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By Douglas I. Foy
Douglas I. Foy, secretary of the Massachusetts Office for Commonwealth
Development, gave the following keynote address at the Bank-sponsored
Affordable Housing Development Competition awards ceremony in April.
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| Architectural
rendering of the mixed-use development proposed for Waltham
by the 2005 second-place South Middle School: A New Vision for
Adaptive Reuse team. |
As you begin your careers I want to give you some perspective on
why the development of vital urban communities is so important.
Over the long course of my tenure at the Conservation Law Foundation,
we focused increasingly on urban issues, to the point where fully
half of the cases we were involved with were urban, including the
Boston Harbor cleanup, the Central Artery transit commitments, and
any number of housing cases.
When Governor Romney asked me to join his cabinet, I saw it as a
way to build on this work. The affordable-housing market in particular
is in need of the kind of innovation your submissions demonstrate.
Allow me to leave you with five items I believe are critical to
succeeding in creating affordable, desirable, and vital places.
First, organize yourself in ways that break down silos. What Governor
Romney has done in creating the Office for Commonwealth Development
(OCD) should be emulated. Bottle together housing, transportation,
and environmental protection so that capital spending will be strategic
and self-sustaining. Emphasize and invest in the connection between
the built and natural environment.
Look at the patterns of development we have seen over the last 30
years. We've spread out, sprawled across the countryside. Thirty
years ago, over 70 percent of us walked to school; today, 17 percent
of our children do. We have designed our communities around the
automobile, and not our feet. Nobody can walk — we can't perform
a single task without encasing ourselves in tons of metal and burning
fossil fuel. Setting aside the environmental consequences, consider
that about 50 percent of the population — the aged, children,
the handicapped, and the poor — don't or can't drive. The OCD
paradigm — where housing is a transportation issue, environmental
protection is achieved through increased density in housing production,
and transportation choice is driven by housing placement and environmental
goals — reinforces thoughtful development patterns.
Second, as you develop housing, especially affordable housing, think
about transportation costs. A car is the next biggest expense in
a household after the house itself. A full palette of transportation
options is critical to affordability. Governor Romney's Transportation
Plan states clearly that we will not allow transportation decisions
to be made independently of planning and zoning decisions. We cannot
allow another situation like what occurred along some spots of the
Old Colony commuter rail line, where communities down-zoned around
their train stations, disallowing the kind of dense development
that mass transit so well supports.
Third, remember that neighborhoods are important. Nobody comes to,
or stays in, Massachusetts for the weather. What draws us and keeps
us here is the wonderful quality of life in so many of our communities.
One of my favorite states is Montana. Montana is incredibly beautiful,
with its breathtaking natural features. What it doesn't have is
our paradigmatic New England village. We have great communities
— so great they've been replicated by "new urbanist"
designers. But Concord's lovely town center is impossible to replicate
under Concord's current zoning laws. What kind of a town —
what kind of a community — can you build with three-acre lots?
We need to recapture the ability to create neighborhoods —
in cities, in suburbs, and in rural towns.
Fourth, take pedestrians seriously. The average Manhattanite is
seven pounds lighter than the average Westchester county inhabitant.
It's not that city folk are exercise freaks, it's that they walk
more in their everyday lives. Sixty percent of workers in New York
City commute by foot, bike, or transit. If you plan for pedestrians
you bring health to individuals and to a community, because walking
gets us out of our cars and into contact with each other and our
neighborhoods.
Finally, cities are the answer — what was the question?
If you want to arrest global warming, cities are the answer. If
you want to save open space, cities are the answer. If you want
to create affordable housing, cities are the answer. If you want
to create equitable transportation options for all citizens, cities
are the answer. If you want to provide a decent quality of life
for our aging seniors, cities are the answer.
Cities use much fewer resources per capita than sprawled suburbs.
Manhattan would be the seventh largest state population-wise, but
would rank lowest in per capita energy use. Neighborhoods are a
cure for our long-term-care problems. The North End of Boston is
perhaps the premier long-term-care facility in North America. Our
urban neighborhoods can accommodate everyone: young, old, disabled.
They bring us together so that in the normal course of living, we
look out for each other.
Great Cities
Great cities have four elements. They have waterfronts which they
have embraced. Look at the explosion along Boston's waterfront as
the Harbor became cleaner. The city has reconnected with its water,
and is celebrating it as a resource again, and is flourishing for
it.
A great city has transit. As I've mentioned, transit is democratic,
it moves everybody; young, old, poor, and well-off. A great city
has great residential neighborhoods. Embrace these neighborhoods,
build on them. And where you can't, build the neighborhoods worthy
of passing on. Build communities. A great city has great nonprofit
institutions. These are permanent fixtures of a community —
Harvard and MIT aren't going to move to North Carolina no matter
how bad the weather or economy. Nonprofit institutions supply the
intellectual capital and the economic stability that can form the
foundation of a city's competitiveness.
Here's a measuring stick for a great community: can it house all
the generations of your family? The town I raised my children in
is a lovely town. But it's not a great town. It's a suburban community
of two-acre lots with four-bedroom houses and three-car garages.
No apartments. Hardly any small houses. There is literally nowhere
in this town for my recently graduated 23-year-old daughter to live
— except my house! And that's a problem. Likewise for my 83-year-old
father. There's no place in town for someone who wants a small place,
a modest place, an accessible place.
We are a nation of neighborhoods. We lost our way over the past
30 years, sprawling and consuming vast landscapes while isolating
ourselves, immobilizing our most vulnerable citizens, and eroding
our cities.
I hope that is turning around, with the leadership of folks like
you.
As you think about affordable housing and your future careers, keep
in mind that the place must be great for the affordable housing
to really work for its residents. Your career could be in transit
or environment, design or finance, government or education. The
key is to focus on how to make the community — the neighborhoods
— better, stronger, and truly livable.
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