Asking urban planners to be job counselors

All across America, urban planners are being reassigned (if they still have jobs at all.) Nowhere is this truer than at urban renewal and redevelopment agencies. Experts trained and experienced in things like land assembly, mixed-use development and streetscapes are now being asked to work on more nebulous pursuits like capacity building, workforce development and corporate recruiting. It’s a sign of the times – times of anemic job growth, timid real estate markets, cash-strapped city budgets and anti-government movements. There is public pressure to stop messing with property and start creating jobs. In an extreme example, California has disbanded and outlawed all redevelopment agencies – an unusual move for a blue state.

This great reassignment is not going entirely smoothly. At the very least, it has reduced job satisfaction and self-worth among many planning professionals. At the worst, it has cost people their jobs and eliminated an entire sector of urban planning. The tragic irony is that now would be an ideal time to think big and put people to work on major redevelopment and infrastructure projects. But that’s not where we find ourselves.


At the Portland Development Commission – the urban renewal and economic development agency for Portland, Oregon – changes have been drastic. A previous staff of over 200 has been reduced to about 100. This wasn’t just a trimming of support staff (though they took a hard hit, too). Dozens of redevelopment professionals were let go, convinced to retire early, or otherwise left on their own accord, never to be replaced.

The agency has made a few new hires, though. Most of these new positions focus on either the recruitment of medium- to large-sized firms in a handful of industry clusters, or on workforce development initiatives that help lower income individuals escape poverty. Existing staff have been reassigned to work on these and other initiatives, including community-driven commercial district programs like Main Street.

In an economy that refuses to grow at more than a snail’s pace, these jobs-focused initiatives seem like a logical response. Some of them are actually working. But what about the traditional redevelopment, housing and infrastructure projects that were once a top mission of urban renewal agencies?

Cities are exercising understandable restraint in entering real estate deals with private developers. However, this is a great time to acquire property for future redevelopment, or perhaps even near-term projects like rental apartments or parking garages. East coast cities like Boston, New York and Philadelphia fund a bulk of their economic development activities through active management of sizable real estate portfolios. Perhaps Portland and other cities could learn. Why not start assembling properties now, with the real estate market scraping bottom? It’s also a great time to build affordable housing.

Denver Avenue Streetscape: One of PDC's last infrastructure
projects? Photo: GreenWorks

That leaves infrastructure projects. Here’s where I think we’re really dropping the ball, especially now that federal stimulus dollars have run their course. Many cities seem to be taking a cue from our gridlocked Congress, forgoing the construction of roads, bridges, sidewalks and the like. Of course, many cities are truly broke and can’t afford to fill potholes, let alone build a new transit line or arterial road. But there are plenty of other cities that actually have some financial resources available, but are putting all of their eggs in the “jobs” basket.

Well, guess what? Infrastructure projects provide jobs. Lots of them, and fast. They create immediate employment and permanent benefits, unlike investing in a start-up that could fail, or shelling out millions to relocate an industry giant that could go under next year. Sidewalks and bridges don’t file for bankruptcy.

I think agencies under the guise of urban renewal, redevelopment and economic development need to keep all of those things – and more – under their umbrellas. We can’t expect people trained in urban planning and development to suddenly become experts in attracting energy firms or hand-holding individual residents out of poverty (though those things should still be done). More importantly, we shouldn’t completely gut a core function of redevelopment agencies: building stuff. There’s only so much that can happen in a typical year of an industry recruitment program, a Main Street program, or a workforce development program. Let’s go full steam on those things, but also move forward with urban infrastructure projects, land assembly, real estate portfolio development, and affordable housing projects. Just like President Obama’s all-inclusive energy policy, we need an “all-of-the-above strategy” for America’s cities.