Can Relocating City Buildings Revitalize Inner Cities? | @icicorg

Can Relocating City Buildings Revitalize Inner Cities?

Photo: Renderings/Sasaki Associates and Mecanoo Architecten via The Boston Globe

In Somerville, Massachusetts, a small city just to the north of Boston, city officials are hoping a new library will serve as an anchor to its Union Square, a neighborhood in the midst of an economic revitalization.

This summer, Somerville received an $18 million grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners for a $45 million new library in Union Square. The new library would serve as a public common; it will include an auditorium, community meeting rooms, classrooms, an outdoor courtyard, garden terrace and flex space for book sales, art displays and pop-up shows. ?It?s about creating a space where people are coming together, having exchanges, being creative, versus a more traditional space where people come to read and check out books,? says SPL Director Maria Carpenter in the September/October 2012 edition of the Somerville Scout.

At the same time, the City of Somerville is considering relocating its City Hall offices to Union Square. In its original grant application to the MBLC, Somerville proposed creating a joint library-city hall building. The MBLC denied the request, and as City Planning Director George Proakis tells the Scout, ?Saddling the library commissioners with financing the construction of a new city hall did not work so well.?

The end goal is to spur economic growth and in Union Square by making it the ?city center.? The idea is not new. The City of Boston had undertaken similar initiatives. In 1981, the State Transportation Building moved to downtown?s Park Plaza. A decade ago, the city relocated the Boston branch of the RMV to Chinatown as a way to spark urban renewal. These projects have sparked additional economic activity, including the recent construction of several high-rise buildings.

Earlier this year, construction began on the $115 million office and retail complex in inner city Dudley Square, Roxbury. Boston Public School offices will open here in the fall of 2014. Five hundred city employees are expected to work in this building once it is complete. Not long ago, the Boston Police Department also relocated its headquarters to the Roxbury neighborhood. The city also wants to renovate the public library in Dudley Square.

Boston Mayor Tom Menino hopes the city?s investment in Dudley Square attracts private investment, akin to Chinatown?s redevelopment. ?You?re going to see a rejuvenation of this whole area. It?s going to help people in the neighborhood to stay put because there will be more jobs and economic opportunity,? he tells the Boston Globe.

To date, ?Programs aimed more directly at economic development have been fragmented and ineffective,? explains ICIC Founder and Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter. ?These piecemeal approaches have usually taken the form of subsidies, preference programs, or expensive efforts to stimulate economic activity in tangential fields such as housing, real estate and neighborhood development. Lacking an overall strategy, such programs have treated the inner city as an island isolated from the surrounding economy.?They have encouraged and supported small, subscale businesses designed to serve the local community but ill equipped to attract the community?s own spending power, much less export outside it.?

The comprehensive plans to move city offices to Dudley Square and Union Square, respectively, show each city?s commitment to the distressed urban neighborhoods, beyond the piecemeal approaches Porter references.

In Somerville, the library is expected to bring upwards of 1,000 residents to Union Square each day. The increased foot traffic is sure to be a boon to local businesses. At the same time, growth of Union Square will likely usher in some gentrification. City officials and neighborhood organizations are working hard to ensure Union Square remains an attractive, mixed-used community for people in all income brackets.

Tell us what you think?.

Is moving city offices to inner city neighborhoods a good idea? Will it encourage further economic development in these areas? In what cities have these strategies proven effective?

Congratulations to Mayor Menino for making a strong commitment in Roxbury.? It?s a good idea to spur development by locating new municipal buildings in an urban neighborhood.? But it?s got to be a complete strategy of improving economic opportunities, public safety, quality neighborhood schools and preservation of residential neighborhoods.? We are waiting to see if improvements in Dudley Square can also improve the livability of the residential streets.

By Lorraine Wheeler on 01/08/2013

BY Amanda Maher on January 7th, 2013

TAGS: community development | boston | dudley square | union square | somerville | economic development

Source: http://www.icic.org/connection/blog-entry/blog-can-relocating-city-buildings-revitalize-inner-cities

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