Smart City Radio Interview

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The following is the transcript from the interview:

Universities often have trouble connecting with the cities they call home, the so-called town-gown problem.

Our guest Steve Barlow aims to change that. He’s the Executive Director of the University Neighborhoods Development Corporation. UNDC is a not-for-profit that is working to revitalize the area around the University of Memphis, the so-called university district, to make it attractive to residents beyond the student body.

Steve, describe the neighborhood that surrounds the University of Memphis.

The neighborhood around the University of Memphis is a diverse, very organized community.

There is a good bit of diversity in the housing stock. You have everything from low-income apartments, rental houses, entry-level homeowner opportunities, all the way up to the million-dollar dream homes all in a less than 1-mile radius of the University of Memphis.

The diversity is in a lot of ways geographically divided isn’t it?

On the north would be the million-dollar homes, and south you have the sort of starter homes, and to the west I guess you have more of some rental units. Would that be about the way it’s organized?

It is segmented somewhat like that; although, there is a pretty good mix in several of the neighborhoods.

It’s in what I guess would call east midtown, which is about how many miles east of downtown Memphis?

I would guess it’s within 5 miles.

Alright. The university hasn’t had a great relationship with its neighbors over the years.

What was the source of the conflict?

There has historically been some conflict between the neighborhood and the university administration. However, the president, Dr. Shirley Reins, when she came in; I believe it was in 2001. One of her real efforts was to engage the community and to partner with the community in a new and vibrant way.

The historical issues as I understand them between the university and the neighborhoods that surround it had to do with simple disagreements about the future of certain land uses and the activities of the university and how they would interact with the neighborhood.

The important thing I think to point out is that today, there is a strong and positive relationship between the university and all of the six to eight neighborhood associations that are so active in the community to the point of that it is just truly impressive.

The university president has an executive assistant whose main job is to connect with the neighborhood groups, the businesses, and to be sure that there’s an open dialogue, and you should never expect the university and the communities to agree on everything. Open dialogue has been I think part of the reason that there’s been such success in recent years in this relationship and in this unique partnership.

What, Steve, is any university’s, not just the University of Memphis but any university’s, responsibility to its neighborhood, or is it really a matter of just simply exercising your self-interest.

I believe that a university that is located in an urban center like the University of Memphis is, absolutely has an enlightened self-interest in participating as a member of the community.

There are several models nationally of which actually the University of Memphis is one really good one.

Where universities have decided that it’s time to erase the wall that divides town and gown and begin to embrace their unique role as a significant real estate holder, as a significant provider of brain trust for the community, and as an anchor institution that doesn’t plan to go anywhere.

The University of Memphis and other universities, other great metropolitan research universities like the University of Memphis, aren’t going anywhere. In 100 years they’re still going to be in the same place that they currently do business, and, therefore, they have a very strong self-interest as you state in having a strong relationship and are interacting in a positive way with the community.

I believe that a revitalization effort such as what we’re doing in the Memphis University district, I believe this sort of effort is exactly the way that you begin to achieve a mutual benefit.

A good example of that. The University of Memphis as a part of its master planning process in 2006 and 2007, began to develop a strategy for connecting the entrance of the university towards the Highland Avenue, which is to the west of the main university campus.

Around that same time, a prominent local developer who does national mixed-use development, approached the university and said what do you think about this idea we have for a 13-acre mixed-use development right on your proposed front door? 

Therefore, the University of Memphis and this local developer went to the table together, came up with a plan, and then effectively walked this plan through to get some successful public support in a project which is going to be a hallmark of this exciting, new vision for mixed-use, walkable community on Highland Avenue that blends the university’s purposes with the community’s purposes and creates a vibrant streetscape.

But this project was not, as I recall, without its own controversy.  There were single-family homeowners who would sit even farther to the west of this proposed project who were not terribly excited about the additional density. 

How did the university and the development corporation handle that opposition? 

It’s actually a very exciting story. 

The developer was at first interested in getting some help from the neighborhood-based groups such as the University Neighborhoods Development Corporation, the University District Incorporated, and the University District Business Alliance.  These are the three strong nonprofit organizations that do business in the area and have a strong relationship with the university. 

