Category Archives: Greensboro

My Four Wishes for the Urban Fabric, 2012 Edition

Stars!!!

Last year, I wrote a list of wishes for 2011. Looking back, a number of those wishes have come true. The Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship, a beloved start-up incubator, is set to get remodeled and become bigger and better.We have the promise of HondaJet expanding in Greensboro. I witnessed the Greensboro City Council get better from the front lines.  Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are set to arrive. More apartments are getting built downtown. My car is paid off.

With some of my wishes fulfilled, now I look ahead to my 2012 wishes for the urban fabric. These wishes are a bit more personal, as I see myself as having a greater responsibility for advocating for an urban future.

Walking and Biking More (Even When It’s Cold and Rainy)

I got better about walking last year. When I am downtown, I make it a point to only park once. I attempted to purchase a bike, but it was just the wrong time and the wrong price to do so. This year, I’m just going to walk. I may live in a suburban area, but it will not stop me from walking the quiet streets. I’ll park farther from the door of my office. I’ll use airport shuttles and public transport when I visit places that have great systems. And I’ll keep calling for places that don’t to get their act together.

Becoming More Integrated Into the Better Places Movement (Formerly known as New Urbanism, Smart Growth, Third Spaces, Sustainable Communities and Community Development)

I was happy to see that the New Urban Network has become the Better!Cities and Towns site. If you are reading this on the site, you’ll notice I changed my tagline. If not, the tagline is now “A young black woman’s attempt to create real community.”  I also am working to broaden my own voice. Last year it was great to ride the novelty of being the Black Urbanist, however, this year I am working to add even more meat and raise awareness of more community issues. Accessibility and shared community need to be something all income levels enjoy. While people love having larger homes, they also like having options to walk to corner stores with fresh fruit and safe places to gather that aren’t geared to commercialism or privatized to the point of no entry. That’s my crusade for this year and I will be taking it to a number of venues, to be announced,  as we continue into 2012. Also, enough with all the different labels. Community is community and we all know what it looks like when done right.

Reducing My Dependence on Chain Retail

This one is hard. I am a mall rat. Also, if I fail to support my local mall, we will lose some of the good remaining retail near my home. However, I realize more and more that the possessions I have do not matter as much as the people I have and that I share said possessions with. I think that I can make the most of being in a suburban area, by reducing my car trips to shopping areas and taking up more DIY projects. Also, when I can, I want to carpool. My belly will love it when I stop going to Bojangles as much and I’ll begin to use the things I already have more and save for travel.

Becoming More Competitive In a Glocal Market

Yes, I used the word Glocal. I am hoping to become location-independent in the next few years. This way, I could pick areas that are walkable/bikeable, but reasonably priced. Many bastions of walkability area are  too affluent and pricey for the space provided. However, a nice small town with a lot of downtown stock (Sanford, NC and many New England towns come to mind), would be perfect. I could even set up a more permanent shop such as a coffee shop or fruit stand if I wanted, because I have an income stream that allows me to contribute to an area that needs it.  I am still open to being somewhere large and already vibrant, but without commuting expenses. I would like to start a family. Unfortunately, there is a great fight for urbanist and family friendly areas that are affordable. I want to set roots so that I can help ease that transition for myself and others.

My 2012 wishes are so big,  some will not come true in 2012. My goal is that I plant the seeds for all four of these activities and then watch them grow in the coming years. I was inspired by meeting so many different people in 2011 who have different approaches to placemaking. I feel like we all have a responsibility to let people know how we can all live better and to find incremental ways to repair the sprawl in our own lives. And that, is a major wish granted.

Photo credit above Flickr user: karusimionato under a CC BY-NC 2.0 licence

The American Expat, In America

Luggage

Like this luggage, sometimes I linger in the sunset at the crossroads of whether or not it’s worth picking up the baggage and moving on. (Credit: Flickr user: C.M. Keiner)

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my post graduate school place of residence. There are days that I would like to spend that time in Greensboro around my many friends. However, on other days I feel like my talents could be better used elsewhere. I would set sail on the high seas and I’ll never look back here save visiting family. But many other days I’m in the middle. Should stay in Greensboro and keep working with the system to make changes or leave Greensboro and go be an ambassador for the cause of building Greensboro?

