American cities aren't alone in the quest to bring people back downtown. From Tokyo to Prague, hundreds of cities across the globe are struggling to revitalize inner-city marketplaces. And scrambling to capture the next wave of urban growth by generating new businesses, providing upscale housing and public spaces and, hopefully, luring a new generation of residents and visitors.
But it ain't easy.
Some 650 cities, including the City of Grand Rapids, belong to a support group dubbed the International Downtown Association. Central cities all face similar challenges and opportunities and the IDA serves as a clearinghouse where urban leaders can get expert advice on ways to pump life into struggling inner cities. Founded in 1954, around the time when downtowns began hemorrhaging residents, jobs and stores, the IDA now has members in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.
The head of the group, David Feehan, spent time at downtown organizations in Detroit, Kalamazoo and Pittsburgh before taking his seat as president of the international organization.
The cities where he cut his teeth have made great progress since Feehan's tenure. Kalamazoo is in the top 10 percent of downtowns in cities its size, Feehan says, and in December Pittsburgh was named the IDA's "downtown of the month" for its recent progress, notably a major surge in residential development downtown. And in Detroit, Feehan says, Motown is closer than ever to getting back on its feet.
"Finally, Detroit, I think, over the next 10 years will take its place as it should among great American cities," Feehan says.
While it's difficult, clearly, to create something new out of downtowns that are old, there is a road map, so to speak, culled from years of successes and failures. There are tried and true methods to make things happen, Feehan says.
"It's a very good time for downtowns," Feehan says. "We've had now about 10 to 15 years of success. We've finally figured out how to do it. During the 60's through the 80's, we spent a lot of money trying to redevelop downtowns using silver bullets like aquariums and stadiums. And what we finally figured out is that, first and foremost, downtowns must be clean, safe, friendly and attractive."
Organizing for Success
While so many inner city problems seem specific, there are many similarities among downtowns internationally, Feehan says. For instance, while many Americans consider Paris an urban paradise, it has its own problems.
"You can look to cities across the globe for signs of hope and similar problems," Feehan says. "In Paris, the poor folks and the immigrants are largely shoveled to the suburbs where business districts are the most vulnerable. The European cities are looking to the United States to figure out how we deal with integration."
In Paris, he notes, "You'll see a fair amount of trash and litter and graffiti. A lot of American cities have really taken on the graffiti problem and have done a good job to eradicate it. What's the problem with graffiti? I think it's a signal to people that it's not a safe place to be and that gangs might be operating. If you deal with graffiti, you deal with the image problem."
Cities can look to South Africa's Johannesburg for inspiration in terms of a metropolis that is cosmopolitan and racially-mixed despite a turbulent history, Feehan says. People joke that Detroit is the victim of a racial war, but Johannesburg actually was the site of a race war. Today, black and white visitors mix commonly in Johannesburg's museums, cafes and downtown gathering spaces.
Immediately after apartheid was dismantled, the city leaders got together to protect and grow the inner city using "business improvement districts," Feehan said. It worked.
"The securing of downtown as a public place, a place where people of all races can go, has had a significant psychological effect on the city and the whole country. It's a surprisingly cosmopolitan place to be," Feehan says.
Johannesburg created a fashion incubator, and now its young designers are getting written up in international fashion magazines.
"There's a lot of talent in a place like Johannesburg," Feehan says. "It's a matter of giving people hope and saying, `You can play on the world stage.' Just because you're from Africa doesn't mean you can't play on the world stage.
Creating a vibrant, inter-racial downtown can help a city get over that feeling, he says.
Member cities in the International Downtown Association use the group for panel discussions, in which experts go to that city, meet with leaders and try to come up with solutions and plans. Of course, it takes money and commitment from business, corporate and government leaders, and therein lays the challenge.
And it isn't just struggling cities that use the IDA. Austin, Texas, a favorite hipster enclave, convened an IDA advisory panel in 2004 to get ideas and guidance for how to bring more retail to its downtown. Such panels have been convened in New York City, Washington, Seattle and Los Angeles among others.
Greener Grass?
Such successful urban areas might seem to have happened organically - a natural synergy of people and commerce - but that's almost never the case, Feehan says. Most often, money and leadership, in various forms, get together and come up with plans to keep things bustling.
"Downtown associations have proven to be the thing without which nothing would happen," he says.
Take New York City, for example. Feehan says he recently visited the metropolis and could determine immediately which areas he walked through had organized "business improvement districts" and which areas did not.
"Around Penn Station, and the Bryant Park area, the streets are really well kept. Then you get to around 34th Street, and the streets look greasy and grimy, there's graffiti all over the place and there's nothing planted. Walking from one area to the other was almost like stepping back in time."
Chicago is the only city Feehan says he can think of that manages a vibrant, clean downtown without a major downtown association, and he credits the Windy City's mayors, who "understood downtown and never let it get bad."
"Chicago has one of the most effective downtown associations in the country. It's called Mayor Daley. He's an incredibly forceful advocate of downtown Chicago, and his greenery emphasis, planting and growing and the greening of Chicago; well it's truly a beautiful place.
"Houston, Ft. Worth, Portland, Denver, Seattle, all those cities with great success stories, there's virtually none of them that could have happened without a strong downtown association." Unfortunately, downtowns have plenty of competition.
"The people who built the suburbs and the suburban malls have figured out what people want and they're giving it to them. Now they're building downtown centers in the suburbs, and it's taking the steam out of downtowns in some places," Feehan says.
"City and suburb is the wrong way to look at it," he adds. "There are a number of downtowns - some newer, some older, some bigger, some smaller - that are competing against each other. It's a question of how to do it the best and the smartest."
Lisa M. Collins is a freelance writer based in New York City. She is a former Model D editor, former culture editor for Detroit's Metro Times and worked as a reporter for the Detroit News.
Photos:
Select Bank Building and Morton House
David Feehan (photo courtesy of the International Downtown Association)
Looking down Monroe toward the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel
Looking South down Ottawa Ave. toward the steam plant
Icon On Bond condominiums in North Monroe - Belknap
Photographs © Brian Kelly - All Rights Reserved