Winter 2004

Practicing Planner

Copyright by American Planning Association

University Partnerships to Reclaim and Rebuild Communities

By John I. Gilderbloom

Introduction

Universities can play a vital role in helping to address the housing crisis. This crisis impacts seniors, disabled, and working poor. Yet only a handful of the 3,650 higher education institutions are allocating resources of faculty, staff, and students to meet this urgent task. This is the story of one university's major effort to reclaim, rebuild, revitalize, and restore one of the nation's most historic black neighborhoods from neglect and despair.

West Louisville, the childhood neighborhood of Muhammad Ali, was once a proud middle-class neighborhood. Since 1994, the University of Louisville Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods (SUN) program has worked to great acclaim to facilitate the necessary resources that support the aspirations of families in West Louisville. The predominant focus of the SUN activities there included the historic, predominantly African-American neighborhood of Russell, with 10,000 residents. Russell is one of the most economically disadvantaged areas in Louisville and is characterized by excessive poverty, unemployment, crime, and homelessness, along with relatively low levels of education and training.

Louisville's West End — the Russell neighborhood in particular — was a familiar portrait of inner-city American poverty, unemployment, crime, and despair. Surveys of Louisville citizens have shown that housing affordability is among the most important issues confronting the city. In several Louisville neighborhoods, one out of every four housing units is substandard. This is in comparison to the national average of one out of every 20. A majority of low-income renters in West Louisville paid more than 50 percent of their income for housing (Gilderbloom and Mullins, 2005).

This was a neighborhood of gangs, drugs and prostitution. These vices paved the way for the heavy concentration of funeral homes, liquor stores, and pawn shops. Engineers turned the neighborhood into a four-lane, one-way freeway so downtown office workers could race to their suburban homes. One-way streets helped kill the neighborhood spirit — reducing housing appreciation, creating greater opportunities for criminal activity, and turning streets into no-play zones for kids.

While these were considered neighborhood liabilities, I also discovered neighborhood assets. I discovered a high concentration of churches, an eight-story historic YMCA, a public technical college, the first library open to blacks, several parks and cemeteries that give the neighborhood residents green spaces, and close proximity to good paying downtown jobs. I was particularly struck by the large collection of historic buildings (federal style, shotgun, Queen Anne, arts and crafts) dating back more than 100 years (Luhan, Domer and Mohney, 2004). The Louisville Guide by noted architectural professors Luhan, Domer and Mohney (2004) cites at least 12 buildings of architectural distinction.

In many ways, this neighborhood had the potential to be developed as a New Urbanist neighborhood (Mohney and Easterling, 1991; see also compilation of articles in Leccese and McCormick, 2000, Duany, Plater-Zyberk and Speck, 2000). Lot sizes were significantly smaller (about one-third the size) of suburban counterparts, allowing homes to be built more cheaply. Small lot sizes also caused new houses to occupy a large portion of the lot with front porches extending out to touch the sidewalks. As director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods at the University of Louisville, I saw Russell in West Louisville as having the potential to become the first moderate income or, for that matter, nearly all-black New Urbanist development.

I do not believe all poor neighborhoods can be revitalized — especially suburban ones built in the 1960s — but Russell seemed like a good candidate, especially with the leadership of nonprofit organizations and city officials. I also was inspired by New Urbanist efforts in Seaside, Florida, (Mohney and Easterling) and in Santa Monica, California (Capek and Gilderbloom 1992). Numerous meetings were held with organizations and individuals to examine how SUN could help make more affordable housing. Many recognized leaders and organizations were consulted in the development of SUN. As a result of this process, our collective proposal was circulated to more than 50 individuals and organizations. The reaction was positive. The SUN proposal received letters of support from the mayor, nonprofit organizations, four institutions of higher education, various government agencies, numerous businesses, Realtors, banks, builders, and charities. The participation of these organizations molded SUN into an innovative and pragmatic partnership. SUN was developed as a realistic approach to create self-sufficiency among the economically challenged. This program can change hopelessness into hope for a poor neighborhood and help weave together the fabric of the community.

