From Vacant to Vibrant- only if you squint real hard.
I spent the morning at another community group-think fest. 200 people there- including a boat load of city staff.
I tweeted the whole she-bang to keep others informed (reverse chronological order- read from bottom up):
- Closing with mayor McLin brief speech. Future events thru September. They want to use electronic comms.(bout time)about 2 hours ago from TwitterFon
- Yes we have land to build housing, yes we have vacant homes. What we need is reasons for people to invest and return 2 cityabout 2 hours ago from TwitterFon
- RT @SlideMagnet: “Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary.” – Evan Esarabout 2 hours ago from TwitterFon
- Just told 2 shutup for suggesting that we stop vacant homes frm becoming vacant lots. Seems like we want to b a hospice instead of hospitalabout 2 hours ago from TwitterFon
- Now in “current neighborhood opportunities” again, are we focusing on wrong issue? Mowing lots or fixing neighborhoods?about 2 hours ago from TwitterFon
- Why does the REAP progam take 12-18 months? It shouldn’t take that long anymore.about 2 hours ago from TwitterFon
- Focusing on empty lots is like a dentist trying to practice on where the tooth was, instead of taking care of the teeth that are left.about 2 hours ago from TwitterFon
- Now starting session on “current neighborhood opportunities” hopefully not just an adopt a lot sessionabout 3 hours ago from TwitterFon
- Can we simplify the process of splitting lots and guarantee no increase in taxes if space is maintained green?about 3 hours ago from TwitterFon
- In session on transformed landscape, continuum of opportunities for vacant lotsabout 3 hours ago from TwitterFon
- “Dayton beautiful” regional or core? Is there a litmus test of what is good, right & just? Vision requires focus.about 4 hours ago from TwitterFon
- Shouldn’t be doing speculative urban renewal, only targeted. Wants to fuse old school linear organizing conversation to social media chaosabout 4 hours ago from TwitterFon
- Getting history of dayton’s rise and fall from head city planner, john Gower. Now using jetsons to look at vision of futureabout 4 hours ago from TwitterFon
- At Dayton convention center for “vacant to vibrant” good turnout-about 200 people. How do we refill the urban city?about 4 hours ago from TwitterFon
Saw Nan Whaley and Matt Joseph there during, and the Mayor at the end. Roland Windburn also got a shout-out from the Mayor in the closing.
What bothers me is the focus on the vacant lot (7 above)- instead of on strategies to repopulate the city. Had my house and office not been in a historic district with protective zoning, they would have both been candidates for demolition.
We seem to thing our vacant housing stock is an eyesore and problems to be dealt with- I see them as opportunities. What we might think is a worthless home, being “too small”- looks like a castle to an immigrant from Siberia, Africa or even China and India. The American Dream home has just grown bigger than what we really need. Instead of accepting the idea that our population will keep shrinking- why not look at what do we have to do to grow it again?
My ideas of unlimited H1B visa’s for HUBzone residents, or of donating homes to returning veterans– are both ways to bring people back to the city, but the powers that be have somehow written off that premise (see 4 above).
On the way home I ran into Jim Gagnet, who has done his share of development in the City (the original Diner on St. Clair, properties on 5th street in the Oregon District and now, Coco’s and Blommel sign)- and he said- so many meetings and so much talk, wouldn’t it be better to do?
Looking at this mornings festivities- it reminds me of the 20/20 vision plan of 10 years ago- and countless other type “Visioning” meetings.
Vision, without focus, is the same as being blind. We need leadership that can bring bold ideas forward, push the naysayers aside and make things happen.
Go read this link: Real creativity, comes from thinking big
Then give me some big ideas. What to do with vacant lots? The best thing- don’t let them happen.
I’ve become fascinated with a relatively new movement to build smaller homes. The largest concentration right now seems to be on the west coast. The lower cost for heat and utilities (and smaller carbon footprint) helps justify living smaller. One hang up here in the midwest is the existing zoning laws require minimums of 1,000 to 1,200 square foot homes. Some of these homes are only 200 square feet.
This link is a good place to start if you want to see some examples. http://tinyhouseblog.com/
I recall an early version of this back in the 1980s, also in nothern California. Back then various localities modified their zoning codes to permit 700 SF second houses on a property, the so-called “granny flat”. These were usually rentals, as a response to the housing crisis in the Bay Area (seems like they are always having housing issues there, but different ones than we are).
Back then Sunset magazine (which was directed to the West Coast market) did a design competition for these small houses. I think these were either for plans or built versions, or both.
So this has been bouncing around over there for ahile.
BTW- for more ideas about vacant homes http://staging.esrati.com/?p=2014
Should have linked to this in the article.
If the realistic option is demolition of neigborhoods by attrition, I blogged on perhaps documenting the destroyed houses as a sort of “virtual preservation”, using examples from San Jose and Louisville:
Toward a Dayton Documentation Project
For a conservation approach based on building type there are two solid ones from Chicago:
Chicago Bungalow Initiative
…and the follow-up, for another common house type in Chicago:
Chicago Greystone Inititiative
(New York has brownstones, Chicago has greystones).
Something like this could be done in Dayton to build up a buzz around the housing stock itself. One coud see something like the “Dayton Foursquare Intitiative”, focused on this building type, and maybe around certain Dayton neighborhoods that have a lot of them, like Walnut Hills and Ohmer Park.
For infill housing I think they are doing a good job in the Wolf Creek neighborhood. But from Louisville here is an example of both buzz creation and infill based on the shotgun house, about 15%- 16% of that cities housing stock, mostly 19th century housing:
….local preservationist group puts together an “idea book” and inspection checklist:
Louisville Shotguns
…and from the local media, “these houses are cool” (and a bit of what Bruce K said above about new thinking on housing):
Louisville Shotgun Redux: Southern Standard
This was just building the interest. In real life, example of renovations mixed with new construction that fits in with the neighborhood, since the decision was to conserve this neighborhood (which is not a historic district) rather than tear it down:
Shotgun Revival
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These examples, except the first one, is what could be done if Daytonians want to conserve neighborhoods rather than demolition, though i think the first suggestion of actually documenting dying neighborhoods and business districts might be a lot cheaper and easier. But of little interest except to historians.