CircleTheUSA

In part I of this post, I discussed the tough economic situation the city of Flint, Michigan finds itself in, and the role the growing role of the Genesee County Land Bank.

But while in Flint, my focus was more on what the Land Bank's planning staff does, not on how the parcel acquisition process works. I spent part of the day with planners Christina Kelly and Jeff Burdick, visiting two Flint neighborhoods.

Our first stop was the Thread Lake neighborhood.

Kelly and Burdick have been working closely with the local neighborhood association, headed up by Barbara Griffith-Wilson. Thread Lake is one of 28 "clean and green" neighborhoods, which qualifies it for attention -- and resources -- from the Land Bank.

I spoke to Griffith-Wilson about her neighborhood and asked her to briefly describe it:

Clean and green neighborhoods are required to maintain at least twenty Land Bank properties, and implement at least two gardening projects. In return, they have access to Land Bank financial and technical support. In fact, while I was visiting Thread Lake, Roxanne Adair, the Land Bank's Urban Food Gardening Coordinator, stopped by to find out what kind of vegetables the neighborhood was most interested in having planted.

 Several high school students are earning money helping with community gardens; they'll also be clearing a large vacant lot (above left) across the street from where they're planting. Lower left, Barbara Griffith-Wilson lists some of the garden needs to the Land Bank's Roxanne Adair.

As we walked through the neighborhood, Kelly and Burdick explained some of the Land Bank's programs. One involves "side lots." Homeowners with vacant Land Bank property adjacent to the side of their home have the opportunity to purchase that property as a side yard. The cost is typically under $75.

There are at least three benefits from the program. First, it brings properties back onto the tax roll. Second, it eliminates the public cost that would otherwise have gone into maintaining the vacant land. Third, it benefits the homeowners by allowing them to take control of what has often become an eyesore next to their home; unkempt vacant land can significantly reduce their own property's value. Note: the Land Bank also operates a related program allowing for residents and businesses to "adopt" a Land Bank owned lot, and then be given priority for purchasing it.

There's evidence that Thread Lake is stabilizing. One hopeful sign is that a local developer, Charles Young, has purchased and rehabbed an abandoned housing complex, Village Shores.

Not far from the Thread Lake neighborhood, and close to downtown, is the Grand Traverse neighborhood, another area Land Bank planners have been assisting. For the Land Bank it's one of their "strategic reinvestment areas."

Among the positive factors for the Land Bank: the neighborhood is close to downtown; it has a strong neighborhood association; Habitat for Humanity is active there; and the Land Bank already owns considerable property in the neighborhood.

One other more fortuitous factor: Genesee County transportation planner Heidi Phaneuf moved into the neighborhood in 2000, and has been active in the neighborhood association and is now its president.

Working with the Land Bank, the Grand Traverse neighborhood association (which has about sixty members) has put together a strategic plan. It set five goals, Phaneuf told me: increase home ownership; improve housing conditions; improve neighborhood recreational areas; build partnerships with nearby businesses; and build the neighborhood association's capacity as an organization.

 From top, clockwise: the neighborhood some blocks with considerable abandoned housing; vacant house owned by the Land Bank; former school also owned by the Land Bank; Habitat for Humanity's Margaret Kato (left) and neighborhood association president Heidi Phaneuf; one of several Habitat signs dotting the neighborhood; lot acquired by homeowner through the Land Bank; and Habitat house under construction.

This May, neighborhood residents helped install a playscape in the local park (see photo, provided by Heidi Phaneuf). Progress has also been made towards cleaning up Spring Grove a brownfield site, where the illegal dumping used to occur. The site has a natural spring and is part of a wetland restoration and nature park development project.

Habitat for Humanity has also taken a strong interest in the neighborhood. Margaret Kato, Habitat's county director told me that seven new Habitat homes will be completed by the end of the year. As Kato explained, "it was important to us that there was a plan for the neighborhood, and that the neighborhood association was welcoming and wanted to see infill housing." Moreover, Habitat has found there's "more impact to have a concentration of homes than scattered sites throughout the county."
 
My visit to Flint -- and earlier this Spring to Scranton and Wilkes-Barre -- also makes me wonder about the declining capacity of city planning departments. There's no city planner working for the City of Flint, a city of 117,000. Instead, the Land Bank has (at least in part) taken on the role of local planners. In Scranton & Wilkes-Barre it's the staff at the Chambers of Commerce who have, in various ways, done the work of city planners.

Photo above: downtown Flint is compact, and still largely "in business." Below right: the former Durant Hotel, which has sat vacant for many years, is now being converted into 93 apartments, thanks to work from the Land Bank, the Mott Foundation, and other area organizations.

