Collaborative Community Design Initiative, No. 2: Islands Published

Across our cities leaders, organizations, and institutions are looking for new ways to achieve sustainable and comprehensive community development.  This renewed interest in a holistic approach to development is reminiscent of the original community development legislation passed in 1968 that focused simultaneously on political empowerment, education, the arts and culture, housing and economic development, and social equity and opportunity.

 

Finding a path to new and lasting change could not be more imperative than at this moment as hard-won gains in equity and opportunity are currently being diminished by our economic crisis and budget shortfalls that are squeezing education, public infrastructure investment, and community resources.  Today, it is vital that we find new ways to work across disciplines, scales, and issues to develop innovative strategies for positive change in our communities.  This means looking for new models of economic development such as co-operatives, finding new ways to develop quality affordable housing, for example by mixing models and programs, creating new opportunities for us to come together as citizens, not as consumers, identifying existing skills and resources in our communities as a means to shape and create new jobs, and working towards achieving sustainability in its fullest and most meaningful definition―which includes achieving a balance between equity, economy, and ecology in all that we do.  

Together we can develop participatory, proactive, and asset-based community processes and strategies that have the potential to point us towards opportunities for meaningful and sustainable change.  To this end the Collaborative Community Design Initiative is a program founded on interdisciplinary problem-solving, community engagement, partnerships, and broad-based participation that provides one model for new ways of acting and thinking about our communities.  This publication, the second in our series, is intended to be a guide for change in our four partner communities―Alief, Golfcrest | Bellfort | Reveille, Greenspoint, and Mid-West―as well as point to potential strategies and tactics in communities across the country that are facing similar challenges.

The Collaborative Community Design Initiative is generously funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Houston Arts Alliance, and the Architecture Center Houston Foundation.  If you would like a copy of the publication please email Susan Rogers at skrogers@mail.uh.edu with your name and mailing address.

 

 

 

 

Destruction in Speculation

The Third Ward, today is fundamentally defined by what is missing rather than what is there.  And there seems to be more missing every day.  The population today is less than a third of what it was in 1950, a percent population loss greater than that of Detroit.  There are no grocery stores, full-service banks, dry cleaners, movie theaters, or pharmacies.  Even the traditional pariah businesses that prey on struggling neighborhoods—such as pawn shops, check cashing outlets, game rooms and auto repair are absent or few.  This wasn’t always the case—but that is a story for the historians.

Making a Difference

Alief Community Garden

Once in awhile we get an opportunity to contribute to a project with so much momentum that it is amazing how quickly things get accomplished.  Our contribution to the Alief Community Garden was one of these opportunities.  Over the summer the CDRC worked with the Alief Super Neighborhood Council, Urban Harvest, and the International Management District to develop a site plan for a new community garden.  On September 17, 2011 hundreds of people came to the site including members of the University of Houston’s AIAS Freedom by Design group to build the garden beds.  The garden is located near the intersection of Beechnut and Dairy Ashford.

Community Design Charrette 2011

The Community Design Resource Center at the University of Houston invites you to share your professional or community expertise at our second biennial Community Design Charrette in partnership with Alief, Golfcrest|Bellfort|Reveille, Greenspoint, and Mid-West.

For this event we have put together a set of briefing books for each of our four community partners that you can find HERE.

Lunch will be provided and parking is available at UH Entrance #18.
Please RSVP as soon as possible.

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We hope you can join us!

Alief

Alief, located in far southwest Houston and bounded by the Westpark Tollway on the north and Beltway 8 on the east, is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Houston.  Alief could be defined as a gateway community, where many new immigrants settle.  42% of the population in Alief were born outside of the U.S., much higher than Houston’s overall rate of 28%.  The story of Alief is also more complex and in this case a bit of data might tell a richer story.  As the graph below indicates (based on 2009 American Community Survey small area data) there is no relationship between being born outside the U.S. and median household income or poverty rates.  This suggests that in Alief  opportunities to succeed are available to nearly all residents, both old and new.

A census tract map for Alief is provided here.

Super Strategies for the Mid-West Super Neighborhood

The Mid-West neighborhood in Houston is just north of Gulfton and Sharpstown and just east of the Galleria and the 610 Loop.  It is an extremely diverse neighborhood, home to nice single-family neighborhoods, thousands of multi-family apartments, the South Asian shopping district, a giant flea market, and restaurants from around the world, including the Halal Wok which begins to speak to the hybrid quality of the community.  UH College of Architecture students Dennis Alvarez, Nahid S. Haimonty, Alex Lara, Janine Nunfio, and Sana Rehman spent the Spring collecting data, pounding the pavement, researching precedents, and developing design strategies for the Mid-West Super Neighborhood, what they came up with is nothing short of SUPER.   

Community Design Workshop Spring Exhibition

Please join us on Monday May 2, 2011 from 6 – 8 p.m in the Gallery of the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at the University of Houston for the final presentations by the student teams for Alief, Greenspoint, Golfcrest/Bellfrot/Reveille, and Midwest.