Building Community Engagement

With rapidly changing demographics and rising costs of living, it is important that the development at Jefferson and 9th St actively engages with the existing community around it to preserve its unique history and character in the face of displacement. Given the opportunity to create affordable housing within a TOD district, the site has great potential to allow current residents and community organizations to share their distinctive history and character with the City of Phoenix, creating interest in their neighborhood without the risk of raising housing costs further. Community engagement will be cultivated through small-scale community events, with the site being able to serve as an active participant rather than just spectator. While community organizations and events already exist within the Booker T Washington neighborhood, a lack of interaction can be seen between them. A higher level of interaction and engagement can be seen in the adjacent Eastlake Park neighborhood, a potential ally and actor in developing community engagement around our site.

Small-scale community events have been shown to have significant positive effects on building social capital in neighborhoods. A study on grant-based, community organized events in Sacramento County, CA found this positive relationship among a population with limited education, employment, and English-speaking skills. These events provided neighbors an opportunity to interact with each other in ways that built a sense of trust in the community, as well as point parents towards resources they might not have been familiar with before (Molitor et al., 2011). In an area experiencing the impacts of both gentrification and crime, this sense of neighborly trust and comfort is more important than ever. An erosion of social capital has been shown to exacerbate residents' perceptions of gentrification as well as decrease interest in community activism and development (Iyanda & Lu, 2021).

The landscape of our site, split in two by the presence of 9th St, provides us an ample opportunity to utilize the streetscape and adjacent parking lots as space for these events. In accordance with the Project for Public Spaces’ ideals for place-making, utilizing the adjacent streetscape and open spaces for events will allow for a greater level of comfort and image, uses and activities, and sociability surrounding the site (What is placemaking?, 2007). The site itself should reflect these ideals as well. While it can take up any number of unique physical forms, the site should provide a baseline level of walkability and open space for those attending events, as well as reflecting a level of invitation and comfortability to the passing public as well.

The Booker T Washington and Eastlake Park neighborhoods in which our site is located are important relics in the history of Phoenix’s Black population. Fleeing the post-Reconstruction South, Black migrants moved to Phoenix with hopes of living free from segregation policies. While not met with on the books segregation, Black migrants would be met with de facto neighborhood residential segregation, forced to live on the South side of the city edging industrial development. Eastlake Park would serve as the social and cultural hub of Phoenix’s Black population, and during the Civil Rights Era an important place for political action (Frank, 2019).

Demographics in the Booker T Washington and Eastlake Park neighborhoods have been changing dramatically from 2010 to 2020. The population has seen large shifts in its age and sex structure, as well as its racial demographics over the ten year period. With these rapid changes, it is important that our site engages with the neighborhoods in a way that does not further exacerbate them or displace current residents.

While the Booker T Washington and Eastlake Park neighborhoods share racial demographics roughly reflecting those of the City of Phoenix in 2020, changes in racial demographics from 2010 to 2020 within these areas show a different story.

Additional engagement can be brought into these neighborhoods from outsiders as well. With the Eastlake Park neighborhood’s coalition of small businesses and the Booker T Washington neighborhood’s organizations supporting local youth and young entrepreneurs, bringing in outside engagement through events such as First Friday has the potential to help these businesses and organizations grow, as well as show off the character and history of the neighborhoods. Given the development of affordable housing in the area, this display to outsiders can be carried out without fear of outside interest raising the cost of living for residents.

With younger and older demographics in the area potentially already attending nearby events such as First Friday, bringing some of this engagement back into the neighborhood can allow for neighbors to become more familiar with each other as well as the amenities that exist within the neighborhood. Allowing residents to become even more involved with the Downtown Core through First Friday has its benefits as well. Margaree Bigler, the Marking and Communications Manager for the Phoenix Art Museum, recognizes that “the event is especially important because during the event the demographic of who the art community can reach shifts,” and that “the economic barrier is lowered” in that moment (Staten, 2017)

While traffic volume data could not be found for 8th or 9th St, comparable adjacent streets had available data. Just east of the site, 12th St between Washington and Jefferson experienced a traffic volume of about 950 cars per day. To the northeast of our site, 11th St and Monroe experienced a traffic volume of about 700 cars per day . Given the light rail stations on 12th St, and that 11th St and Monroe is a residential area, it can be estimated that traffic volume on 8th and 9th St fall somewhere between these two volumes. From personal accounts in our group and what could be gauged from the site visit, this estimate seems relatively accurate.

Shutting down the street for events has different qualifications depending on the size and purpose of the event. An event may qualify for a block party permit if residents are in agreement and access for the rest of the neighborhood is not blocked. The City of Phoenix requires that the event take place in a residential area and that participants are limited to residents that live on the street to apply for the permit. The city does not allow arterial or collector streets to be blocked off for block parties, however it is currently unclear whether 8th or 9th St would qualify for either of those descriptions. Requirements for closing city streets for larger events are far more extensive than those for a block party. A $400 non-refundable permit application is required to be submitted months ahead of time, and certain licenses are required for vendors to operate.

It has been shared with us from the City of Phoenix Housing Department that residents of the Booker T Washington neighborhood are extremely vocal with their desires to preserve the neighborhood’s history, character, and culture. Residents have also shared a distrust in both local government and the notion of affordable housing, associating negative connotations in relation to the city’s intentions and outcomes, as well as communicating a desire for higher levels of ownership and quality housing.

With this, it is extremely important that the city and developers approach this development in a way that closely works with and involves residents before, during, and after development. For development to fulfill the needs and desires of the city while also fulfilling those of residents, residents must in no way feel that this development is being done to them, rather than done for them. Likewise, the city should recognize that the influence of this vocal community is not something being done to them as a hindrance of the development process, but rather as something being done for them to better fulfill their goals as they relate to residents’ wants and needs.

It should be noted that a sizable share of households in the neighborhood are limited English speaking households. A large share of households in the neighborhood speak Spanish, although a small share of this are limited English speaking households. Still, a sizable share of households in the neighborhood are limited English speaking, including households which speak other Indo-European, Asian and Pacific Island, and other languages. Given this, it is important that translators and other language services be present at these events, and that engagement occurs in a way which is inclusive to all residents.

Taking from local examples of community outreach, strategy can begin to form for implementation on our site. Given the proposal of allowing community events to create engagement with our site, these can start even before development begins. The existing structure of the site can allow for a place of gathering to engage with residents, and create a free space for such events to take place. Additionally, because the city owns this land, potential roadblocks in shutting down 9th St for such events may be able to be overcome as well. This will overall ease the process of allowing for spaces for local events or First Friday.