If the conditions for generating city diversity can be introduced into a neighborhood while it is a slum, and if any indications of unslumming are encouraged rather than thwarted, I believe there is no reason that any slum need be perpetual. “Unslumming and slumming, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (p273)

It might seem like I’m working backward through The Death and Life of Great American Cities. I’ve only blogged about one of the conditions for city diversity, according to Jacobs:

1. Need for primary mixed uses
2. Need for small blocks
3. Need for aged buildings (RE: Norwood - Part 1 & Part 2)
4. Need for concentration

However, a week ago I posted about “The Slumming of West Norwood.” I really want to talk about the unslumming of West Norwood.

4,602 people lived in census tract 255, according to the 2000 US Census.

While I’m sure to come back to all of the conditions for city diversity in more detail, I’ll quickly cover the four conditions as applied to west Norwood.

1 - Primary mixed uses - I ended the post on the slumming of west Norwood with a hopeful note, linking to the websites about the newer uses in three of the buildings at the intersection of Carter and Mills:

• 1801 Mills
• Speckled Bird Cafe
• Vineyard Central

Only one corner lacks a non-residential use, though the building could still host a commercial use in the future. Unfortunately, all three uses have limited hours. Most automobile traffic - great for commercial uses for visibility and convenience - bypasses this intersection via Sherman. There are other factors at play concerning the mix of uses that will have to wait for another post.

2 - Small blocks - No matter what the city fathers attempted through the urban renewal of the early 1960s, little of what they did affected the size of the city blocks.

3 - Aged buildings - I’ve covered Norwood’s preponderance of old buildings. They are not lacking in this area. The case I made was that it should not be seen as a deficiency. Norwood does lack a mix of newer buildings, though there are some closer to the historic core, including a revamped Surrey Square, and on the east side of Norwood (closer to richer Cincinnati suburbs, such as Hyde Park).

4 - Concentration - In the census tract covering this portion of West Norwood, the population density is just shy of 15 people per acre (2000 US Census). That’s well above many suburban areas, but far, far shy of, say, New York City.

Jacobs describes the process of slumming:

[D]ull, dark, undiverse are the streets in which [slums] typically form. “Unslumming and slumming, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (p274)

The process of unslumming is a reverse of the process of slumming. Break one link, Jacobs states:

The key link in a perpetual slum is that too many people move out of it too fast—and in the meantime dream of getting out. “Unslumming and slumming, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (p271)

I met people who are choosing to move to this part of Norwood. I heard stories of their investment and improvements, and how their investment has encouraged others to reinvest in more area properties. Let’s hope that continued commercial vitality at the corner of Mills and Carter is an unaverage clue and helps provide the diversity necessary for continued unslumming.

Conventional planning approaches to slums and slum dwellers are thoroughly paternalistic. The trouble with paternalists is that they want to make impossibly profound changes, and they choose impossibly superficial means for doing so. “Unslumming and Slumming,” The Death and Life of Great American Cities (p271)

 

The Onion: Detroit Mayor Throws First Brick In Glass-Breaking Ceremony For New Slum 05.12.09 Jane Jacobs’ view of conventional slum fighting - as superficial and potentially more harmful than inaction - seems to be evident in this satire from The Onion. What I mean is that much of the superficial wrangling with slums might as well be like what is depicted here.

Governments have had a role in slum creation.

Obviously, it hasn’t been as direct as this, but Jacobs is keen to rest on this point:

To overcome slums, we must regard slum dwellers as people capable of understanding and acting upon their own self-interests. “Unslumming and Slumming,” The Death and Life of Great American Cities (p271)

In other words, don’t blame “them” either.

The most cutting fake point from The Onion:

“As far as giant ‘f…-yous’ from the city go, I’m a little underwhelmed,” said Danica Michaels, a single mother of four young children. “This is nothing compared to the giant interstate they built through my neighborhood last year.”

 We’ll take a look at unslumming tomorrow.

It must’ve frustrated the city fathers of Norwood back in the 1960s that the street grid refused to line up - that those who originally subdivided and platted the city back in the nineteenth and early twentieth century neglected to plan for the widespread use of the automobile.

Montgomery Road, which is part of Ohio Route 3 - aka Ohio 3-C (Cincinnati-Columbus-Cleveland) - cuts across Norwood from the southwest to the northeast. At a slightly more severe angle, the Conrail tracks set their own bearing, also from southwest to northeast, leaving a pie shaped wedge that, ironically, hosts Surrey Square.

Adding further complication, a section line runs down Section Avenue. If you look closely you’ll find that the intersections don’t quite line up on either side of that road either (running down the middle of the map below, continuing as a dotted red line).

I’ve included the a portion of the USGS map because it shows a bit of the past, where an aerial photo is a snapshot in time. For example, it still shows the Conrail tracks, which are no longer there. Other additions and subtractions are shown in purple.

Urban renewal plans of the early 1960s added the purple connector between Smith and Sherman. Additional realignment “fixed” the intersection of Allison/Section and Sherman, near the high school. Today’s Sherman continues all the way across the run at the west edge of Norwood to Victory Parkway. It is a significant local arterial.

The original Sherman Avenue’s ragtag zigzag would’ve made it far less attractive for east-west traffic. In making it more efficient, the city fathers took traffic away from the intersection of Mills and Carter. This intersection was once anchored by a bank on the northwest, a general store on the southeast, more commercial enterprises on the northeast, and St. Elizabeth Church and School on the southwest, with the lumberyard only another block down Mills.

Only the buildings remember.

In recent history, this intersection was better known for crime and violence - the school building condemned, the parish church empty, the neglected police substation housed in the former bank. Lottery tickets and porn sales out of the remaining storefront on the northeast corner became the sum total of local, legitimate commercial enterprise. The rest had escaped to Surrey Square and, later, Rookwood Commons.

It is easy to see where new slums are spontaneously forming today, and how dull, dark and undiverse are the streets in which they typically form, because the process is happening now. What is harder to realize, because it lies in the past, is the fact that lack of lively urbanity has usually been an original characteristic of slums. “Unslumming and Slumming” The Death and Life of Great American Cities (p274-5)

Again and again, Jacobs hits on the diversity of uses - the cross-use, 24-7 eyes on the street. Activity, safety. A police force thousands strong cannot replace this type of self-policing.

Improving the traffic flow was a valid goal, but it had consequences. Retail space is hard enough to fill. Take away the traffic, and it’s almost impossible.

I love this quote and will use it time and again:

[S]lum shifting fails because it tries to overcome the causes of trouble by diddling with symptoms. “Unslumming and Slumming” The Death and Life of Great American Cities (p271)

“Blight” is a symptom. We pretend that blight begets blight - a spreading disease, a fungus, an inflammation.

The buildings remember, and provide new opportunities to diversify again: