTA bought them, SEPTA’s decisions have further deteriorated

the quality of public transit in Philadelphia.

Once SEPTA had integrated its numerous divisions, which was its first priority, it continued down the path that PTC had forged before it was acquired: It converted trolley routes to bus routes.

In the 1980s, SEPTA stopped service on Routes 6, 50, 53, and 60 and in 1992 SEPTA stopped service on Routes 15, 23, and 56, converting the routes to buses (Figure 1). Although Route 15 was restored in 2005 and Routes 23 and 56 are “temporarily” suspended, the other changes are considered permanent. The main justification of the suspension of service was that double-parked cars would block trolleys from passing on narrow streets, resulting in bunching and unpredictable timetables. Thus the city and SEPTA chose to degrade their public transit service rather than enforce parking regulations.

In his analysis of ridership trends between 1954 and 2005, Christopher Zearfoss of the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities found that ridership decreased 61 percent overall for the entire City Transit Division, but that it decreased over 70 percent for the routes that SEPTA converted from trolleys to buses. The decrease was only 38 percent on Route 34 and 56 percent on Route 10, two routes that were allowed to continue as trolley routes. Additionally, Zearfoss found that ridership fell 39 percent on Route 15 between 1992 and 2000—the first eight years after it was converted from a trolley route to a bus route—which is three times the decline of the nearest parallel bus routes, 3 and 43 (Zearfoss, 2008). The steeper drop in ridership on the route that was formerly served by a trolley demonstrates that riders are not agnostic between rail and bus, and that, in fact, they prefer rail.

Furthermore, Zearfoss found that while trolley

Figure 1. Map showing the trolley routes that have been removed or “temporarily substituted” by buses.

ridership increased by 1.1 percent between 2000 and 2007, bus ridership on the lines most similar to the trolley routes—Routes 21, 42, 52, and 46—actually decreased by 22.2 percent (Zearfoss, 2008). This finding further reinforces the fact of Philadelphians’ preference for rail over bus transit. Of course, those four bus routes do not follow the exact same path as the trolleys, but they are similar enough to where they would often compete for the same riders who have voted with their feet by choosing rail over bus service.

According to Vukan Vuchic, UPS Foundation Professor of Transportation Engineering at Penn, rail transit tends to attract more riders because it usually has a more separated right of way, it is more reliable, and it has lower headways (Vuchic, 1999). In addition to these reasons, rail is probably also more attractive to riders based on the following characteristics: Perception of permanence offered by the tracks, the ingrained idea that rail-based transit is inherently better than rubber-tire transit, and the negative perception of buses as smelly, loud, and unattractive—even if these perceptions are not representative of modern bus technology.

In addition to converting trolley routes to buses, SEPTA has also reduced service on the “lowest hanging fruit”—the routes where ridership was already very low (Zearfoss, 2009).

However, these reductions carry part of the blame for lower ridership overall because as service has decreased, other modes—primarily the automobile—have become more and more attractive, further luring passengers from transit.

Finally, after failed attempts to implement a zone charge for transit in Philadelphia in the 1980s, SEPTA embarked on a succession of increases (1985, 1986, 1989, 2001 and 2007)

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to the transfer charge, which far outpaced the parallel percentage increases to the cash and token fares. From 1983 to 1985, a SEPTA token cost 70 cents while a transfer cost 15 cents—21 percent of the cost—while now a token is $1.45 and a transfer is 75 cents, or 52 percent of the cost (Cao, 1983)! This pushes those low-income riders who do not need or cannot afford weekly or monthly transpasses to choose one-seat, longer and less-efficient bus routes instead of taking shorter, feeder bus routes and transferring to the faster, more efficient Broad Street and MarketFrankford Lines (Zearfoss, 2009, 2010).

The only time when SEPTA made significant improvements to its service during the past 30 years was under the leadership of David Gunn from 1979 to 1984. At that time SEPTA made a strong effort to increase frequency and capacity but since then, subsequent managers have emphasized efficiency over service. Between FY 1984

regional scales—especially, in our case, the case of Philadelphia. The first and probably most important factor lowering cities’ stature was the post-war suburbanization brought on by the GI Bill, and subsequently by the construction of the Interstate Highway system. The GI Bill provided mortgage guarantees with low interest rates, no down payments, mortgage interest tax deductions on single-family detached homes—the kind that were built in the suburbs where land was aplenty.

Additionally, the GI Bill offered loan insurance to lenders and developers under the Federal Housing Administration. This led to a dramatic growth in home construction marked by a full quarter of the homes in 1960 having been built in the 1950s (Cohen, 2004)!

In the 1960s, the dramatic growth of the Interstate Highway System continued to contribute to suburbanization and to the decline of central cities. In effect, federal spending on the Interstate

Route 15 was reinstated as a trolley in 2005, marking a significant departure from SEPTA’s previous policies.

and FY 1993, City Transit Division vehicle miles fell by 7.4 percent, linked ridership fell by 19.8 percent and passengers per vehicle-mile fell by 13.3 percent. Today, out of 79 City Transit Division surface routes, 18 (23 percent), 32 (41 percent), and 41 (54 percent) have weekday, Saturday, and Sunday midday headways of 30 minutes or longer, respectively. While better comfort and amenities are important to the ridership experience, buses that operate only every 30–60 minutes are not going to be viable transportation options for the vast majority of people (Zearfoss, 2010).

To understand SEPTA’s decision-making process in context, it is imperative to look at the decline of cities on their respective

70 PANORAMA2010

Highway System was a subsidy for drivers and suburban commuters who could move further and further from the center city at very little personal monetary or time cost (Baum-Snow, 2007).

While at first, central cities continued to provide the majority of jobs, eventually, even the jobs moved to the suburbs. In the 1950s, 57 percent of Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) residents and 70 percent of MSA jobs were in the center city but by 1990, those numbers had decreased to just 37 percent of residents and 45 percent of jobs (Mieszkowski and Mills, 1993).

The growth of suburban malls and the decline of central city retail was a final factor contributing to the diminished importance of downtowns. This

decline was especially high in the 1970s, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of overall retail sales within various MSAs (Robertson, 1983).

With declines in population, employment, and retail it is safe to conclude that central cities and their needs became less important in the decades following the Second World War. Philadelphia, like cities all over the country, followed the aforementioned patterns of housing, employment, and retail decline. The city’s population decreased from just over 2 million in 1950, to 1.6 million in 1990, though it seems to have stabilized at around 1.5 million today, a decrease of over 25 percent (U.S. Census Bureau). At the same time, the MSA population grew from 4 million in 1950 to 5.9 million in 1990, or almost 50 percent (Demographia, 1996). This means that while Philadelphia once had one half of the area’s residents, it now has only one fourth.

At the same time, retail has greatly decreased in the center city. While there used to be four multi-story department stores, now there is only Macy’s, which has two stories (Zearfoss, 2009).