All plans to "do good" stir opposition. Despite the efforts to do grassroots planning, the program also had some major opposition. This is not surprising but what was disappointing was the source of this opposition. It was not from black leaders, city hall, and real estate interests but rather from top majority-based housing leaders claiming it was wasteful, untested, and a failure from the start. A letter signed by the major organizations that provided a significant amount of affordable housing called for the proposal to be withdrawn. They demanded a free-market economist from the University of Louisville, who believes in less government (e.g., repeal of zoning, historic preservation, environmental regulations), to draw up a downtown enterprise plan and abandoned black West Louisville. The letter was delivered to my boss, a top university official, who quietly said no to their demands.

But this was not the end. Once the grant was awarded, they demanded that one of their own help manage the project. But these persons were generally unable to relate to the optimisms, brashness, idealism, spirit, and energy of the students, faculty, and black community leaders. The students saw opportunity where the old guard saw hopelessness.

The opposition was relentless in badmouthing the project. The local newspaper came out with a negative story claiming we were way short of our goals with too much money wasted on administration. What the newspaper failed to note was that the goals were for the life of the grant, which turned out to be 10 years, not just the 12 to 16 months on which they were reporting. It takes years, not months, to successfully renovate or build affordable housing. Claims made by the newspaper were disputed by grants evaluator Reg Bruce who found that most of the goals of the grant were accomplished (Gilderbloom and Mullins, 2005, see also Evans-Andris, 1999). Mid-course corrections did eliminate some goals because of cost, lack of staff, or opportunities to invest resources elsewhere.

While opponents masked their actions under the guise of concerned civic leaders, the real reason for their opposition was fear of competition over scarce housing dollars and their self-appointed role as housing gatekeepers being put into jeopardy (Gilderbloom and Appelbaum 1988; Pahl 1976).

Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods

Learning from lessons of the past, a fresh, innovative, bold and pragmatic partnership of business, government, a local university, junior college, and community-based groups was organized. The Russell partnership represented a multifaceted effort committed to helping a low-income black neighborhood lift itself from dependency to self-sufficiency.

This partnership was built on the belief that the problems of low-income neighborhoods can be remedied only by a combination of programs involving job development, home repair, homeownership, community planning, entrepreneur training, and loans. Federal money from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development helped stimulate the development of this partnership. These funds were partially matched by local churches, nonprofit organizations, industries, businesses, local foundations, and community groups. SUN's goal is to make operational the concept of public-private partnerships in order to succeed in urban renovation and rehabilitation where many others have failed. As Marilyn Melkonian, president of Telesis Corporation, has observed, its vision goes "beyond just the physical improvements of the bricks and mortar. SUN carries out its vision through outreach-orientated partnerships with community development organizations, business firms, government agencies, community groups, and universities. SUN promotes human and economic development in the impoverished neighborhoods of West Louisville, with a resulting impact on the entire city."

The SUN Directive

The mission of SUN is to explore all strategies that foster a sense of community while empowering individuals in the community and promoting neighborhood revitalization, individual self-sufficiency, and self-reliance. These goals are achieved through community partnerships. Former University of Louisville President John Shumaker said in 1996 that "SUN, through its sheer tenacity, helped turn an eyesore of blocks and blocks of boarded-up buildings into a development that the entire city can be proud of." To help end this decline and create the dynamics for revitalization, the partnership's goals and strategies focus on four functional categories: housing, economic development, community organizing, and neighborhood revitalization.

As part of its comprehensive approach, SUN provides oversight, monitoring, technical assistance, and advocacy for low-income residents of West Louisville. SUN works closely with local officials on budgetary and policy issues affecting the neighborhood community. Revitalization of old urban neighborhoods is crucial to preserving Louisville's cultural heritage. Strengthening existing neighborhoods helps reduce sprawl, safeguard green spaces, and create healthier environments. SUN also works to identify, evaluate, preserve, and protect significant historic sites, structures, cultural landscapes, cultural artifacts and tangible community traditions of West Louisville.

SUN offers assistance to housing developers and small business owners in locally designated revitalization areas to stimulate community revitalization activities that protect and enhance historic resources, and improve existing residential and commercial structures. SUN and its partners support initiatives to revitalize neighborhoods through programs such as redevelopment assistance, business training for individuals, education, and community crime prevention.

