Neighborhood Meeting 09/02/09

Councilman, Ed Larvardain, has called a neighborhood meeting for Wednesday, September 2, 2009, from 6-8 p.m. at the Bolton Community Center.  Anyone interested in bettering our neighborhood should attend this meeting.  Mr. Larvardain will be open to suggestions and will address the specific problems we have in West End.

Please make every effort to attend this meeting!  Come on West End, let your voice be heard!  WE can do it!

Mercer University, College Hill, Bungalow Neighborhood Revitalized

Recently, at the Louisiana Trust’s Preservation Conference, which was held here in Alexandria, I met the woman who was almost singlehandedly responsible for saving one of Georgia’s historic bungalow neighborhoods.  I did not realize who I was talking to, until later when Charles Charrier, President of HACL (Historical Association of Central Louisiana), pointed it out.  If I would have known who she was, I would have picked her brain a little.

Her story goes something like this.  The neighborhood surrounding Mercer University was falling into decay.  It was mostly rent property controlled by slumlords who didn’t care a whit about the once beautiful, craftsman style neighborhood of bungalows.  This lady decided to do something about it.  She talked to several city officials, preservation groups, banks, but she could not garner their support.  So, she decided to do it on her own.  She purchased one house and restored it and that was so successful, she bought 2-3 more and restored them.  By that time, the city and other groups saw that she put her money where her mouth was, and also that she was serious about tackling this neighborhood, so they decided to support her.  The University became involved and, this is what has happened to that neighborhood: click here to view their site and photo gallery.

I think that the same can happen in Alexandria.  All we need are one or two believers that this neighborhood can be saved and revitalized, and the rest will be written in the annals of the history of the City of Alexandria.  SPARC is a great start…now, let us see some citizen involvement.

Andrea Warren

Treasurer, Historical Association of Central Louisiana

Resident of the historical West End of Alexandria

Preservationist

How to save the suburbs

Here is an interesting article.  The author is Christopher Leinberger.  Apparently for years this man preached that the new suburbs forty miles out of town would become the next slum.  Guess what folks…it is happening..  Here are some of my favorite excerpts:

For a half century, it’s been easy to mock suburbia for being too comfortable, white-bread and conformist. That’s all changed in the last 18 months as many suburbs have abruptly taken on a sense of tragedy and desperation–a fact that underlies Obama’s trip to devastated Lee County, Florida, later today. Drug violence, gangs pillaging half-empty subdivisions for scrap metal, skateboarders reclaiming the pools of abandoned McMansions, and whole streets of dead lawns spray-painted green have emerged as the new symbols of life in the ‘burbs.One man who foresaw all the ugliness is Christopher Leinberger. The Brookings Institute fellow and distinguished scholar of the suburban living arrangement has decades of experience in real estate development and urban planning. The meme of doomed suburbs went mainstream with his cover story for the Atlantic magazine last March, “The Next Slum?” The problem, he says, goes much deeper than the foreclosure crisis. It’s part of a painful societal adjustment that will take a generation or more to work through.

…

So you have a suburb full of flimsy houses in the middle of nowhere, with no incentive for upkeep. That’s an ugly situation.
Exactly. It fails. Good lord, I’m a great amateur student of ancient cities. At some point they’re just going to collapse upon themselves and blow away — unless there is some massive redevelopment agency steps in.

…

In very practical terms, how do towns get on the right side of this multi-decade imbalance between supply and demand?
You need to get the right infrastructure in. Doing so is a three-step process. First, is getting a transit connection that can anchor a walkable urban core. Second, is putting in overlay zoning districts around the train stations that will allow for much greater density and mixed use development. We’re talking about a hundred, two hundred, three hundred acres. The third step is to get in place an entity to manage the thing, which generally takes the form of a non-profit business improvement district. These things are very complex, but we know how to do it now. We didn’t 50 years ago, but we do now.

That’s a tight plan.
And we have hundreds of examples of it working.

What is interesting about this article is that Mr. Leinberger says that in order to save these abandoned houses they must have good public transportation, walkability and be made structurally sound.  We have all of these things here in the Garden District of Alexandria, Louisiana.