Much of the retail has gone to suburban malls, such as King of Prussia, Cherry Hill, Plymouth Meeting, and Springfield. Obviously, with fewer residents and fewer regional attracters, SEPTA’s ridership was bound to suffer. However, while the population has decreased by 25 percent, City Transit Division ridership has decreased 61 percent between 1954 and 2005, as mentioned previously (Zearfoss, 2008). Part of this difference might be explained by the loss of retail but much of the blame goes to SEPTA and its operations.

Instead of combating the national trends and fighting to preserve rail and non-peak service, SEPTA chose to accelerate the process of degradation. At the earliest stages of its existence, SEPTA continuously deferred maintenance on its stock of trolleys to such an extent that by the 1980s, when it began to take them out of service, many of the trolleys were falling apart (Philadelphia Inquirer, 1981; Horwitz, 2009). SEPTA chose to solve this problem by purchasing buses and converting trolley routes to bus routes. The push for SEPTA to buy more and more buses likely came from the holdover employees, ideas, and culture that had been established by National City Lines. By this time, many of PTC’s employees, who had been influenced by the leadership of National City Lines and hired by SEPTA, had risen to positions of power (Horwitz, 2009).

The staff was allowed to propagate these ideas because the SEPTA board has, for the most part, acted as a rubber stamp, unlike the Utilities Commission that preceded it. While PTC operated public transit, the company had to prove to the independent, statewide Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission that any proposed route changes or fare increases were justified. SEPTA’s board has

appeared to be less stringent and more willing to accept what its management team proposes than was its predecessor (Zearfoss, 2009, 2010).

Finally, the structure of the SEPTA board has probably been most harmful to Philadelphia and the City Transit Division. The board is composed of two representatives from each of the five counties it serves (Philadelphia, Montgomery, Chester, Bucks, and Delaware), one representative from the governor, and one representative each from the majority and minority leader of each house of the General Assembly. This means that Philadelphia, which has 80 percent of the ridership and provides 80 percent of the local funding, only has as much voting power as the other four counties, which together provide only 20 percent of the ridership and 20 percent of the local funding. Dating as far back as the early 1980s, there have been proposals that attempt to make the composition of SEPTA’s board more equitable (Gar, 1983). Even the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Transportation Funding and Reform Commission listed governance as one of SEPTA’s biggest issues in their 2006 report (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Transportation Funding and Reform Commission, 2006). The suburban-heavy makeup of the board is probably the biggest factor stopping SEPTA from improving public transit service in the city.

To get back on track—pun intended—SEPTA needs to reprioritize Philadelphia on its board.

Philadelphia is greatly underrepresented on the board and has thus been underserved for decades.

A more Philadelphia-centered focus will, over the long-term, improve decision-making and, hopefully, service. While there will certainly be benefits for city residents—many of whom are poorer and more transit-dependent than their suburban counterparts—even those in the outlying counties might benefit from a more concentrated and centralized transit network.

Additionally, SEPTA should move to reinstate

Works Cited

Barnum, Darold T. “Private to Public: Labor Relations in Urban Transit.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 25 (1971): 95-115.

Baum-Snow, Nathaniel. “Did Highways Cause Suburbanization?”

The Quarterly Journal of Economics (2007): 775-805.

Black, Edwin. Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives. New York: St. Martin’s P, 2006.

Cheape, Charles W. Moving the masses urban public transit in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, 1880-1912. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard UP, 1980.

Cohen, Lizabeth. “A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America.” Journal of Consumer Research 31 (2004): 236-39.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Transportation Funding and Reform Commission. Investing in our Future: Addressing the Transportation Funding Crisis. Rep. 2006.

Interview with Chris Zearfoss, Senior Transportation Project

SEPTA’s approach to trolley operations in the 1970s led to deterioration of the rolling stock to unusable levels.

the “temporarily” suspended service on Routes 23 and 56. Trolley service should not be confined only to the subway-surface routes and Route 15, especially considering that most of the track and the car barns would need only minor repairs to be put back into service. To prevent bunching because of double parking on 11th and 12th street, SEPTA should work with the city to enhance enforcement and levy heavy fines on motorists who block trolley service.

Third, SEPTA should conduct an inventory of its tracks and analyze the potential of former and new corridors for trolley service. While cities across the country are spending millions of dollars repurchasing rights of way and reinstalling track, Philadelphia and SEPTA have been blessed with an abundance of track that they must simply figure out how to optimize. These changes will

not solve all of SEPTA’s problems, but they will start the agency on a trajectory to make public transit in Philadelphia an example for the rest of the country.

Recently, the national climate has become more transit-friendly, as cities across the country have started to reinvest in their public transit systems. In Pennsylvania, the passing of Act 44 by the General Assembly in 2007 has bolstered SEPTA’s financial outlook, which will make long-term capital investment possible. However, to better serve its region, SEPTA must reform the makeup of its board and begin to utilize the dormant track that still exists all over the city.

Until that happens, the public takeover of private industry will continue to be criticized for being inefficient, ineffective, and counterproductive.

Manager, Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities.”

Telephone interview. 23 Nov. 2009.

Interview with David Horwitz, former Chairman of SEPTA’s Citizens Advisory Committe. Personal interview. 2 Dec. 2009.

Joseph, Gar. “Bill Would Double City Septa Vote.” Philadelphia Daily News 10 Mar. 1983, 4th ed., Local sec.: 10.

———. “No Fare Hike In Septa’s $397m 1984 Budget.”

Philadelphia Daily News 6 May 1983, 4th ed., Local sec.: 4.

Mieszkowski, Peter, and Mills, Edwin S. “The Causes of Metropolitan Suburbanization.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 7 (1993): 135-47.

Robertson, Kent A. “Downtown Retail Activity in Large American Cities 1954-1977.” Geographical Review 73 (1983): 314-23.

“Septa’s Pitiful Plight: Grim Legacy Of Neglect.” The Philadelphia Inquirer 26 Apr. 1981, SA ed.: L06.

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. Fiscal Year

2009 Operating Budget Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and Fiscal Years 2010 to 2014 Financial Projections.

2007.

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. The History of Trolley Cars and Routes in Philadelphia. Brochure. Philadelphia: 1974 “Top 50 US Metropolitan Areas (1996) Population from 1950.”

DEMOGRAPHIA: Demographics Development Impacts Market Research & Urban Policy. 01 Dec. 2009 <http://www. demographia.com/dm-usmet-fr50.htm>.

U.S. Bureau of the Census Table 18-22. Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places. http://www.census.gov/population/www/ documentation/twps0027/twps0027.html Vuchic, Vukan R. Transportation for Livable Cities. New Brunswick, N.J: Center for Urban Policy Research, 1999.

Zearfoss, Christopher. Rail Transit Ridership Potential. Rep. Philadelphia, 2008.

71

The WILDERNESS

Strong Legislation for

“In Wildness is the Preservation of the World.”

—Henry David Thoreau

A

merican federal land has always been used for recreation.

All outdoor pursuits can be found, including skiing, hiking, biking, horseback riding, boating, rock climbing, and backpacking. For many Americans, these activities represent the main rationale behind protecting so much federal land. These pastimes and hobbies are sought by millions each year to re-energize, re-invigorate, and renew the spirit, and especially since World War II, Americans have visited and used their federal lands in droves.