This last sentence is an idea that’s been bandied around by Aaron Renn and several others. Renn’s version is the cultivation, sometimes by the original city’s chamber of commerce, of alumni groups for cities. The idea goes something like this. Say I went to DC. I would get together with the Greensboro Former Residents Group. We would dine on Stamey’s Barbecue, fight over Tobbaco Road bragging rights and take special trips home for the Wyndham Championship golf tournament. We would get tickets for the ACC tournament at the Verizon Center. Most importantly, we would have a special fund for scholarships for Greensboro resident high school students to go to college in DC and we would help recruit businesses to Greensboro. With this being a DC club, we’d probably have political sway too.Your alumni group would and should look and feel different.

I brought this idea of American expats up to say that its ok. Boosterism only goes so far if you can’t get a job in your hometown. Right now, I have my schooling and a nice job with a nonprofit to hold on to. However, if things change or a better offer comes somewhere else, I’ll once again leave my hometown and go to where that opportunity is.

I asked my Twitter and Facebook friends about this idea and got a lot of shout outs along with couple of serious answers.

Asa Yoel(@asayoel) is a student at UNC-Charlotte, but reps Staten Island. He told me via a DM that he felt he couldn’t do what he was doing in Charlotte in Jersey. That something being studying transportation and urban affairs at UNC-Charlotte. Fortunately, Whitney Muse (@arieswym) gave me lots of positive answers about her hometown. Originally from Philly, she moved to Jersey to Rutgers for college, home for a while to work with the Obama campaign, and is now doing grad school in DC and hoping to do international affairs. She has nothing but love from Philly and believes she could have achieved her dreams there. However, with a full-ride to Rutgers, she was taking that and running with it.

The Pew American Mobility report has stated that 50% of Americans do not live in their hometown.  I say this to caution anyone who wants to slam their hometown, either for no opportunities or slam others for not staying in a place. I find that entrepreneurs can make it anywhere, while those who need the structure of an office are at the whim of where the jobs are.

I am not sure where I am on that yet. Meanwhile, if I ever decide or get an opportunity to leave, I would. However, I’ll be proudly carrying a case of Natty Greene’s beer and talking to anyone who will listen about the opportunity to go to a wonderful city in NC with five universities, cheap office space and nice homes and history.

Shopping Malls and Strip Centers Are Not Dead Yet

Queen's Square Shopping Mall, Yokohama

Image Credit: flickr user steven.y

As much as we hate them, I still do believe there is life in our traditional enclosed shopping malls and strip shopping centers. When these facilities opened, they were bright, shiny, air-conditioned and convenient. Supermarkets offered everything imaginable under one roof. Some even had lounges for spouses and kids, so harried housewives could shop in peace. They had tall smiling Santa’s and community Christmas trees. They invited the community in not only to shop, but to watch movies, jam at concerts and walk around for exercise.

Yet, we fast forward to the present day and many are  blighted. Others aren’t dead yet, but have been pushed aside as unsustainable, uncool or dirty. I do agree that  many were built with a few too many unsustainable stores. However for others, you have to admit the crowd inside didn’t suit your fancy, so you pushed for a more upscale shopping experience. You moved up in the world and  your money and the stores followed. The owner stopped cleaning and lighting the property. Big time developers no longer want to clean and air-condition spaces, so they created these fake main streets that the elements can hose down and clean off. Of course there are the Circuit Cities, Linens and Things and K-Marts that just sit empty, because of those chains poor management of money.

Yet, I also see a different story. Story #1 is my mom. She gets up early on the days she doesn’t go to work or go to the doctor and walks around our nearby enclosed mall. If she wanted to, she could walk there in about 15, but she drives there in less than five. Story #2 is the Fanta City International Center in Greensboro. While not as shiny and occupied as it was when it first started, it’s goal has been to create a marketplace for our many refugee and immigrant communities. It’s a strip mall without a known anchor, but with it’s Super G Market, does a great job of being a Wal-Mart for foreigners. Lastly, there’s that mall in Cleveland that turned it’s enclosed mall into a greenhouse.

As I said before,many of the so called new urbanist “lifestyle centers” take a facade of a main street, but space the stores way too far apart in the name of parking. Also, these “main streets” are just as much private industry as the malls, meaning no loitering, photography or even legit public gathering after certain hours. Don’t get fooled by the planters and benches in the middle of the parking lot. And oh, isn’t that a Macy’s in one corner and a Nordstrom way across two faux streets? These centers aren’t new urbanism as much as they are corporate greenwashing and anchors for a lifestyle that’s not so sustainable anymore due to inability for families and even working single professionals to afford their wares.

