Three cities, three ways urban design can create social equity

Infamous for its maze of chronically overloaded freeways, the city of Los Angeles has been making real strides in building out its light rail network over the last decade. One key leg is the $2.1 billion, 8.5-mile Crenshaw-LAX connector, which will finally provide a critical north-south connection to one of the world’s busiest airports. However, the line also slices through the loci of several historically Black neighborhoods. It will run at-grade for 1.3 miles down Crenshaw Boulevard, which has been referred to as “the cultural and commercial spine of Black L.A.”

Ever since plans for the transit project were announced over a decade ago, South L.A. residents have been concerned about the disruption of this physical and visual barrier and its potential to negatively impact local businesses, discourage pedestrians, and divide the community. “Infrastructure projects are initiated at the highest level of privilege, and typically communities of color don’t have the opportunity to make decisions about their future,” says Jason Foster, president and COO of Destination Crenshaw, the nonprofit that’s in charge of a community-led solution.

Community advocates successfully petitioned the city to add a station at Leimert Park at the north end of the 1.3-mile section, but could not get the line itself built above grade or underground. Thus began a grassroots movement to envision what could be done. “The thinking was, ‘How do we want to feel about our community and how can we make it a destination for us? And when all these new people come through every year, how do we want to be represented?’” says Foster.

Destination Crenshaw is an artistic redesign of the streetscape along the at-grade portion of the light rail corridor. This outdoor art and cultural showcase will include around 100 artworks by local Black artists and seven monumental sculptures by nationally recognized Black artists, including Kehinde Wiley and Alison Saar. Designed by a team led by Black architects from Perkins&Will, the $100+ million project integrates the artwork with landscaping in six community spaces, six prominent crosswalks, and signature shade structures that evoke the deep-rooting giant star grass. The grass, which was used by captive Africans as bedding on slave ships bound for the U.S., symbolizes the resilience of the African diaspora and its ability to thrive where planted. By drawing people to the area, Destination Crenshaw should provide an economic boost to businesses along the corridor. Construction started in the fall of 2021, and opening is anticipated in the spring of 2023.

An advisory group of 40 community members played an integral role. “We treated them as equal partners and gave them design agency,” says Gabrielle Bullock, architect and director of global diversity at Perkins&Will. “The whole concept is unapologetically Black and specific to this community. By making their identity overt, they hope to avoid negative gentrification.”

As a private nonprofit with a capital budget funded mostly by public support, Destination Crenshaw represents a new model of civic architecture and community-led design. “Every infrastructure project should include components of ‘cultural infrastructure’ that embed the existing community’s aesthetics into the design,’” says Foster. Already, interest in this idea is broadening well beyond L.A.: Recently, he fielded a call from someone in Nashville, Tennessee who wanted to know how do something similar there. Foster points out that the nonprofit’s work, including efforts to create jobs and support businesses along the corridor, will continue after the project launches. “We’re working under a reparative development framework: Equity is not just about making up for generational disinvestment; it’s also about compensating for it for an equal amount of time.”

Toronto is expanding its public transit system. The $4.6 billion Eglinton Crosstown West extension of the light rail line, which will eventually go to the city’s Pearson Airport, includes a major new transit station in the Mount Dennis neighborhood. This station will have connections to the commuter rail, the airport express train, and bus services, making it the city’s second-largest transit hub when it opens in early 2023. A historically industrial neighborhood, Mount Dennis has suffered economic decline over the years, but also has relatively affordable housing and supports an extremely diverse population. Yet development around the station, and an anticipated doubling of the population over the next 20 to 30 years, may completely change the diverse character of the neighborhood.

To protect that character, the city of Toronto is creating a secondary plan for the 1,000-acre Mount Dennis neighborhood. It includes land-use guidelines, height restriction and zoning change recommendations, suggested streetscape designs, and more. However, in addition to the standard guidance, the city wanted to explore urban planning through three lenses: resilience and sustainability; social development and equity; and public health. “The city encouraged bigger thinking and asked us to address things that aren’t typically in a secondary plan,” says Anna Iannucci, a planner at Perkins&Will, the firm hired to develop the framework.