After that war, the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service, two federal agencies

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responsible for controlling much of our 600 million acres of public land, were entirely unprepared for the onslaught. Between 1945 and 1970, visitor days to the National Parks rose from about five million to almost 175 million.

American romanticism for the outdoors increased, along with leisure time, affluence, and population. Additionally, the explosion in automobile use meant that public lands were suddenly within reach of millions of Americans. Visits to the National Parks continued to rise through the end of the century, and reached about 300 million visitor days by 2000 (Janofsky, 1999).

The U.S. Forest Service Originally established to manage and protect our timber and mineral resources, the U.S. Forest Service was formed in 1905, under the Department of Agriculture. The administered forestland was not meant to be where people would want to go hiking or touring. It existed to reap benefits for the federal government from mining and logging operations. In order to give these companies access to the prime stands of timer and minerals, the Forest Service undertook the construction of many thousands of miles of roads.

But these roads were also welcome access points for recreationalists, and it soon became

apparent that the Forest Service would have to accommodate many different public uses. The policy of “multiple-use and sustained yield” emerged early on, with the stated goal of finding a way for all uses to coexist into the future.

Today, the Forest Service is responsible for about 200 million acres of federal land, and it controls 155 forests in 40 states (Daniels and Daniels, 2003). Unfortunately, the ideal of “multiple-use sustained-yield” has never been

For example, the trail to the top of Clingman’s Dome, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, consists of a road to a parking lot, followed by 500 yards of smooth paved incline, leading to a fifty foot tower. Clearly this does not represent maintenance of natural areas in the truest sense, but it does allow Americans to access these great wonders. There is an “uncomfortable feeling that the philanthropic ethos of the National Park Service has overshadowed the primary necessity

Johnson in 1964, it was written “in order to ensure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States…” It established the National Wilderness Preservation System, which was “to be composed of federally owned areas designated

by Congress as ‘wilderness areas,’ and these shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave

ACT OF 1964

by ANDY DAWSON

r Land Preservation attained. Multiple uses have instead created multiple problems, as the Forest Service is charged with not only maintaining many uses, but also considering the extent of the impacts of the use; impacts which can be far-reaching, ecologically speaking (Heyman and Twiss, 1970).

The National Park Service Another federal agency, the National Park Service, was formed in 1916, and resides within the Department of the Interior. The Park Service manages 83 million acres of parks in 385 separate units (Daniels and Daniels, 2003). They are responsible not only for national parks, but also national monuments, recreation areas, preserves, and rivers and trails (Daniels and Daniels, 2003).

These lands are supposed to be maintained as natural environments. They do not allow hunting, but they do have some existing grazing and mining rights that are honored, as long as they do not overly conflict with the overall goal of maintaining the natural environment (Daniels and Daniels, 2003).

The National Park Service faced many problems similar to the Forest Service. While they sought to accommodate visitors, and give access to some of our nation’s most beautiful natural features, it was apparent to many people that they had taken something away in the process.

Visitors’ demand for modern conveniences, balanced with the Park Service’s responsibility and desire to accommodate these paying customers, has created a system where the original pristine beauty of these places is diminished. Parking lots are mere steps from scenic vistas and waterfalls and canyons, visitor centers are huge complexes selling all sorts of merchandise and paraphernalia, and campgrounds in many parks are merely overcrowded parking spaces for RVs.

to conserve the habitat.” (Darling and Eichhorn, 1967) Thankfully, it only takes a little imagination, a little wandering off the trail, to realize the awesome beauty of these places. The Appalachian Trail intersects the paved path to Clingman’s Dome. A few steps down this path, which runs from Georgia to Maine, will put you in the heart of the American outdoor spirit. Our national parks can correctly be called staging areas for wilderness – no longer true wilderness themselves, but gateways to areas that still are. Indeed, the crush of visitors in the second half of the 20th century made it apparent that there was a need for another level of land protection.

The Wilderness Act of 1964 The answer came with the Wilderness Act, which established new standards for protection of American wilderness. But wilderness can be hard to define. It is as much defined by what it is not as by what it is. It is not where people live or work, and it is certainly not the city (Terrie, 1985). Wilderness must be “essentially different from civilization’s usual environment” (Terrie, 1985). But the idea of true wilderness varies in the human mind, “One man’s wilderness may be another’s roadside picnic ground” (Nash, 1967). This is important when thinking about our national parks. For many people, national parks are about as “wild” as they need to get, and they enjoy how convenient visiting national parks can be. But others seek something more challenging, more untamed, and more primitive.

For the purposes of the Wilderness Act, Congress determined that it was where “an area of the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Signed into law by President Lyndon

them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness…” (Wilderness Act, 1964).

The law called for the Secretary of Agriculture to take an inventory of federal lands within the Forest Service that could qualify, and report the findings to the president. The Secretary of the Interior was ordered to take the same inventory on lands managed by the National Park Service.

The president then makes his own determinations about the areas, and sends recommendations regarding wilderness designation to the House of Representatives and the Senate. If the recommendations, in the form of a bill, are approved, the wilderness areas are then made official by an Act of Congress.

Lands designated as wilderness under the Act are to be the most protected and primitive lands under federal control. Much of the land in our national parks could have been classified as wilderness at the time the Act was passed, and indeed much of it has become so designated. This helps the national parks focus their accessibility requirements to areas that are already relatively built up—almost like a growth boundary. According to Wilderness.net, as of 2009, over half the area managed by the National Park Service was under wilderness designation (43 million acres).

Once an area is designated as wilderness, it has many restrictions placed on use. Roads are not allowed, and neither are commercial operations.

As stated in the Act, “there shall be no temporary road, no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment or motorboats, no landing of aircraft, no other form of mechanical transport, and no structure or installation within any such area.”

It does allow some existing mining rights to continue operating, as long as they do so in a way that does not diminish the wilderness character, and grazing is only allowed to occur if it had been

73

Wilderness areas remaining in Alaska (top left) and the lower 48 states (bottom left).

Source: National Atlas of the United States.

an existing use on the area. Other rights are held in reserve for the president to pursue if he sees them as necessary for the public interest. These rights include the ability to conduct water resource projects, establish power plants, and other uses he or she deem essential to the interests of the United States.

An example of a recent usage debate has been over the use of fixed anchors for rock climbers.

These permanent installations on rock faces are seem by some as an infringement on the wilderness. Yet, to the climbers, they represent the difference between life and death. The debate came to a head when the Forest Service announced they would no longer allow them (Cheever, 1998).

The backlash was so intense that they retreated in their statement, saying they would give it further study. Now wilderness areas that have climbing routes individually assess whether the fixed bolts fit into their management plan. Even the Sierra Club has taken a middle ground, saying power drills are not allowed to put the bolts in place, and that any alteration to the rock should be minimal.

