Abstract
Neglected urban environments have been linked to social isolation, depression, and other health problems. In Portland, OR in 2003, an intervention was implemented and evaluated in three neighborhoods with the objective of promoting community participation in urban renewal and engaging residents in the construction of attractive urban places. Municipal officials approved and permitted community-designed street murals, public benches, planter boxes, information kiosks with bulletin boards, trellises for hanging gardens, all positioned in the public right-of-way. Residents within a two-block radius of the three sites were systematically sampled and interviewed before (N = 325) and after (N = 349) the intervention, of which, 265 individuals completed both surveys of the panel study. After the intervention, multivariate results revealed improvements in mental health (p = 0.03), increased sense of community (p < 0.01), and an overall expansion of social capital (p = 0.04). Through community empowerment, participation, and collective action, the strategy successfully engaged residents in restoring neighborhoods, with direct benefits to community well-being.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hippocrates Medical Corpus: Airs, Water, Places 500 b.c. In: Lloyd GER, ed. Hippocratic Writings. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin; 1978.
Syme SL. Rethinking disease: where do we go from here? Ann Epidemiol. 1996;6(5):463–468.
Buzbee WW. Urban form, health and the law’s limits. Am J Public Health. 2003;93(9):1395–1398.
Jackson RJ. The impact of the built environment on health: an emerging field. Am J Public Health. 2003;93(9):1382–1383.
Semenza JC. Building healthy cities: a focus on interventions. In: Vlahov D, Sandro G, eds. Handbook of Urban Health: Populations, Methods and Practice. New York, New York: Springer Science and Business Media; 2005:459–478.
Calthorp P, Fulton W. The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl. Washington District of Columbia: Island Press; 2001:39.
Putnam R. Bowling alone: america’s declining social capital. J Democr. 1995;6:65–78.
Bourdieu P. The forms of capital. In: Richardson J, ed. Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York, New York: Macmillan; 1986.
Coleman, J. Social capital in the creation of human capital. Am J of Sociol. 1988; 94(Suppl):S95–S120.
Granovetter M. The strength of weak ties. Am J Sociol. 1973;78:1360–1380.
Szreter S. The state of social capital: bringing back in power, politics and history. Theory Soc. 2002;31:573–621.
Altschuler A, Somkin CP, Adler NE. Local services and amenities, neighborhood social capital, and health. Soc Sci Med. 2004;59(6):1219–29.
Semenza JC. The intersection of urban planning, art, and public health: the Sunnyside Piazza. Am J Public Health. 2003;93(9):1439–1441.
Eng E, Parker E. Measuring community competence in the Mississippi Delta: the interface between program evaluation and empowerment. Health Educ Q. 1994;21(2):199–220.
Israel BA, Checkoway B, Schulz A, Zimmerman M. Health education and community empowerment: conceptualizing and measuring perceptions of individual, organizational, and community control. Health Educ Q. 1994;21(2):149–170.
Wallerstein N. Powerlessness, empowerment, and health: implications for health promotion programs. Am J Health Promot. 1992;6(3):197–205.
Green LW, Kreuter MW. Applications in Communities. In: Health Program Planning. An Educational and Ecological Approach (4th ed.). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill; 2005:255–316.
Robertson A, Minkler M. New health promotion movement: a critical examination. Health Educ Q. 1994;21(3):295–312.
McKnight JL, Kretzmann JP. Mapping Community Capacity. In: M. Minkler ed. Community Organizing and Community Building for Health. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press; 2005:158–172.
Israel B, Schulz A, Parker E, Becker A. Review of community-based research: assessing partnership approaches to improve public health. Annu Rev Public Health. 1998;19:173–202.
Radloff LS. The CESD: a self-report depression scale for research on the general population. Appl Psychol Meas. 1977;1:385–401.
Ware JE, Snow KK, Kosinski M. SF-36 Health Survey: Manual and Interpretation Guide. Boston, Massachusetts: New England Medical Center; 1993.
Krishna A, Shrader E. Social capital assessment tool. Conference on Social Capital and Poverty Reduction, The World Bank, Washington DC; 1999.
Dalgard OS, Tambs K. Urban environment and mental health. A longitudinal study. Br J Psychiatry. 1997;171:530–536.
Leventhal T, Brooks-Gunn J. Moving to opportunity: an experimental study of neighborhood effects on mental health. Am J Public Health. 2003;93(9):1576–1582.
