2004 Award Winners Neighborhood Revitalization
To respond to increasing crime and blight, the Edison neighborhood in Kalamazoo, Michigan, began working with a Neighborhood Assistant Prosecuting Attorney (NAPA) in 1998. The focus of the NAPA was to utilize a grassroots approach to crime prevention in a specific target area by forming long-term, proactive partnerships between the Prosecutor’s Office, law enforcement, public and private organizations, and residents. The Edison Weed and Seed Program provided a framework for public safety and community development leaders to work in partnership with residents and businesses. The NAPA designation made Edison the first area in Michigan to feature this unique partnership. The structure enabled a comprehensive focus on crime prevention through community empowerment and revitalization, coupled with community policing and prosecution efforts.
The Westside Community Collaborative (WSCC) is an association of neighborhood organizations, commercial organizations, service providers, trade organizations, faith-based groups, colleges, businesses, the police, the district attorney’s office, courts and city officials, brought together to implement a five-year plan to revitalize Buffalo’s Westside. The Westside suffered population decline, high vacancy rates, troubled schools, persistent crime, increasing poverty and high unemployment. Detailed data and mapping information of the neighborhood’s physical and demographic make-up informed WSCC’s multi-faceted revitalization plan. Using this information WSCC transformed the Westside through neighborhood beautification, housing investment, youth activities and resident participation. By collaborating across multiple levels, the WSCC was able to take back one of the most crime-ridden streets in Buffalo, allowing investments to flourish and further solidify the ongoing revitalization.
A 2000 survey of Wedge Point neighborhood residents conducted by the South Wedge Planning Committee's (SWPC) revealed crime as an overwhelming community concern. In response, SWPC formed the Wedge Point Neighborhood Association to unite residents, landlords, business owners, city agency representatives and the police around strategies to address the area’s safety problems. As a well-established neighborhood-based, grassroots community development corporation, SWPC was able to incorporate housing improvement, property development, environmental advocacy, community building, and business support into its strategy. Significant concern about abandoned properties harboring crime elements led SWPC and its partners to focus on supporting existing businesses and recruiting new ones by enlisting the help of community-friendly property developers.
In 1992, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA) started a revitalization project on Auburn Boulevard to respond to years of neglect. As SHRA progressed, it found that redevelopment efforts would have little impact without a specific focus on addressing the neighborhood’s crime problems. This case study illustrates the integration of law enforcement with city agencies to address crime problems and promote redevelopment leading to a new and innovative strategy to address city and county problems. The Nuisance Response Team (NRT), formed by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, the Sheriff's Department, Code Enforcement, and the Auburn Advisory Committee, later joined by various county agencies, took the lead in expanding traditional roles and agendas to proactively focus resources more effectively in creating a more livable neighborhood. The NRT became permanent in the area and has spread its work to other parts of the city.
In 1997, the University of Pennsylvania attempted to respond to decades of abandonment of its surrounding neighborhoods by creating the University City District (UCD) with the help of about a dozen neighborhood nonprofits. This agency was charged with building effective partnerships to maintain a clean and safe environment and to promote, plan, and advocate for the neighborhood’s diverse, urban community. Modeled after a traditional Business Improvement District, UCD serves as an intermediary between the broader concerns of the community’s residents and businesses and those of law enforcement officials. This case study illustrates that by bringing crime and development strategies together, one can create long-lasting partnerships to maintain the neighborhood’s economic and cultural diversity as well as improve its safety.
In 1995, Ambassadors for Christ Ministries created the TARGET (Teaching Area Residents in Gresham and Englewood to Take part in) Area Development Corporation in the Auburn Gresham and Englewood neighborhoods of Chicago, Illinois, to address decades of disinvestment and safety concerns. What initially began as a project focused on redeveloping commercial corridors expanded into a three-pronged public strategy modeled after a similar project in Boston that engages the police, clergy, youth, parents, and other neighborhood stakeholders. The TARGET approach included an anti-violence element, commercial corridor redevelopment, and a truancy reduction program. These three projects, done in concert, contributed to comprehensive and positive changes in the Auburn Gresham/Englewood community. |
|
|
|
|