“Economist says SPARC IS city’s stimulus plan”

Reposted from the Town Talk:

Economist says SPARC is city’s stimulus plan

By RT Morgan rtmorgan@thetowntalk.com Preservation

and reuse of the city of Alexandria’s older buildings could provide relief during an economic downturn, according to an expert on the economic benefits of historic preservation. Donovan Rypkema categorized a city’s move toward historic preservation as a key to establishing sustainable economic development. Rypkema, an internationally known economics professional, was in Alexandria on Wednesday as the keynote speaker for the 30th annual Louisiana Preservation Conference. Based in Washington, D.C., Rypkema is the principal economist for PlaceEconomics, a real estate and economic development consulting firm. He is also the author of several books and articles concerning economic development, downtown redevelopment and historic preservation. His comments on preserving and repairing existing assets coincide with a plan that has already been implemented by the city of Alexandria’s administration, the $96 million SPARC plan — Special Planned Activity Redevelopment Corridors. Rypkema referred to the far-reaching development project as Alexandria’s stimulus plan. He was briefed on SPARC by members of the city administration. Kay Michiels, the city’s chief operating officer/interim planning director, said she “drug (Rypkema) all over town” and picked his brain on development. For the most part, Rypkema believes the city of Alexandria is headed in the right direction. He said SPARC meets a few specific goals, including long-term public gain and the focus on areas that warrant re-investment. By operation, SPARC breaks the city into three Cultural Restoration Areas, primarily parts of Alexandria that have been economically left behind. The strategy is right, Rypkema said of the city’s push to re-engage forgotten infrastructure, such as buildings, sidewalks and roads. He likened the current limited use of downtown’s sidewalks and roads to “piddling away tax dollars.” This is a result of growth that’s been left unchecked and uncontrolled.

SPARC — CRA 2 Among First to See Improvements

Special Planned Activity Redevelopment Corridors.  The West End of Alexandria is located in CRA 1 and 2, Council District 1.  According to the SPARC Commission’s website, CRA 2 will be among the first of the areas to receive funding and improvements. 

             The City Administration has recommended awarding investment packages totaling $28M over five to ten years in incentives and hard infrastructure costs. This means the public would own significant properties and have a significant investment in the area—investment that would be used and enjoyed by citizens on a daily basis.

 An initial assessment and certificate for the areas designated CRA-2 might benefit from the following funding limits: $667,000 in CRA funds; a new fire station in and around the old north traffic circle footprint; $7.5M in hard infrastructure improvements to the North MacArthur Roadway and $2M to Bolton Avenue in hard infrastructure improvements; and, now, up to $10M in North MacArthur-Bolton Avenue reinvestment/infrastructure monies to be allocated by the Commission or Management Teams to a mega project or projects.

 The latter $10M could be funded from the City Capital Outlay portion of S.P.A.R.C. or the remaining $10M in capacity under the $50M bond portion of S.P.A.R.C. The City has bonded $40M to date.

 The City previously identified key transportation corridors and now provides infrastructure suggestions for the activity corridors, or SPARCs.

 North MacArthur Drive Road Improvements: $5M

 Corridor Roadway Enhancements

 Possible solutions include traffic calming methods, increased landscaping, and the installation of sidewalks.  Bolton Avenue Road Improvements: $2.5M. TOTAL: $7.5M in permanently-owned infrastructure improvements….For the full report and timeline, click here.

If you would like to understand more about SPARC, a good read would be the condensed powerpoint presentation the Mayor put together and has given to several groups around the city.  Happy reading!

West End Neighbors

“The Power of W.E.”

The “West End Neighbors” is presently  a small group of people who have banded together to save the historic West End neighborhoods of Alexandria, Louisiana.  We are citizens who support and want to work with the Mayor and City Council  to promote the preservation and restoration of our older, early twentieth century homes.  Our Mayor has a sincere interest in seeing these neighborhoods flourish again.  Due to gas prices and other factors, we believe that our older neighborhoods are poised for revitalization. 

“Preservation of an old house is the ultimate green thought.”

If you would like more information, please leave us a message.  At this time we are an informal group, but if we receive enough interest and/or support we may become a formal advocacy group/neighborhood association.

WeNeighbors@hotmail.com