Stiffman AR, Hadley-Ives E, Elze D, Johnson S, Dore P. Impact of environment on adolescent mental health and behavior: structural equation modeling. Am J Orthopsychiatr. 1999;69(1):73–86.
Black MM, Krishnakumar A. Children in low-income, urban settings. Interventions to promote mental health and well-being. Am Psychol. 1998;53(6):635–646.
Buka SL, Brennan RT, Rich-Edwards JW, Raudenbush SW, Earls F. Neighborhood support and the birth weight of urban infants. Am J Epidemiol. 2003;157(1):1–8.
Johnell K, Merlo J, Lynch J, Blennow G. Neighbourhood social participation and women’s use of anxiolytic-hypnotic drugs: a multilevel analysis. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2004;58(1):59–64.
Berkman LF, Glass T, Brissette I, Seeman TE. From social integration to health: Durkheim in the new millennium. Soc Sci Med. 2000;51(6):843–857.
Kawachi I, Berkman LF. Social ties and mental health. J Urban Health. 2001;78(3):458–467.
Ziersch AM, Baum FE, Macdougall C, Putland C. Neighbourhood life and social capital: the implications for health. Soc Sci Med. 2005;60(1):71–86.
Veenstra G. Location, location, location: contextual and compositional health effects of social capital in British Columbia, Canada. Soc Sci Med. 2005;60(9):2059–2071.
Veenstra G, Luginaah I, Wakefield S, Birch S, Eyles J, Elliott S. Who you know, where you live: social capital, neighbourhood and health. Soc Sci Med. 2005;60(12):2799–2818.
Aneshensel CS, Sucoff CA. The neighborhood context of adolescent mental health. J Health Soc Behav. 1996;37(4):293–310.
Latkin CA, Curry AD. Stressful neighborhoods and depression: a prospective study of the impact of neighborhood disorder. J Health Soc Behav. 2003;4(1):34–44.
Balfour JL, Kaplan GA. Neighborhood environment and loss of physical function in older adults: evidence from the Alameda County Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2002;155(6):507–515.
Kingsley GT. Housing, health, and the neighborhood context. Am J Prev Med. 2003;24(3 Suppl):6–7.
Sampson RJ, Morenoff J, Earls F. Beyond social capital: spatial dynamics of collective efficacy for children. Am Sociol Rev. 1999;64:633–660.
Wallace R. Urban desertification, public health and public order: ‘planned shrinkage’, violent death, substance abuse and AIDS in the Bronx. Soc Sci Med. 1990;31(7):801–813.
Cook TD, Campbell DT. Quasi-experimentation: Design & Analysis Issues for Field Settings. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin, Co.; 1979:207–233.
Macintyre S, Ellaway A. Neighborhoods and health: an Overview. In: Kawachi I, Berkman LF, eds. Neighborhood and Health. New York, New York: Oxford University Press; 2003:20–42.
Larsen K, Merlo J. Appropriate assessment of neighborhood effects on individual health: integrating random and fixed effects in multilevel logistic regression. Am J Epidemiol. 2005;161:81–88.
Semenza JC, Krishnasamy PV. Design of a health-promoting neighborhood intervention. Health Promotion Practice. Prepublished; http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1524839906289585.
Acknowledgements
Funding for this public health intervention was obtained, in part, from the Meyer Memorial Trust, in Portland, OR (JCS); from a faculty enhancement award (JCS) and scholarly and creative activity grants for undergraduates (to Andrea Thompson, Eva Rippetau, and Troy Hayes) from Portland State University, OR.; and from the Community Initiatives Small Grant Program (JCS) from the Bureau of Housing and Community Development at the City of Portland. We are grateful to the members of The City Repair Project that are dedicated to create community-oriented places, in particular Mark Lakeman, Daniel Lerch, Saskia Dresler, Eva Miller, and Diane Beck; faculty and students from Portland State University, including Dr. Pedro Ferbel-Azcarate, Shanna Eller, Dr. Stephanie Farquhar, Dr. Sy Adler, and Dr. Barry Messer; staff from the Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Program, Elizabeth Kennedy-Wong, and Jenny Leis; City of Portland traffic engineers, Robert Burchfield and Elizabeth Papadopoulos; and local artists Brian Borello and Matt Cartwright. We thank Dr. Lisa Weasel from PSU for critical feedback on the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Semenza, J.C., March, T.L. & Bontempo, B.D. Community-Initiated Urban Development: An Ecological Intervention. J Urban Health 84, 8–20 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-006-9124-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-006-9124-8