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| Scenes of Buffalo, New York answers.com |
I still have yesterday's post on the brain. I'm thinking it kind of sounded a little science fiction-using a headset and iPod Touch to record the brain's response to the urban environment. One possible use I can think of is tailoring the experience of a space or a building to the individual, especially in this era when our cities are growing in leaps and bounds. This brings us to today's post. As our cities expand, residents and city officials are looking to historic preservation to help deal with all the changes. After all, that is what we do, manage change. Preservation can help maintain and grow sustainable cities, typically characterized by walkable neighborhoods, a nice mix of small and national retailers, and a myriad of opportunities for residents of all ethnicities, races, and income levels. For cities, preservation is not about encasing the past in amber and stopping development, it's about the future.
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| Buffalo, New York skyline en.wikipedia.org |
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| Detroit skyline mypeoplepc.com |
This year, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation published a study titled Managing Change: Preservation and Rightsizing in America. The report discusses how federal programs and policies can be implemented to manage the changing urban landscape. In 2011, the ACHP put together the Rightsizing Task Force whose members were drawn from the government and non-government sectors. The group toured legacy cities in different stages of decline, renewal including: Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Newark, and Saginaw. The task force staked its study on the information gleaned from the twenty to sixty-five cities identified by the Brookings Institute. The study focuses the research and recommendation targets all legacy cities and can be extrapolated to any city or town with communities that share similar characteristics of distress associated with the legacy cities.
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| Cleveland, Ohio en.wikipedia.org |
In response to these observations, the task force recommended that the ACHP and its partners develop a web-based information clearinghouse with useful links to a wide variety of federal agencies and programs for communities looking for funding. Additionally, the report provides links to more the than seventy different programs spread out over twelve federal agencies. Not surprising that programs generally associated with urban revitalization are offer through agencies such as Housing and Urban Development; Transportation, what is surprising is that other federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection, Health and Human Services, Department of Labor, and the Department of Agriculture. The study also emphasized that cities that have integrated preservation goal into their community development plans have the chance of taking advantage of federal assistance.
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| Saginaw, Michigan en.wikipedia.org |
What is Section 106? Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 requires federal agencies to take into account the impact of any impending projects on historic properties and allow the ACHP the opportunity to comment. (http://www.achp.gov). One of the main findings of the task force is that Section 106, administered by the ACHP through the individual state historic preservation offices and crucial to communities with federally supported projects, is often treated by federal and local agencies responsible for completing the review process as just something to tick off on a to-do list. Too often, especially in communities where a good amount of energy is being channeled to combat blight through demolition, the Section 106 process is just a cursory effort despite the best efforts of those charged with job of compliance. When properly used, Section 106 is a planning process which included a spectrum of stakeholders: concerned citizens, local government representatives, state and federal agencies. The task force recommended the the ACHP and federal agencies responsible for its implementation redoube their efforts to ensure full compliance with Section 106 and promote it as a planning the way it was intended to be.
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| Newark, New Jersey en.wikipedia.org |
The Rightsizing Task Force also found that use of the federal Historic Tax Credit and state tax credits (currently 31 states have a credit program) are a critical part of the revitalizing legacy cities and neighborhoods across the country. The HTC can only be used for rehabilitating income-producing buildings (rental residential, commercial, and retail buildings), report after report revealed that these buildings are frequently essential to turing around a street, neighborhood commercial district, or downtown area. State tax credits enhance the HTC by providing greater financial incentives. Also, state tax credits are often available for rehabilitating a single family house or other non-income generating properties.
Case after case has revealed that an economically healthy central core is synonymous to the health of the surrounding communities and the city as a whole. Evidence of this can be found in city after city. For example, in Detroit HTC is being used to revitalize the downtown and adjacent neighborhoods in order to attract new residents and office dwellers. This program is having a positive effect on the surrounding communities and historic districts. Importantly, it is helping to attract new businesses and people willing to relocate to the city and increase economic revenue.
The future of legacy cities and like areas within cities and towns is in peril. In order for these places to thrive we must reimagine and reinvent our cities and reinvest in them. We must recognize that our built environment is affected by dwindling populations. Also we must identify these neighborhoods, stabilized them, and recognize that other communities currently exist as point on a map or in historic photographs. The report issued by the ACHP is designed to continue the dialog and provide information and case studies of revitalization tool. Finally, the study is designed to spur federal agencies, Congress, and the administration to recognize that historic preservation is economic development a key component of reimagining and reinventing the future of our cities.
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