There also is the question of what to do about the air above wilderness areas. Flight paths of planes over wilderness would certainly take away from the “primeval character.” In 1994, activists fought to prevent the Colorado Air National Guard from expanding their flight paths over the Greenhorn Mountain and Sangre de Cristo wilderness areas. Besides interrupting tranquility, the jets can disrupt wildlife, and, in winter, potentially trigger avalanches, especially when the planes fly at treetop altitudes (McGivney and Wolfson, 1994). There are also debates about access to wilderness for the disabled (Schultz, 2005). For example, Adirondack State Park in New York has been ordered to issue special licenses for personal

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motorized vehicle access in their “forever wild” land (Cheever, 1998).

Overall, land that is designated wilderness has enjoyed real protection within the American court system (Ruckel, 1998). The same is true for land that is under review, and is being studied for possible future designation as wilderness. The courts strive to leave wilderness determinations up to Congress and the President, by making sure characteristics do not change within the areas while they are being reviewed.

However, there must be a line somewhere.

Lands that are contiguous with wilderness areas or wilderness study areas do not enjoy the same protection by the courts. This is unfortunate in that it may permit the type of development found on the outskirts of many of our national parks, such as strip commercial zones and themed resorts.

But if there is to be a buffer from this development, the wilderness should not retreat from it, but should rather go right up against it. While it might be nice to have wilderness designation only where there is no sound or sight of humans, it would merely result in the solitude retreating further back into itself. For example, if a wilderness area sets its boundary at a road, then for a few hundred yards within the area someone might be able to see or hear cars. But if the wilderness boundary is drawn with a buffer already in place back from the road, development could occur on the non-wilderness buffer and thus force solitude even further back.

Oftentimes compromises have to be reached for the Wilderness Act to function in more populated areas. In California, a town wanted its snowmobile tourists to stay to support the local economy, and the environmentalists wanted them

USA lit at night, indicating developed areas. Source: NASA

out because they hurt the wilderness character of the area. The resulting plan called for a 40,000 acre expansion of the Hoover wilderness and an addition of 640 acres to the Emigrant wilderness, in exchange for snowmobiling rights on an 11,000 acre area in between the two additions (Economist, 2006).

As an alternative to wilderness designation and continued government involvement in sensitive environments, there has been a call for privatization of these areas. Such proponents argue that if these lands were operated by market forces, they would be managed in a much more useful way, with much more economic benefit to be reaped and enjoyment for the user. So far this idea has not gained much momentum (Lehmann, 1995).

In 2001, President Clinton issued The Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which designated almost 60 million acres of national forest as “roadless areas.” These areas were thus off limits to logging, mining, and grazing, and therefore allowed them to be considered for wilderness designation (Daniels and Daniels, 2003). President George W. Bush later modified the rule so that it became a state decision on a case by case basis.

Other areas are looking to establish permit systems, which would limit the number of people allowed into the area at any one time (Nelson, 1997). These issues are representative of the next chapter of the Wilderness Act, as states continue to grapple with more mobile and expanding populations who want access to America’s great natural areas.

Conclusion Out of the 2.4 billion acres of land in the United States, 100 million acres are now designated as wilderness, in 708 separate areas.

On March 30, 2009, President Obama signed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which adds acreage to 26 existing areas and creates 51 new wilderness areas. It will add another 2.1 million acres of federal land to the National Wilderness Preservation System.

There are also reforms happening in our national parks. Zion National Park recently banned automobile traffic on its main park road, and now requires all vehicles to be parked at the campgrounds or visitor center. Visitors access the main area of the park by low-emission shuttle buses that make trips up and down the valley. This has effectively eliminated the smoggy haze condition that used to settle into the valley on busy summer days. This policy could probably be effective in other parks with similar layouts. Yosemite has a park road in the main valley that has consistent traffic, which not only causes pollution but is also a threat to wildlife.

In Yellowstone National Park, the main ring road is so huge that areas in the middle of it could rightly be called wilderness. But the road itself is clogged with traffic in and out of the park every day of the summer. New ideas on transportation would be important for Yellowstone to consider.

Perhaps a rail system, with designated stopping points, and large viewing windows would better serve the ecology of the park. It could be off the ground to protect the wildlife and active geothermal land, and perhaps have an “express” route for those trying to hit only the major points

man’s relationship to his surroundings. like Old Faithful.

While the Wilderness Act has been successful All in all, there needs to be new thinking on by many measures, there are still concerns that it how humans interact with their wilderness. It may be too late. There is recognition that future cannot be appreciated if it cannot be accessed— wilderness areas need to be focused around but it cannot remain wilderness if it is inundated by tourists. Public transit options also tend to take ecosystem and watershed-wide management away from the individual freedoms Americans feel areas (Hamilton, 1994). The Wrangell-St. Elias Wilderness in Alaska has protected 8.7 million entitled to in these places. Somehow a balance acres spanning an entire mountain range. While needs to be struck that is mutually beneficial. these opportunities do not exist in such size in But there is no doubt that the benefits of wilderness designation are good for both humans the lower 48 states, efforts need to move forward at connecting those wilderness areas that can and the environment. It is important to let the form a network. Nature does not obey political fragile ecosystems of these areas survive and boundaries—wolves and bears, and migratory thrive, partly because we don’t really know the birds, need space to roam. A single island of full outcomes of their destruction. Many people are concerned about climate change, and develop- wilderness, though it may be extremely large, ment patterns that continue to eat up open spaces may not prove big enough to keep the wilderness as nature intended (Hamilton, 1994). threaten to contribute to the problem.

If political support continues, and the courts Wilderness is also good for the human spirit. continue to uphold the principle of the Act, then Many authors and poets, and anyone who has we should see further additions in the future. experienced wilderness, explain its healing and There is a delicate balance involved, as there are regenerative powers. Ian McHarg was an early Number Of Wilderness Units By Agency many parties interested in the most personal gain advocate for integrating the qualities of nature in from our public land. These lands by definition all forms of human design. He saw it absolutely Agency Wilderness Units Percent of Total Wilderness Units belong to the people, and with 100 million more necessary to make changes in the way we impact Bureau of Land Management 190 25.82% Americans expected by 2040, the pressures on the landscape, both for our own good and the Fish &us Wildlife Service 71 are only going9.65% them to increase. Now with over good of the environment around (McHarg, Forest Service go on 419 56.93% a century of experience managing public lands 1995). Authors of the twentieth century for multiple uses, the Federal government has extensively in similar lines ofNational reasoning.

Aldo Park Service 56 7.61% set strong precedents to carry the Wilderness Act Leopold in his Sand County Almanac (1949) and through the next 100 years and beyond.

Rachel Carson in Silent Spring pushed for better 736 recognition of the importantTotal fragile balance of

Number Of Wilderness Units By Agency Agency

Wilderness Acreage By Agency

Wilderness Units Percent of Total Wilderness Units

Agency

Acres

Percent of Total Wilderness Acres

Bureau of Land Management 190

25.82%

Bureau of Land Management 7,796,842

7.26%

Fish & Wildlife Service

71

9.65%

Fish & Wildlife Service

20,702,350

19.28%

Forest Service

419

56.93%

Forest Service

35,479,099

33.05%

National Park Service

56

7.61%

National Park Service

43,383,389

40.41%

Total

736

Total

107,361,680

Source: http://www.wilderness.net/

Bibliography

Wilderness Acreage By Agency

Data courtesy of www.wilderness.net.

