2023 Summer Issue of Urban Land - 64

Social Impact
In contemplating how to address challenges faced
by the communites, panel members heard many
community members express concern that the
history and culture of place would be lost as the
development effort proceeded. In fact, this concern
surfaced in five of the panel case studies.
Many of the case studies involved actions
aimed at lifting art and culture, which in turn
helped build community trust and push the
project forward. Christiansted, Virgin Islands, for
example, made placekeeping a central theme of
its restoration plan. Shaw University in Raleigh
persuaded the city to plan a trolley stop in front
of the university and wants to attract visitors to
its campus with a cultural heritage trail that promotes
the university's rich history.
Charity Hospital in New Orleans, being transformed
into a mixed-use complex with residential
space on its upper levels, will have public
space on the ground floor activated with art
and cultural programming, thereby retaining its
history as a welcoming public space. This move
is especially important to locals whose families
were patients or healers-or both-at the hospital
and still mourn its loss.
Also, in Raleigh, Downtown South held early
community engagement sessions to ascertain
community wants and needs. One neighborhood
desire, for example, was to retain its rich African
American history and culture, which will be
The pavilion at
Confluence Park in
San Antonio, Texas.
An artist and architect
team jointly designed
a concrete pavilion
that offers cover from
the sun and rain and
captures rainwater
and channels it to a
reservoir beneath the
park's surface.
enabled by guideposts throughout the neighborhood
and a city-managed public art program.
Matthew Kwatinetz, a professor at New York
University, consultant, and author of " Thriving in
Place, " a report for Austin, Texas, about cultural
spaces and place-based economics, highlights
the social benefits of art and culture on community
life. He asserts that proximity to art and
cultural assets matters, especially for low-income
communities. Kwatinetz cites a study conducted
by the Social Impact of the Arts Project that
found that a rise in student English scores in
these low-income communities corresponds with
a reduction in child abuse and neglect, obesity,
and serious crime.
He also notes that a 2018 survey of 3,000
people, conducted by the Americans for the Arts
(AfTA), a U.S. arts advocacy nonprofit, found
that a majority of Americans believe " the arts
unify our communities regardless of age, race,
and ethnicity. " This is particularly relevant and
needed in these turbulent times of divisiveness.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, Erin Chantry,
the city's urban design planner, says the city is
serious about equitable development and the
prosperity of all its residents. Charlotte, with the
aid of philanthropic efforts, is funding the creation
of public spaces that reflect the history of
neighborhoods. An example is in the city's Historic
West End neighborhood. The city-funded
The Ritz at Washington Heights is public space
64
URBAN LAND SUMMER 2023
C OUR TES Y CA TE BR AD SHA W AND S TU AR T ALLEN
2023 Summer Issue of Urban Land

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