How to rebuild a broken city. . .

   Commitment to Change

Deep in us we know that the transformation of a city is dependent on transformed people and that finally a commitment to the building of the city has to involve a commitment to change in us.

Elizabeth O'Connor
Source: Our Many Selves

Add your thoughts at inward/outward

Detroit and hard lessons. . .

[The demise of Detroit, Michigan provides a fairly terrifying story for other large urban areas to consider, study and evaluate in view of local challenges.  This is certainly true for Dallas, Texas as we search for a new City Manager, Housing Director and City Attorney.  

The following essay from Joseph E. Stiglitz offers much food for thought.  

As always, I'd love your reactions.  What does Detroit have to teach us all?  LJ] 

The Wrong Lesson From Detroit’s Bankruptcy

When I was growing up in Gary, Ind., nearly a quarter of American workers were employed in the manufacturing sector. There were plenty of jobs at the time that paid well enough for a single breadwinner, working one job, to fulfill the American dream for his family of four. He could earn a living on the sweat of his brow, afford to send his children to college and even see them rise to the professional class.

Cities like Detroit and Gary thrived on that industry, not just in terms of the wealth that it produced but also in terms of strong communities, healthy tax bases and good infrastructure. From the stable foundation of Gary’s excellent public schools, influenced by the ideas of the progressive reformer John Dewey, I went on to Amherst College and then to M.I.T. for graduate school.

Today, fewer than 8 percent of American workers are employed in manufacturing, and many Rust Belt cities are skeletons. The distressing facts about Detroit are by now almost a cliché: 40 percent of streetlights were not working this spring, tens of thousands of buildings are abandoned, schools have closed and the population declined 25 percent in the last decade alone. The violent crime rate last year was the highest of any big city. In 1950, when Detroit’s population was 1.85 million, there were 296,000 manufacturing jobs in the city; as of 2011, with a population of just over 700,000, there were fewer than 27,000.

Click here to read more.

Wealth of the Poor

At last, I'm proud to announce that my new book, Wealth of the Poor:  How Valuing Every Neighbor Restores Hope in Our Cities, is finally available. 

Well, almost widely available.

Let me explain. 

We missed the sales deadline to place the book widely in retail establishments and on-line.  So, what we have is a pre-release option on the book.

You can order it today directly from ACU Press by calling 877-816-4455 or by visiting their website at www.abilenechristianuniversitypress.com. 

Wider distribution will begin in May 2013, as you'll learn by going to Amazon!

Naturally, I hope the book sells to broaden the reach of the CitySquare story and its model for urban renewal. 

Let me know if you order one! 



Facts. . .

The Dallas Business Journal published a report on the work of the Community Health Needs Assessment Task Force in this week's edition (June 1-7, 2012, page 11).

Here are some of the facts:

--26% of adults under age 65 and 26.4% of children from low-income families in North Texas lack health insurance.

--In 2011 the population in North  Texas was 4.6 million and is expected to swell to 5 million by 2016.

--From 2000 to 2010, Texas population grew 20% compared to 9.7% nationally.

--The most prevalent age group in North Texas is 35 to 54 (27.6%) followed by age 0 to 14 (20.2%).

--44% are "New Americans" born outside the US or children of the foreign born; of these 46% are undocumented.

--More than 230 languages are spoken in the North Texas area.

--In Dallas County, 29.6% of children under 18 and 15.8% of adults live below the federal poverty level.

Reactions?

Farmin' in the hood. . .sustainable, urban communities

Innovation

The urban ability to create collaborative brilliance isn't new.  For centuries, innovations have spread from person to person across crowded city streets.  An explosion of artistic genius during the Florentine Renaissance began when Brunelleschi figured out the geometry of linear perspective.  He passed his knowledge to his friend Donatello, who imported linear perspective in low-relief sculpture.  Their friend Masaccio then brought the innovation into painting.  The artistic innovations of Florence were glorious side effects of urban concentration; that city's wealth came from more prosaic pursuits:  banking and cloth making.  Today, however, Bangalore and New York and London all depend on their ability to innovate.  The spread of knowledge from engineer to engineer, from designer to designer, from trader to trader is the same as the flight of ideas from painter to painter, and urban density has long been at the heart of that process. 