Adirondack Park Agency. “History of the Adirondack Park,” of the Public Lands, 58 California L. Rev. 1364 (1970).

Agency Acres Percent of Total Wilderness Acres www.apa.state.ny.us.

Huffman, James L., A History of Forest Policy in the United States, 8 Bryson, Bill. A Walk in the Woods.

New York: Broadway 1998.

Envtl. L. 239 (1977).

Bureau of Land Management 7,796,842Books,7.26% Cheever, Federico. Talking About Wilderness, 76 Denv. U. L. Rev. 341 Janofsky, Michael. “National Parks, Strained by Crowds, Face a Fish & Wildlife Service 20,702,350 19.28% (1998).

Crisis,” New York Times, July 25, 1999.

Forest Service 35,479,099 Clawson, Marion.

The Federal Lands Revisited. Baltimore: Johns 33.05% Lehmann,Scott. Privatizing Public Lands New York: Oxford, 1995.

Hopkins University Press, 1983.

Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County almanac, and Sketches here and there. New National Park Service 43,383,389 40.41% Daniels, Tom and Katherine Daniels. The Environmental Planning York: Oxford University Press, 1949.

Handbook, Chicago: Planners Press, 2003.

McHarg, Ian. Design With Nature. New York: Wiley, 1995.

Darling, F. Fraser and Noel D. Eichhorn, Man & Nature in the McGivney, Annette and Elissa Wolfson, “Taming the Wilderness,” Total 107,361,680 National Parks. Washington, DC: The Conservation E - The Environmental Magazine, May/June 1994.

Foundation, 1967.

Nash, Roderick. Wilderness and the American mind. New Haven: Yale Hamilton, Bruce. “An enduring wilderness?” Sierra, Sep/Oct University Press, 1967.

Data courtesy of www.wilderness.net.

1994.

Nelson, Dan A. “Legislating loneliness,” Backpacker. December Heyman, Ira Michael and Robert H. Twiss, Environmental Management 1997.

Ruckel, H. Anthony. The Wilderness Act and the Courts, 76 Denv. U. L. Rev. 611 (1998).

Schultz, Erik. “New Paths in the Wilderness,” Wilderness, December 2005, 39.

Stone, Christopher. Should Trees have standing? Los Altos, CA: W. Kaufmann, 1974.

Terrie, Philip G. Forever Wild: Environmental Aesthetics and the Adirondack Forest Preserve Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1985.

United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, “What We Know about Climate Change Effects on Forests and Rangelands.” Research and Development. November 2007.

Where bike meets boot,” The Economist. August 5, 2006, 32.

Wilderness Act of 1964. (Pub.L. 88-577)

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76 PANORAMA2010

Coloring

Community: theFuture ofCommunitY

University Partnerships

for a Global Century

by

Jeffrey P. tiell

77

T

he world is changing before our eyes.

Our societies are becoming more demographically pluralistic and diverse. To understand this growing diversity we need only to look to at our universities and at their endeavors to accommodate “changing societal imperatives” (Benjamin, 2003, 10). Benjamin further observes that, “A constellation of changes in the environment of American higher education—globalization, immigration, rising social-economic inequality, centrality of the knowledge economy, and issues surrounding cultural identity—are the new changes that will transform the American university in coming decades” (Benjamin, 2003, 8-9). The Chronicle of Higher Education reported in November 2008 that, “The number of international students enrolled in American colleges in the fall of 2007 shattered previous records and represents the largest oneyear increase in decades” (McMurtrie, 2008). This increase of international students at American colleges is pronounced at schools such as University of California, Berkeley. There, Asian students represent 41 percent of the overall undergraduate population. Timothy Egan (2007) remarks in his article, Asia on the Hill, “This is a global campus in a global age. And more than any time in its history, it looks toward the setting sun for its identity . . . [And yet] What is troubling to some is that the big public school on the hill certainly does not look like the ethnic face of California, which is 12 percent Asian, more than twice the national average.” Given this information, how do we begin to explain a shifting global university demographic and its impact on community-university partnerships and governance in the 21st century? The argument of this paper is that the future strength and success of higher education in providing relevance for our global citizenry largely rests in its structure and ability to bridge theory and practice. Central to this success are communityuniversity partnerships that inform the purpose of higher education.

Higher Education and Mission in a Global Society To understand the manifestation of demographics within the frame of global higher education, we need first examine the very mission

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and importance of the institutions themselves, their changing nature, and their expectations. As Richard Smith observes, “Much is expected of universities of the twenty-first century, in all countries.They are required to respond to a variety of needs and fulfill many sometimes incompatible aims, and this is not simply a matter of external demands but of the multifaceted commitment, rooted in tradition, of universities themselves and of the academic profession.” (Smith, 2007, 30) Initially, colleges in the American colonies were conceived of as divinity schools for the wealthy elite. This conceptualization of mission shifted dramatically through the crucible of the American Revolution and the democratic ideals and purpose of a higher education system concerned with the education of a new self-governed citizenry. Colleges and universities became civic grounds for the molding of a nascent American youth into fledging public citizens, endowed with a unique American ethos. Some two centuries hence, within the context of the rise of the

capitalist state in America, higher education increasingly has become beholden to the influence of corporatism. In response to the fear of a demographic slump and consequential closure, institutions began to pursue a business model (Harley and Hollander, 2005, 255). Furthermore, with increasing globalization, societies looked at “higher education to promote social coherence, political stability, and economic prosperity. Global restructuring escalates competition for economic and political power” (Riposa, 2003, 51).

This new role of higher education has caused many in the discipline to argue whether these shifts are ostensibly beneficial or detrimental to universities. Bill Readings in the University in Ruins laments that, “…Now the university is losing its social and public purpose and is becoming like any other corporation, serving its own private interests. Students are consumers rather than citizens in the making” (Readings, 1996, 52). On the other end of the debate, Andrew A. Sorensen writes in All to One Another, “In retrospect this era [the 21st century] will surely be regarded as the era of learners who will have spent their

entire lives in a world of electronic and linked technologies that open opportunities to learn about the relation among ‘ecological, cultural, economic, political and technological’ systems” (Sorensen, 2008, p.94). The way in which we learn is changing the very representation of our college and university hierarchies, operation, and management. How universities, as anchor institutions in their communities—institutions that, by reason of mission or invested capital are geographically tied to a certain location—shape and engage within their social, political and economic space is central to the ability to be responsible to society’s changing needs.

Universities as Anchors: The Local/Global Context “Conceptions of university-community partnership are informed largely by the prominent role of universities and community colleges as anchor institutions in the economic, social, and cultural lives of cities” (Schwieger, 2008).

