Abstract
In the past two decades, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and Boston have initiated projects that demonstrate effective strategies for creating vibrant 21st-century downtowns. Their activities provide a model for activists seeking to improve their own downtowns. Each venture responded to changes in demand by enabling development of vacant and underused properties, providing public transit to a growing market, identifying developers to transform such properties into attractions for that market, providing more accessible financing, investing in the improvements to the public realm, creating new cultural institutions and improving existing institutions, and encouraging development of new and rehabilitated housing and retail stores. It is worth looking at each project in greater depth to understand what worked and what didn’t.
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Notes
- 1.
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- 2.
New York City Planning Commission, Large-Scale Development in New York City, New York, 1973, pp. 108–9.
- 3.
The title “Hudson Yards” was coined by Daniel Doctoroff. See Daniel L. Doctoroff, Greater Than Ever: New York’s Big Comeback, New York, NY: Public Affairs, 2017, pp. 164–65.
- 4.
“Hudson Yards Development Information,” http://www.hydc.org/downloads/pdf/hy_development_information.pdf
- 5.
Interchange with Daniel Doctoroff, March 18, 2018.
- 6.
The HYIC Tax Increment District included essentially everything west of Eighth Avenue between 42nd and 30th streets, plus the block containing Madison Square Garden and Penn Station but not the Javits Convention Center and the two blocks to its north (see the map on page 197).
- 7.
Jonathan Lerner, “A Freeway Sliced through Central Dallas in 1964. A Park Built over It Is Becoming the City’s New Heart,” Landscape Architecture Magazine, February 2017, pp. 144–57.
- 8.
David Crossley, “Dallas Has Longest Light Rail System in US,” Houston Tomorrow, December 6, 2010, http://www.houstontomorrow.org/livability/story/dallas-green-line-begins-service/
- 9.
“Facts about Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART),” http://www.dart.org/about/dartfacts.asp and http://www.dart.org/about/dartreferencebookmar18.pdf
- 10.
Dallas, Texas, M-Line (McKinney Avenue Streetcar), http://www.jtbell.net/transit/Dallas/MLine/
- 11.
“Interactive Estimated Ridership Stats,” http://isotp.metro.net/MetroRidership/Index.aspx
- 12.
Colin Woodard, “How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood,” Politico Magazine, June 16, 2016.
- 13.
Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation 2016 Annual Report, https://www.3cdc.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/3/files/2017/08/2016-annual-report-FINAL-reduced.pdf
- 14.
City of Boston, “History of Boston’s Economy Growth and Transition, 1970–1998,” 1999, http://www.bostonplans.org/getattachment/15ca7a2f-56d1-4770-ba7f-8c1ce73d25b8
- 15.
The Boston Planning & Development Agency, “Boston’s Economy Report 2017,” http://www.bostonplans.org/getattachment/d835ad4c-e8a9-4f17-b342-468f02301c58
- 16.
James A. Aloisi Jr., The Big Dig, Beverly, MA: Commonwealth Editions, 2004, pp. 26–28.
- 17.
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, “Silver Line SL1,” https://mbta.com/schedules/741/line
- 18.
Interview with Con Howe, September 12, 2017.
- 19.
Ken Bernstein, “A Planning Ordinance Injects New Life into Historic Downtown,” in David C. Sloane (ed.), Planning Los Angeles, Chicago, IL: American Planning Association, 2012, pp. 253–63.
- 20.
Downtown Center Business Improvement District (DTLA), Los Angeles, June 15, 2018.
- 21.
Zane L. Miller and Bruce Tucker, Changing Plans for America’s Inner Cities: Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine and Twentieth-Century Urbanism, Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1998, p. 166.
- 22.
Over-the-Rhine Foundation, “Guide to OTR Architecture,” http://www.otrfoundation.org/OTR_Architecture.htm
- 23.
Alice Skirtz, Econocide: Elimination of the Urban Poor, Washington, DC: NASW Press, 2012, p. 127.
- 24.
Alice Skirtz, Econocide: Elimination of the Urban Poor, Washington, DC: NASW Press, 2012, p. 65.
- 25.
Downtown Cincinnati website, https://www.downtowncincinnati.com
- 26.
Skirtz, Econocide, pp. 34–41.
- 27.
Skirtz, Econocide, pp. 49–53.
