Comment Rescue — What Should Be Done To Make Wilmington a Healthy and Thriving City?
That is the core of this comment that Paul Calistro posted in the Daily Delaware thread. It is a good set of questions by someone who thinks about what is going on the city alot and by someone who cares a great deal about what happens here. Add your comments below and I hope Paul will check in and engage in a conversation here:
Let’s talk about Wilmington in desperate need of life support.
If we are honest with ourselves we would admit that we are all in fear of the continued decline of Wilmington as a city. And if were equally honest as Delawareans we would come to grips with the fact that Wilmington is too important to Delaware’s economy to allow it to fail. It is like watching a family member who is ill and everyone thinks someone else should be the care taker. Everyone is concerned some feel there is no hope and others feel they are powerless.We have all seen what happens to Cities throughout the United States when they fail. Recovery of a failed city usually takes many decades to recover and the cost is staggering. Wilmington as a whole is in serious peril. In many of it”s communities the housing crisis of 2006 have accelerated the decline. A close look at the current sales and values of homes in many neighborhoods reveal that the city’s housing market, a vital signs of it’s health is in critical condition . While other communities in New Castle County have enjoyed a housing recovery, many of Wilmington’s neighborhood’s property values are still heading in the opposite direction. For example, the median price of homes in census tracts 22 and 23 have declined from a high of $80,000 to a current value of $16,000, The values are so low that owners both homeowners as well as investors would be financially foolish to maintain their properties without either incentives or strong a strong belief that reinvestment in their communities are likely. The effects of a lack of an intervention will lead to a huge increase in the number of vacant and blighted homes in the very near future.
Over the past three years , sales throughout the city have been driven significantly by short sales and foreclosures. Data shows that in 2011 over 40% of the sales were distressed . The past 12 months show a slight improvement to roughly a third. The remainder of New Castle County has already seen a housing recovery.
What is our plan to fuel a recovery? This crisis requires a joint strategy of all levels of our government if we are going to see the trend reverse. I know crime is the major issue that occupies most residents and leaders discussions . But what we need is to have is not only a plan for crime but a serious plan for reinvestment in the fabric of Wilmington it’s communities. Without a plan the patient is terminal. Without all levels of government agreeing they need to collectively intervene the City will be the patient looking for a care taker.
Tags: Featured, Paul Calistro, Wilmington, Wilmington City Council
You have me reflecting on the YEARS my family would go to Wilmington. I’m no urban renewalist, so if I listed it might sound pithy. And then people around here would beat me up. But, if my list could give those visionaries and urban planners something to leap from….then I’d list away. So I’ll await kinda some further direction.
But in the meantime, I would offer to the city to have some darn “amnesty” parking days. No time limits, no charge etc.. It would bring in people who aren’t familiar w/ the city perhaps, and eliminate the frustration of finding a space….time….location, circle around etc.. No Charge 🙂
I really liked Wilmington. Never thought it would ever be viewed the way it seems to be going. Like a Baltimore in the late 60s thru the 70s.
We need to invest in activity for our youth – sports, the arts, jobs, etc. the neighborhoods will not significantly improve if we don’t invest in this area and get these kids off the streets.
Anchor the neighborhoods with neighborhood schools.
Key to major urban center turnarounds has been the concept of “community policing”, where police patrols and substations become integrated with a particular neighborhood life and often the officers are from and live in that neighborhood. They become not the enemy but an integral part of helping families and youth with lively participation in community activity and visible neighbors, not an occupying enemy force. Obviously there more needed for economic turnaround but that’s the subject for future posts.
An observation (this is really a question for cassandra) that was shared with me last night by somebody who works pretty high up in city government now. I honestly don’t know if it is correct and I am curious.
Basically, I was told that what keeps social mobility from happening in Wilmington despite everything else is that pretty much (my source did not provide statistics but generalities) if your family income is below $40K you are black or hispanic and above $40–especially above $70K then you are white. This, my source suggests, creates a problem that he related almost to slavery–since there is such a strong ethnic component to poverty and the working poor, and such an ethnic distinction in income/resources there is almost no cross-identification between the two groups. Again, I am repeating what I was told, and I’m really curious to know if that was correct.
I’m also told that almost nobody who lives in Wilmington really works in Wilmington. A high percentage of Wilmington jobs held by people who commute in, and the people in the city who might be able to hold down those jobs are commuting out. Don’t know if that’s true, either, but interested in finding out.
I don’t know about the statistics, but I live and work in Wilmington, I’m white and I make under 70k.
Some good ideas so far.
