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July 29, 2019

By Beth Elliott, Stantec 

• Inclusion—Downtowns are the hubs of their regions. They are the epicenters of transportation options, places of diverse entertainment and in-demand housing, and usually a region’s economic engine. While not all downtowns are the same, they all tend to put into sharp focus the challenges of homelessness, perceptions of crime, shifts in retail buying with vacant storefronts, and a lack of coordinated youth activities. The study found that 29% of residents in downtowns are middle-income—a statistic that combats the notion that only wealthy or very low-income people live downtown. As downtowns add more and more expensive new housing, cities need to work to protect housing stock that maintains the diversity of options.
• Economy—IDA found that downtowns constitute an average of just 3% of city land area but yield much higher proportions of overall assessed value. Not only is a downtown’s footprint valuable, it also generates significant tax revenue. In my work as a planner for downtown Minneapolis, I viewed this as an opportunity to design regulations flexibly for changing markets, as well as a public realm to catalyze new development. Downtowns have an opportunity to test new models for building up, mixing uses, and eliminating barriers to redevelopment. As a result, the added tax revenue bolsters a city’s ability to support neighborhoods outside of the downtown. 
• Vibrancy—On average, the populations of the downtowns studied grew by 27% from 2010 to 2016, compared to only 7% percent of growth citywide. The renewed interest in downtown living of recent years has brought people closer to work, entertainment, transit, and shopping. They also trade life in less-dense neighborhoods or suburbs for an opportunity to be among more people. Increasing the density in an area drives amenities for the collective whole—retail, transit options, parks, and then more housing. This, in turn, translates into better access and opportunities for everyone.
• Identity—Most downtowns are the origins of the city—the place where people first set up businesses and put down roots. Like Minneapolis, many cities began next to water and grew organically. As such, downtowns usually hold the lion’s share of elements that establish a city’s identity—civic places and spaces, historic buildings, museums, parks, public art. A downtown builds its brand on its status as a unique place to live, work, and visit.
• Resilience—A region builds resilience to economic, social, and environmental shocks by taking deliberate action. Center cities have unusual strengths—economic performance, diversity, density, and supply of resources—that help them to weather economic downturns and other kinds of disruptions better than other neighborhoods. The cities that will prove especially resilient, however, are those that support residents that lack the economic and social resources to weather personal storms.