The vitality of New York and Bangalore doesn't mean that all cities will succeed.  In 1950, Detroit was America's fifth-largest city and had 1.85 million people.  In 2008, it had 777 thousand people, less than half its former size, and was continuing to lose population steadily.  Eight of the ten largest American cities in 1950 have lost at least a fifth of their population since then.  The failure of Detroit and so many other industrial towns doesn't reflect any weakness of cities as a whole, but rather the sterility of those cities that lost touch with the essential ingredients of urban reinvention. 

Cities thrive when they have many small firms and skilled citizens.  Detroit was once a buzzing beehive of small-scale interconnected inventors--Henry Ford was just one among many gifted entrepreneurs.  But the extravagant success of Ford's big idea destroyed that older, innovative city.  Detroit's twentieth-century growth brought hundreds of thousands of less-well-educated workers to vast factories, which became fortresses apart from the city and the world.  While industrial diversity, entrepreneurship, and education lead to innovation, the Detroit model led to urban decline.  The age of the industrial city is over, at least in the West.

Edward Glaeser,

Triumph of the City, pp.8-9

Detroit: Model for urban redesign?

The work that urban designer Toni Griffin engages in these days is very interesting, challenging and nothing short of huge and amazing!  Thinking, working and organizing at this level is what it will take to renew the urban core of most American cities today.  After you've read the interview, let me know your reactions.  In my view, this is fascinating stuff.

Can This Planner Save Detroit?

Toni L. Griffin has just accepted a unique—and daunting—job: the reshaping of Detroit. She talks to ARCHITECT about population decline, urban ag, downtown’s revival, and more.
By: Fred A. Bernstein

Time magazine called Toni L. Griffin a “star urban planner,” which doesn’t have quite the same ring as “starchitect,” but properly describes the 46-year-old. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, where she still teaches, Griffin began her career in the private sector, working first for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in her native Chicago. While at SOM, she helped turn the Renaissance Center, John Portman’s office and hotel complex in downtown Detroit, into General Motors Co.’s world headquarters.

From SOM, she went to work for the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, focusing on planning and heritage tourism initiatives, and then to the Washington, D.C., planning office, where she oversaw redevelopment projects. From Washington, she moved to Newark, N.J., where, within three years, the planning office she rebuilt was winning awards—among them, an award from the New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association for its work on sustainable infill housing guidelines.

This spring, Griffin signed on for what may be America’s toughest urban planning challenge: helping to remake Detroit, a city that has seen its population decline by half over 60 years. In September, Griffin helped Mayor Dave Bing’s administration launch the Detroit Works Project, a 12- to 18-month effort to map the city’s future. It began with a series of widely attended public forums.

A Manhattan resident, Griffin spends most of the week in an office in Detroit City Hall. In an arrangement that reflects the strong interest of philanthropists in Detroit’s future, her salary is paid by the Kresge Foundation (which has an endowment of over $3 billion). Rip Rapson, Kresge’s president and son of architect Ralph Rapson, is also giving the city funds for Griffin to hire a team of local, national, and international consultants, from the private sector and four Michigan universities. Several other foundations are expected to provide funding to support both the technical and civic engagement components of the project.

Author Fred A. Bernstein first met Griffin in 2004, when they were both participants in the Mayors’ Institute on City Design in Charleston, S.C. She spoke to him on a recent weekend from her apartment in Harlem.

How did the Detroit job come about?

When Mayor Bing began his first full term in January, leaders of the private sector were determined to help him tackle the extraordinary challenges facing Detroit. At the same time, Kresge and other foundations wanted to make sure their investments aligned with the city’s needs, both programmatically and spatially.

This leadership saw now as the opportunity create a shared vision for the city, across sectors and inclusive of broad civic engagement. I was asked to join the mayor’s team to assemble and manage a team to create this vision with members of his staff.

To read the entire interview click here.

Urban Engagement Book Club 2010

Take a look at what follows for a list of the book selections for Central Dallas Ministries' Urban Engagement Book Club for 2010.

The club convenes on the first Thursday of each month from Noon until 1:15 p.m. We never go over our time limit! We meet at the Highland Park United Methodist Church (at SMU), Room 120 (3300 Mockingbird Lane Dallas, Texas 75205).

