Open Letter to the Stakeholders of Greater Park Place

 

The revitalization of a neighborhood - a place - almost never is quite as much about the physical things as it is about the people. Physical things do matter. But the work of turning around distress, especially when the wider market is weak, hinges absolutely on changes made by people and by institutions in the way they think about a place and whether or not adaptation occurs.1 For Greater Park Place to become a community of choice, the various stakeholders who have an interest in what kind of neighborhoods emerge are going to have to make no less than seven important changes.

 

1.A move from being "need-based" in how the community thinks about neighborhood distress to being “demand-based” (what must be done to compete for households with choices, so demand can exceed supply and values can stabilize and possibly rise) The work is not about solving what’s needed; it’s about making the neighborhoods more appealing.

 

2.A move from mis-identifying neighborhood some elements as "assets" because they’re prized internally (when the reality is that the market may not view them as desirable) to being honest and objective about what is or isn't appealing. If the impact on the market of an “asset” is to push away healthy investors, it must be addressed. The work is about communicating a high level of commitment to widely held community standards.

 

3.A move from seeing outputs (the number of houses developed, for example) and activities (the number of meetings held) as the main metric to outcomes (demand is up) and impacts (the market is more economically diverse). The work is about market stability.

 

4.A move from a dispersal and diffusion of resources to a concentration of resources, thereby compelling all stakeholders to prioritize. The work requires that very hard choices be made.

 

5.A move from using resources to fix problems to the use of resources to build on strengths. The work is about tapping into existing optimism and growing it.

 

6. A move from an emphasis on the physical to a focus on the community and people who shape the physical environment through effort, risk, and financial resources in direct proportion to the extent to which it makes sense. The work is about rewarding good neighbor practices and making it make sense to invest.

 

7. A move from old pathways with questionable results to new ones shaped by residents taking positive actions on their own that appeal to the market. The work is about doing things differently than has been the case.

 

These are the adaptations we believe the Greater Park Place community must make. These are the adaptations necessary to arrive at the objective of revitalization. No less than the residents, relevant city agencies, nonprofit organizations, and Civic Leagues will need to make these shifts for there to be success.

 

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Final Report to City of Norfolk, VA 

czbLLC

Charles Buki

Joanna Schull

David Boehlke

Karen Beck Pooley, PhD

Al Tetrault, AICP

Lindsey Davis