ARTICLE
Imagine waking up in foggy Aptos, Santa Cruz County early Thursday morning and joining 60 plus community leaders for a three day - two night tour of Bay Area cities - Morgan Hill, San Jose, Union City, Berkeley, Napa, Santa Rosa and Redwood City - all with the intent to listen and learn how these cities have reinvested in their decaying infrastructures to build community. That is what 60 plus local elected, public, private and non-profit sector leaders experienced this past week. The Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce Community Leadership Visit (CLV) was an opportunity to explore other communities’ vision for their future, understand their land use policies and political processes and find ways to enhance and improve their built-in environment. Many of these downtowns faced years of blighted, underdeveloped, crime ridden, homeless encampments on businesses’ doorsteps. In a span of a few years and in some case decades they have turned vacant land and downtrodden city buildings into a revitalization of urban downtown areas that are now thriving with mixed used retail, commercial and residential units designed with open public spaces that enhance the naturally built environment. These new downtowns and neighborhoods are inviting to the citizens of the community and visitors like us. Each stop on our three day tour was a visit into the past history of a downtown neighborhood where those community leaders sought change for the greater good. Do not take this lightly, each city faced uncertainty, and the public discourse that comes with increasing housing stock in older neighborhoods. But as one city leader stated, “we had seen enough of the decaying past to know that our future was at stake if we did work to change course.” In Morgan Hill, known as the sleepy bedroom community south of San Jose and north of Gilroy which has an out-commute demographics similar to Santa Cruz County, faced increasing demand for housing and housing-costs and municipal sales-tax revenues that were not keeping pace with City needs. Morgan Hill embarked on an ambitious downtown renewal plan. The downtown started by embracing the need to make it convenient for visitors and residents to park and shop, eat and recreate in the downtown core. They are far from overcoming their housing needs - as parking and downtown street alignment and other infrastructure improvements came first. Now, mix use housing is following with several multi-family projects in development. There is a new coffee house (Coffee Guys) that serves Verve coffee and an Orange Theory Gym that sits across the street from new cafes and a boutique hotel. Downtown Morgan Hill has suddenly turned from a community that closed up sidewalks at dusk - to have a vibrant nightlife where surrounding community residents come to Morgan Hill for an evening out. The recreation of community continued at each stop where the spirits of change embraced Union City, Napa, Santa Rosa and Redwood City leadership. While the scope of some projects may not be to scale for Santa Cruz County, the pure evidence of the political will and public-private partnerships drove the change. We stopped in to see how an abandoned steel mill on 160 acres in the heart of Union City would become an urban transit center hub with multi-family affordable apartments were the first project to be completed. The community is a short walk to the BART station and ACE bus services. The next phase of construction is a module housing project next door to the affordable apartment project which will be followed by a 1 million square foot commercial - retail project all within a short walk. Our visit to Napa was illuminating. Napa is similar to Santa Cruz. The Napa River runs through town. The City of Napa has been successful in turning the Napa River, with a major flood control project, into the center of the revitalization. Similar to the San Lorenzo River, Napa turned a federal Army Corps of Engineers project into a downtown development asset. For years, the Napa River would flood during the winter rainy months causing tremendous damages to the downtown. A decade’s long flood control project finally came to fruition which reinvented the riverfront. Today, the flood control project has a walking promenade that faces the river where the back face is restaurants, retail outlets, hotels and residential developments. Long time Napa residents saw the vision of a community partnership come together. Downtown streets are bustling with activity. Napa was known for its wineries and outdoor lifestyle along the Silverado Trail. Now the downtown has become the hub of the community - where Shakespeare in the Park with the Napa River as a backdrop is part of the summer scene. Our CLV was highlighted by engaging conversations with elected leaders, city managers, housing experts, economists, affordable housing advocates, city planners and an array of individuals and organizations dedicated to the cause of changing the land use policies in their communities. Their collective efforts have made their cities and neighborhoods more sustainable for a brighter future. We learned Affordable Housing Financing 101; why the purchase of a home in a neighborhood that experiences change leads to an economic asset for the homeowner and the neighborhood. We listened to a common theme - that older neighborhoods and downtown areas need a facelift. These underutilized neighborhoods were transforming through policy and political change. Some of CLV travelers had visited some of these communities in the past, but they didn’t recall much of their past, as one participated stated - the downtowns of the 1970s, ‘80s and 