Christina Kelly probably best summed up the situation: "planning in cities like Flint is always first to go." But at least in places like Flint and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, other organizations have stepped into the vacuum.

While Flint has received lots of negative attention in the media -- in some ways becoming the poster boy of urban disintegration -- what's also clear is that there are many who are not giving up on Flint. 

From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:

Doug Wieland, Executive Director of the Genesee County Land Bank, pulled out a sheet of paper and pushed it across the table towards me. This is the hard reality of Flint, Michigan, today. Population falling from 195,000 in 1970 to 117,000 in 2006. Abandoned housing units since 1970: 31,200.

A staggering 32 percent of all residential parcels in Flint are abandoned.

Flint for decades had been a solid, middle-class city, home to many General Motors employees. According to the Flint Journal (June 1, 2009), "at its peak, GM employment in Flint reached more than 82,000." But that number has dropped "to about 8,500 by the end of 2007."

photo: from left to right: Doug Wieland, and planners Christina Kelly and Jeff Burdick.

One of the central missions of the Land Bank is to purchase, hold, and then resell abandoned structures and vacant lots.

The Land Bank is an independent County authority (Dan Kildee, the County treasurer, serves as its President). It receives funding from the County, as well as from state and federal sources (such as brownfields and land revitalization funds; note that under Michigan law, land held by a land bank is considered a brownfields site). Revenue also comes from private foundation grants (including the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation) and from the resale of the properties the Land Bank holds.

This past year, the Land Bank acquired 1,545 foreclosed properties; its total inventory currently stands at 4,823 such properties.

One of its major accomplishments, Wieland told me, is that "the Land Bank has largely taken speculators out of the market." But it's impossible for the Land Bank to physically care for all the lots it has acquired, and some in the community have complained about this, Wieland noted. (As you'll see in part II of this post, one way the Land Bank addresses this concern is by encouraging neighborhood groups to maintain Land Bank properties, in return for technical assistance from Land Bank staff).

One concept that I noted during my recent visit to Cleveland, Ohio, is the idea that older, industrial cities may need to plan to shrink, not grow. In Cleveland, the strategy calls for reusing vacant land for urban agriculture, stormwater management, or recreational purposes. This would, at least over time, save the city money by enabling it to focus its infrastructure dollars (as well as resources supporting housing and economic development) on fewer areas.

The same approach is taking place in Flint. As reported in the Flint Journal (June 19, 2009) "the idea of planned shrinkage became a viable concept in Michigan a few years ago, when the state changed its laws regarding properties foreclosed for delinquent taxes. Prior to that, abandoned buildings and homes tended to be tied up in the courts, adding to blight. Now they're being snatched-up by county land banks, which have a powerful tool to change the face of communities. 'The idea is to reshape the city so we have a small collection of sustainable neighborhoods with open green space,' said Kildee, a Flint native and chief executive of the local land bank."

But compared to Cleveland, Flint -- through use of the Land Bank -- has been much more aggressive in dealing with vacant, tax foreclosed properties. Note: a land bank is being formed in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland.

Take a look at a map of Flint. The red shows vacant lots currently owned by the Genesee County Land Bank Authority.

The Land Bank "bundles" many foreclosed properties coming up for auction by the County Treasurer's office. That is, Land Bank staff, based on personal inspections of the tax foreclosed parcels, determine which should be included in one huge single "bundle" of properties up for auction. This has helped ensure that these bundled parcels will end up in the hands of the Land Bank, not in the hands of speculators, as it's unlikely any one speculator will bid on a very large package of assorted properties. If property is not sold at auction, it goes to the Land Bank. 

For more information related to the above chart (from the Land Bank web site); for background on the Genesee County Land Bank, see "Land Banks as Revitalization Tools: The example of Genesee County and the City of Flint, Michigan" (pdf file) by Teresa Gillotti and Dan Kildee.

As Christina Kelly, lead planner for the Land Bank told me, too many planners across the country are unfamiliar with the importance and mechanics of the foreclosure process. At the same, she added, local officials (often in the Treasurer's office) have little knowledge of the spatial and planning-related impacts foreclosures have. Tip to planners: it might be a good idea to sit down with those in your city or county who handle tax foreclosures.

in Part II to be posted on Wednesday: visiting two Flint neighborhoods

Linda Trompetter and Arthur Breese have taken diversity as their mission. Not an easy task in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, an economically depressed region with a largely white, Roman Catholic population.

Their aim goes beyond promoting tolerance, it also includes getting broader minority representation on county and local boards.

Trompetter, who holds a PhD in philosophy, with a focus on ethics and social justice, founded the Diversity Institute in 1992, within Misericordia University, a Catholic institution in the Wilkes-Barre area. The Diversity Institute includes a consortium of 32 member groups, including the County Commission, area colleges and school districts, and others.