All three of these groups talked with the developer very early on and suggested that there be some dialogue with community residents, particularly those you talk about who are directly west of the proposed site, and get some input on the proposed plan.

The proposed plan, just so you’ll know what we’re talking about, is a four-story, mixed-use development with 90,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space on the bottom floor and approximately 250 apartment units upstairs for three floors, on about a 12-acre site. So that’s a little bit on the background.

Now as far as the community meetings, the developer brought copies of plans, was very transparent on the frontend. The community groups and the university helped to coordinate meetings for input, and the developer truly listened to the input from the community, and there were several design features that were changed because of that. Much of the opposition really went away shortly after that series of meetings.

The controversial component when we got to the point of seeking public finance had to do, in my opinion, to a great extent on sort of just a misunderstanding in the public about what tax increment financing is, because many people just didn’t understand what the impact of a tax increment finance district would be on them as residents who lived near the district.

For example, a certain resident, over and over, they would state that they do not want this development because it’s going to cause their taxes to increase. They understood a tax increment finance district to mean that individual resident property taxes would go up to pay for the project.

Well that’s absolutely not what a tax increment finance district does, and so I would play the role of educator, and many times I was able to diffuse opposition in that way.

Were you finally - - anyone who has done community organizing and community work knows where of you speak.

Did you ever convince this person that he or she had it wrong?

Some people I was successful. Some people I was not. Yes, absolutely.

There are still people who are not happy about it, but no one can say that they didn’t get an opportunity to get input on it, and no one can say that the developer didn’t listen because there was certain design features actually changed.

For example, one series of community meetings, one recommendation was that this was such a great amenity to the community; people didn’t want to have to walk all the way around to Highland to get to it; why couldn’t we have some sort of access from Elsworth, which is the street that runs parallel to the west of Highland Avenue.Part of the design now incorporates a pathway from the neighborhood in.

In my opinion, we were very successful at allowing the community to have a say in what happens on Highland, and the developer had the exact right approach at changing some things but also realizing and making it clear that they do plan to own this land and do this project and that this seems to be the right place for it.

One other thing I’ll add on the process is that, again, this unique community and university partnership, the University of Memphis administration at all levels came to the table to assist this developer to be successful. And they didn’t have to do that.

They did it because they believe in the future of this neighborhood. The university administration, the president, and the provost have committed to engaging the university with the community in a positive way and helping to bring about change.

Again, it comes down as you mentioned earlier to an enlightened self-interest. There is strong data to indicate that strong, vibrant, real estate market surrounding a university has everything to do with a growth and enrollment. It has everything to do with comfort of faculty and parents of students in sending their kids here and moving to this area.

Steve, the school like many campuses built in the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s is turned in on itself. Student center with bookstore in the middle of the campus. Parking on the edges. Not particularly distinguished architecture.

If you could wave a wand over the university and turn it into the kind of campus that would be both a good neighbor and stimulate development at its edges, what would you do?

That’s a great question, and it’s something that we think a lot about in my everyday world.

One way that we’re evaluating that exact question is with a partnership of the university’s Department of Architecture. The architecture school and the professors in the architecture school have done a series of design studios.

The design studios have the senior level architecture students working with local prominent architects and urban designers to think about just such questions.

One of the answers that the architecture studio arrived at is to make an effort as planning goes forward and as opportunities arise to build new facilities on campus, is to face, as you said, the buildings outwards rather than inwards.

Part of the trend, as you said, in the ‘50s and ‘60s and ‘70s in the building of universities was to cluster everything and to face inwards everywhere. Now universities realize that that isolates the university from the community.

Some of the successful examples around the country include moving the bookstore off campus and encouraging parking that is not only parking for students but is also parking for the business district.

There is one example that I think would be a great idea for the University of Memphis and the community that is on Highland Avenue would be to have some shared parking arrangement between the west edge of the University of Memphis and Highland Avenue where someone who wants to walk over to a restaurant on Highland could park or someone who is heading to class could park. So those are the sort of things that we can begin to do to change the perception of a university that is sort of unto itself.