For more details and ready reference visit http://www.urbanengagement.org/.

January 7
The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care, T.R. Reid

February 4
Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, Barbara Ehrenreich

March 4
The Working Poor: Invisible in America, David K. Shipler

April 1
Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America, Helen Thorpe

May 6
The Hole in Our Gospel: What does God expect of Us? The Answer that Changed my Life and Might Just Change the World, Richard Stearns

June 3
Imprisoning America: The Social Effects of Mass Incarceration, David F. Weiman

July 1
Push: A Novel, Saphhire

August 5
Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21st Century Activists, Jason Del Gandio

September 2
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Chip Heath and Dan Heath

October 7
There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial, Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America, William Julius Wilson and Richard P. Taub

November 4
To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise, Bethany Moreton

December 2
Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a Better World, Mae Elise Cannon and John Perkins

To be added to our email invitation listing, please send an email to kgoldberg@CentralDallasMinistries.org.

Brick City

Have you checked out "Brick City"?

Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, provides new leadership for all interested in total urban renewal and community redevelopment.

For a taste of the Sundance Channel series have a look:

Urban Connection--Detroit???

At present Central Dallas Ministries is engaged in urban, community development in three Texas cites--Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. In the cities outside Dallas we brand our organizations Urban Connection.

A few years ago, I quipped to my partners at CDM that we needed to consider establishing Urban Connection--Detroit.

Of course, they thought me crazy, but such is not an unusual reaction to many of my ideas!

Now, I pick up the September 28, 2009 edition of Sports Illustrated and the cover story hits me in the face: "The Righteous Franchise: Detroit--Tigertown."

Here's a taste of Lee Jenkins' report:

They overlap before home games on Thursday afternoons, the thousands rushing into Comerica Park and the hundreds filing into Central United Methodist Church one block over on East Adams. The crowd streaming into the yard is drawn by a baseball team in first place, a pennant race on full blast, one final taste of summer. The group headed to the church is drawn by a free lunch. In the auditorium on the second floor of the church, the folks sit on metal folding chairs at wooden tables, wolfing down sloppy joes and talking about their neighbors, the Detroit Tigers. "You see the Twins blow that lead last night?" asks Willis Snead, who lives in a trailer park nearby. "That was great for us."

"I really think we're going to win it all this year," says Robert Montgomery, who sells beer at Tigers games. "But after that I'm moving somewhere with more jobs."

A man wearing a Tigers hat and a bushy white beard, who goes by Papa Smurf, sits on an upstairs windowsill of Central United, gazing at the human traffic jam on Woodward Avenue. "Look at them!" he howls. "They're coming in droves!" It is a cloudless Thursday afternoon in early September; the Tigers have taken the first two games of their series with the Indians; and Papa Smurf cannot contain himself. He rushes outside, charges up to a pack of alarmed fans and hollers, "Are you ready for a sweep?" They holler back that they are. Papa Smurf raises his arms in delight. "Detroit is like two different cities," says Papa Smurf, who lives in a downtown apartment now and volunteers at the church after six years of being homeless. "But this team -- and this ballpark -- is a bright light for all of us."

Read the full story here.

What an organization.

What a city.

Anyone besides me game for Detroit?

.

The whole world's about to change. . .

Since October last year, we've been working closely with a Fortune 500 international corporation to build a business model that could affect great changes in inner city Dallas and, by export, any other major inner city community.

While I am not at liberty to go into the details today--and that is tough because our progress is very real and I want to give the company all the credit that I can and that day is approaching--I can share the video below. Produced by some amazing employees and leaders from our corporate partner, it seeks to open a window on the people and the community of inner city Dallas.

Great plans are in the works.

Could the song be true--The whole world's about to change?

Urban Connection--San Antonio Part 1

In 2002, Central Dallas Ministries "planted a sister organization" in San Antonio, Texas.

We began with a very strong leader, Leslie Kelsie-Grubbs and a challenging location--the Lincoln Heights Courts public housing development located on the tough west side of the city.

Since the beginning days, growth, progress and real change has occurred, thanks to the work of Leslie and her very capable team.

As you'll hear Les say here when speaking of the community's improvement, that our presence "gives people permission to do something different."