Community Outreach Partnership Center

The goal of University of Louisville's SUN is to develop partnerships that succeed in urban renovation and rehabilitation. SUN's successful programs illustrate the impact that university and community, public and private partnerships can have on target areas. The processes that have been developed are tools to successful urban rehabilitation. SUN celebrates its successes and learns from its mistakes.

The Community Design and Planning Program focuses on cooperation with neighborhood leaders and generating a shared community and neighborhood vision through "bottom-up" participation by residents. A master plan and detailed site development plans for housing, commercial, recreational, and light industrial uses guide development efforts. The quality of the plan rests in the feasibility of its implementation.

SUN provides direct assistance to the neighborhoods and institutions through community design work such as architectural services and by helping developers adhere to the Urban Renewal Commission's rules and regulations. SUN also provides technical assistance, ranging from resurveying lots, redesigning houses, creating design plans, and providing site visits, to nonprofit developers with the objective of improving the availability, affordability, and quality of housing in the Russell neighborhood and surrounding enterprise communities. The actual number of units that have been completed within the target neighborhood illustrates results.

In partnership with the Neighborhood Development Corporation (NDC), SUN identifies two housing priorities: (1) increased home-ownership opportunities for low-income households, and (2) the preservation of the current housing stock through renovation of older housing. This involves acquiring vacant decayed buildings and rehabilitating and reselling them. Infill housing can be created, resulting in new housing units on vacant, city-owned land.

H. Temple Spears Elderly Housing

One of the best examples of this partnership is H. Temple Spears elderly housing, which was started as a project of SUN in 1994. A graduate student came up with a 300-page plan to create 65 units of affordable senior housing in West Louisville. The need for senior housing was great, because West Louisville had very little senior housing for blacks. The initial effort was to build a brand new housing development in the neighborhood, but this was abandoned when NDC saw the economics and sentimentality of rehabilitating a historic 100-year-old school. This architectural landmark, which was located on one city block with plenty of surrounding green space, won the hearts and minds of residents and city officials.

The student who came up with the proposal was Bill Friedlander, an active member of the American Planning Association who left SUN to resurrect a defunct Neighborhood Development Corporation. H. Temple Spears has become one of its most important successes. Ten years later, NDC has helped revive, build and save more than 150 housing units, and manages roughly 300 units in West Louisville. Many of these housing units are historic and present the fabric of the neighborhood.

Louisville Central Development Corporation

SUN worked hand in hand with the nonprofit Louisville Central Development Corporation (LCDC) to help provide drawings, designs, planning and get approvals. Ten years later, LCDC has helped develop 76 units, of which 46 houses and 17 apartment buildings have been built in Russell. Nearly all of the apartment units are three bedrooms and two bathrooms ranging from about 1,120 to 1,800 square feet. All the units sold for between $49,500 and $115,000. For the earliest units, a monthly mortgage estimated around $395 a month was $100 less than nearby apartments. These housing units look attractive and fit within the historic character of the neighborhood of 100-year-old shotgun homes. Many of the shotgun houses were renovated to maintain the historical character of the city.

A team of student architects, planners, lawyers, and engineers (most notably Rob Mullins, Mark Wright, Michael Brazley and Scot Ramsey) helped to create architectural renderings and house plans, and they interacted with city leaders to help them understand the approval process of various private and public agencies and the economics of preservation and new housing construction. The students were edgy, energetic, and inventive. I gave them a long leash to "make it happen." Many of the houses were pre-built before they even got to the lot — roofs, walls, kitchens, and bathrooms. The parts were fitted together similar to modular housing on site. The lots were provided to LCDC for $1 (that is not a typo!) with sewers, electrical, and paved roads and some sidewalks. The leader of LCDC, the largest black social service agency in Russell, was Sam Watkins Jr., who opened the gate for us to come into the neighborhood. He was critical to our success; he was honest, charismatic, and smart. While embracing our grit and idealism, Mr. Watkins had the political clout to keep the naysayers at bay.