Other things though, Carol, that I think have everything to do with the perception of the university as isolated or not are these programmatic sides, this public face of the university, what the university calls “community engagement strategy.”

The university is sending out talented faculty and top-tier students to do projects all over Memphis in the areas of expertise of those faculty members.

For example, I believe you interviewed someone from the planning school not long ago who did an outstanding urban mapping project with young kids in one of the neighborhoods near the university.

Yes, that was a great project.

Absolutely outstanding. Now many, many more examples of that exist.

There is a neighborhood in the shadow of the Liberty Bowl where a lot of talk in Memphis has been centered around the fairgrounds and the Liberty Bowl.

There’s a neighborhood right in the shadow of the Liberty Bowl to the east, and there’s an anthropology professor who is running a program over there with students, graduate-level students, to collect community input about what the kids need in that community, what the elder residents who have lived there many decades need and want in their community.

This is going to ensure that some residents who live in that neighborhood are a part of the fairgrounds redevelopment process in Memphis.

For me, for the University Neighborhoods Development Corporation, the work that they’ve given me over a series of about four semesters is work I never could have afforded to pay for as a nonprofit organization. But if I did have to pay for it, it would have been a 6-figure bill.

These guys came up with beautiful renderings of potential reuses and adaptive design concepts that really give us marching orders going forward, and this all stems from a true commitment to community engagement at high levels at the University of Memphis.

Now I think that over time, things at the university will be moving more and more in the direction of a physical plant that also reflects this engaged strategy. But it does take time to undo those decades of design.

There’s a movement, Steve, in some places for retirees to locate close to universities so that they can enjoy the university town atmosphere.

Do you think that’s an opportunity at all at urban universities like this one?

Absolutely. I think it’s a great idea. I think it’s an important synergy.

We already have a large number of elderly residents in the university district. In one particular development of 40 new condominiums, right on the edge of the university, where I think elderly folks will be very interested in coming because of the central location and the proximity to the university.

Also there are a lot of benefits on campus for seniors. The ability to audit classes for free, the public access to the library, and just the access to the beautiful grounds and the park-like parts of the university.

I do believe that it is an important link, and part of the philosophy and plan that the University Neighborhoods Development Corporation is focused on is full scope of residential opportunities and business opportunities and educational opportunities in the university district.

We are working towards achieving a vision of a place where people can go to school from the time they’re in grade school until the time they get a PhD from the University of Memphis, and there would be an appropriate place for them to live at every step along the way.

They’re centrally located in a great city and access to this great university, surrounded by neighborhoods that are thriving.

Okay, here’s a question on the complete opposite end.

You may not know this about me. You probably don’t, but the University of Memphis is home to my favorite college basketball team. It’s housed on the south side of the campus.

Have you thought about how you might leverage proximity to the basketball practice facilities for people who want to live not necessarily the university life, but are absorbed with basketball?

I think that’s a great concept. We should explore that more.

I think you should do a design studio on that one.

That’s right, yes. The Tiger community.

A whole different market. Different demographic probably.

You’re right. The athletics is a big part of promoting the University of Memphis, and the proximity to the Liberty Bowl here is a big part of how we think of promoting the neighborhood.

Well, before I let you go, explain to me, just so our listeners will know, the development role that University Neighborhoods Development Corporation plays in all of these kinds of activities that you and I have been discussing.

I think that our role is essentially that of what you are probably familiar with is the Main Street Model.

We’re involved in everything from the community organizing, the urban design thinking, the economic development planning, and the promotion of the community.

We don’t want to be the owner or the developer of anything in this community.

What we want to do is serve as a catalyst and serve as the mechanism to remove barriers to moving this forward to be a great community.

Working in partnership with the university and the community and the city of Memphis, we will remove these barriers and achieve a truly unique opportunity to bring back a walkable, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use, safe, interesting community life in a community campus environment that everyone wants to come and visit and that people will make a destination.

Well, when you get that basketball community worked out, let me know.

I will.

Okay, Steve. Thanks for being our guest on Smart City.

Thank you.

Steve Barlow is the Executive Director of the University Neighborhoods Development Corporation.