I'll be posting video updates so that you can appreciate what has been accomplished with much more one the way!

Community development at its best!

To learn more and/or to become a partner, go to the website.

Recycled housing?

Now here is an unique approach to providing housing that also turns out to be extremely "green," as well as human and community friendly.

Would you live in a home like these?





So, what do you think?

.

A "Deep Shift"

We've edited and added to this post a bit, so that it seemed good to put it up one more time with the "enhancements." If you've already seen the earlier version, just scroll down to the video conversation that Brian provides below. We hope you'll join the crowd this weekend!


"You’re invited to gather with a wonderful group of people as part of the Everything Must Change Tour in 2008.

Through conversation, presentation, art, music, and reflection, we’ll explore how the way of Jesus can bring transformation in our contemporary world...locally, nationally, and globally... beginning with us, beginning now."

You are invited to The Everything Must Change Tour in 2008--Eleven Cities in 2008. Click here to register for this event.

A weekend with Brian McLaren and friends: "We Are In Deep Shift"--A time of transition, rethinking, re-imagining, and re-envisioning. A time for asking new questions and seeking answers that are both new and old fresh and seasoned surprising and familiar.

What does it mean, in today’s world, to be a follower of God in the way of Jesus?

What does it mean to be a faith community engaged in the holistic, integral mission of God in our world today?

How do we, as individuals and organizations, respond faithfully to the crises facing our world?

What is our duty to God, ourselves, our families, our neighbors, our enemies, and our planet in light of Jesus’ radical message of the kingdom of God?

How can we engage in personal formation and theological reformulation for global transformation?

Living in "deep shift" can be exhilarating and energizing, but it can also be disorienting and frightening.

Deep Shift was created to provide spiritual guidance for organizations. Deep Shift provides support as leaders make their own personal deep shift and guide their organizations through the transition and transformation necessary to ignite the loving energy of people to work for the good of the world: coaching, consulting, and resources for people leading in deep shift — faith community and church leaders, nonprofit leaders, ethical business leaders and others.

February 22-23, 2008: Dallas, Texas at Cliff Temple Baptist Church.

To register, visit the website:
http://deepshift.org/site/?page_id=19

For more details, visit the website at: http://www.deepshift.org/dallas.

Below is a video of Brian McLaren explaining the tour. This video is also available here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3QpTQfENoY

The neighborhood

I live in a great, old, two-story frame house built in 1922. It sits on sort of a "boundary" block between the Munger Place Historic District (of which we are a part) and the rest of the neighborhood. During the mid-1980s, it faced demolition, but somehow was spared. I have a photo of the place shot in 1986--talk about a mess!

At least three owners prior to our purchasing the house in 1999 put a lot of effort into restoring the place. We have been working on it off and on since we moved in. I am convinced it will be a never ending job!

The movie "Money Pit" comes to mind just here!

A big part of community development and, in my view, "urban ministry" always includes renewing the physical environments.

The photos below were taken not long ago in the neighborhood where we live. It is very different from the suburban community where we lived prior to our last move to the inner city. But, it is great, eclectic and never boring!

Photo 1: Zaragoza Elementary School

Photo 2: Corner "grocery store"

Photo 3: City park adjacent to the elementary school--often filled with soccer players

Photo 4: Boys and Girls Club just behind our house

Photo 5: A bungalow down the street

Photo 6: Apartment building around the corner

Photo 7: Apartment building near elementary school

In the near future, after I have my camera repaired, I'll post some photos of the wonderful, old prairie style homes up the street from us. Most date from the first decade of the 20th century. Many have been completely restored.

Sandwiched in between many of these homes in our neighborhood are old brownstone apartments and newer multi-family units (circa 1960s) in various states of repair or disrepair, as the case may be.

Of course, neighborhoods are all about people. Ours if very diverse in every respect. And, as a result, very interesting.

More on this later.

If I had a magic wand. . .

Let me share a dream or two.

If I could direct the funding--and it would take a major public /private commitment to accomplish what I am about to suggest, I would base the redevelopment of South Dallas on a complete renewal of Fair Park.

Fair Park is an historic jewel nestled in the northwest edge of South Dallas. Beyond the Music Hall and the various museums, Fair Park springs to life once each year to host The State Fair of Texas. During that three week period, the park hosts the Grambling-Prairie View A & M and Texas-Oklahoma football classics. Everyone loves the fair.