Hence why I say that people aren’t killing the mall. Often it’s shop-owners who want a certain clientele and the developers who want to save money and make big bucks. Once these two people have wielded their muscle, its then the community that often says, hey, I don’t want to shop there anymore. For those of you who say it’s gangs killing off malls, I’ve noticed groups of young people of all types hanging out at both facilities. A man was killed in 2008 at an Old Navy at one of our lifestyle centers in Greensboro. This was after a person was shot in the 2006 at the traditional enclosed mall at the Baby Gap. Both of these cases were private disputes that came to the mall, not a protracted effort for people to come to the mall and shoot and harass people. There have been other cases, but I count those on one finger and once again, not a conspiracy to kill mall shoppers.

To close my thoughts today, If the mall is dying, then it’s dying not because of the tired “people want to shop at lifestyle centers and they want to be able to walk around and shop” meme. There is a need for adaptive reuse of the existing dead mall structures. You can blend the enclosed mall with a main street feel, case in point, the Streets of Southpoint in nearby Durham. It provides a good weather and bad weather shopping experience. Also, these places are still not public third space, but cities and towns can buy them up and create third spaces inside and around them. Older strips can be re-facaded and parking structures and homes can be added to the wide swaths of asphalt that surround them.

So what do you think, is the mall really dead? Are lifestyle centers faux-urbanism?

Five Ways You Can Be a Grassroots Planner

downtown greensboro during 2009 Fun Fourth
Street festivals are great examples of Grassroots Planning, bringing vibrancy to the street and exposing people to businesses and parks they may not know about. (Image Credit, Myself)

I know many of my readers are like myself. They can’t draw buildings or maps. However, they may have the time and money to go out and organize the community.  The  passion for the city is still there, but in a different way. So how can these people contribute to urban planning? Here are five ways:

  • Run for office– I know in Greensboro, 75% of the issues that come before council are related to property and zoning issues. If you don’t have the stomach for a campaign, try to get appointed to the zoning commission or the board of adjustments. You can also do like I am doing and volunteer your services for someone with this gift.
  • Join your neighborhood association. I’ve discussed the need for neighborhoods to have a neighborhood driven, low-fee group to air community concerns and provide community entertainment. If your neighborhood association is too structured (managed by an outside group that has no clue what the real needs of the neighborhood are), or non-existent, see how you can get one going.
  • Join me in the blogosphere. If you are reading this and thinking about sharing your ideas on urban planning, go ahead. The more citizen voices that exist, then more decision-makers can understand the true reach of the market for certain activities and living areas.
  • Start a business in an underused area. I’d prefer that it would be a green business, but any business that treats employees fairly or adds life to an inner city area that appears to be lifeless is good. Encourage your employees and supporters to give back to the community as well.
  • Read the Tactical Urbanism guide and get a project started– There are so many great projects in this book. Although these are mostly temporary projects, some that  have become permanent. Also, you don’t need a license or talent  just a will to see the project through and a few friends who do have the talent or license. The idea is that urbanism is not just for those with large, sweeping multi-block or acre city plans, but  plans that are smaller and cheaper and still transform and create great places.

However, because we are talking about grassroots strategies, there are plenty more ways one can get involved. Share with me your ways of getting involved in planning and urban development, besides drawing the plans themselves.

How I Find Meaning as The Black Urbanist

Can I really make a difference for urbanism with just my keyboard? (Image Credit Sharon McMillan)

It really did all start with a map. I’ve told my story before, but I wanted to revisit it again this week as we will be talking about grassroots planning.

This week also marks the launch of my new weekly e-newsletter, the Blackurbanpaper. Be sure to use the purple box on the top right to subscribe so you don’t miss an issue. If you already subscribe to my posts via email, you are all set to receive the newsletter.

