do our parks pass the test (2)? jubilee park, city of hamilton

In a past blog post I posed this question: do our parks pass the test? The focus was on Victoria Park and, using William Whyte's famous components of successful urban spaces, Victoria Park more or less passed the test. 

jubilee park - view to the southFor some time, though, I have found Jubilee Park to be intriguing. It is located at the north edge of the City of Hamilton between King Street/Union Street to the south and Parsons Road to the north. If Whyte's seven benchmarks are: public spaces' relationship to the street, 'sittable' areas, position relative to the sun, impact of wind, presence of water features, options for food and 'triangulation' or the external stimulus that prompts strangers to speak with each other - how does Jubilee Park measure up?

Jubilee Park was opened in 2002, marking Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee, as a one acre landscaped area. Unfortunately, by 2007 it was somewhat overgrown and something of a dumping ground. The City of Hamilton stepped in and nothing less than a transformation has taken place. Expanded to a two acrejubilee park - view to the north lush landscaped area with a winding path taking visitors from King Street down to Parsons Road, passing a duck pond and a grove of recently planted native and endemic trees, Jubilee Park is an unexpected quiet oasis.

jubilee parkAgainst the Whyte benchmarks, however, it does not seem to fare so well. You can reach the park from the street but it is not immediately welcoming. There are seating areas, perforce, of the heavy, immovable variety. The result is a sense of formality in the seating that, despite all efforts, has not escaped the scourge of vandalism. The park's position relative to the morning and afternoon sun is great, and there is (or will be, once all the trees are grown) sufficient shading too. It is quite sheltered from the wind and the duck pond is a water feature, if not of the type Whyte intended. It is not a play feature for children nor does it incorporate the element of sound that can be soothing in an urban environment. The options for food are off-site but there are enough within walking distance that a brown bag lunch could be planned. As for 'triangulation', I have not observed circumstances where that could arise; strangers initiating a conversation in the park based on a shared experience of the space such as a busker or a piece of public art or even kids at play.

jubilee park - view to the north-eastSo why does it seem to be a 'not quite successful' urban space? I suspect for the three reasons that Whyte does not mention but which Kevin Klinkenberg outlines in his 2012 article for New Urbanism Blog "What makes a good park?". One: location, location, location. Too many parks are designated on 'leftover' land and are not necessarily sited and designed for a park purpose. Two: location along key pathways. Is the park in a key location in the city where people would walk without thinking? Three: integration with surrounding streets and buildings. Is the park immediately surrounding by residences, restaurants, guest houses and businesses such that it feels a part of the neighbourhood? Klinkenberg suggests we look "harder at how design and behaviour intersect".

To a greater or lesser extent these three elements proffered by Klinkenberg may provide some insight with respect to Jubilee Park. It is a worthwhile effort to find out.

detroit is cool. hamilton can be too.

Andres Duany, the father of New Urbanism, states that Detroit is cool. Which is, itself, a way cool thing. Detroit has suffered a lot in recent and not so recent years, so it's great to observe, as Duany does, that it is, in fact, not a total sinkhole of unrequited dreams.

What I like about Duany's conclusion, writing for Model D in the article "Andres Duany: Community building through 'Lean Urbanism'", is that Detroit is cool because it is letting young people get on with it. That is, get on with the business, inadvertent though it may be, the business of revitalization. He makes the case in this video too; a speech for the Michigan Municipal League.

Urban Thoughts - Why is Detroit the coolest city on earth? from Michigan Municipal League on Vimeo.

Admittedly, chunks of Detroit's good fortune are due to the Knight Foundation and Dan Gilbert (Chief of Quicken Loans) both of whom are investing heavily in the city, but, Duany points out, the young are there too. They are willing to take risks, fly under the radar, sell a cookie baked in a kitchen with no commercial licence, engage in tactical urbanism practices. And this reminds me of Northeast Hamilton. It has the elements you would want to see in a city: activities at the front door, new and young businesses, artists making a living - collectively building vibrancy. We have the elements but haven't cracked it yet.

Seeing the good in Detroit, Duany has started the Project for Lean Urbanism in an attempt to recreate that "Go west, young man" feeling elsewhere. As he terms it "...revitalizing cities by finding ways for people to participate in community-building -- specifically, by enabling everyday people to get things done." This is an excellent idea - a combination of New Urbanism and Tactical Urbanism? - and I look forward to learning more about it and seeing what we can adapt and use here in Bermuda.

a new way for local government

Watching the Corporation of Hamilton saga over the past year was depressing. Questions regarding the allocation of funds. Confusion over a lease. Takeover and then restoration of financial controls. Resolution couldn't come fast enough.

Assuming the business of city hall is back on track, it occurs to me that it is probably time to reconsider "the way we do things".

hamilton circa 2007I have written before about participatory budgeting. This time, though, I want to highlight co-producing the commissioning of public services, something the blog Polis introduced to me in the article Commissioning Democratic Renewal by Joe Penny.

It's a radical notion: planning for public services with people instead of just for them. Where participatory budgeting involves the community voting on the allocation of funds for projects, usually from a short-list of agreed options, co-producing the commissioning of public services takes the planning of those services a step further. It is a space "where professionals and citizens share power to plan and deliver support services together, recognising that both partners have a vital contribution to make" (source: new economics foundation).

In this world, the co-producers are public servants and citizens working together to decide what service is required, develop tender documents and take part in the selection of the successful bidder. This is hands on stuff. It seems tailor-made for an entity suffering from reduced financial controls that, nonetheless, must provide city services. Framed that way, the Bermuda Government might want to consider this option itself.

And what are the benefits? Get more from the services. Better value for money. More involvement on the part of the those providing the service and those using the service. In short: truly inclusive decision-making at a local level. So, instead of participatory budgeting, where the community votes on a project to receive funding, co-production means the community is a crucial part of the project. Radical indeed.