Anchor institutions, usually large nonprofit entities such as hospital and universities, influence the capacity for greater shared community knowledge and learning within a community. It is well documented the many benefits to which anchors imbue in their communities including: (1) neighborhood identity, (2) centers of employment, (3) education and cultural opportunities for citizenry, (4) new company incubation and formation, (5) real estate development, (6) community safety, and (7) recruitment of high-quality and multi-faceted human capital (Webber and Karlstrom, 2009, 9-10). University anchors and the manifestation of their governance are increasingly driven both by this local geography and their responsibilities thereto and the aspects of a globalizing university paradigm. The University of Pennsylvania and its Penn Compact, signed by Penn President Amy Gutmann in 2004, makes clear one of its three principles is to engage locally and globally.

Locally, Penn describes its mission as “…collaborating with local communities on many bold initiatives to improve public education, public health, economic development, employment opportunities, the quality of life, and the physical

landscape of West Philadelphia and Philadelphia as well as to promote sustainable and equitable economic growth throughout the region.” This is contrasted with Penn’s global engagement efforts to launch, “several initiatives that leverage our global network to enhance opportunities for students to study abroad and to bring additional outstanding international faculty and students to campus” (Penn Compact, 2004). Many colleges and universities have embraced the notion that “a great 21st century American university engages dynamically with communities all over the world to advance the central values of democracy and to exchange knowledge that improves quality of life for all” (Penn Compact, 2004). One tactic that educational institutions have employed is the idea of university-community partnerships, broadly defined as the art of “connecting the rich resources of the university to our most pressing social, civic and ethical problems,” (Schwieger, 2008, 3) in both institutionalizing and replicating organizational governance and mission. To examine this recognition by American colleges and universities of shifting global patterns and their influence on the very nature of the conception and practice of learning, I will discuss three specific cases of institutions in this regard. These institutions—New York University, Tufts University, and Macalester College—all offer differing embodiments to a similar goal of inclusivity and reciprocity in globally-driven education. My intention in providing these examples is to create a more broadly defined debate on the various manners in which higher education can involve and engage globally based on common goals and academic values.

New York University: A Global Network University New York University (NYU) was “founded in 1831, [and] is now one of the largest private universities in the United States” boasting an enrollment that “has grown to more than 40,000 students attending 14 schools and colleges at five major centers in Manhattan and in more than 25 countries around the world” (About NYU, 2009). As self-described, “Since its origins, NYU has been a university ‘in and of the city;’ as NYU has expanded its international presence in recent years, it has become a university ‘in and of the

world,’ ” (NYU Abu Dhabi, 2009) thereby creating meaningful connection and praxis between thought and action. Responding to today’s demands of a global vision and identity, NYU has ventured towards a model that one might label as spatial-centered network building. This model based on creating “a new paradigm for the university as a dynamic global network” (NYU Abu Dhabi, 2009) is captured in the construction of NYU Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). NYU Abu Dhabi is described as a research university that fully integrates a liberal arts and sciences undergraduate college with its major parent university in the United States. Further, the institution’s vision is justified through a set of shared educational goals and beliefs, “NYU’s agreement with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to create NYU Abu Dhabi is the outcome of a shared understanding of the essential roles and challenges of higher education in the 21st century: a common belief in the value of a liberal arts education, concurrence on the benefits a research university brings to the society that sustains it, a conviction that interaction with new ideas and people who are different is valuable and necessary, and a commitment to educating students who are true citizens of the world.” (NYU Abu Dhabi, 2009) Interconnectedness is an archetypical theme used by NYU to portray its efforts in that, “NYU Abu Dhabi together with NYU New York will form the backbone of a Global Network University, creating a unique and unprecedented capacity for faculty and students to access all the resources of a research university system across five continents” (NYU Abu Dhabi, 2009).

Whether educational empire-making and/or simply strategic advancement of institutional mission is debatable; certainly one of the primary drawing points to attract students, faculty, and investment into the university in Abu Dhabi is that it is located in “a new global crossroads” (NYU Abu Dhabi, 2009). Here we find the localized place aspect of anchor institutions to be critical, as NYU Abu Dhabi exists in Abu Dhabi primarily because of the city’s place in the world as a center of extreme oil wealth, and, also, paradoxically as a place of global information commerce and thought in relation to its local assets. Further, the

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Tufts University campus

paradigm of the network society I think is useful in portraying NYU’s efforts to create a “new social structure [that] is open and decentralized” where “Hierarchy and bureaucracy are reduced… participation and demonstration are enhanced [and] people are active in several networks at once. In this way networks act, overlap, and intersect” (Albrects and Mandelbaum, 2005, 2). In essence, NYU Abu Dhabi is looked upon as a node within a dynamic spatial and social educational network. The institution’s governance reflects this, as NYU Abu Dhabi’s administration is comprised professionals who exemplify a global, yet still hierarchical local purpose, including senior positions for international education and communication. The creation of NYU Abu Dhabi re-envisions the global university as simultaneous School and Anchor—as a node in a network, ostensibly at its most optimal functioning as a sort of Gestalt University, a wholly unified and integrated, tightly woven network reflecting a global capacity aligned with a changing global educational landscape. In this regard, NYU’s

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mission is propagated through a layering beyond mere community-university partnerships within a more localized context, but as a nonlinear globalcommunity-university partnership.

Tufts University: Virtual Citizenship and Global Voice Tufts University is a medium-sized institution of close to 10,000 students located on the outskirts of the Boston region in Medford, Mass. Established in 1852, benefactor Charles Tufts envisioned Tufts as “A light on the Hill… when he donated the land around Walnut Hill in Medford to establish the university (Tufts University, 2009). Tufts’ challenge is figuring out how to interpret this vision now, more than a century-and-a-half after the school’s founding.

Contemporary Tufts seems to interpret its mission as requiring a way to foster active citizenship and public dialogue through its Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service (the Tisch College). As Peter Levine reflects, Tufts has embarked on what he describes as “a very unusual

and courageous experiment…” (Levine, 2007).

The Tisch College, according to Levine, “...does not grant degrees, enroll students, or offer courses. Its founders felt that a standard school or college would only affect a subset of Tufts’ students and faculty. It would become a specialized program, perhaps devoted to training future civil servants.

Instead, the Tisch College exists to infuse active citizenship throughout the undergraduate education, graduate and professional schools, extracurricular activities, research, and community relations of Tufts.”

(Levine, 2007) Started with $10 million in start-up funding from Tufts alumni and ebay founders Pierre and Pam Omidyar in 2000, and then endowed by Loews Hotel Corporation chairman, Jonathan Tisch, with a $40 million gift in 2006, the Tisch College “is a catalyst for active citizenship at Tufts and is the only university-wide program of its kind” (Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, 2009). The impetus for

such an experiment, as Levine would label it, is manifold and provided in the article, “Educating Students to Foster Active Citizenship” by Robert M. Hollister et. al., “Engaged students are more likely to think about other people’s needs and interests, about the communities in which they are studying, about the purposes of their education, and about the obligations that come with their privileges” (Hollister, Wilson, Levine, 2008,18).