Anyway, back to the story. Lately I’ve been feeling a little lost. I don’t exactly want to draw plans (although I like sketching in my notebook) as a career. Also, I’ve never pounded the pavement to save my neighborhood either. Never had to really. I’ve always lived in stable environments, but had a hunger for making less sustainable and stable communities better. After wrestling over this question in the middle of the night, at CNU and in the middle of downtown Greensboro, I’ve determined that there’s not really a need to put a label on what I do. Well, besides the one that adorns the top of this page. So what do I think makes me qualified to be an urbanist? Here are my reasons:

  • I love my city and I want to see it grow.
  • I never stopped believing in the idea of the city, even as I’m forced by economics to live in more suburban terrain.
  • I think we can solve a few social problems with improved urban and suburban forms that promote connectivity.
  • As a person of color, many of us found opportunity and then lost it in the urban form. I think we can regain opportunity in this new smart city framework, as well as regain the connectivity and community my elders speak of.
  • I have no problems using the city bus, riding a bike AND driving a car, when appropriate.
  • I believe community goes beyond, but is strengthened by a positive built environment.

Even though I made my decision to become a writer and public relations guru for great causes and companies, I feel like I still need to tell this story. The story of the city. The story of the community.  The story of life.

I know I don’t have all the answers. I’m not the expert (yet). I know that my definition doesn’t match perfectly the Charter of New Urbanism or even popular opinion on what a city is. However, I’m going to keep doing what I can to make my community better. Even if some days it’s just putting up another post on this blog. Hopefully someone will read it and know how important it is to make their community a better place.

Urban Design Must Have Heart and Soul

 

We must be careful that the Southside neighborhood and others like it, not fall back into the darkness at the expense of other vibrant neighborhoods, such as our traditional downtown (Image Credit: Unknown Flickr user via CityBoi at Skyscraper City Forums)

Recently the national-award winning, Duany Plater-Zyberk designed community of Southside in Greensboro lost a key tenant, Vintage 301. Outside of Manny’s Universal Café, this was the only restaurant in the neighborhood and only consistent draw of people outside of the small neighborhood inside. While there are a few hair salons and other small businesses left, the neighborhood has gradually gone from mixed use back to urban-esque suburbia.

I say this to deal with the idea that is at the core of much of new urbanism:

If you build it they will come + a cleaner urban form= success despite our economic and social failures

Yet, at the end of the day, many of us have no disposable income. We can’t sell our houses or afford to buy new ones. Some of us can’t even afford to rent homes, rent or buy cars or even eat. We want to start businesses, but you need money to do that too. Some existing business and homes are getting choked by the increased tax values. Cities are not working carefully with small businesses to deal with tax liabilities (yet continually give breaks to big ones who can more than afford to pay).

So what does one do in a situation like this? What does this mean for urbanism (and suburbanism and ruralism)? I’m not sure of all the answers, but it starts in one place, working together.

When we lose money and get poor, we often retract into the worse of ourselves. We hoard, we covet, we criticize. The fear of losing our identity swells far and above our own minds and makes us create false stories about our friends, family, colleagues and leaders. With this negativity, we find it hard to go on in our present state and we spend time over-analyzing how others seem to be getting along.

I think this negativity is at the root of where we stand as a country right now. However, I recently learned that no matter what, it’s better to be grateful for what does exist. Even though I can’t rent a house, I am able to live with my mom and help her with things at our house. The bus still runs from 5 AM to 11PM here in Greensboro and 24 hours in some places. I could ride a bike. And at the basic level, I’m breathing, seeing, walking and talking and writing this post.

To bring this tangent back to a close, we have to look past the built environment for a minute and work on restoring the souls of our fellow community members. We have to have hard conversations and ask hard questions. We have to make hard demands. Yet, I don’t know of a person who has some means, yet is complaining about lost of livelihood, that doesn’t have something they can share. Maybe it’s a shoulder to cry on, an extra shirt, an extra plate or a ride to work.

Still, we will not be able to fill our communities and embrace a density until we desire to live in harmony again. A harmony that looks past differences in matters of the heart and makes sure people can have the freedom to wake up and live comfortably.

Just like I called on DC residents on Twitter to do, it’s not about race-baiting, it’s not about keeping improvements off the streets, it’s about getting our city economics back on track, and remembering all legal business is good business. Even if it’s just an upscale wing joint that moves into the old Vintage 301 space.

The Case for Better Neighborhood Associations

A group of people who are happy, is this your neighborhood association board? It should be.

