On defining legacy assets.

As an addendum to the preceding post about assets in a "legacy" city, the following is an excerpt originally penned as part of a student discussion a couple years ago:

 "the glory of New Albany is in her construction of magnificent steamers. In this noble art her mechanics stand unrivaled. She is second only to Pittsburgh in the number of tons launched from her shores; but in the size of her boats, their models and strength, beauty and finish, she has no rival. The mechanics that have framed the Shotwell and Eclipse, and given them their grace, beauty, and speed, may challenge the world."

That was written about New Albany in the 1850s. Much of our early history is owed to steamboat building and the associated industries and businesses that sprang up around it. It's very much a part of our cultural capital. When I ask people here what our heritage is, what our tradition is, invariably a lot of them will take an object-oriented view and mention steamboats. My answer is that our tradition is innovation.

Why does that matter? Because I'm interested in identifying and/or constructing an inclusive narrative with which people can identify and engage, a story of who we are and what we want to be in order to inspire and frame collective action. Whether that story is aimed at an internal or external audience, buy-in and some sort of shared meaning - a unifying way forward - is necessary.

Steamboats as objects represent a past with no real hope for future development. For all practical purposes, they're over. It's not true of every object, but we're simply not going to create a sustainable community future building or interacting with them. Except in very limited ways, people can't be a part of them. If we talk about the steamboats in terms of innovation, design, engineering, and craftsmanship, though, the story is just as accurate and respectful but much broader and more inclusive. That sort of creativity and skill mastery are present in many facets of life and work now as they were then. As Max-Neef referenced, there's great creativity and ingenuity in poverty that too often goes unnoticed. Survival makes it a necessity.

So, in trying to implement an asset based strategy for instance, it doesn't matter much to me if creativity and innovation currently exist at a cultural institution, a software company, a machine shop, or in someone's backyard. It matters if I can draw lines between them from the past to the present and between various elements of that present in a way that can help people feel a valued part of a common, connected whole over time.

I'm looking forward to digging into heritage issues further but experience tells me that if I let an asset building strategy occur here without intervening to help nudge some of the terms along, we'd be talking about historic buildings instead of the practice of architecture; the condition of sidewalks instead of street life. It's the difference between dead and alive and creativity provides a bridge that might not otherwise exist.

It makes sense to use assets as starting points for regenerating a "legacy" city.

The work of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is largely unfamiliar to me. It's a think tank, and publishes reports like this one. I'm struck by the "duh" simplicity of the abstract: Why would any plan for revitalization not include identifying and leveraging pre-existing assets?

This rumination struck a chord, and then I recalled Jeff writing  here a few years back about asset mapping in a neighborhood context.

Regenerating America’s Legacy Cities (Policy Focus Report)

Legacy cities have many assets that can be starting points for revitalization and change, including downtown employment bases, stable neighborhoods, multimodal transportation networks, colleges and universities, local businesses, historic buildings and areas, and arts, cultural, and entertainment facilities. A renewed competitive advantage, which will enable them to build new economic engines and draw new populations, is likely to come from leveraging the value of their assets.

Nuts and Bolts: Neighborhood asset mapping

Often, perhaps too often, neighborhood activists focus on what we want. When formulated into an inspiring vision and augmented with a strategic map for getting there, that's both necessary and useful.

What's just as necessary, though, is consideration of what we have. To the extent that community building and revitalization are the end result of mobilized capacities and assets, and they always are, what we have provides the foundational building blocks for future developmental efforts.

Adapted from Kretzman and McKnight's Building Communities from the the Inside Out, the following is provided by friend and long-time revitalization leader and teacher John Lehner. I'd love to bring John back to town at some point for some direct insight but, until then, his resource and asset typology is a good starting point for discussion around collaborative revitalization strategy.

Primary Resources
Resources that exist or originate in the neighborhood and are significantly controlled by individuals or entities inside the neighborhood.

Examples:
Skills, talents, and experience of residents
Individual Businesses
Personal Income
Relationships, Social Capital
Citizens' associations
Religious organizations
Financial Institutions
Real Estate

Secondary Resources
Resources that exist or originate inside the neighborhood but are significantly controlled by individuals or entities outside the neighborhood.

Examples:
Public schools
Social service organizations
Police and Fire departments
Parks
Waste management
Employers
Real Estate

Potential Resources
Resources that originate outside the neighborhood, impact the neighborhood, but are significantly controlled by individuals or entities outside the neighborhood.

Examples:
Public capital improvement expenditures
Public information
Media
Welfare expenditures

What does your neighborhood's asset map look like?