In an age of enhanced mobility and transference, the notion of engaging an academic community in thinking beyond itself can often prove counterintuitive, especially to students. Tufts’ approach to create a university-wide virtual learning sphere, “as a resource to integrate and elevate civic values and skills across the entire curriculum...”

(Hollister, Wilson, Levine, 2008, 20) is extraordinarily relevant not simply because Tufts has been

the Tisch College Board of Advocates and Council of Friends, who represent a very diverse range of interests and professions.

Beyond the more tangible notion of allowing for seminars, internships, and research opportunities based around civic engagement, the Tisch College understands that an active citizenry is held in the hearts and minds of the people and thus, learning becomes less discrete over a single semester or two and more pervasive and embodied in the identity of the self and its advocates.

This idea of learning-by-doing is encapsulated in the work of organizational theorist Donald Schon’s conceptualization of reflection-in-action as a driver of what he refers to as the reflective practitioner in his book of the same name. He describes the reflective practitioner as “both ordinary people and professional practitioners

The successful 21st century college or university will be increasingly flexible and amendable, requiring new structures of governance and capacities for relatively sudden change. a pioneer in this model, but because the model is well aligned with the increasing virtuality and integrative capacities necessary for higher education in their digitalization. Tufts’ model engages at the crux of Ernest Boyer’s “new paradigm of scholarship [which] celebrates the scholarship of integrating knowledge, of communicating knowledge, and of applying knowledge through professional service” (Boyer, 1994,168). Further, its overarching interdisciplinary qualities speak to the re-conceptualization of higher education as hybrid places capable of re-enforcing and thus infusing singular goals. In Tufts’ arena, Hollister et. al. finds, “The combined effects of our multiple initiatives and interventions is making active citizenship a pervasive part of Tufts’ ethos, an essential part of our institutional DNA” (Hollister, Wilson, Levine, 2008, 20). The reflection of this structure through governance is notable in

[who] often think about what they are doing, sometimes even while doing it. Stimulated by surprise, they turn thought back on action and on the knowing which is implicit in action” (Schon, 1983,50). Tufts, by qualitative measures, has duly allowed for this reflection-in-action, as Hollister et. al. attest, “A growing number of professors support this effort [promoting active citizenship] because they have personal experience with courses that incorporate active citizenship often enhance students’ learning of other material” (Hollister, Wilson, Levine, 2008, 20). Ostensibly, the enabling of a heightened reflection-in-action model within the very organizational and pedagogical DNA of Tufts promotes a deepening of university-community mission and cohesion.

Further, it reinforces the notion that citizenry is not based in passports or currency, but is more a practiced frame of mind, a set of beliefs that

motivate appropriate action. This inter-weaving aligns with the changing role of governance in the 21st century university and how a given university, such as Tufts, has essentially restructured itself around a unifying theme. Certainly, as I have referenced, our shared American landscape is becoming more pluralistic and diverse. Tufts has, relative to the majority of other institutions of higher learning in the United States, taken a more active role as teacher and advocate for the health of our citizenry and democracy. It is a noble experiment, and one that traces its lineage to the founding of our republic and what Benjamin Franklin so deftly labeled the “practical arts” to the contemporary notion of the ”engaged campus”—the concept that colleges and universities have a responsibility both to educate students for citizenship and to act as good institutional citizens in their own communities (Hartley and Hollander, 2005).

Macalester College: Multiculturalism Magnified Through Multidisciplinary Study Macalester College is a nonsectarian liberal arts college located in St. Paul, Minnesota. In the fall 2009 semester the school enrolled just under 2,000 students, in which 49 states and 93 countries were represented. The percentage of international students enrolled stands at twelve percent. Macalester College places high value on its status as an attractor and disseminator of internationalist beliefs, proud to report that “Macalester’s commitments to academic excellence, internationalism, diversity, and civic engagement are reflected in the lives of its graduates, including former United States Vice President Walter Mondale and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (Macalester College Quick Facts, 2009).

Upwards of sixty percent of the student body studied abroad for at least one semester during their college career (Macalester College Quick Facts, 2009). The touchstone, however, of Macalester’s efforts to promote the intellectual growth and transformation of community, “through an environment that values the diverse cultures of our world and recognizes our responsibility to provide a supportive and respectful environment for students, staff and faculty of all cultures and backgrounds” is the Institute for Global

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Citizenship (IGC), established in 2005. The IGC is described as, “...a campus-wide initiative to build on and expand the college’s already distinctive tradition of engagement and academic excellence.

The IGC promotes learning, scholarship, and service focused on civic engagement and global leadership locally, nationally, and internationally” (Macalester College Institute for Global Citizenship, 2009).

Beyond engaging students and faculty through international roundtables, forums, and seminars, Macalester has created a new academic concentration in Global Citizenship which “enables students to integrate effective citizen-leader skills with their individual academic and career goals” (Macalester College Institute for Global Citizenship, 2009). Macalester has re-conceptualized the role of the modern liberal arts college around a changing demographic and mission of its institution and thus has purposely attempted to reconcile and fuse the forces of globalism and its mission as a liberal arts college, “In the early 21st century, the concept of ‘global citizenship’ has (re)emerged as an important framework for addressing the age-old (and fundamental) liberal arts questions ‘How should I lead my life?’ and ‘How should we lead our lives together?’ ”

(Macalester College Global Citizenship 2009) Adroitly, Macalester understands that its liberalarts focused mission allows for the development of a certain niche among community engagement efforts, perhaps less open to larger universities such as NYU or Tufts. This niche engages students and faculty with “the big questions”, in a manner that appropriately reflects the multi- and interdisciplinary focus present in a liberal arts college comparable in a more specialized university setting. The framework of this progressively conceived concentration is threefold and attuned to our changing demographics, “First, it is based on an ethical claim that all human beings are ultimately members of a single moral community and that, as such, they have certain rights, responsibilities and duties. Second, it involves a judgment that this community faces a number of challenges that are increasingly global in character, but that manifest themselves in distinctive ways in specific national/local contexts. Finally, it entails a conviction that addressing these challenges will ultimately require both an acceptance of our global ethical responsibilities and the development of institutional structures through which these responsibilities can be exercised at the transnational,

national and local levels.” (Macalester College Global Citizenship, 2009) This underlying framework imbued by integrative and supportive courses along with required experiential community-based learning and study abroad provides a robust, multidisciplinary, student-centered learning experience to which a liberal arts college, such as Macalester, is positioned for in a postmodern society. Macalester serves as a model for the incorporation of multicultural spheres of influence and education into a re-envisioning of pedagogy and the place of the liberal arts college amongst changing global demographics. Through the formation of this rather unique global citizenship concentration, Macalester is creating institutional and human capacity for re-thinking the role and contributions of a progressive liberal arts curriculum for an increasingly global age. In doing so, Macalester is reshaping the outcomes and impacts of what the its president, Brian C. Rosenberg, has labeled, “a uniquely American institution” (Rosenberg, 2009).

