Whether you know the term or not, Atlanta is familiar with “tactical urbanism” — the use of creative, short-term and relatively low-cost projects to catalyze a long-term change in policy and/or the built environment. The most prominent example is the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition’s wonderful Streets Alive, an initiative about so much more than biking and walking. It’s a community-building platform showcasing some of Atlanta’s best aspirations over the course of a single day.
Historically, Atlanta is no stranger to this type of endeavor, either. In 1942, the Atlanta Daily World reported the Atlanta Urban League was initiating a “Better Block” program to “create community consciousness by backing the neighbors and keeping things moving through active participation of the people in the community.”
Our firm, The Street Plans Collaborative, has documented and applied these types of practices for the past four years. In many cities, temporary tools of tactical urbanism — pop-up stores, “intersection repairs” and “guerrilla gardening” projects — often become permanent later. They can lead to economic and social gains.
In Memphis, a “better block” project helped jump start economic revitalization in one of the city’s disadvantaged neighborhoods. Investments of $20 million in small, formerly vacant buildings helped launch 25 new small businesses and a permanent street redesign. In El Paso, a student used street art to develop fake advertisements announcing the return of that city’s streetcars. The project led to a $90 million investment by the state transportation department a year later. In New York, we’ve witnessed a dramatic increase in street safety and neighborhood vitality through the development of 60 public plazas that began as “pilot projects.”
Yet the incremental and iterative approach we advocate for urban redevelopment continues to run counter to the conventional planning and economic development process used by most cities including Atlanta. More citizens want to co-develop neighborhood projects rather than have city leaders and consultants lead the way. The outcome of such top-down planning approaches continues to generate a civic apathy called “planning fatigue” — too much talking and not enough doing!
In contrast, projects like the Atlanta Regional Commission’s “Living Beyond Expectations Lifelong Community Demonstration Project” are often successful because they allow citizens, non-profit organizations and private-sector entrepreneurs to participate in the real transformation of neighborhoods, if only temporarily. A new role for forward-thinking government agencies like ARC is to enable low-risk, community-driven projects, then use the resources at their disposal to help scale the elements that work best with the wonderfully diverse neighborhoods and people of Atlanta.
While we only began planning the ARC project this spring, more than 30 local, regional and national organizations, businesses and offices have assisted. I’ve learned quickly how passionate Atlantans are about building a better, more just Atlanta. Please join us as we attempt to do so in one of the country’s most historic neighborhoods.
Mike Lydon is principal at The Street Plans Collaborative in Brooklyn.