90s do not reflect today’s generation. Towns need to have a ‘sense of place’ to be alive and vibrant. We concluded our three day - two night CLV with an interactive presentation from the leaders of MIG. MIG is a Berkeley-based planning and design firm famed for applying leading-edge theory and strategies to a broad range of community development and design challenges. With offices throughout California and the Western U.S. they are both thought leaders and in workforce housing that have produced many of the most forward-thinking projects in the U.S. MIG’s presentation Saturday morning was led by CEO Daniel Iacofano, a founding principal in the firm. The general topic was community participation and consensus building. The discussion focused on what we learned during our CLV visit; what were the benefits we saw in each community, what were the challenges that they faced and overcame and how can we take these ‘learning experiences’ back to Santa Cruz County and make positive change for our future. The last stop on our tour was in Redwood City, infamously called ‘Deadwood City’ during the late 1990s and early 2000s because the city had fallen on hard times where the downtown businesses faced daunting criminal activity and became a homelessness enclave along the Peninsula. That all changed several years ago when the Redwood City Police joined hands with downtown businesses to form an Operation Matrix at Sequoia Station. The collaborative process produced a community police plan. Community Coordinating Activities Team (CCAT) "Community Policing" describes a partnership between the Police Department and the residents of Redwood City. They work to gather and to prevent crime and solve neighborhood problems. Community policing is at the heart of the City’s official approach to public safety, as outlined Community Policing goes beyond traditional policing to build a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship between the police and the community. The theme of the 2017 CLV was about addressing our community challenges with an open mind to new ideas to look at old problems. One of the planning experts stated frankly, ‘There is no magic bullet that will solve your housing and community problems, yet, there is a synergy of common good that transcends neighborhoods and builds upon consensus decisions that are forged through deliberative and collaborative processes. It is not easy - but if you stick to the plan and accept that change can and will be a positive result the end results are amazing.’ (END QUOTE HERE?) Santa Cruz County is on the edge of change that will impact the next generation for years to come. The Chamber’s CLV is the beginning of the long path forward. Please join us in the days, weeks and months ahead to produce the lasting imagine for a better and more vibrant future.
Imagine waking up in foggy Aptos, Santa Cruz County early Thursday morning and joining 60 plus community leaders for a three day - two night tour of Bay Area cities - Morgan Hill, San Jose, Union City, Berkeley, Napa, Santa Rosa and Redwood City - all with the intent to listen and learn how these cities have reinvested in their decaying infrastructures to build community.
That is what 60 plus local elected, public, private and non-profit sector leaders experienced this past week. The Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce Community Leadership Visit (CLV) was an opportunity to explore other communities’ vision for their future, understand their land use policies and political processes and find ways to enhance and improve their built-in environment. Many of these downtowns faced years of blighted, underdeveloped, crime ridden, homeless encampments on businesses’ doorsteps. In a span of a few years and in some case decades they have turned vacant land and downtrodden city buildings into a revitalization of urban downtown areas that are now thriving with mixed used retail, commercial and residential units designed with open public spaces that enhance the naturally built environment. These new downtowns and neighborhoods are inviting to the citizens of the community and visitors like us.
Each stop on our three day tour was a visit into the past history of a downtown neighborhood where those community leaders sought change for the greater good. Do not take this lightly, each city faced uncertainty, and the public discourse that comes with increasing housing stock in older neighborhoods. But as one city leader stated, “we had seen enough of the decaying past to know that our future was at stake if we did work to change course.”
In Morgan Hill, known as the sleepy bedroom community south of San Jose and north of Gilroy which has an out-commute demographics similar to Santa Cruz County, faced increasing demand for housing and housing-costs and municipal sales-tax revenues that were not keeping pace with City needs. Morgan Hill embarked on an ambitious downtown renewal plan. The downtown started by embracing the need to make it convenient for visitors and residents to park and shop, eat and recreate in the downtown core. They are far from overcoming their housing needs - as parking and downtown street alignment and other infrastructure improvements came first. Now, mix use housing is following with several multi-family projects in development. There is a new coffee house (Coffee Guys) that serves Verve coffee and an Orange Theory Gym that sits across the street from new cafes and a boutique hotel. Downtown Morgan Hill has suddenly turned from a community that closed up sidewalks at dusk - to have a vibrant nightlife where surrounding community residents come to Morgan Hill for an evening out.
