If you haven’t read already, see the new Richard Florida piece that speaks to the urgency of Minneapolis’ new urban center…

This article from the NY Times describes the proposed transformation of the Manhattan Farley Post Office into the ‘Grand transit entrance to New York’ – part of the redevelopment of Penn Station, considered one of the great projects to have ‘enormous benefits for the entire region’. The article describes the government lead effort, the collaboration between city, state and Port Authority, and the selection of developers to help realize the larger project. Senator Schumer is looking for $100 million in stimulus money from the high speed rail and Amtrak stimulus budgets.

Here is a follow-up editorial.

Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority contracted the services of transit experts HDR to facilitate a week-long workshop to develop a conceptual plan for the inter-modal facility.  HDR has taken a robust and comprehensive look at the area around the transit crossroads – looking at a variety of scales – and developed concepts for a transit hub on various sites, reflecting multi-modal transit development best practices. This is the culmination of an enormous amount of work, and is an exciting and thought provoking presentation. Click here to see the presentation.

Check out this great article written by William R. Morrish, Professor of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban and Environmental Planning School of Architecture, University of Virginia. Morrish developed the article following his experiences working in post-Katrina New Orleans, post-9/11 Manhattan, and in response to the 1993 Mississippi River flood. He eloquently makes the case for:

• Re-thinking the role infrastructure plays in our private and collective lives
• Developing a comprehensive, integrated and collaborative approach to creating new forms of infrastructure that express and meet the new challenges of our society, economy and environment
• Incorporating natural systems and processes as structural components of sustainable infrastructure

Morrish’s article is especially noteworthy, as we move into a unique period of global warming, fluctuating fuel prices, limited natural resources and changing demographics—all of which require a new approach to development at a time of limited government resources.

Minneapolis has our own energy center – Hennepin Energy Recovery Center or HERC! HERC is an urban infrastructure hero dying for a make-over. Hennepin County and Covanta Energy, with the help of students from the University of Minnesota are planning this transformation. Click here to see why HERC is such a star and what her future holds.

Barbara Flanagan comments on 2010 Partners and the Ballpark neighborhood.

Check out this Steve Berg Column from MinnPost.

City building is complex, but there seem to be some fundamentals that serve as the foundation for successful planning and implementation process. These fundamentals fall under the category of civic support and are essential to consistently creating innovative, sustainable projects, neighborhoods and cities. They are as follows:

POLITICAL LEADERSHIP Strong political leaders that:

• have a vision for how their city could develop
• value design and its positive impact on economic development, civic identity and quality of life for its visitors and residents alike
• understand the design and building process
• have the political will and savvy to initiate projects, garner support for them and advocate to the end

PRO-ACTIVE BUREAUCRATIC STRUCTURE Planning and economic development departments that move away from being reactive functionaries enabling private development plans through the traditional regulatory processes and instead move to a pro-active approach to city building which develops and implements comprehensive plans and projects.This approach would require:

• integrated, comprehensive planning and design across disciplines and departments
• implementation process
• incorporating urban designers back into the departmental work force
• having designers at the table when plans are being formulated and evaluated, projects prioritized and implementation schemes developed

INSTITUTIONAL ADVOCACY Civic organizations with an interest in planning and design can contribute to the city building process with their deep reservoir of information and intelligence. These institutions, including the press, can also advocate on behalf of well- designed public and private development and provide forums for discussion and citizen education.

SUBSTANTIVE CITIZEN PARTICIPATION A substantive citizen participation process that considers residents a partner in the city building process, rather than a perfunctory step in the regulatory process that needs to be checked off. Residents bring invaluable information about what the neighborhood assets and liabilities are and how the neighborhood functions. They will also support a project if they feel they are being listened to and taken seriously, and have faith in the implementation process.

As New York City’s PLANYC illustrates, the goals of a greener city for long-term sustainability are changing the way city building business is done.

A New Kind of Plan
Whether you call it a plan, a civic agenda or a political platform, PLANYC is unique in its content, outlining the challenges the city faces, its goals for the future and detailed implementation plans for achieving those goals. So often plans are created with goals, guidelines and drawings of what could be, but without an action plan as to what needs to be done, how, with whom and cost/sources of financing. What also makes the plan different is its holistic approach to initiatives and the government planning process.

Substantive Citizen Participation
The development of PLANYC was based on months of exhaustive information gathering not only within the walls of government but also from the outside. Citizens and experts alike were tapped for their knowledge about how to make a greener city, what are potential projects and programs and who the partners could be. A truly substantive citizen participation process took place, and the information gathered became part of the foundation for the plan.

