Big Vision: Neighborhood branding and the quest for incremental development. Part 2

Demonstration project for our Midtown Urban Trail concept

 In order for a neighborhood to grow and thrive there has to be something to organize around. It has to be something that is identifiable to a community. You have to have a brand and that brand has to be real. It can't be some ridiculous realtor created phase like SoBro or MidHi  it has to be real to the community it represents. Fake realtor created names do not move your neighborhood forward, authenticity does.

This was the old Midtown fire station that once stood on 15th st.

In our case our area once had a historically used reference called Midtown. As the city grew further east, this became less relevant because it was no longer in the "middle of town" but because of eastern sprawl and new subdivision it gradually lost its identity as a 'place'. It had also lost all the things that made it a community like neighborhood shops and stores.  It was just blocks of houses where people lived.

Neighborhood Logo Sign

So bringing the "brand" back as Midtown was easy in our case as we had a historic a reference point. We were also the center of the German Austrian Community from 1880-1920 but calling the area "Germantown" or "German Heights" would have had no relevance to the people who live here today. Ours is perhaps the most culturally diverse neighborhood in our city, so "branding" it after one group of people made no sense. Neighbors and the few businesses that were here started using the reference by saying "oh we are in Midtown" and five years later? Realtors, city officials, and everyone else now using it. It is our brand, our identity our reference point. We resisted the idea of respelling it to "Midtowne" a spelling many cities now use in and attempt to make it appear pretentious. 

You don't reverse decline overnight. It is all about small steps.

So how do you get to incremental development? Incremental development comes only after you have achieved some level of branding and stability. This is not an overnight thing , it can take a couple of years.. This is generally because when you start, there is often an unwillingness or a belief that "nothing can change". That decline was inevitable. Incremental development occurs when one person does something like an improvement and neighbors see that and also do improvements. It may be taking a long vacant house and getting it back to occupancy. It may not yet be 'restored' in the traditional sense, it could still have vinyl siding on it for example but it is one step closer to eventual restoration. The "baseline" has been raised, the standard has become higher. Eventually that asphalt or vinyl siding come off and originality is revealed.

Next time Big Vision: Creating clout, strategies and alliances.

Big Vision: Incrementalism can make it possible: Part 1

Incrementalism is the idea that things develop naturally based on the needs of  society. Someone wanted to open a trading post they bought some land and they built it. Same with a house which were built near the trading post because it was convenient. Then came subdivisions as towns were formed and there became a need to divide up the land the houses sat on so more could live near the store and then there was the need for more stores and neighborhoods came into being.

It all changed when "planners" came into being to restore order to the chaos of the town and its downtown. The wealthy got together and built these things called malls and strip centers at the edge of town and the 'Planner' decreed that all business shall go there. They created zoning overlays that decreed that only houses could be there. 

The "disguised goal" was to 'force' the small business to the area where the wealthy wanted it (and could charge for it). Neighborhoods changed. They became less personal, less convenient and less desirable and then the Suburbs came to be. 

That happened all over the country as small towns believing they would someday be big cities followed this mantra. People moved away and they declined.

Then one day came the 'outsiders' The outsiders have "Vision" and ideas, they knew what vibrant neighborhood looked like with home AND shops. The battle lines were drawn: vison vs government and planners. 

This phase is the phase I find myself in. The town I have called home for for 6 years where we moved our business and home to is ready for the "incremental challenge".. Restoring our neighborhoods to place where people lived and shop. 

Our opening salvo was to open our antiques and design business in an old corner store that was built as a Mercantile in 1884 and had been vacant for some time. For us the perfect live/work and it has almost 1/2 a city block of  yard (future development land that the original builder held to control development around him), and yes we have plans for that.  This neighborhood was the center of the German Austrian community between 1880 and 1920 as it was common for people to organize communities around their culture. This area "Midtown" once has over 16 commercial buildings along its "Main Street" which was 15th street. There was even a firehouse. You had mercantile's, general stores, butchers, barbers and tailors, a bike shop, saloons and fish mongers, It was exactly the kind of neighborhood that people long for now and in the 1880's the Victorian understood the concept of Live/work/play better that any big developer could ever hope to. Today only 5 of those original 16 structures are left and 2 of those are converted residential rentals.

Along the way we organized the neighborhood, started a crime watch and stopped  a BIG developer who wanted to drop 42 apartment in a huge 3 story building that would have towered over everything and created huge traffic problems . before you yell Nimbyism. It was a bad 3story entire city block, out of scale development that didn't even try to fit into our community. That same developer however has now built dozens of small homes on vacant lots all over town (a better, more incremental, solution) .We got the same number of families but scattered all  over so traffic was not impacted for any one neighborhood.

Next Installment: Neighborhood branding and the quest for incremental development.

Re-launch is here: Welcome back

 

After several years of inactivity I have decided to bring this blog back to not only discuss historic properties, but also to discuss re-development as it pertains to small to midsize town and cities. Having lived the last 6 years in a small town of 20,000 (Logansport Indiana) after leaving a big metro (Indianapolis Indiana) with a metro population of about 2 million, I have redefined my perspective of what quality of life actually means and to me the future may well be with small town America.

I am seeing a define trend, and exodus from large population centers. The Covid Epidemic has caused millions of Americans to re-evaluate their quality of life in big cities. The shutdowns and being at home for many meant that 'uber cool' HGTV open concept house wasn't so cool after all and not very private and definitely it was not cozy.

People had to learn to work from home and for many is was a problem. I NEED a office I need a quiet space to work. Americans are rethinking their spaces now and for many they are rethinking where they want to live.

Moving to a small town, may mean some sacrifices but it also means opportunity and we will explore how you merge into slower way of life (it will be busier than you thought). new friends, new experiences and perhaps a new way of thinking.

So we will cover many topics, rapid redevelopment, gentrification, zoning, density, historic preservation and environmental concerns. How do you get involved in that new community and you will be surprise that there really are issues in small towns? From my perspective as small business owner as well as a developer and historic preservationist, just how do you make that small rustbelt town work? Often locals do not see the changes coming to their small town. One day its quiet and the next there are things like coffee houses, micro breweries and boutiques. 

While you may in be in a culture shock, remember the locals are going through the same experience but from the opposite side.

How do we grow? More importantly how do we grow in a smart way? You really don't want that small town to turn into the place you left. We will discuss it all here and we will meet people who have, and are, making this transition. 

Stay tuned.