Over time the Diversity Institute has developed quite a few programs, including a very well-attended "diversity camp" for high school sophmores (interestingly, 12 to 20 seniors also participate each Summer along with some 80 youth); a range of K-12 educational programs using the Anti-Defamation League's "World of Difference" curriculum; and, most recently, the Luzerne County Diversity Commission -- a board endorsed by and receiving financial support from the County Commission (i.e., the County governing body).

One of the points that Trompetter and Breese (who co-Chairs the Commission and is Director of Diversity at the 14,000 employee Geisinger Health System) repeatedly emphasized to me is the importance of diversity to a healthy regional economy.

Building tolerance and trust in the workplace leads to better morale, which, in turn, makes area businesses more attractive as places to work. They cited the work of Richard Florida (Cities and the Creative Class) and Edward Hubbard (The Diversity Return on Investment) on the economic benefits that diversity can bring.

But it also take strong community leaders to help make diversity a reality.

 

What, you've never heard of "Steamtown"? As you can see from the photo, it's not about steam coming up out of the ground; it's about steam bellowing from locomotive engines.

Steamtown is a National Park site located in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania. In part, it was the "gift" of powerful Congressman Joe McDade to his district back in 1986, despite vociferous criticism within the "railroading community," which for many years had been advocating a national park devoted to railroading, but not in Scranton. [photo shows McDade at podium; this was the first Park Service newsletter for Steamtown, from April 1987]

I should know, because I was part of the National Park Service team that worked on the initial development plan for Steamtown in 1986 and 1987. At the time, Steamtown represented a diverse (and some would say disheveled and poorly maintained) collection of railroad equipment that had been salvaged by the City of Scranton from a non-profit that had operated Steamtown in Bellows Falls, Vermont.

The site of the park was to be on the downtown rail yard, formerly owned by Delaware, Lackawanna & Western. It was far from the grandest in the country. The rail yard's original roundhouse, where engines were stored and turned, appear in a famous 1855 painting, The Lackawanna Valley, by American artist George Inness (see a portion of that painting below).

It would be the key feature of the park. Yet only a remnant of the original was still in existence when our Park Service team arrived in Scranton to begin preliminary planning studies.

Moreover, we soon learned that the rail yard was about to be sliced up, with about a third of it being promised for a new downtown shopping mall. [photo above shows part of rear of the Mall "taken" from the Steamtown site; the Mall still poses a problem, as it is a long "barrier" between the rail yard and the rest of downtown]

Any guesses how Scranton got the federal funds needed to build the mall? Think politics, again.

So it was with that luggage that Steamtown became a unit of the National Park System. But I can tell you from my own experience, that the Park Service has some very talented people, and with the initial infusion of some $60 million Steamtown was up and rolling. Take a look at a portion of the rebuilt roundhouse below (and for steam purists, yes Steamtown does own & operate one diesel).

 

I visited Steamtown on Friday (April 3) to see how it was faring, and what sort of difference it was making to Scranton. I had hoped to get some hard numbers, in terms of where visitors to Steamtown were coming from, how long they were staying in the Scranton area, and how much they were spending. Unfortunately, Park Service Superintendent "Kip" Hagen (interestingly enough, a native of Scranton) didn't have that information. Park Service regulations, he noted, bar collecting this kind of personal visitor information.

Earlier in the day, Austin Burke, President of the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, had told me that up until 2000 the Chamber had prepared reports for the Park Service on Steamtown visitor trends and expenditures. Burke pulled out a copy of the last report and handed it to me. In the year 2000, Steamtown had 160,421 visitors, 61,120 of whom stayed overnight in the area. Total visitor expenditures came to $8.3 million dollars, or about $52 per capita.

Burke also expressed frustration with the lack of commercial opportunities provided by Steamtown. For example, a local bank can't sponsor an excursion train (note: one of the features of Steamtown is that the Park Service runs 34 "main line" excursion trips beyond Scranton, and many daily train trips within the vicinity of the Park). Again, as Park Superintendent Hagen told me, his hands are tied as federal regulations prohibit this. View a short video clip I took of one of the Steamtown trains heading through Scranton.

But let's put aside economics and consider other impacts Steamtown has had on the community. Superintendent Hagen and Chief of Interpretation Mark Brennan described a hugely successful volunteer program, drawing on Scranton residents, as well as some from further afield. Many are rail fans. But as Brennan noted, "they learn to separate the rail fan world from the real world of railroading" that Steamtown's operations involve.

