Mayors Discuss Issues of Work-Force Housing at MICD San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO — The Mayors’ Institute on City Design held a special session on neighborhood redevelopment in San Francisco on June 27-29. Hosted by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and in partnership with Bank of America, the event was attended by Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Portland Mayor Tom Potter, Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo, and West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel. Each of the mayors presented a challenge faced by his/her city in redeveloping a neighborhood. Following the presentation experts in architecture, urban planning and housing policy joined the mayors in a discussion, offering advice on everything from urban design and housing to community centers and plans for implementation.
The event began with a reception and dinner sponsored by Bank of America in San Francisco. United States Conference of Mayors President Michael Guido, an MICD National Advisory Council member and Mayor of the City of Dearborn, was on hand to give opening remarks. He was joined by Bank of America Market President Steve Silvestri, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr., the Founder of the MICD, who gave the keynote lecture for the evening. The event was attended by participants in the MICD session, members of the National Advisory Council, and local Bank of America leadership.
Mayor Frankel opened the session with a presentation on the Dunbar Village Housing Development in West Palm Beach’s Coleman Park neighborhood. Like hundreds of other public housing developments built in the 1930’s and 40’s, the apartment buildings are arranged in a linear barracks style and are not integrated with the adjacent neighborhood. Mayor Frankel spoke of using the new development to serve as a catalyst for the revitalization of the larger Coleman Park neighborhood.
Mayor Dyer, who has made the revitalization of Orlando’s Parramore neighborhood a top priority during his term, presented next. Just to the west of downtown, Parramore was once a bustling neighborhood with a thriving business community. After forty years of decline, much of the neighborhood is now blighted, poverty-stricken, and crime-ridden. Mayor Dyer is currently engaged in a multi-pronged approach to its revitalization, including planning mixed-income residential units and developing a “town-center.”
Mayor Potter’s case study was the revitalization of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, a major corridor into the City of Portland. The City would like to give MLK Blvd a refreshed identity, one that celebrates and pays tribute to its namesake while tying together the adjacent neighborhoods. Mayor Potter sought innovative ideas on how to work with the community to achieve this vision.
No stranger to issues of workforce housing, Mayor Newsom discussed San Francisco’s eastern neighborhoods. Currently undergoing tremendous change, the eastern neighborhoods were once home to the majority of the city’s industrial sites. Mayor Newsom engaged the mayors and the resource team in a discussion about directing development in a manner which can encompass workforce housing and help the city to retain families and children.
The City of Eugene has completed a downtown revitalization plan centered around reinforcing downtown as a strong regional and cultural center within the state. After experiencing sustained growth downtown, the City has begun exploring means of reconnecting the downtown with the Williamette River. Mayor Piercy discussed opportunities to create a vibrant downtown that featured a sustainable and active waterfront.
Mayor Fargo presented a challenging project in the Alkali Flat neighborhood of Sacramento. The City is exploring transit-oriented development opportunities at the La Valentina Light Rail Station, located on one of the primary vehicular corridors into downtown. Having acquired property adjacent to the station, the City would like to develop workforce housing and retail establishments that serve as a catalyst for revitalization of the surrounding neighborhood.
Joining the mayors at this special session were resource team members: Paul Brophy, Founder of Brophy & Reilly LLC; Eugenie Birch, Professor and Chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania; Carol Galante, President and CEO of BRIDGE Housing; Alex Garvin, President and CEO of Alex Garvin & Associates; Jim Grauley, Real Estate Executive at Bank of America’s Community Development Corporation; Mary Margaret Jones, President of Hargreaves Associates; Gail Lannoy, Senior Vice President at Bank of America; John Peterson, Founder of Public Architecture; and Dan Solomon, Principal of Solomon E.T.C.
The session was the second of two sponsored by Bank of America this year. The first session, “Rethinking Neighborhoods for Immigrants” examined how mayors can positively affect the social well-being and economic vitality of their cities and was held in Miami February 21-23, 2006.
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