Mon 23 Feb, 2009
The Art of Active Listening
Filed under: Development, General, PlanningTags: Master Plan, Public Participation
How to revitalize a neighborhood? By listening to its residents.
Community planners and planning consultants (like many “experts”) can easily fall into the trap of listening too little and talking too much. Planning is not like medicine, and planners should beware not to find themselves in the position of saying, “I know what’s best for you, now take this medicine and you’ll be all better soon.”
The following tale is adapted and summarized from “Polishing Up the Diamond,” an excellent article from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business - Center for Social Innovation. What it offers for professional planners is a reminder to avoid the ‘expert trap’ - often the most successful ideas for making a place better come from those that live and work there…
Moving In
The goal of the Jacobs Family Foundation was to revitalize a rough San Diego, CA neighborhood called “The Diamond.” A common goal for a charitable foundation, but the method they used to accomplish this goal was most uncommon.
The foundation chose not to repeat the usual planning and community development model, which is to:
- study the neighborhood;
- have ‘experts’ come in and develop the master redevelopment plan; and
- effectively tell the residents what was good for them.
“The neighborhood had been studied to death…and little had come from it,” the project director noted.
Instead, the foundation moved itself into the neighborhood, establishing offices in an abandoned grocery store and buying a 20-acre abandoned factory site. Then they did something even more remarkable: The foundation decided to ask the residents what they wanted built on the property.
Foundation employees worked with residents to build trust. The director reported that the hardest part for the foundation employees was to actively listen – to “stop trying to solve people’s problems and let go of being the expert.”
Surprising Direction
Ultimately, they were able to arrange numerous “living room” meetings (about 200 in total) to talk with neighbors about what they needed. Surprisingly, few said they needed more of the social services (gang or teen pregnancy prevention, etc.) – things that previous studies had focused on as most important.
The foundation found that the residents “often didn’t know the name of the neighborhood, their council members, or more than a handful of their neighbors. They lacked basic public services – streetlights, curbs, sidewalks, and trash pickup.” However, what residents wanted most in the neighborhood was “a grocery store and a nice sit-down restaurant.”
The consensus was for the former factory site to be redeveloped as a commercial center. The foundation formed working teams of residents to determine every aspect of the development, even the name.
New Businesses, New Attitude
Today, Market Creek Plaza is open, employing neighborhood residents in a major grocery and a locally owned restaurant offering authentic Southern cuisine, with a full bar and outdoor patio. Wells Fargo, Starbucks, a box, ship, and copy shop, and a gift shop round out this new neighborhood center. Another mixed-use project is currently in the works, following the same development model.
As the project developed through the efforts of the residents, other positive things began to happen in the neighborhood:
“I didn’t have a purpose before this work,” said one resident. “I didn’t care. No one cared. Everyone else was throwing trash in the street, why shouldn’t I? Now I know that this is my neighborhood and is where I will raise my children.”
Click here for more on the latest neighborhood projects, and the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation.
To discuss how Building Place can help you with your neighborhood or downtown revitalization efforts, click here to contact us today.