Some aim for that ultimate goal: becoming a Steamtown engineer. This past year, Brennan told me, there are 70 volunteers in "rail operations" and 16 in "visitor services." Volunteers range in age from 16 to 85, and include teachers, carpenters, two priests, an oncologist, salesmen, and some folks who work within the railroad industry (including an Amtrak engineer).

It's a tough process to secure work as a rail operations volunteer at Steamtown. Training must comply with Federal Railway Administration rules, and includes 40 hours of classroom training and considerably more in the field. Volunteers are closely supervised, and it can take five or more years to get from "trainman" (the initial volunteer assignment) to engineer. Yet most volunteers stick with it. In 2006 Superintendent Hagen received special recognition from Take Pride in America for the Steamtown volunteers program.

Why is there such keen interest and commitment among volunteers? Brennan told me it almost always amounts to a love for steam -- for the power, the intensity, the sounds, of steam-powered railroading. [see the following two short video clips; in the first one I get "steamed" while taking the video]

One other example of using volunteers: under the supervision of a National Park Service historian, over the past two years some 60 Scranton area high schoolers have been helping Steamtown, while earning community service credits.

They've done this by entering personnel records and business documents from the old Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) into the Park's database. In the process, Brennan told me, "many have become fascinated by what they've found out about their own community." It's not just idle work. The aim is to have a database where visitors to Steamtown can look up relatives or other people they know who might once have worked for the DL&W.

Steamtown is far from your usual Park Service operation. It's surely the only National Park with a staff of six professional mechanics needed to maintain railroad engines, coaches, and assorted other equipment. In addition to running a small rail operation, there's an excellent museum and exhibits on the site.

Given tight federal budgets, Steamtown has had to operate quite frugally after its initial cash infusion in the late 1980s when the park started up (and it wasn't cheap to reconstruct the roundhouse, the central element of Steamtown). But, as Hagen pointed out, the volunteers provide a critical "free" resource. He's calculated that volunteers last year put in some 15,000 hours of work. This is the equivalent to about 9 full-time employees -- which adds up to a substantial monetary value.

But it's all attributable to a love for steam.

No, no, I'm not encouraging Red Sox fans to take down Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez! What I'm talking about is Tom Buchanan, a member of the Windham Regional Commission, and his encounters with the Entergy Company, owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, Vermont.

Buchanan is a former photographer for the World Wrestling Federation, who now puts in time maneuvering around the ring of regulatory proceedings involving the relicensing of this aging nuclear facility. He chairs the Windham Regional Commission's Energy Committee, which is playing a key role in evaluating the merits of the power company's relicensing application.

I spoke at some length during a visit on Wednesday morning with both Buchanan (foreground in photo), and Jim Matteau, Executive Director of the Windham Regional Commission (WRC). The WRC is the regional planning body for 27 towns in southeastern Vermont. I wanted to know what the WRC's role in this very heated debate has been.

The explanation offers some interesting insights into the role regional planners can play when a controversial issue is at stake -- and make no mistake about it, Vermont Yankee is controversial. It pits activists concerned about nuclear safety and contamination against others who see nuclear power as a comparatively clean source of energy that also offers much lower energy costs. You can get just a bit of a flavor of the controversy by playing this short (minute-and-a-half) news report by one of Vermont's local TV stations.

As Buchanan described it, the Energy Committee decided right off the bat not to take a position pro or con on the licensing request, noting that "as soon a you pick one side, you become part of the background noise." When I asked him what he meant, Buchanan explained that the key to playing a productive role was not to get caught up with which side is right, but instead focus on what questions state regulators needed to get answers on (Entergy's application is being reviewed by the State of Vermont's Public Service Board).

The WRC, through its Energy Committee, sponsored two public hearings, and also encouraged all of its commissioners to get feedback from residents in the towns they represented. The Committee also met with representatives of Entergy and took a tour of the plant. As director Matteau (photo on left) points out, over the past year this has meant some "heavy lifting by a group of volunteers."

At this point, the Energy Committee has identified several key issues with particular relevance to the region to focus on. One is what to do with the plant when it is decommissioned (which will occur either in 2012 when its 40 year license expires, or, if the license is extended, in 2032). This has involved complex issues as to how the site will be "remediated." As Buchanan stressed to me, the plant sits on 125 acres of prime industrial land, right on the Connecticut River, land that has real regional economic significance. The extent and nature of the cleanup is an area the Regional Commission plans to weigh in on.

The process has consumed a huge amount of time for the 15 volunteer members of the Energy Commission (most of whom serve as commissioners on the WRC), and for WRC executive director Matteau. But when I asked Matteau whether it was worth this level of engagement, his reply was quick and simple: "It would be irresponsible for us not to be involved."

Public Service Board hearings start on May 18th ... stay tuned.