SUN worked with Telesis Development Corporation and neighborhood leaders such as Deborah Todd and Watkins to help save Village West from demolition. The demolition of Village West would have resulted in the loss of 653 family housing units and exacerbated the housing crisis for blacks. Many of these housing units were abandoned and boarded up. SUN helped introduce the idea of crime prevention through environmental design (see Newman 1980, Jacobs 1961). This resulted in the creation of 504 new units out of the 653 original units, so that every unit had good views — eyes on the streets. The brick units had a total makeover with front doors going out to the streets, public/private space demarcation, and attractive and varied roof lines with gables. Faux front porches were added and small-personalized back yards were fenced off with short 3-foot high fences. Village West — the flat roof, barrack-like project — was gone. It was renamed City View Park. These units are a mix of market-rate and Section 8 units.

Despite the history of these units as a place of rampant crime and vice, rents are nearly as high as those in white middle-class neighborhoods — $707 for a four-bedroom unit, $594 for three bedrooms, $496 for two bedrooms, and $373 for a one-bedroom unit. Plans are in the making, by 2009, to sell the units as affordable condominium units in a range of around $30,000 per unit, which would be a monthly payment of principal and interest at around $250.

Telesis is a highly respected Washington, D.C., developer with a track record of success, originality, common sense, and good economics. Telesis combines the architectural theory of Jane Jacobs (1961) of eyes on the street and Oscar Newman's (1980) crime prevention through environmental design, along with a host of social programs that SUN provided such as job training, counseling, educational advancement programs, computer Internet access, health, and leadership training. Moreover, their management "new style" is a model of hiring activists who live on the property to manage, market, maintain, and police the property. Thus the traditional friction between management and resident associations is eased.

Telesis also convinced nationally known landscape architect James Van Sweden (1995, 1998) — who did the highly visible Nelson A. Rockefeller Park at Battery Park City in New York, National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., and Oprah Winfrey's Northern Indiana mansion — to "give back to the community" by turning a bleak depressing landscape into an uplifting, low maintenance tree-lined development that creates a sense of place. In 2004 the Princeton University Press Louisville Guide declared City View Park a place of "noteworthy architecture" (see Luhan, Domer and Mohney 2004). This is an important achievement as very few architectural guides, including the Louisville Guide, can point to affordable housing development as having design merit.

SUN was retained as a consultative and mediator partner in the proposed development of a HUD Section 232-backed project to construct a 156-unit retirement residential center for the underserved, which will be replicated in other parts of Louisville. A for-profit Limited Liability Company made up of three cooperative partners anchors the project: the landowner, the builder, and a local labor organization, which is providing pre-development financing. The project will demonstrate how unions can realize superior investment returns by investing in housing. The project is expected to yield units that rent profitably at approximately 30 percent below current market rents for similar housing as a result of HUD financing and the LLC partnership. Financing, land, and construction cost savings are pooled to create a long-term investment opportunity for the company and needed housing for the elderly. Unfortunately, this development has been stalled because of infighting among partners over how much of a slice of pie each part is going to get. Hopefully, this model will be replicated by other labor organizations, nonprofits, and faith-based organizations in the future. A similar project developed for the university was estimated to cost around $7 million, with the land being leased from the university for $1 a year. The three-story development will have 65 rooms with a peak capacity of 130 nursing home patients. After 15 years, the nursing home would be given back to the university for $1, and the university would have a dormitory for 130 students at an appreciated value of $12 million to $15 million. The university said no to this proposal.

SUN now works as a consultant to universities and neighborhood groups around the United States and across the world in Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, and Costa Rica. As a result of our efforts, several university-community partnerships have been created using the SUN model to create sustainable neighborhoods.

Conclusion

The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University chose SUN as a semifinalist in its 2001 Innovations in American Government Awards Programs. The University of Louisville's outreach community partnership initiative through SUN and Dr. John I. Gilderbloom, its principal investigator, received the Sierra Club's National Best Practices Award. SUN has been selected by Industrial Economics, a group funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as one of the most outstanding examples of Smart Growth Practices in the United States. The SUN program also was given positive coverage in Planning magazine, the New York Times, and the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. Even the local newspaper, which published critical stories in the beginning, ran several very positive stories on the accomplishments of SUN — including a front page story on the Sierra Club Award.