If we thought interns of incentives combined with best practices it would be a good start. Let’s use two examples for discussion housing and crime. Let’s assume that we have a surplus of both we need to look at policies and practice. If we want to reduce crime let’s develop a real task force and include the State,County and City with a real goal of reduction by 10%.( Example )
We all agreed real community policing was a best practice. Could we reallocate cost by elimating separate call centers and apply the savings? Could we have one purchasing department for outfitting cars and equipment and apply the savings. Could we have one major crime unit for shootings or a joint crime lab and free up some dollars?
In housing we could align funding and policies at all three government levels so that revitalization could be sustainable. Examples include the County provides down payment assistance for first time home buyers but now excludes the City. Or the County, City and State could work together to develop a land bank for the disposition of vacant properties. Many Cities and State are now doing this throughout the country.
Turning to getting more businesses into the City, which is vitally important. I heard a discussion recently about how unfriendly the City is to businesses that want to start up in the City so they just go out into the County. That seems like something easy to fix. Just change the darn regulations and focus on getting more business into Wilmington, thus more jobs for people.
Anchor the neighborhoods with neighborhood schools.
Co-signing this. Neighborhood schools are support to community and it is easier to care about what happens in a building 2 blocks away from you vs. miles away in Newark. And upping the quality of the local schools means that you have a community that families with children will make a choice for.
Local schools also provide a natural venue for more stuff for kids to do — sports, after school clubs or extra tutoring.
@Steve — I don’t know about the demographics you are asking about. But if that’s true, I’d bet there is a tie to schools. It seems that the wealthier (whiter) part of the city overwhelmingly send their kids to the local private schools or they live in the Brandywine school district or can choice their kids there. African American families with the means just up and leave for the burbs where they think the better schools are.
I’m not native here, and I do not work in the City. I wanted to live in an urban environment and did not want the commute from Philly. But the city badly needs more people like me to move into the city and stake a claim. Oddly, this doesn’t seem a priority for the city — under either Baker or Williams. But it is true that people are moving downtown. Some of the buildings have wait lists for tenants. That is promising.
And I’ve long been a fan of genuine community policing. It isn’t clear to me that we aren’t doing this because of cost. I do think that we are doing this because the WPD is attached to a deployment model that keeps them responding to 911 calls. Anything that might be more proactive (and reduce the number of calls) or even in helping them to establish the community relationships they often complain they don’t have. Everyone gets that you are not going to have a relationship with someone whose name you don’t know and who just rides by you in a car without even a nod of the head.
@Cassandra and those interested in the “numbers”, for at least some of our communities the planning department has on the City Website “Community Notebooks”, the notebooks give a history and include lots of stats from the 2010 Census. If your neighborhood isn’t there, look up Census data.
I have heard often that the cops don’t care about the city because they don’t live in the city and they should. I don’t believe the majority of WPD does not care. But, if we really think they will be better at policing if they lived in the city then don’t just make that a job requirement, incentivize them to do so. Down payment help or low interest mortgages. Of course these will demand some restrictions, don’t want them buying homes at low rates to only turn around and rent them out. This kind of incentive for WPD, WFD and maybe other city departments can make a difference in our neighborhoods.
I also sign on to the idea of neighborhood schools. How about a “new” Wilmington High School.
Not sure why it is a problem for Wilmington residents to commute out. Having a PhD level scientist/engineer in your neighborhood is good for the neighborhood and they are likely commuting out, I don’t think there is a “research center” within the city limits.
Paul makes good points. What I see as the biggest hindrance to reversing the decline of Wilmington is the lack of a PLAN.
We need to work on increasing the number of collage students residing in the City. I wonder if Del Tech ever considered building a dormitory ? Most healthy cities are anchored with “Ed’s and Med’s which increase commerce , Arts, entertainment and diversity.
There simply is no choice for Wilmington but to institute community policing. This includes a visible presence of police walking/riding bicycles in the city in heavy traffic areas, particularly on weekend nites with plays, concerts and restaurants busy with patrons. From my own personal experience, living right here in Justison Landing on the Riverfront, there are some dark stretches of streets, particularly near the bus depot and Amtrak, which need attention and I never see patrols. Again, much better on foot or two wheels. People have to feel safe to come into town from the burbs, going to/from work or play in order to grow jobs in the inner city. My former town, Houston, is one of many who years ago did community policing. Before, it was a war zone in certain sections with residential sites. Took about 5-10 years after instituting this model but today, crime rates are way, way down….as are incarceration rates which says to me, it works. It creates a different mindset. Redneck white guys, living in the exurbs in patrol cars is not the answer.
Diverse law enforcement, recruited from the inner city, is the answer. It’s proven in virtually every urban center in America. We love living here and do a fair amount of downtown playing.
I agree that community policing is a big part of the answer and community leaders throughout the City agree on this issue. The real issue is how do we get our elected and appointed officials to create a viable plan that is based on best practices ?