Iannucci and her team organized an advisory committee with representatives of the community. The team also put in extra effort to connect with renters, who make up more than half of the area’s residents. And, in line with the city’s 2022-2032 Reconciliation Action Plan, the team scheduled a series of meetings specifically with the Indigenous community.

Based on input from residents, the 223-page framework outlines eight key strategies. First on the list: Emphasizing nature by creating better access to the area’s open space. “The designers were talking about density, but community members were talking about how they came here because of the open space,” says Iannucci. The plan also highlights the area’s Indigenous history and contemporary cultural presence, as well as its numerous Black and Afro-Caribbean businesses—and the need to actively support both. Another key strategy is to build new crossings over the rail corridor to create “connectivity across the infrastructural divide,” as the report describes it.

Toronto’s study shows how cities can address social equity and other concerns at the start of the urban planning process. The approach exemplifies a shift in the profession, which is evolving to prioritize community needs and how development can address those needs. “We’re not thinking about the built form separately from our greater goals anymore,” says Iannucci.

Like many American cities, the city of Austin, Texas, is underserved by public transit. In response to rapid growth and some of the country’s worst traffic congestion, it’s reinvesting in its neighborhoods with Project Connect, an ambitious $10.3 billion public transit system, adding light rail lines, a subway, a bus rapid transit system, and a bike share program, along with 92 new transit stations.

However, the city has an acute shortage of housing, so Project Connect also brings concerns about gentrification and displacement to the forefront. “We do want to promote transit-oriented development, but the developments are often victims of their own success, raising the rent for local residents and businesses,” says Anna Lan, principal planner at Capital Metro, the local transportation agency.

When voters in Austin approved Project Connect in 2020, they supported a proposal that included $300 million for “anti-displacement” measures to protect residents from being priced out, such as developing affordable housing near stations. (Texas is one of several states that forbids inclusionary zoning, which calls for a certain portion of new construction to be affordable for people with low incomes.) “In Austin’s insane real estate market, $300 million is not a silver bullet; it’s more like a Band-Aid,” notes Lan.

Supported by a $1.65 million federal grant, Capital Metro hired a consultant team led by Nelson\Nygaard to develop policy recommendations for equitable TOD. By June, the consultants were considering more than 50 policies for housing affordability, mobility (i.e., equitable access to transit, including last-mile options), business and workforce development, real estate, and land-use and urban design. Nelson\Nygaard, along with its urban design partners at Perkins&Will, are now developing specific station area plans within a half-mile radius of four key stations.

To ensure that the planning process for equitable TOD is as inclusive as possible, Capital Metro has a robust engagement plan that goes beyond traditional public meetings and surveys. It’s hosting small group discussions with community leaders who represent BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) populations, and organized a team of 12 “community connectors” who help with outreach. It’s also careful to compensate people for their time. “In general, the people who tend to go to public meetings don’t always necessarily represent the residents who live and work in the area,” says Lan. “So we’re spending a lot of time and budget to go deeper into the communities and hear their priorities and concerns firsthand.”

Many cities are expanding their public transportation systems, but Austin is one of the first to invest this level of resources to increase the supply of affordable housing along transit corridors. It’s also unusual for a transit agency to take the lead on creating system-wide city policy, but given the rapid development of light rail and rising risk of displacement, Capital Metro wanted to work alongside the city to get implementable policies in place as soon as possible. After the team wraps up the initial phase of its work in the spring of 2023, the plan is that Austin will adopt the policies and integrate them into its regulatory framework. “We really believe that neighborhoods serviced by transit should be equitable for people at all income levels, including legacy residents and multigenerational residents,” says Lan. “They should also enjoy all the benefits that transit and new facilities bring.”