But, Fair Park could be so very much more than it is today. Shame on us for not taking advantage of this unique community asset.

If I had a magic wand, here's what I'd do (now remember, I said "magic" wand!):

1) Bring a Major League Baseball club out of the National League to Dallas and locate it in Fair Park. My first choice would be to move the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club to Dallas. Of course, there's not enough magic in any wand ever made to pull that one off. So, as a second choice, I'd move the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to the National League, which would mean the Washington Nationals would need to join the American League East. No easy change, but not impossible with the right wand. There are a number of potential owners in Dallas. Or, maybe we could create a very unique franchise that was owned, at least in part, by the public. The Metroplex could support two major league teams. The competition with Arlington would be fun to watch!

2) Build a wonderful new Cotton Bowl. The stadium I have in mind could easily host football games, including the annual fall, State Fair Classics and other special games. I can see Notre Dame playing Arkansas or Texas A & M. Or, how about a USC--LSU match up? We could host two or three special games annually, drawing from any of the major college teams. During baseball season (remember now, that would be 81 home dates, not counting college baseball!), our new team, let's say the Dallas Knights, would play in our new state-of-the-art sports facility, complete with retractible roof system that would make our summers bearable for pitchers. Lots of new jobs, year-round positions, would be created by a baseball venue that could accommodate other sports. Baseball is always better for communities that seek real economic development because of the number of guaranteed dates for the venue.

3) Redevelop mixed income housing on much of the extra parking area that was needlessly claimed years ago from neighbors who weren't consulted, but who were displaced. Town home condos, moderate and larger single family homes, mixed income/mixed use multi-family housing and retail development would be included around the park.

4) Renew the Martin Luther King, Jr. corridor by providing economic development funds to existing business owners and meaningful inducements to new, larger retail outlets. This key corridor out of Fair Park should be a major part of "Downtown South Dallas."

5) Redevelop all of Second Avenue as a shopping, dining, entertainment district to go along with the stadium renewal. This other corridor of the community could become a bustling center of economic and entertainment health.

6) Make sure that Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) developed adequate light rail transportation services to and from Fair Park and down the new development zones. A rail plan linking Fair Park to Deep Ellum, Downtown, and Uptown would be amazing.

7) Coordinate with the City of Dallas a new, aggressive land bank strategy to build out every vacant lot in the area as part of a dramatic, creative in-fill housing initiative. A plan should be devised to bring non-profit and for-profit developers to this important community challenge. The foundation community in Dallas should join with the city in creating a genuine and very robust housing trust fund that could create thousands of new home owners to take advantage of the in-fill housing redevelopment plans.

8) Appoint a special director or "Czar" for Fair Park renewal and expansion to drive the effort every day until it is completed. This special leader would need to be trusted, reputable, visionary and totally committed. He or she would then need to be surrounded by other community leaders who would drive the project forward.

9) Complete the entire project by 2015.

I can see it.

What would it take? Public and political will. A champion who lives and breathes the vision. Private investment. Community involvement, and by that I mean the folks who live around Fair Park would have to be involved in an official and meaningful manner from the beginning. The entire city would need to be sold on the fact that a success in South Dallas would benefit everyone.

And what a difference this would make for the entire city and region. And, just think, a team with pitchers who take their own place in the batting order!

Breaking through the pessimism to renewal

Classic community development dilemma.

A neighborhood battles all of the challenges and negative forces associated with poverty--urban decay, declining population, crime, drug abuse and trafficking, low performing schools, various public health epidemics, little or no viable economic infrastructure and, thus, few employment opportunities. Despair thrives here.

A neighborhood needs a new start, complete with decent housing, new economic development and strategies for improving every aspect of the social infrastructure. Steps toward improved health outcomes, quality retail grocery options and new employment options should be taken as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, the overwhelming list of negatives blocks the entrance of the needed positives that would contribute to neighborhood renewal. Somehow the logjam must be broken up.

Enter committed partners drawn from several sectors.

The language is important here:

"Committed"--this won't be easy, the work of community renewal. Players must be determined to stay in the game for the long haul, no exceptions no matter what. There will be no quick fix. This is where we must begin.