Paul, once again you have used the magic word “plan”. I do not think the word exists in our elected and appointed officials vocabulary. If the word does exist it is only used in the short term sense.
There is no long term “plan” for this city. Our “Planning Department” does not have a plan. Wilmington has a hard time to see past 3years, at which point it is time to “plan” to get re-elected or elect a new mayor.
Does anyone know how to change this mindset?
A thousand emails all on the saw day
Let us pick a day to bombard the mayors office, city council and the planning department director.
I hear October 26 is National Make a Difference Day.
Let’ get organized and make it happen
Cassandra_m can you help?
I’m in!
Sure — the easiest way to get people to write in is to give them a template and the email address. We’ll need to come up with something that provides some concrete actions we want.
The last time we thought we had a commitment to do community policing, the WPD used all of our lobbying effort to increase their authorized strength and get more toys and then never did what we thought they’d agreed to.
I would like to see a 10 – 20 year plan for growing/revitalizing the city across all neighborhoods.
Has anyone taken a look at the Healthy Neighborhoods program in Baltimore? We tried once to get the city interested in this kind of initiative to no avail. This is the kind of thing that would certainly help strong neighborhoods who need to get back some value.
Part of the problem is going to be finding someone In the administration who is willing to hear ideas such as Healthy Neighborhoods. In their arrogance, I don’t believe they can be open. What we really need to do is find candidates for all open city offices in 2014/2016, get them on board with a strategic plan and then work our butts off to get them elected.
It is really difficult to get the City to be a partner in efforts that might be going on in neighborhoods. There are lots of community planning documents (Blueprint, Wells Fargo and so on) but not much in terms of long term commitment from the City to help execute on these things. And this is a City Council and City problem.
But I like your idea of trying to replace them all.
Here is another interesting idea that is being used in NYC to reduce violence in a section of town that has had alot of shootings. What is really remarkable about this is that it depends on mentoring at risk kids — the kind of mentoring that helps develop some emotional maturity and pays attention to who might be having trouble. I’ve been sending this link all over to see if this interests anyone in the city.
In addition to Healthy Neighborhoods, there are a couple of other successful programs that have been utilized in other cities. Cure Violence has been really successful in Chicago, Baltimore, and Brooklyn by using community members who are NOT police officers to go out and interact with youth & others on the streets. East New York, Brooklyn went an entire year without one incident of gun violence.
I truly feel that the City has not been looking into these sorts of methods. CoW is more into a react and punish model than prevention and guidance. It’s almost as though implementing these sorts of initiatives is too much work, research, and CHANGE and no one wants to put in the effort. It’s so upsetting to me as a lifelong Wilmington resident. I hate to think that my next move might have to be outside of the city.
Too many names, Mr. Lazy. Or should we call you Mr. Slob?
Most of the suggestions offered this far could be implemented through $12/gal. gasoline. It worked after the Arab Oil Embargo. You want people who work in Wilmington to live in Wilmington? Done, although the concomitant increase in property values will likely drive out many current residents. When was the last time you saw a poor family living in, say, Hilton Head? A long time ago.. Why? Property values rose so high they couldn’t afford to pay their property taxes.
Community schools? Done. Wilmington would have more charter schools than you could count because Mummy and Daddy wouldn’t want their little darlings attending “real” public schools. And if the new charter schools lack sufficient funds to operate at Mummy’s and Daddy’s standards? We’ll just have a fundraiser. Have you ever noticed that fundraiser’s by the well-to-do seem to raise a lot more funds than those by the not-so-well-to-do?
Community policing? The “George Zimmerman” kind? ‘Nuff said. Healthy neighborhoods? Grocers carry products that sell. Otherwise they lose money. Increase the average disposable income in Wilmington and you’ll have all the fresh produce you want.
The sad truth is this: The only color that matters is “green.” How do you encourage the more well-to-do to live in Wilmington? Make it more expensive for them to live anywhere else. This is basic urban and regional economics, a discipline that has been around for more than fifty years. If you attract more well-to-do residents, the rest follows as night follows day. Otherwise you’re just throwing money at the problem.
The other sad truth is that people must have hope before they can have dreams and aspirations. If you think the deck is stacked against you from birth (as it has been since the Reagan Era), then how can you dream of something better? Until we start thinking of “thug life” as a rational economic choice and make it a less desirable alternative to an honest-to-God achievable “American Dream,” we’re just kidding ourselves.
How do we create the possibility of an “American Dream” that is actually achievable for at least most Americans? Look at the economic structure of the nations whose citizens are happiest; what do they have in common? There are many answers to that question, but one of them is $12/gal. gasoline.