Vision and placemaking...

Friend and fellow East of the River blogger Nikki Peele made an astute obeservation a few days ago--women in the community are leading (and blogging) the transformation of DC's neighborhoods.  Think about it, there are JD Land, Life in the Village, Congress Heights on the Rise, and The Brightwoodian to name a few.  Yet as I discovered thanks to a Real Estate Bisnow post "The Key to Cities" men are at the table "making" the plans.  According to the featured post, economic development planning should be about women and, incidentally, that woman-centered vision is about placemaking and smart growth. 

A leading voice on placemaking Project for Public Spaces describes the concept as breaking "through [institutionalization] by showing [developers] planners, designers, and engineers how to move beyond their habit of looking at communities through the narrow lens of single-minded goals or rigid professional disciplines."

This finding is shockingly clear in the development landscape in Advisory Neighborhood Commission 7C (and north Ward 7).  In testimony about extending the disposition agreements on three critical north Ward 7 parcels 7C04 Commissioner Sylvia C. Brown asked about the development teams' visions and efforts "to create a sense of place—enlivening streetscapes, engaging current community members, and getting future residents excited about the developments' and surrounding communities' potential."  The question was discounted.  (With only one woman among the development team members is there a correlation???) 

New buildings don't magically make blight disappear.  New buildings don't magically reduce crime.  New buildings don't magically produce an improved quality of life. Vision does. 

PROACTIVE vision does.

Proactive, progressive vision with a real commitment to the broader community's bottom line does.

DC Council Ward 7 Land Disposition Hearing... Commissioner Brown's testimony starts at 4:25.  The exchange with Chairman Brown is at 11:37.