Coordination Across Departments
The implementation section is interesting not only because of the level of detail given about each project but also the implication that a level of collaboration between disciplines and departments is required. The projects are defined, the lead agencies that need to work together identified, timeframe and funding sources detailed. The Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability has been expanded to oversee coordination and foster collaboration between departments in order for projects to be successfully completed and programs initiated.

Collaboration Through Layers of Government
The plan highlights the need to collaborate not only within the city bureaucracy but also outside of it, to ensure success. The implementation process often requires working with neighborhood, county, state and federal officials to garner support for a project and foster the necessary change in policy or process, if necessary. PLANYC acknowledges that few projects lie within the confines of one jurisdiction and that a coordinated approach needs to be taken to cultivate support throughout the layers.PLANYC is a wonderful example of a city plan – a clear vision initiated by the political leadership and supported by the public, achievable goals that reflect social, economic and environmental considerations, and an implementation plan that outlines projects and programs in detail while articulating a clear understanding of how to achieve success through collaboration and coordination.

Originally published in The Star Tribune.

Tomorrow, a court-appointed mediator will try to bridge the differences between Hennepin County and the owners of the land for the new ballpark, which is now under construction, scheduled for completion in 2010. The mediation may be the last chance to get the project back on track with massive transit improvements already underway. Resolving the dispute without litigation is in everybody’s interest. The longer this dispute lasts, the more the public stands to lose.

More than a ballpark
Ten years in the making, this $500 million ballpark project was conceived and launched as smart city building. The goal was to create a unique urban place the equal of anything in this country, with a ballpark linked to a year-round transportation hub providing a platform for future development.

Recognizing the importance of getting it right, the County a year ago created a Design Advisory Group (DAG360) to recommend design guidelines. The guidelines urge integrated urban design, environmentally-responsible architecture and vital civic connections, making getting to the game as exciting as the game itself, with a mix of grand public spaces and lively sidewalks and streets.

This spring the developer of the land stretching north from the ballpark to Washington Avenue brought in its own master planner to offer fresh, provocative ideas for building a neighborhood next to the ballpark. The ballpark and transit would be built first, yet much more would follow. The excitement was palpable.

Losing opportunities to plan and build it right
Today, that rush of excitement seems long ago. The promise of building something great has faded over the summer as wrangling over the land continues. Planning has been reduced to a worst-case scenario.

The 5th St. Bridge appears to be the first casualty. The existing bridge needs to be rebuilt to accommodate the extension of light rail. A “split” bridge design, with rail separated from cars and pedestrians by an 8-ft. retaining wall, makes it impossible to cross from the ballpark to the other side. A superior “flat” bridge, safer and friendlier, could be built, with funding sources identified. But the split bridge, despite obvious flaws, is now under construction because no one will tackle the issue. Time may run out to change the original design and we may be stuck with the split bridge.

Infrastructure really matters
Infrastructure is the foundation for successful development and should be viewed as a priority and cultural amenity. A safe, pedestrian friendly environment should be planned and design utilized as a unifying force at the inception of a project. Infrastructure is not the frosting; it’s the cake. Moreover, in an uncertain real estate market, infrastructure becomes more important than ever.

More resources needed
It’s been clear for some time that the infrastructure budget wasn’t enough to cover what was needed to make this a great place. The legislative cap on the County’s expenditures was a political compromise. New public and private sources of funding need to be identified.

To facilitate this effort, a new public/private partnership – 2010 Partners – is being formed. The partnership’s first task is to bring everybody to the table to set urban design priorities and address funding shortfalls. It’s time to reach out. The County should not have to go it alone. The State and City will be deriving new tax revenues, some of which ought to be used to finance the public realm, and the private sector can do more. None of this can happen without stakeholder cooperation and the land issue behind us.

We’re all on the same side
Communities rarely have such grand opportunities to enhance their quality of life and we’re fortunate the County has had the political courage to persevere. Our model should be the success of the world-class Nicollet Mall, rather than the shortcomings of the Metrodome, City Center or Block E. The goal is to successfully tie new transit and the ballpark into a revitalized Target Center, North Loop and Heritage Park.

Our economic competition is Denver and Atlanta and Amsterdam, not across the river or even across the negotiating table. We urge the County and the landowners to take a deep breath, remember we’re all on the same side and, unless the outcome is a win-win, the entire community will lose.