Cities that focus on housing, transportation are seeing improvements
In the fight against severe poverty in Boston’s Roxbury section, people are trying creative strategies to revive entire blighted neighborhoods, rather than helping just one person at a time.
“If you only have programs that help families, then the families that do better will leave. They become mobile, and the concentrations of poverty and disinvestment remain,” said Mae Louie, director of leadership and development at the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative in Boston.
Louie said the area known as Dudley Triangle is seeing a revival thanks to new, affordable housing. The project’s “stunning success” occurred after the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative was granted eminent domain over 30 acres of vacant land left blighted by disinvestment, arson and eventually garbage. The property is now held in a community land trust.
The nonprofit organization believes in community control. The neighborhood’s residents make decisions on what happens there. Louie says an engaged public made the turnaround possible.
Youngstown, Ohio, is taking a radically different approach from most cities: Its Plan 2010 seeks to shrink the city.
Like Buffalo, Youngstown is a former steel town that has a declining population and a glut of vacant housing. Plan 2010 will control the downsizing as Youngstown becomes a smaller, but, it insists, better city. The city will save funds by cutting back on services, such as garbage pickup and street lighting, in deserted areas that are deemed unsustainable.
“The key for a Buffalo or a Youngstown is to recognize that many of our neighborhoods are not coming back and, in fact, it’s wrong to pretend that they will,” Hunter Morrison, a former Cleveland municipal planner, told The Buffalo News.
Other areas are rewarding planning and economic development practices that discourage sprawl and are urban-friendly.
California has a revolving loan fund that favors projects that are dense, mixed-use, transit-oriented and have an affordable housing component near areas of poverty.
“If you meet those priorities you jump to the front of line. We like that,” said Greg Leroy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a policy resource center promoting accountability in economic development.
Illinois offers a minimum 10 percent corporate income tax credit if a work site is accessible by public transportation or near affordable housing.
New York City has one of the largest anti-poverty initiatives.
It puts an emphasis on results-based strategies to tackle poverty, with only those that show success getting renewed.
One of the priorities is helping low-wage, entry-level workers in growth industries learn the skills they need to reach better paying jobs, with a focus on the food manufacturing and health care fields.
The city’s anti-poverty effort also includes numerous programs to help at-risk children, and to help adults combat predatory lending practices.
Unlike Buffalo, though, New York City has considerable resources to put into the effort — Mayor Michael Bloomberg has pledged $150 million annually for the programs.
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