What we can learn from these cases
Niagara Region United States and Canada
First, there are a variety of ways to put the puzzle together organizationally. But a combination of strong institutional base and robust cooperation seems a must.
Second, successful regions are “going with the flow”of economic restructuring, environmental repair, care for places, and attention to stories.
Third, we have an embarrassment of riches. The Niagara Frontier has all it needs to put these cases in the shade.
A Range of Organizational Modes
Each of the three cases presented relies on a different organizational mode, institutional structure, and political process. Taken together, they suggest there is no simple recipe for doing these kinds of projects.
Los Caminos del Rio uses an unusual bi-national not-for-profit corporation as the organizational center of their effort. But they also rely on the substantial financial and institutional power of state government on one side of the border, federal government on the other, and the willing cooperation of municipal governments up and down the Rio Grande.
In Germany, where the state is strong and public leadership still honored, government used the building exhibition format to focus and amplify the use of existing aid and investment streams on the project of regional restructuring. But the approach seems to have been anything but heavy handed. The IBA worked closely with local governments, invited citizens to participate, and made public-private partnerships to get things done.
In New England, the lead agency seems to have taken an even lighter touch. The Commission does represent the federal government, but they have been loathe to throw their weight around. Instead, they use their relatively modest resources to leverage the investments of other players, public or private. In their core business -- telling the story -- they work hard to involve local governments and communities. In the bigger picture business of preserving the assets of the valley from the pressures of development they only whisper the word “planning,” but they do say it.
Yet, if there are a variety of approaches, there seem to be a couple of common denominators. Whether the lead agency is weak or strong, has lots of money or not so much, the process of developing, preserving, managing and marketing regional assets requires sophisticated multi-party collaboration. No entity can do it alone, and anyone that tries will earn the opposition of someone else.
At the same time, there needs to be an institutional base for such efforts. There needs to be an agency that can convene all the various players -- the chambers of commerce, the mayors and council members, the state bureaucracies, and citizen groups of all kinds -- to engage the inevitable collaborative tasks. Each of these cases had such an entity.
Going with the Flow
Although the approach and emphasis of regional projects differs from the Blackstone to the Emscher to the Rio Grande, all three seem resolved to “go with the flow” of major contemporary trends in economy, society and environment.
Although they speak but little to issues of transportation infrastructure, all three projects respond, in one way or another, to the realities of an economic future that will be depend more and more on knowledge, information technologies, innovation, and global trade, and less and less on the forces that made them in the first place: water power, coal, and steel.
Likewise, they acknowledge that tourism is one of the great growth industries of the current era. In two of the cases, increasing tourism is at the center of the strategy, in the other, Emscher Park, more tourism is expected to be a happy but intentional by-product of environmental repair and economic redevelopment. All three cases manifest an understanding that good places are crucial, not only to tourism, but to regional success in general. The quality of planning, design and development are central to the effort to making places attractive to tourists and satisfying for residents alike.
All three cases demonstrate how important it is — especially in an era of globalizing forces — for regions to preserve, enhance and highlight what is already distinctive about them. Why, after all, would you visit the Rio Grande Valley if it were just like Orlando?
In all of this, history is central. Each of these regions has its own story to tell. That’s what makes each worth visiting. But telling the story also has value for the residents, not only because tourism has economic benefits, but because the story gives meaning to their lives.
For all three, preserving the physical manifestations of the story goes hand in hand with telling the story. Indeed, they have all spent relatively more on restoring buildings and sites than they have on documentation and interpretation. In crude terms, this means that if you don’t have the goods, there is nothing to market.
At the same time, all three have worked hard to make the whole seem at least as large as the sum of its parts; to piece together the fragments, to connect the attractions, physically, with the development of routes and trails, and virtually, on attractive web-sites.