You either pay exorbitant amounts of money to it or you have moved to a community on purpose to get away from it. You probably want to get rid of it, especially if you want to tear out your front yard or save for retirement without watching that $300 a month go down the drain. Yet, you might like your neighbors and the National Night Out picnic and block party every year is fun.

I’m talking about the neighborhood association and its related fees.

Neighborhood associations at their root go along with what I consider to be a successful community. They allow neighbors of all stripes and kinds to gather to solve problems, keep areas clean and presentable and provide families and friends with the opportunity to gather.

However, some neighborhood groups are contentious. With the cost of food and gas increasing, it is harder to justify spending money to give to neighbors who fight over what colors should be banned from houses. Also, many neighborhood associations are spending money defending their boundaries and fighting city governments. While this activity is expensive, and can be productive are these legal battles draining the productivity out of your neighborhood?

I’m not sure if this is what happened to my neighborhood, as we have never had one. The adjacent older neighborhood did but, according to a cousin who lived in the neighborhood at the time, the organization was cliquish and slightly discriminatory. Once the clique moved away, the organization died, along with the neighborhood pool the fees maintained. Despite these circumstances, we need to restart this group, with my end of the neighborhood included.

I also believe that neighborhood association funds can be better spent. Take this  example of  neighborhood association fees collected as a giving circle. In this giving circle the minimum payment is agreed upon and put in a hat and saved up, to be redeemed once a quarter for a specific community project. An example quarterly project schedule is below:

  • Winter: Snow and Ice Removal- (If the climate is warm, then dedicate this money to a spring time community garden or holiday decorations)
  • Spring: Community Garden setup
  • Summer: Clean-up of common areas such as parks, pools and neighborhood welcome signs
  • Fall: Fall Festival

Your four projects can be more tailored to your individual community’s needs. Also, consider having a fund set aside to pay for lawn care or other emergencies that happen to neighbors.  Even better if the four activities above can be done with sweat equity and all money collected can start a community foundation.

In my neighborhood, I would like for us to re-open the pool, clean up and build a few new neighborhood signs and have an official National Night Out event. We could also partner with the nearby shopping mall, three churches and elementary school for events. Also, we should go past preventing crime and keeping strange children off the streets. We also have a few bus stops that can be adopted through a program our city offers. All need benches and regular upkeep, as they are used by a number of neighbors throughout the day.

So you are now thinking, do I still need to be giving $300 a month to my association. Yes and no. If your association is engaged in greater community building activities such as those mentioned above, yes. You also can reduce that number and still have a good impact. Below are the effects of spending a $1 a month, $5 a month and $300 a month on a community. These numbers are based on a community of 50 homes with fees docked from property taxes and sent back to a neighborhood 501c3.

$1 month/$12 per year per neighbor= $600– While a bit small for an emergency fund, this can be split into three $200 parts to give towards a neighborhood boy or girl to clean up the common areas throughout the summer, seeds for a community garden and/or paying the same kids to shovel snow or dedicated to one big national night out party so that neighbors can meet each other and work on building bartering and trusting relationships. Also, if your neighborhood association is brand new, you can dedicate some of this funding to becoming a tax exempt organization.

$5 month/$60 per year=$3000– As you can see, we already have a nice increased sum here. You can pay for tax exemption, put $1500 away for a neighbor in need and then use the other $1500 to work on the community initiatives mentioned above.

$300month/3600 per year=$180,000– So this is the net gain for a $300 month neighborhood association fee. If you only use $1500 for the small community initiatives, you have a nice sized fund to start a community foundation fund for scholarships, medical bills, even small business ventures. This also covers legal fees, but my hope is that you are moving away from litigious activities.

No matter what, your neighborhood needs an association. Cities with less formally defined neighborhoods could start with census tracks. Neighborhoods could merge if there are not enough households to obtain a certain funding level. Even if no money is collected at first, a neighborhood watch will keep neighbors informed of basic needs. Those concerned with privacy should have the option of opting out of the neighborhood association. Renters should also be informed of meeting times and projects and invited to participate, especially if they have resided in the neighborhood longer than some homeowners.

I have mentioned to a few neighbors that I would like to implement the $5 a month model, so we can clean up our neighborhood signs and maybe look into adopting the bus stop.

So community developers and neighborhood leaders, what am I missing? What are some solutions in practice to the issues surrounding neighborhood associations? Are you a community who is putting similar practices at work with success?