[Note: Blog posts are an ongoing series where EEMA members explore their personal views and experiences relating to issues of development and community organizing. While the general spirit of the postings may reflect the opinions and work of EEMA the views expressed have not been reviewed or agreed to by the group as a whole.]
Our neighborhood group, SHECONA, was formed in early 2009 as a direct response to the development proposals submitted by East Liberty Development Inc., for a plot of land in between N Sheridan Avenue and Collins Avenue. SHECONA stands for ‘Sheridan and Collins Neighborhood Association’ and was primarily made up of residents that were to be directly affected by the new development.
The community was previously informed by ELDI that the land in question was to be the subject of future townhouses, but a number of days before the City Planning Hearing dropped the bombshell that the small development of houses was to become a three storey block of twelve apartments. Naturally the local residents were incensed, not only due to the lack of communication and subsequent disrespect that this portrayed, but how this out of character proposal would blight the surrounding built environment.
Residents quickly organized by word of mouth, and before long intensive meetings were attended in an effort to stand up to this so called ‘non profit’ organization that had boasted about being $1million in the black! The local community offered hospitable meeting venues at short notice, which were advertised by knocking on doors or leaving leaflets regarding upcoming meetings, as email access often excludes a number of residents. During initial gatherings each attendee put forward their various concerns, which through my professional experience in the field of town planning, we related to include out of character property types, poor design, lack of car parking, excessive height and density, loss of privacy for existing residents and endangering children from motor vehicles through the intensification of a little used ‘alley’ access way.
I was fortunate to be able to empower our group through knowledge relating to industry strategies, effective communication methods to the Planning Commission, and how best to gain the attention of the developer. Local community groups who do not have such experience within their organizations can often be manipulated and misled by real estate developers, whether of a for profit or not persuasion. However, through careful planning, an uncompromising approach to ELDI, the collation of planning based evidence to support our case and an excellent turnout for all Planning Hearing sessions, we were successful in forcing ELDI to respect the nature of the locale, which is dominated by family homes, and not dense apartments – putting community requirements before profit. During our numerous meetings and negotiations with this non profit developer, ELDI admitted that the change to an apartment complex was driven by monetary considerations, yet when confronted with an organized local group and planning led arguments, was able to make sufficient compromises to a more sympathetic scheme. Experiences such as these are a great learning curve for residents who lack specific planning knowledge, but our group quickly turned this new information into actionable tasks; now they are all in a position themselves to pass on the benefits of such an undertaking to other groups, or apply them when a similar situation is encountered. Unfortunately developers will not proactively include community amendments within their projects, and at first they will always resist, often resulting in their industry jargon and strategies convincing local people that they have analyzed all potential alternatives. The bottom line is that they have spent significant amounts of money drawing up a proposal that suits their financial and market needs, and without a persistent organized response from the community, they will fall back on that profit led scheme after talking away all relevant requests for changes.
During this battle we formally consented to naming the group SHECONA, and committed to first addressing local concerns in this one block area. Since that time, we have successfully intervened in Pittsburgh’s Theological Seminary’s Masterplan, which wanted to created a dangerous new vehicular access point near the junction of East Liberty Boulevard and N Sheridan Avenue; this would have displaced local car parking spaces and reduced the quality of living for those residents facing the proposed new access way, all because The Seminary wanted to save their students and staff an additional 100m journey to their existing access point! With a more equal and respected relationship, we are now working with The Seminary to create community pedestrian gates around the campus to better integrate this large land use into the neighborhood.
These two victories for such a small and newly formed group have created immense pride and subsequent motivation for residents to take mutual care of their community. No longer will local people stand aside, lacking the knowledge to take a proactive role in how their built environment is changed over the coming years. SHECONA has enabled people to become better acquainted with their neighbors, and in many instances strong friendships have been built. The group does not consist of a certain age of people, color or class, but is truly a diverse collection of people wishing to look after its community. Through a consensus based decision making process, lacking any hierarchical structure, SHECONA is now tackling problem properties in the area, looking at how Home Depot interacts with local residential homes and most importantly having fun within its open membership.
I believe that any group can have success against real estate predators once it has gained the requisite knowledge that levels the playing field. It is not a simple process of developers arguing that their proposal is the only financially viable option to improving the built form of an area, whilst simultaneously benefiting from taxpayer subsidies. I define gentrification as the imposition on a community of a development led proposal bereft of any true representation from the local neighborhood that it will affect. This in general has the sole objective of increasing property values, changing the socio-economic composition of an area, and often resulting in the displacement of vulnerable groups of residents. However, through local organizing there is a great opportunity for local people to help improve the quality of their neighborhood through their own vision, whilst remaining in the community to share in the subsequent benefits.
This is the personal view of Mark Child, resident of N Sheridan Avenue, and although not representing the specific position of SHECONA, draws on his experience as a member of the group.