"Partners"--every one who comes to the table must decide to leave something on the table; some real resource with discernible market value. Soft or hard, the contributions must be real and they should be sacrificial.

"Several sectors"--the partnership must be diverse. No single sector of a community can pull this one off alone. Public players from the city, county and state must be involved. Community leaders out of the grassroots tradition must be engaged and trusting. Business partners, including bankers, realtors, developers, retailers and urban planners will have to be present. Non-profit and community-based organizations have an essential role to play in the process. Health care providers must be involved. Church and others from faith communities will be needed.

Whenever a group like this comes together to bring about comprehensive, sustainable change, be prepared. The "boo-birds" will show up--they always do--to explain just why such renewal is virtually impossible and should be left alone until "market forces" decide to work change according to the "natural flow" of the economy. [Note: Those voices are often heard here whenever something significant is proposed.]

Often, these same critics will try to reduce the community effort to a focus on individuals alone by stressing individual change as more important than community or neighborhood transformation. No doubt, individuals must and will change whenever communities experience renewal. But, we've learned that it will be group transformation that speeds along individual betterment and not the reverse.

Like I say, be prepared for battle and don't be surprised, just endure!

My only point here is this: if the right partnerships are constructed, change can happen. Neighborhoods don't have to be held hostage by the pessimistic thinking that too often dominates our understandings of low-income communities.

Hard work, very hard work; determination, faith and commitment to a collective effort can bring about change.

Bexar Street

Progress in Dallas.

The Ideal Neighborhood is among the poorest in Dallas. Last week, the city dedicated a strip of Bexar Street, running right through the heart of this community, where infrastructure improvements and a redevelopment plan are now underway.

The Dallas Morning News published an op-ed essay written by Gerald Britt, Central Dallas Ministries' Vice-President of Public Policy and Community Program Development.

If you are interested in urban renewal and community development, you should read what he wrote.

Here's the link:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/
dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-britt_21edi.ART.State.Edition1.4332e2d.html.

Surprising, heart-breaking poverty in Dallas

Monday it happened to me again.

I spent about three hours driving through various parts of some of the poorest sections of Dallas.
The images posted below don't adequately capture what I saw, but they help.

The scale of the negative environment overwhelms the soul.

As you view the images, imagine being 8-years-old and living here.

No matter how many times I have the experience two things continue to happen to me.

First, I am surprised again by the depth, the weight of the poverty and by the fact that so little seems to change between my tours.

Second, my heart breaks for the people I see as I drive. Children, elderly men and women, mothers, fathers, the housed, the homeless, the employed and the unemployed. . .neighbors of mine.

People who need better and more accessible. . .everything!

Pick you category.

Education--public for children and workforce for adults.

Health care and wellness.

Improved nutrition.

Safety.

Decent, fit, affordable housing.

Personal voice--political influence, power, collective lift.

Social capital.

Buying power.

Retail development and economic development.

The list remains the same. The needs stick out everywhere. We continue to act as if they don't exist, and we do so to the absolute peril of our entire community.

Dallas doesn't need a new vision, though vision is important.

Dallas needs a new courage.

Dallas needs a new heart, not for charity, but for fairness.

Come ride with me sometime soon. You'll see for yourself exactly what I mean.

Responding to people with class

During our recent trip to Common Ground Development in New York City, we toured three properties the organization has restored to use as single room occupancy apartments for low-income and formerly homeless persons.

Their work is stellar.

The buildings are all emaculate. The restorations exquisite.

Most importantly, the residents are enjoying great and encouraging living environments.

During our trip, we witnessed no problems with loitering, drunkenness or any sort of disturbance caused by any of the over 1,200 tenants leasing apartments from Common Ground.

The environments are key to the success they are experiencing.

The environments establish an expectation among the residents. No one could reside in such great places and be a "bum."



One of the features I appreciated, even in the bitter cold, was the rooftop patios and gardens. We were told that the tenants really took advantage of these spaces, especially in the springtime. [Forgive the quality of these photos. I captured them with my cell phone.]

The vision of Common Ground is amazing. The results are phenomenal.

What a model.

Talk about taking people seriously and responding to everyone with class, grace and quality!