Bringing Back Downtown
Christopher DeWolf
"There are
more ways to live than behind a white picket fence … yes, Virginia, we can live
happily ever after without ever having to say suburb." - Vancouver Sun
editorial, February 22 2001
Downtown. It is a quintessentially North American
word and although it refers to similar neighbourhoods clear across the continent, the
images it conjures are different from person to person and city to city. Whereas one might
see downtown as a vibrant, exciting place, the heart of the city, another may see it as a
dead, unsafe and ugly place where undesirables loiter and there is nothing of interest to
be found. Fortunately for our cities, downtowns are on a comeback that has been at the
centre of much press and controversy. While some cities have seemingly found the magic key
to downtown revitalisation, other downtown areas continue to flounder and decay even
during the economic boom of the late nineties. In reality, there is no sure key to
downtown rebirth but there are some steps that can be taken to ensure a healthy city core.
An attractive downtown is a good first step. Many
downtown areas are plagued by dilapidated buildings, ugly storefronts and surface parking
lots. By all means, making a downtown attractive does not mean "Disneyfying" it
and transforming it into an outdoor mall, a very un-urban environment dominated by chain
stores and oppressive visual upkeep laws. Instead, quality historic restoration of
storefronts, office and loft space is an excellent way to turn a downtown from a sketchy,
ugly place into a welcoming and attractive place. A good example of this is downtown
Calgary’s historic main street, Stephen Avenue. As recently as 1995 the avenue, a
part-time pedestrian mall, was a windy place of ruddy old sandstone and boarded up
storefronts. Through the collaborative efforts of the City of Calgary, the Calgary
Downtown Association, business owners and architects, Stephen Avenue has become one of the
most desirable retail streets in Canada, with one of the top ten retail street rental
prices in the country. According to a 2000 Angus-Reid poll, 88% of Calgarians’ image
of downtown is "favourable", and 56% say downtown is a desirable place to live,
up 10% from 1999.
Many other cities can learn from Calgary’s lessons.
Instead, some cities continue to believe revitalisation lies in large performing arts
centres, stadiums and casinos. Urbanist Robert Gratz calls these developments Project
Plans, deriding their inability to blend into neighbourhood fabric. As she writes in her
book Cities Back from the Edge, "Under this project-based planning, the new is
added at a large enough scale to overwhelm and alter what exists." The inherent flaw
with large projects is that they refuse to acknowledge the existence, or potential
existence, of a neighbourhood. Building a casino to draw people downtown assumes that
there is no existing structure, or fabric, that may be used to lure people into the core.
Detroit, fabled for its massive urban decay, has some of the most spectacular examples of
large-scale projects that fail as catalysts for revival. The Renaissance Centre, a complex
of hotels and offices, sits isolated from the streets of downtown Detroit and has failed
to fill them with life. It was built on the mistaken assumption that its hotels,
restaurants and offices would draw people downtown. Instead, it drew them to the
Centre and the Centre only. What downtowns need are small-scale projects – a building
restored here, an empty lot filled there.
Vancouver has benefited enormously from this kind of
small-scale developments. Many lots in that city’s downtown area have been converted
to highrise condominiums and apartments. In fact, some office buildings, a legacy of the
overbuilt office boom of the eighties, have even been turned into residences. The few
large-scale waterfront projects that exist are unlike the Renaissance Centre in the sense
that they are entirely residential and retail, and they integrate themselves into the
existing urban street pattern. As a result downtown Vancouver has become an increasingly
vibrant and increasingly diverse place to live. The downtown residential area, the West
End, is home to some 40,000 people and there are some 63,000 residential units within the
downtown core: a full 23,000 more than in downtown Chicago, a city some four times larger,
whose central "Loop" district is infamous for empty nights.
As Vancouver has shown one of the greatest links in the
mystery of downtown rebirth is an emphasis on residential development and community.
Downtown must be thought of as a neighbourhood in its own right, not just a destination
for suburbanites to enjoy on weekends. Making downtown an attractive and welcoming place
and encouraging people to move there are just two ingredients to a successful downtown but
they are two of the most important ones. Developments in downtown must integrate
themselves into the urban fabric that already exists, no matter how tattered and worn that
fabric may seem. A healthy understanding of a downtown area as a dynamic and multifaceted
community of buildings, workers, people and visitors is essential to the health, survival
and renaissance of downtown cores clear across North America.
Christopher DeWolf is the editor of
Urbanphoto. He lives in Montreal.