Placemaking in Legacy Cities

Author(s): New Solutions Group, Center for Community Progress

Placemaking in Legacy Cities: Opportunities and Good Practices explores how residents and leaders in Legacy Cities have used placemaking principles to transform blighted public spaces into revitalized community assets.

The report, prepared for the Center for Community Progress by New Solutions Group, uses case studies to explore placemaking in four different Legacy City settings: downtowns, anchor districts, neighborhoods and corridors/trails. Featured placemaking sites are: Over the Rhine in Cincinnati, Ohio; Midtown, the Georgia Street Community Collective, and Clark Park in Detroit, Michigan; Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, New York; and the waterfront development and associated trail system in Pittsburgh, PA.

Legacy Cities are former industrial hubs, largely in the Northeast and Midwest, that experienced industrial and population declines during the latter half of the twentieth century. Placemaking in Legacy Cities: Opportunities and Good Practices examines how placemaking can be adapted to these settings, which often include high vacancy rates, a shrinking property tax base, and other challenges that differ from those of cities experiencing high growth rates and development pressures.