Healthy and Equitable Development APA MN Presentation 9.29.16
1. Healthy & Equitable Development:
Trends & Possibilities in the Suburbs
Presenters:
Maria Wardoku
Sam Rockwell, JD
Peter Brown, AIA, AICP, PhD
2. The Center for Prevention at Blue Cross
and Blue Shield of Minnesota:
•Tobacco Cessation
•Healthy Eating
•Active Living
•Health Equity
1990
2010
3. How this study came about
•Importance of destinations and land use
•Social determinants of health
•Equitable access
•It’s not the what, it’s the how...
4. What do we mean by equity?
“Equity” ≠ Equity
instead...
“Equity” = Affordability + Engagement
5. What do we mean by health?
“Health” ≠ Health
instead...
“Health” = Active Living
7. What are the obstacles to building
healthier, more equitable developments in
suburban Minnesota communities?
• Uncovered barriers around reoccurring themes:
• Community engagement
• Affordable housing
• Active living
• Mixed-income housing
• “Naturally occurring” affordable housing
8. Process
• Focused on first ring suburbs
• Interviewed 33 local elected officials,
community members, city staff, developers,
and professionals at regional organizations
• Snowball technique revealed a lack of people of
color who have influence over the development
process
• Pulling common themes from interviews to
create phase one report
• Quotes
• Case studies
• Takeaways
12. “Some cities have a greater ease with engaging the community….
Even though it can be messy and unpredictable, it offers important
learning opportunities – both about what the community values, and
ways to improve on how to engage them. By avoiding community
engagement, cities won’t always see what’s coming.”
– Gretchen Nicholls, Program Officer,Twin Cities LISC
13. Community Engagement: Main themes
•Lack of resources & pathways
•Engagement late in the process means opposition
•Rehashing old battles instead of moving forward
•Primarily white and homeowner voices get heard
•Who shows up shapes city and developer priorities
14. Case study: Blake Road Corridor Collaborative
“Cottageville Park, which was previously
an area that attracted crime and negative
activity, became the rallying point for
police, city, and residents to work
together around a number of community
improvements. Today the area has
become transformed.”
– Gretchen Nicholls, Program Officer,Twin Cities
LISC
15. Case study: Blake Road Corridor Collaborative
The Response: Stakeholder Convening
+
16. Case study: Blake Road Corridor Collaborative
• Attracted support of LISC
• Provides point of contact for
developer
• Allows for deep community
education and visioning around
development
The Result: Investment has Paid Dividends
18. “All the partners around the table
are very eager and willing
partners, which is a big
necessity…I think it also really
requires a dedicated staff person.”
– Ann Buech, Coordinator, Blake Road
Corridor Collaborative
Case study: Blake Road Corridor Collaborative
19. Takeaways Real community engagement is
bringing in community from the
beginning, including them all the
way, and involving them in the
decision making process- and
that still does not happen.”
- Nelima Sitati Munene, Brooklyn Park
Community Leader
• Staffed community
partnerships help create
cohesive vision & productive
engagement around
development
• Authentic, long-term
relationships > transactional
relationships
• Engage community early in the
development process
22. “There’s an attitude about people of color and people with low-
incomes. We think that they’re dangerous…when someone talks
about affordable, low-cost housing, a big red sign goes up.”
-Camillo DeSantis, Richfield community member
23. MainThemes
•Community opposition based in fear of “those people”
•Paucity of government funding for affordable housing,
leading to…
• Focus on producing maximum units of housing per dollar
• Thinking in terms of affordable housing rather than
affordable living
24. Case Study: Compass Pointe
“The first thing people get in
their minds is that it’s going to
be 100% Section 8
housing…The second concern
is ‘I don’t want those people
moving into my
neighborhood.’”
-Kathi Hemken, Mayor of New Hope
26. The Result: A Nice Building…
Case study: Compass Pointe
“Obviously with a waiting list
of 700 the demand is there...
we were kind of holding our
breath and hoping everything
was going to work out, and it
did.”
–Jeff Sargent, New Hope Director of
Community Development
27. …But signs of the struggle remain
Case study: Compass Pointe
“All the people, when they
first heard about it, said they
were selling their houses. Not
a single house has gone on
the market.”
-Kathi Hemken, Mayor of New Hope
28. Takeaways
• Make affordable housing
tangible to people- a lot of
the opposition stems from
fear of the unknown.
• Humanizing affordable
housing residents and
correcting misperceptions
about income levels is also
key to overcoming
opposition.
“I think we need to work on how we
talk about affordable housing. Once
you say those words, people don’t hear
anything you say after…Can we call it
something else? What can we call it
that doesn’t have a stigma associated
with it?”
-Sara Maaske, Health in the Park Steering
Committee Member, St. Louis Park
30. • Tension and growing pains in the
shift toward a more walkable and
bikeable community
31. ”I think a car-free life is a great theory, but how do people manage for
the next 20 years, until -if- we start seeing changes?”
-Community Member
32. MainThemes
•Silent majority, vocal minority dynamic means more
public pushback
•Difficulty in determining who pays for and maintains
sidewalks
•Active living amenities are inequitably distributed
•Parking and traffic issues continue to dominate the
development conversation
33. Case Study: Connecting St. Louis Park
• “You have this in-between area, where
sidewalks weren't built when the original
streets were completed, and it can be very
hard to convince some people that it's
worth building them now.”
• -Sean HayfordOleary, Richfield Planning
Commissioner
37. Takeaways
• Make sidewalks part of the city budget and
maintain a network of key sidewalks.
• Create comprehensive plans for bike/walk
networks, rather than only building with new
development.
• Take political risks to make the transition to a
walkable community. Opposition usually dies
down considerably after infrastructure is in place.
“Each project is its own
little battle, but I think once
they’ve been installed,
they’re well accepted.”
- SeanWalther, St. Louis Park
Planning & Zoning Supervisor
38. What are the obstacles to building
healthier, more equitable developments in
suburban Minnesota communities?
• Uncovered barriers around reoccurring themes:
• Community engagement
• Affordable housing
• Active living
• Mixed-income housing
• “Naturally occurring” affordable housing
39. What was
useful?
What
questions do
you have?
What are we
missing?
What should
we do next?
Possible next steps…
• Workshopping paper with
interviewees, others
• One-pagers for developers, city
staff, elected officials highlighting
key takeaways
• Producing full report on phase 1
Phase 2 ideas…
• Deeper dive into community
engagement impacts on
development outcomes
• Toolkit for building sidewalks in
suburbs
• Toolkit for bike/walk infrastructure
demonstrations
