We’re spending the rest of this summer talking about our data-driven, equity-focused approach to economic development and producing prosperous, resilient places—from the team that makes it happen. Catch up with the full series of posts, essays, and reports on this page.
At the beginning of 2021, Smart Growth America began working with residents in the North End neighborhood of Newport, Rhode Island to create an equitable development strategy for the community, which is in the path of significant new development. To mitigate displacement and ensure that residents benefit from major public and private investments, the Smart Growth America team is working with local leaders to define a community-based vision, build capacity, and create advocacy strategies.
The urgency to create an equitable development strategy for the North End became apparent to the residents as a result of several public actions. After many years of planning, the city is moving forward with construction to realign the Pell Bridge ramp, which has isolated the neighborhood for decades. The city designated the area that will be more accessible as an “innovation hub” and commissioned the North End Urban Plan—a new small area plan which was adopted as an amendment to the city’s comprehensive plan—to shape the area into a higher density, mixed-use center to diversify the city’s economic base. New zoning for the area is under consideration. Finally, a $100 million dollar redevelopment proposal for an old 23-acre casino site adjacent to the ramp realignment is under review by the city.
New development in the North End neighborhood represents potential opportunities to everyone in Newport, though the form it takes and its primary beneficiaries have been disputed. To residents of the neighborhood, new development can provide access to the types of places and services that they have long sought. To the city it represents an opportunity to launch Newport’s “bold statement for 21st century living” by attracting businesses within the “Blue Economy” and digital technology sectors. While some view these goals as contradictory, Smart Growth America’s aim is to demonstrate how equitable development is a fundamental component of economic development.
For more than half a century, highway expansions have been an unchallenged transportation practice within American cities as strategies to move cars farther and faster dominated planning and funding priorities. The direct and immediate demolition of homes, and the slower devastation of whole neighborhoods, particularly those that are home to Black and brown families, frequently followed on the heels of such expansions. Rather than increasing residents’ access to goods and opportunities, these highway expansions have added to congestion, air pollution, urban sprawl, and systemic racism. As practitioners and policy makers have come to recognize the devastating consequences of mass highway expansion, efforts to tear down old highways that divide urban areas are gaining momentum. The recent passage of the $715 billion INVEST transportation bill in the House of Representatives has allocated $3 billion for highway removals. Previous highway removals in Rochester, New York, Oakland, California, and Chattanooga, Tennessee offer examples of what such undertakings could look like.
Repairing the damage done to a community in light of disinvestment and historic underrepresentation in decision making processes is not easily undone, and is not as simple as tearing down a dividing highway. The inequities in Newport and the North End will require specific and targeted policies and tools to address current inequities, including:
- 64 percent of North End residents are renters, and of those 47 percent are already considered housing cost burdened.
- The median income in the North End is $51,407 compared to $79,633 in the rest of Newport—a 55 percent difference.
Residents who have been historically harmed by the existing highway ramp and disinvestment must be equipped to benefit from incoming economic growth.
Smart Growth America, working with its partner the Newport Health Equity Zone and local leaders is engaged in the critically important process of local capacity building. As one of the first steps the team created a Local Advisory Group to identify and empower local residents to be their own leaders and advocates. Through bi-weekly meetings with Smart Growth America, the 18 residents who applied to be a part of the group, are creating an equitable strategy for their own community. Smart Growth America has created a data dashboard, timeline of planning efforts in the North End, and a housing affordability analysis to equip the Local Advisory Group members with the information and advocacy tools they need. Smart Growth America also has provided an expert analysis of the proposed zoning amendments and introduced the members of the Local Advisory Group to other examples of equitable development from around the country. While promises of “offering a roadmap to better health, equity, opportunity, and connectivity” and “reversing decades of decline and disinvestment” do not automatically follow highway teardowns, they can provide a critical first step in opening up the opportunity.
This is just one example of how our economic development team, working in partnership with Smart Growth America’s land use development team, promotes smart growth through a place-based approach that uses data-driven analysis to show how smart growth is the key to both fiscal health and social equity.
Learn more about how our incredible team of policy, research, and advocacy experts at Smart Growth America are helping to embed smart, equitable, land use economic development principles in all of our work with communities across the country by signing up for our email list or following us on Twitter.