SUN's successful programs illustrate the positive impact a university can have on a distressed neighborhood. SUN's program involves local housing, economic development, community organizing, and neighborhood revitalization. The SUN project was designed to serve as a change agent in promoting revitalization in the federally designated West Louisville Enterprise Community. The overall mission of SUN is to improve the quality of life for residents of the Enterprise Community. SUN's East Russell, an inner city Louisville neighborhood, has seized the nation's attention by creating a renaissance in the central city, bringing new life and vitality. Yet despite some important accomplishments, more needs to be done. The one-way streets still exist, and some upper-income housing does not complement the historic housing. Moreover, the University of Louisville is no longer involved in this neighborhood, which has slowed its steady progress.

SUN's approach is holistic rather than piecemeal. SUN enhances problem-solving capacities by linking residents with systems that provide resources designed to increase productive self-sufficiency. Community education coordinated through partnerships with educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and faith-based groups increases the depth and breadth of information available to the residents. These partnerships promote a positive outlook to overcome initial skeptical neighborhood attitudes. New business and investment in the neighborhood, vital to its redevelopment and growth, came about through the coordination of enterprises outside the neighborhood and those struggling within the neighborhoods.

Today gangs, prostitutes, and drugs are invisible to the eye. Crime has fallen on a per-person basis. The place looks like a safe, historic, and comfortable neighborhood. Middle- and upper-class blacks are now building and buying houses in the neighborhood, creating a good economic mix. Western Louisville always has been a distinct black neighborhood several blocks from the center city business district. It was a western bookend to the center of the city. With the revitalization of Russell has come a sudden revitalization of the center of the city, with new loft housing constructed and an entertainment district recently opening up.

Universities do not need to be in the ivory tower but can be active agents of positive change. Can you imagine what a difference universities could make if programs like SUN were embraced by other higher education institutions? Universities could have the potential to revitalize thousands of neglected neighborhoods around the U.S. and give students a "real world experience."

John I. Gilderbloom is professor in the School of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of Louisville and director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods at the University of Louisville. He is the co-author (with Richard P. Appelbaum) of Rethinking Rental Housing. His latest book with Rob Mullins, Promise and Betrayal: Universities and the Battle for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods, comes out in the spring of 2005. His website iswww.louisville.edu/org/sun.

Author's Note: Special thanks to Michael Brazely, Marilyn Melkonian, Rob Mullins, Samuel Bell, and Stephen A. Roosa who helped edit and do research on an earlier version of this paper. Chou Peng, Cindy Kelly, Jit Fan, and Krista Salerno helped with additional editing.

References

Capek, Stella, and John Gilderbloom. 1992. Community versus Commodity: Tenants and the American City. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck.2000. Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: North Point Press.

Evans-Andris, Melissa. 1999. Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods: Project Evaluation. University of Louisville, Department of Sociology.

Gilderbloom, John, and Richard Appelbaum. 1988. Rethinking Rental Housing: Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Gilderbloom, John, and Rob Mullins.2005. Promise and Betrayal: Universities and the Battle for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods. Albany, New York: SUNY Press.

Gilderbloom, John. 2004. Invisible City: Power, Place and Poverty. Unpublished manuscript, University of Louisville.

Jacobs, Jane. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage.

Leccese, Michael, and Kathleen McCormick. 2000. Charter of the New Urbanism. New York City: McGraw-Hill.

Luhan, Gregory A., Dennis Domer, and David Mohney. 2004. Citibase: Louisville Guide. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Mohney, David, and Keller Easterling, editors. 1991, Seaside: Making a Town in America. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Newman, Oscar. 1980. Community of Interest. Garden City, New York: Anchor/Doubleday.

Pahl. Ray. 1975. Whose City? Middlesex, England: Penguin.

Van Sweden, James. 1995. Gardening with Water. New York City: Random House.

Van Sweden, James, with Susan Rademacher. 1998. Bold Romantic Gardens. Washington D.C.: Spacemaker Press.