Introduction
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The Rochester case study, which was the basis
for the "Perspectives on Building Communities: Citizens, Organizations,
and Intergovernmental Systems" course, consists of three interrelated
stories: (1)the Neighbors Building Neighborhoods (NBN) planning
process; (2) Renaissance 2010, the city's region-wide master plan;
and (3) University Avenue, a road in a prominent section of Rochester
that was transformed, through a partnership between the city and
neighborhood residents and with the assistance of an intergovernmental
grant, into the nation's first outdoor art museum.
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Neighbors
Building Neighborhoods (NBN)
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Origins - NBN began in the
early 1990s as a process designed to update Rochester's master
plan while at the same time restoring waning citizen trust in government.
The city's existing master plan was designed in the early 1960s,
and was outdated by the early 1990s. Rochester needed a new plan
that would support 21st century solutions. It also needed a planning
process that would empower citizens and include them in the city's
planning process in a direct way. The Department of Community Planning
was assigned the task of moving both of these goals into motion.
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NBN Structure: Sectors
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One of the first steps
taken by the Department of Community Planning was to develop
a series of loose-leaf manuals designed to assist citizens in
the process of organizing their new planning units, called sectors.
The city carved 10 sectors from the existing 37 neighborhoods.
Because NBN began as a citizen-driven planning process, sectors
were permitted a great deal of latitude in organizing their business
processes. Nevertheless, a core process across sectors is identifiable.
At the outset of NBN, each sector established a planning committee
that proposed a sector vision and, in most cases, established
further committees and subcommittees. To ensure sector committee
members were equipped with the skills necessary to build viable
organizations and adequately develop action plans, the city developed
the NBN "Institute" to train sector volunteers. In
a further effort to empower sectors, the city contracted with
Le Barbour Associates, a professional facilitation firm. Its
role in the NBN planning process was to train city planners,
as well as one volunteer resident from each sector, in the art
of meeting and process facilitation.
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Sector Output: Action
Plans
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The initial goal for sectors
was to develop sector action plans outlining action steps. Implementation
of action steps was not considered at this time. Each sector developed
its own action plan to reflect issues of concern specific to its
are all plans followed a similar format, based on a manual ("the
cookbook") that guided sectors through the process. City agencies
were responsible for reviewing and responding to NBN sector draft
plans. Agency liaisons were assigned to each sector.
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Action
Plan Implementation
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When sectors completed their
action plans, they turned their attention toward implementation.
It was at this point in the NBN planning process that asset/resource
mapping became important. In the cookbook, sectors were directed
to implement their action steps by
mobilizing community-based resources and assets with the assistance
of residents, local merchants and businesses, area institutions,
neighborhood organizations, and city and state agencies. Monitoring
Progress - At the conclusion of the planning phase, Rochester's
10 sectors identified over 1,400 initiatives. To keep track of
the stage each initiative's progress, a monitoring system and database
(the Electronic Reporting System) were created. The monitoring
system tracks "individual action steps and responsible parties,
report[s] tasks and accomplishments," and measures "the
progress of the entire NBN program." "The database can
be used to: identify proposed and initiated community activities;
track funds spent citywide or in specific quadrants; create a report
for a target year by sectors, city departments, other responsible
parties, relevant category and the city's key result areas."
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NBN
Success
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By most accounts, implementation
of NBN sector initiatives has been considerably successful. According
to some sources, approximately 75 percent of the action steps identified
by sectors were completed by the end of 1999. Other sources, however,
believe the results were less successful. Perhaps more importantly
than the number of initiatives identified by sectors that were
implemented, NBN has restored some level
of trust between Rochester residents and their government by engendering
a community-wide dialogue.
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Duplicating
Success
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NBN wasn't meant to be a one-time
event. Rather, its initiators intended it to be a dynamic self-renewing
process. NBN2, the next resident-driven planning stage, carried
several important changes regarding time frames and plan reviews.
The planning and implementation time frames were reduced to sustain
volunteer participation and encourage progress. At the outset of
NBN2, sectors were charged with the responsibility of reviewing
their initial sector action plans to determine areas of success
and identify possible improvements. This review involved measuring
the number of successfully completed action steps. After this review
was performed, sectors proceeded to update their original plans.
As of the spring of 2002, NBN 2 had been completed was , and Rochester
was in NBN 3.
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Origins
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Rochester's original
master plan was developed in 1964, and had by the 1980s become
obsolete. A new plan-dubbed Rochester 2010-needed to be developed.
With low levels of citizen trust in Rochester's government apparent,
city officials sought to include citizens directly in the planning
process. The new plan's development would be bottom-up, not top-down;
citizen driven, not planner driven. Embodying this approach, NBN
as a neighborhood planning process was the perfect tool for developing
the city's new master plan. It was the original sector action plans
that, along with the Mayor's Stewardship Council, "served
as content" for Rochester 2010.
