 National Association of Counties * Washington, D.C. Vol. 33, No. 9 * May 7, 2001 Previous story | Table of Contents | Next story
Places Are Us By Neal R. Peirce
(Neal Peirce is a syndicated columnist who writes about local government issues. His columns do not reflect the opinions of County News or NACo.) Many fine books have focused on valued “places” — the parks, the squares and blocks, the buildings and graveyards and public markets that give special character to our neighborhoods, towns and cities. Such works as Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Tony Hiss’ The Experience of Place and William H. Whyte’s The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, spring to mind. But as inspiring as the theory of place may be, it’s a bit like the menu in a fine restaurant. You can admire, taste, enjoy — but you’re still a visitor. Eventually you have to go home and eat what you cook yourself. Now comes a places recipe book, self-help for everyone who wants friendlier or more livable home turf. It’s called How to Turn a Place Around and it’s published by the Project for Public Spaces (PPS). Based in New York but operating nationally and occasionally abroad, PPS counsels more than 1,000 communities on how to create more people-friendly, successful spaces. Its Founder-President Fred Kent has worked with William (Holly) Whyte’s Street Life Project, learning the art and science of watching how people actually use a place — how they move about, go to work, wait for buses, window shop, sun themselves. Kent believes it wasn’t just suburbanization that wounded cities so grievously in the last half of the 20th century, but also urban renewal and near-tyranny of professionals with a narrow diagnostic approach — single-minded planners, architects in search of prizes, traffic engineers preoccupied with ‘throughputs,’ for example. Too often lost in the mix: any idea of cherished public places, of fostering whole neighborhoods, of ownership, equity and belonging. “We counsel on projects but we’re primarily advocates,” says Kent. “We want to change how things are done. It’s more than being a consultant — it’s a passion. PPS’ new places recipe book includes diagrams and tools to evaluate and suggest potential changes for any public space, from a neighborhood playground to a major tourist attraction. Along with that comes a handy set of principles for reaching success. For example: “the community is the expert.” So don’t listen first to planning departments, designers or architects. Instead, ask ordinary citizens about their own special and favored places: “safe,” “fun,” “charming.” In Montpelier, Vt., for example, the Post Office Building, heavily visited, was a cold marble and reflective-glass structure set 20 feet back from the street. Local citizens called it “off-putting.” A PPS-organized community workshop envisioned instead a “front porch” environment out in front, including rocking chairs, a community bulletin board, a coffee cart, a dog hitch, new crosswalks and relocating an existing farmer’s market closer to the post office. End product: a place, not a design. The point is that any town, without calling in outside consultants, can use PPS’ new book to develop similarly inventive strategies, Just imagine what that can mean as anti-sprawl sentiment puts more and more pressure on existing cities and neighborhoods. The wrong way to go, says Fred Kent, is to start urging more residential density — that just raises fears. Instead, he suggests, focus on transforming communities into more livable, useable places for people of all ages, based on assets the community already has, from a central square to a grove of great trees to a riverbed. Maybe taking a schoolyard and turning it into a community place. Tapping residents’ ideas, wishes, at each step. “The byproduct of that will in fact be density — not offensive density, but community-driven density. When a neighborhood becomes a real place, people densify it naturally, because it’s so interesting,” says Kent. Look around at the United States and many places fit Kent’s model. Just the more famed examples include San Diego’s revived, now 24-hour-a-day Gaslamp Quarter; Chicago’s Lincoln Park, on transit lines, with restaurants, shops and hot rents; Denver’s Lower Downtown, now throbbing with activity; Charleston S.C., where conventioneers slip out of meetings to ogle some of America’s most-desirable housing — at 23 units to the acre. Kent’s point, though, is that successful places can be created, and we can have a grand time occupying them, anywhere on the continent. And at any age. Just check out the 60-somethings kissing on a park bench, beside a fountain, on the cover of “How to Turn a Place Around.” The book costs $30, but you can see the picture free at www.pps.org. (Neil Peirce’s e-mail address is npeirce@citistates.com.) © 2001, Washington Post Writers Group |
