A recent report done by Enterprise Community Partners found that communities are going a good job of finding creative way to utilize Neighborhood Stabilization funds.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article about the report’s findings. I must say that I am impressed with the different ways the report said that communities are using the funds, however, some of them can still be problematic. Let’s take them one by one.
I want everything I own, sit on, drive in, drive on, drive through, play with, touch – use in any way-to be well and thoughtfully designed. That doesn’t mean I need 18k gold chairs. It means that I want the things I buy and use to be purposeful and pretty.
Flint, Michigan is one example of, probably, hundreds of cities that are dying; high unemployment, the foreclosure crisis, and young people and families moving out of town have left whole neighborhoods is decline. Last year I drove through neighborhoods in Detroit and observed that on many streets, for every occupied home there were three or four that were vacant and boarded up.
I was saddened by the sight, especially as I’d always thought of Detriot as the quintessential city. As I drove out of town, I started to brainstorm ways that depressed communities, like Flint, Detroit, and many others around the country, can regenerate themselves.
This blog is about improving urban environments. I discuss ways that communities can achieve their revitalization goals using New Urbanism, Sustainability and Smart Growth principles. Additionally, I write about city living, real estate development, urban planning, neighborhood development and affordable housing. And while I’m still drawn to city skylines, I now know that it’s not what you see from the sky that matters, it’s what is happening on the ground.
