Expert predicts Hillyard revival

HILLYARD – A nationally renowned expert in neighborhood planning and redevelopment said recently that Hillyard is the kind of urban environment that will likely see a revival in coming years, and that similar redevelopment could occur across older urban areas in the county and Spokane Valley.

He said the key to renewal is involving members of the community, including schoolchildren, in planning and executing redevelopment initiatives.

Kenneth Reardon, an associate professor in city and regional planning at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., met with a group of neighborhood leaders and educators who have been working to bring new life to Hillyard and Morgan Acres.

Hillyard fits the description of many older urban areas in the U.S. that have lost jobs as their industrial bases were lost. In the case of Hillyard, the departure of railroad operations is part of the neighborhood’s economic loss.

Reardon said he was involved with community leaders in East St. Louis, Ill., while on the faculty at the University of Illinois and witnessed that area virtually reborn with new housing, jobs, retail outlets, transportation links, park facilities, preschool classes, an arts facility and a farmers market.

He told the group gathered for lunch at Ma Barker’s Café, 5012 N. Market St., that the importance of urban renewal is being recognized by the academic community to the point that as many as 1,600 universities across the country have faculty devoted to community redevelopment.

Hillyard and Morgan Acres are being helped by faculty from Washington State University Spokane and Eastern Washington University. Students from WSU’s Interdisciplinary Design Institute have been working with Hillyard, Morgan Acres and other neighborhoods for the past several years on redevelopment plans, including ways to maintain livability in the neighborhoods with construction of a new North Spokane freeway along the former rail yards in Hillyard.

WSU students were involved five years ago in early stages of discussion about reviving the University City shopping center district in Spokane Valley, said Professor Bob Scarfo. He said the students’ ability to get people thinking in visual terms helped spark a debate about how to redevelop the area.

“While nothing the students have produced has been built in its entirety, bits and pieces find their way into the community,” Scarfo wrote in an e-mail after the meeting with Reardon. “I think one of primary successes has been the generation of discussions that wouldn’t have otherwise taken place.”

Involving students through service learning projects is a significant asset neighborhoods should employ, Reardon said.

In fact, students from Rogers High School have been involved in neighborhood issues in recent years.

Reardon said higher fuel prices and the trend toward environmentally sensitive economies work to the advantage of older neighborhoods, which are more sustainable from the standpoint of energy and natural resources consumption.

The key to redevelopment, he said, is to build the kinds of economic, cultural, academic and physical amenities that can draw new urban dwellers. For example, East St. Louis opened a Montessori preschool that became a draw for new residents with children.

“You can kind of have a different way of being on a planet in a neighborhood like this,” he said.