How Do You Define Urban Development?
Date Posted: November 12, 2015
Posted In: Ideas,
From St. Louis Public Radio: “How do you define development?” questioned Richard Baron, the Chairman and CEO of St. Louis-based for-profit community developer McCormack Baron Salazar, on Wednesday’s “St. Louis on the Air.”
“It’s often perceived as being a project of restoring the Kiel, building a new stadium, doing a new mall,” Baron told host Don Marsh. “… But the basic infrastructure of the city in terms of the school system, public infrastructure and transportation systems, those kinds of things are not often thought about in terms of projects but they are the most critical part of maintaining a city and its vibrancy.”
The crux of it is, that if things like infrastructure and schooling aren’t considered at the same level of importance as big projects, like the new, proposed NFL stadium, “then you don’t have the kind of investment in those systems,” he said.
Who is the development for?
For Sandra Moore, the president of the St. Louis-based non-profit Urban Strategies which works with developers to rebuild neighborhoods, urban development can be done more sensibly when it starts with asking a simple question: Who is this development for?
“Sequencing at a project level is what can make a difference,” Moore said. “What do you think about when you think about development? If you’re thinking about housing or re-energizing downtown or about new roadway infrastructure, a public transportation system…where do people fit into that? If that is the afterthought, then ultimately you will not get the maximum amount of connection and benefit from that aspect of development.”