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Content
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The plan as adopted consists
of 11 "renaissance campaigns" that are in turn grouped
into three sub-themes. The "campaigns" are: involved
citizens; educational excellence; health, safety, and responsibility;
environmental stewardship; regional partnerships; economic vitality;
quality service; tourism destination; healthy urban neighborhoods;
center city; and arts and culture. The sub-themes are: responsibility,
opportunity, and community. Each campaign consists of policies,
goals strategies, and benchmarks, much the same as NBN sector action
plans.
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Origins
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When the city began this project,
it intended to simply resurface University Avenue, and maybe add
some new streetlamps and widen the road. In consultation with traffic
engineer consultants, the Department of Environmental Services
(DES) developed a proposal and submitted it to residents for review
and feedback. DES officials thought the neighborhood would be pleased
with its plan, but residents overwhelmingly rejected the city's
intention to widen the road. Instead, residents lobbied for the
creation of an "outdoor art museum," which they called "Artwalk." The
colored and stamped cement walkway, complete with sculptures and
decorative benches, would connect "cultural and educational
institutions, artists' studios, merchants and entertainment venues" along
a stretch of University Avenue, between the George Eastman House
and the Memorial Art Gallery in the self-proclaimed "Neighborhood
of the Arts section of Rochester." Funded through grants bearing
the imprint of federal, state, and local agencies, Artwalk is the
intergovernmental dimension to the Rochester case study.
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Citizen
Reactions to the City's Proposal
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Shortly after the proposal
was presented to residents, they formed spontaneously into an organization
known as CURB, Committee for University Avenue Re-Build. CURB's
approach was reactive and proactive; reactive in the sense that
it wanted to stop the road-widening initiative, and proactive in
the sense that it initiated a community dialogue, with the participation
of DES, on the elements of University Avenue's nascent Artwalk.
This two-pronged approach was supported by CURB with logical persuasion
and data. On the reactive side, CURB presented sound arguments
that widening the road would impact negatively on the community
while at the same time failing to help reduce traffic congestion.
On the proactive side, CURB argued Artwalk would strengthen the
community's natural resources by connecting the area's cultural
institutions in a pedestrian friendly manner. DES was swayed to
adopt several of CURB's positions, including the Artwalk proposal,
but it didn't agree to narrow the road.
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Funding
Artwalk: The Intergovernmental Challenge
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Artwalk's initial estimated
cost was $342,000. The City Council was willing to provide approximately
one-third of the money from the Rochester city budget. Other sources
of funding were necessary to fill in the gap. One funding source
was the federal TEA-21 grant, which provides matching funds for
streetscape development, historic preservation, traffic calming,
and other transportation related activities. Approval required
review by several agencies, including in this case the State Historical
Preservation Office (SHPO) because of the road's situation in an
historical district. SHPO provided the main opposition, objecting
on the grounds that Artwalk challenged the integrity of the road's
historical character. SHPO needed to be brought "on-board" or
the city would become ineligible to receive certain types of federal
funding in the future. After some haggling, SHPO removed itself
from the debate and let other groups work out a solution. The adopted
solution avoided using any SHPO funding for aspects of the project
with which it disagreed. With a solution in hand, the grant was
approved and construction on Artwalk began.
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Changes in City Officials
and Staff Attitudes Toward Neighborhood Planning
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Change is usually a difficult
process. People learn how to perform tasks and get things done
according to standard operating procedures. They tend to be resistant
to acquiring new approaches. Government officials and agency staffers
are no exception. Perhaps just the opposite, government and its
employees are prototypically resistant to change, often mired in
what the literature refers to as bureaucratic inertia - moving
along one course at a certain pace without any desire to shift.
NBN brought with it change for city officials and agency staffers.
NBN was to be a new way of doing things around the city of Rochester,
of conducting the city's business. Officials and staffers needed
to adjust to this change.
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Agency
Roles
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A primary component was how
city agencies perceived their roles. They had to recognize that
process, not just results, was important, and perhaps even critical.
Agency staff roles are community centered, rather than job focused.
Government at its best is customer driven. There is strong
value in citizen participation. These adjustments, like most, didn't
occur at any one event, but happened over time as part of a process.
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Silo
Vs. Comprehensive Planning
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A second perceptual shift occurred
in the city's approach to comprehensive planning. According to
the traditional model of planning, referred to as the "silo" approach
by officials in Rochester, agencies survey citizens for data, information,
and input. Then priorities and goals are established, and tasks
are assigned to individual agencies. Money flows up and down the
system, but nothing goes across - aspects of the system that are
related remain unconnected, outside of a unifying structure. Planning
with such a model necessarily leads to government by functional
area. Thus traditional systems are vertical. One commentator noted, "in
a conference of planning, when you take all these data from the
census and filter it out, all the housing stuff goes through the
housing silo and it comes out the bottom as a summary of the vertical
system, but it is not truly a comprehensive plan."
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In contrast, the model of city
planning now championed by Rochester's leadership is horizontal,
cross systems planning, where connections between functional areas
are recognized and bridged. When city officials recognized the
silo approach wasn't holistic and led to unnecessary duplication,
a planning paradigm shift began in Rochester.
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