Finally, all three of these cases have focused on preserving or repairing the natural environment. In some cases this has meant massive infrastructure investments, in others community tree plantings. Environmental regeneration is surely a biological necessity. It is also a possibility brought about by the changing structure of our economy. Crucial to this discussion is the fact that as time goes on, environmental quality will be increasingly important as a matter of regional competitiveness.
If your air, water, and land are polluted, people won’t want to live there and they won’t want to visit. But the good news is, every investment in environmental quality, every river regenerated, every brownfield restored, turns a regional liability into a regional asset.
An embarrassment of riches
Residents of the Niagara Frontier might have at least two reactions to these cases. One could be admiration for the obvious accomplishments these regions have made. But another would have to be that our region has a lot more going for it than any of these.
We possess, not only one of the great natural wonders of the world, but an extraordinary array of other attractions, existing and waiting to be developed. Live theater, sports and recreational attractions, visual and performing arts, historic architecture, nightlife, entertainment and casinos, rural landscapes, and much more are all here.
The Niagara Frontier also has story after story to be told — that are already being told — from the story of our colonial and military days to the emerging story of economic rebirth and everything in between. The first nations heritage, the Erie Canal, the birth of hydro-power, the story of the cataract, itself, the rise and fall of steel, the Underground Railroad, and many, many more need only to be gathered, highlighted, and told again.
As for our position relative to the emerging economy, little more needs to be said. The geographical position of the region, its infrastructure, its social assets, all speak to opportunity in knowledge-based industries and global trade.
And, of course, there is a wealth of land and water, some of it now on the liability side of the ledger, but with appropriate investments ready to be transferred to the assets column.
The possibilities are, indeed, enormous.
Los Caminos del Rio
Augustine Celaya, President, Los Caminos del Rio Heritage Area board of directors, interview, March 2000.
Mario L. Sanchez, A Shared Experience, Laredo: Los Caminos del Rio Heritage Project and the Texas Historical Commission, 1994.
“A Shared Experience” internet website at www.rice.edu/armadillo/Past/Book
Rachel Torres, Executive Director, Los Caminos del Rio Heritage Area, interview, March 2000.
Blackstone Valley
Nancy Brittain, senior planner, Blackstone Valley National Heritage Corridor, interview, March 2000.
Blackstone Valley National Heritage Corridor internet website at www.nps.gov/blac/index.htm
Emscher Park
Karl Ganser, Liebe auf den zweiten Blick: Internationale Bauaustellung Emscher Park. Dortmund: Harrenberg Comunication, 1999.
Kommunalverband Ruhrgebiet, The Emscher Park International Building Exhibition. IBA Emscher Park: Gelsenkirchen, 1995.
Michael Schwarze-Rodrian, Parkbericht: Emscher Landschafts-Park. Essen: Kommunalverband Ruhrgebiet, 1996.
Michael Schwarze-Rodrian, planner, International Building Exhibition, Emscher Park, March 2000.
The Waterfront Regeneration Trust is an independent, non-profit registered charity dedicated to meeting the challenge of protecting and restoring those elements of the waterfront that we value — ecological health, a sense of community, economic vitality – by bringing together people, ideas and resources for regeneration.
Since its inception, the Trust has established a strong reputation as an innovative organization that can build consensus, facilitate resolution of complex issues and bring together the partners needed for implementation. Originally established in 1992 under Ontario provincial legislation to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Future of the Toronto Waterfront, the Trust completed its transition to independent status in 1999. The Waterfront Regeneration Trust is committed to a philosophy that humans are a part of nature, not separate from it; that everything is connected to everything else; and that we are responsible for our actions to ourselves, to other people, to other generations, and to other species. The work of the Trust and its partners is guided by nine principles – that waterfronts should be clean, green, accessible, connected, open, useable, diverse, affordable and attractive.
For further information contact:
Beth Benson, Executive Director
The Waterfront Regeneration Trust
207 Queen’s Quay West, Suite 403
Toronto, Ontario M5J 1A7
Ph. 416-943-8080
Ph. 416-943-8068
e-mail bb@wrtrust.com
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