The recreation of community continued at each stop where the spirits of change embraced Union City, Napa, Santa Rosa and Redwood City leadership. While the scope of some projects may not be to scale for Santa Cruz County, the pure evidence of the political will and public-private partnerships drove the change.
We stopped in to see how an abandoned steel mill on 160 acres in the heart of Union City would become an urban transit center hub with multi-family affordable apartments were the first project to be completed. The community is a short walk to the BART station and ACE bus services. The next phase of construction is a module housing project next door to the affordable apartment project which will be followed by a 1 million square foot commercial - retail project all within a short walk.
Our visit to Napa was illuminating. Napa is similar to Santa Cruz. The Napa River runs through town. The City of Napa has been successful in turning the Napa River, with a major flood control project, into the center of the revitalization. Similar to the San Lorenzo River, Napa turned a federal Army Corps of Engineers project into a downtown development asset. For years, the Napa River would flood during the winter rainy months causing tremendous damages to the downtown. A decade’s long flood control project finally came to fruition which reinvented the riverfront. Today, the flood control project has a walking promenade that faces the river where the back face is restaurants, retail outlets, hotels and residential developments. Long time Napa residents saw the vision of a community partnership come together. Downtown streets are bustling with activity. Napa was known for its wineries and outdoor lifestyle along the Silverado Trail. Now the downtown has become the hub of the community - where Shakespeare in the Park with the Napa River as a backdrop is part of the summer scene.
Our CLV was highlighted by engaging conversations with elected leaders, city managers, housing experts, economists, affordable housing advocates, city planners and an array of individuals and organizations dedicated to the cause of changing the land use policies in their communities. Their collective efforts have made their cities and neighborhoods more sustainable for a brighter future. We learned Affordable Housing Financing 101; why the purchase of a home in a neighborhood that experiences change leads to an economic asset for the homeowner and the neighborhood. We listened to a common theme - that older neighborhoods and downtown areas need a facelift. These underutilized neighborhoods were transforming through policy and political change.
Some of CLV travelers had visited some of these communities in the past, but they didn’t recall much of their past, as one participated stated - the downtowns of the 1970s, ‘80s and 90s do not reflect today’s generation. Towns need to have a ‘sense of place’ to be alive and vibrant.
We concluded our three day - two night CLV with an interactive presentation from the leaders of MIG. MIG is a Berkeley-based planning and design firm famed for applying leading-edge theory and strategies to a broad range of community development and design challenges. With offices throughout California and the Western U.S. they are both thought leaders and in workforce housing that have produced many of the most forward-thinking projects in the U.S.
MIG’s presentation Saturday morning was led by CEO Daniel Iacofano, a founding principal in the firm. The general topic was community participation and consensus building. The discussion focused on what we learned during our CLV visit; what were the benefits we saw in each community, what were the challenges that they faced and overcame and how can we take these ‘learning experiences’ back to Santa Cruz County and make positive change for our future.
The last stop on our tour was in Redwood City, infamously called ‘Deadwood City’ during the late 1990s and early 2000s because the city had fallen on hard times where the downtown businesses faced daunting criminal activity and became a homelessness enclave along the Peninsula. That all changed several years ago when the Redwood City Police joined hands with downtown businesses to form an Operation Matrix at Sequoia Station. The collaborative process produced a community police plan.
Community Coordinating Activities Team (CCAT) "Community Policing" describes a partnership between the Police Department and the residents of Redwood City. They work to gather and to prevent crime and solve neighborhood problems. Community policing is at the heart of the City’s official approach to public safety, as outlined Community Policing goes beyond traditional policing to build a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship between the police and the community.
The theme of the 2017 CLV was about addressing our community challenges with an open mind to new ideas to look at old problems. One of the planning experts stated frankly, ‘There is no magic bullet that will solve your housing and community problems, yet, there is a synergy of common good that transcends neighborhoods and builds upon consensus decisions that are forged through deliberative and collaborative processes. It is not easy - but if you stick to the plan and accept that change can and will be a positive result the end results are amazing.’ (END QUOTE HERE?) Santa Cruz County is on the edge of change that will impact the next generation for years to come. The Chamber’s CLV is the beginning of the long path forward. Please join us in the days, weeks and months ahead to produce the lasting imagine for a better and more vibrant future.