- 28.
Woodard, “How Cincinnati Salvaged the Nation’s Most Dangerous Neighborhood.”
- 29.
Anne Michaud, “Fast Companies,” Cincinnati Magazine, March 2000.
- 30.
Walter C. Rucker and James N. Upton, Encyclopedia of American Race Riots (Vol. 1), Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006.
- 31.
Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation, “About 3CDC,” https://www.3cdc.org/about-3cdc/
- 32.
Shibani Mahtami, “From Ailing to Artisanal: The Transformation of a Cincinnati Neighborhood,” Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2017.
- 33.
Alexander Garvin, The American City: What Works, What Doesn’t (3rd ed.), New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education, 2013, pp. 558–59.
- 34.
Alexander Garvin, The American City: What Works, What Doesn’t (3rd ed.), New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education, 2013, pp. 141–42.
- 35.
Lerner, “A Freeway Sliced through Central Dallas in 1964.”
- 36.
Boston Redevelopment Authority, “A Master Plan for the Fort Point and South Boston Waterfront,” Boston, BRA, 1997.
- 37.
“Seaport World Trade Center,” Celebrate Boston website, http://www.celebrateboston.com/seaport-world-trade-center.htm
- 38.
“John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse,” Clark Construction website, https://www.clarkconstruction.com/our-work/projects/john-joseph-moakley-us-courthouse
- 39.
“Hudson Yards,” City of New York website, http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/plans/hudson-yards/hyards.pdf
- 40.
I am indebted to Meredith Kane, partner and co-chair of the Real Estate Department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, for her insights into the role of the MTA in the development of the Hudson Yards.
- 41.
“Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn Announce Final Rezoning for Redevelopment of Hudson Yards Area,” Hudson Yards New York website, http://www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com/press-releases/mayor-bloomberg-and-speaker-quinn-announce-final-rezoning-for-redevelopment-of-hudson-yards-area/
- 42.
The teams consisted of developers Durst Organization and Vornado Realty Trust and designers FXFOWLE Architects; Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects; WRT developer Brookfield Properties and designers Skidmore Owings & Merrill; Thomas Phifer & Partners; ShoP Architects; Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa; Handel Architects developers Tishman Speyer Properties and Morgan Stanley and designers Helmut Jahn; landscape architect Peter Walker and developers Related Companies and Goldman Sachs and designers Kohn Pederson Fox; Robert A.M. Stern; Arquitectonica.
- 43.
Mahtami, “From Ailing to Artisanal.”
- 44.
“A Local’s Guide to Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati’s Cool Cultural Hub,” Urban Adventures website, August 23, 2017, https://www.urbanadventures.com/blog/neighbourhood-locals-guide-rhine-cincinnati.html
- 45.
Skirtz, Econocide, 2012, pp. 29–41.
- 46.
Downtown Center BID, “Downtown LA Market Report,” 2nd quarter 2018, https://www.downtownla.com/images/reports/BID.MarketReport2018.Q2.v5OPT.pdf
- 47.
Downtown Center BID, “Downtown LA Survey, 2018,” https://www.downtownla.com/images/reports/BID.Survey17.Results.v25.pdf
- 48.
Cooper Robertson & Partners, “South Boston Waterfront Public Realm Plan,” Boston, BRA, 1999.
- 49.
Boston Children’s Museum website, http://www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/
- 50.
Institute of Contemporary Art website, http://annualreport.icaboston.org/2016-2017/1_ica_ar_letter_1117/
- 51.
Cushman & Wakefield, “Marketbeat,” Q2 2018, Boston_Americas_Market Beat_Office_Q22018.pdf
- 52.
“Office Space in Boston’s Seaport District,” http://www.bostonofficespaces.com/boston-seaport; Boston Tax Parcel Viewer, http://app01.cityofboston.gov/ParcelViewer/?pid=0602671010
- 53.
Candace Carlisle, “Dallas’ Park District Development to Bring ‘Top of Market’ Luxury to Uptown,” Dallas Business Journal, 2017 https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2017/04/20/dallas-park-district-development-to-bring-top-of.html
- 54.
“The Story,” Hudson Yards New York website, http://www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com/about/the-story/
- 55.
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Garvin, A. (2019). Emerging 21st-Century Downtowns. In: The Heart of the City. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-950-0_7
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