Institute for Global Citizenship on Macalester College’s campus

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Conclusions Slightly past the dawn of the 21st century, what are the primary trends we have witnessed evolving from revised community-university relationships? A seemingly paradoxical globalization, yet localization of mission incorporated in a general diversification through higher education is readily apparent. Georges Haddad writes in his article, University and Society: Responsibilities, Contracts, Parternships that, “Diversification will also affect university policy in matters of financing, structures and access to higher education. Institutions will have to show greater flexibility in order to adapt to and anticipate the needs of society, especially in developing countries...” (Haddad, 2000, 34). This idea of adaptation has been universally displayed in the various American institutions of higher education provided in this paper, from the creation of a new model university within NYU to the creation of a new paradigm of study at Macalester . It is relevant in a paper on structures and governance of colleges and universities to emphasize the reflection of institutional mission on global and civic goals and

outcomes. The point being, Macalester is not an NYU, and thus, its procedural agenda should be vastly different in the confrontation of shifting global demographics. Context and mission should drive objectives in this realm, a significant lesson for many international universities, especially those who wish to emulate American research universities simply because of their prestige and economic capacity. The key question that all university administrators’ should be asking is “How to we stay competitive and relevant in the global market, as well as to our community?”

The answer, as I have described, is not singular in nature, and instead reflects the evolving inter- and multi-disciplinary dimension of universities and the manner in which teaching and research must adeptly integrate these. Haddad notes, “The new professions and the needs of the world of work make it quite clear that training must become inter- and trans-disciplinary” (Haddad, 2000, 34).

The successful 21st century college or university will be increasingly flexible and amendable, requiring new structures of governance and

capacities for relatively sudden change. This tension between past habits and future frequencies is omnipresent within the academy today, similar to ages past, and necessitates strong leadership and disciplined institutional purpose. As seen from the case examples, Macalester has confronted their trans-disciplinary question by creating a new multidisciplinary focus—global citizenship— whereas an institution such as Tufts has provided for a multi-layering of civic and community dimensions upon their entire organization. As portrayed through this paper, the mission of higher education and its larger role in society has developed immensely over the centuries and decades. Given dynamic demographics and larger societal and global forces as work, it is presently these institutions which are wrestling with their value and relevance; the hope being that “the University will have to fulfill its major responsibilities which are to contribute to sustainable indigenous development in a spirit of openness, partnership, truth, and objectivity” (Haddad, 2000, 35).

King, Roger with contributions from Svava Bjarnason et al.

“Globalization and the University.” The University in the Global Age. New York: Palgrave MacMillian, 2004.

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IMAGE CITATIONS In Defense of Manufacturing A New Model for the Future of Manufacturing in Post-Industrial Cities

Blight and Flight Without a Fight: The Untold Story of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway

• Abandoned industrial building interior (cover). Photo by Michelle Lin. Reprinted with permission.

• Jewelry workshop space. Photo by Michelle Lin. Reprinted with permission.

• Museum Productions. Photo by Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center. Reprinted with permission.

• Penn State Fabricators. Photo by Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center. Reprinted with permission.

• Brooklyn Queens Expressway. Photo by See-Ming Lee. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/48973657@ N00/111606326/) • Under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Photo by Mike Cherepko. Reprinted with permission.

• Census Tract Map. Illustration by Laura Podolnick. Sources: US Census Bureau, Google Maps.

Financing Suburban Retrofits: Strategies for Dead & Dying Mall Redevelopment

The Consolidation of SEPTA and its Impact on Public Transit in Philadelphia

• Mizner Park promenade. Photo by xrr/Flickr. Licensed under Creative Commons.

• Northgate Mall aerial photo. Source: Vintage Seattle.

• Benwood, North Virginia mall. Photo by ferret111/Flickr.

Licensed under Creative Commons.

• Belmar street. Photo by pbo31/Flickr.

• Regency Park in Augusta, Georgia. Photo by ferret111/Flickr.

Licensed under Creative Commons.

• Old Route 34 trolley. Photo by Bill Monaghan. Source: http:// www.studio34yoga.com/art/trolley/DSCF0011.JPG • Old routes map. Illustration by Mike Szilagyi. Source: http:// www.phillytrolley.org/ • Trolley yard. Photographer unknown. Source: http://www. railroadsignals.us/SC016.JPG • Rusting trolleys. Photo by philaknight. Source: http://media. photobucket.com/image/old%20septa%20trolley/philaknight/ Photo130.jpg

Land Tenure and Planning in Accra, Ghana • District map of Ghana. Assembled by the author from University of Ghana’s Geography Department and Remote Sensing Applications Unit and D.E.K Amenumey, Ghana: A Concise His-

tory from Pre-Colonial Times to the 20th Century, Accra, Ghana: Woeli Publishing Services, 2008, pg 2

Does that look right to you? An Inquiry into the Law of Aesthetic Regulations • Cover photo. Photo by Kishin Maglani. Reprinted with permission.

• Main Street in Franklin, Tennessee. Source: Williamson County Center and Visitors Bureau • Independence Hall; four facade treatments. Photos by Bryan Rodda. Reprinted with permission.

Getting Them on Board: Marketing Tools for Attracting New Riders in an Age of Increased Environmental Awareness • Chicago train platform. Photo by Isaac Bowen. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/17033616@ N08/3411222202/) • Capital Metro’s Green, Greener, Greenest Campaign. Source: www.capitalmetro.org • Ease the Strain, Go by Train poster. source: British Railways • U Txt. We Drive. Billboard. Source: Metro Magazine • Go Green, Go Public poster. Source: publictransportation.org

84 PANORAMA2010

The Wilderness Act of 1964: Strong Legislation for Land Preservation • Wilderness. Photo by Lou Huang. Reprinted with permission.

• Alaska wilderness areas. Source: National Atlas of the United States. Retrieved 4 February, 2010.

• Lower 48 states wilderness areas. Source: National Atlas of the United States. Retrieved 4 February, 2010.

Coloring Community: The Future of CommunityUniversity Partnerships for a Global Century • Village Street in Auvers. Painting by Vincent Van Gogh. Source: http://www.vincentvangoghart.net/gogh.village-street-auvers. jpg • New York University. Source: The Ready Room Blog. http:// www.anthonyseck.com/files/Image/WSP.jpg • Macalester College—Markim Hall, Institute for Global Citizenship. Source: http://www.macalester.edu/whatshappening/ press/downloads/Macalester_MarkimHall_exterior.jpg • Tufts University. Source: Wikipedia Commons. http://upload. wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Tufts_University_-_Garden,_presidents_lawn_.jpg

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PANORAMA

PANORAMA 2010

THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF DESIGN DEPARTMENT OF CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING 127 MEYERSON HALL 210 S. 34TH STREET PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA 19104-6311

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

SPRING 2010 JOURNAL OF THE CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Malls

page 16

Wilderness page 72

VOLUME XVIII: INTERSECTIONS AND OVERLAYS

Food Systems page 10

Ghana page 24

Expressway page 62