Improving Planning and Policy to Foster More Resilient Neighborhoods: What Can We Learn from Existing Neighborhoods?

Ian Trivers (Washington University in St. Louis)

Resiliency is a growing area of focus for urban planning and policy. But to date much of the emphasis has been on issues of physical resilience related to climate change and natural disasters. This presentation expands that concept to a more holistic understanding of resilient neighborhoods– and considers how planning and policy might better support and foster them. Building upon the two earlier presentations in the session, here we consider existing neighborhoods that have proven resilient over time as a source of understanding for what may be most helpful in supporting resiliency in other existing and future neighborhoods. What can urban planning and policy learn from resilient neighborhoods that can help recreate the conditions that lead to them? The team identifies cases of neighborhoods that have exhibited a combination of economic, social and physical resiliency by weathering shocks and stresses over time relative to their surrounding neighborhoods and cities as a whole, and have done so without major, costly interventions and/or a substantial level of public or major institutional attention (i.e. major redevelopment initiatives, anchor institutions and the like). Through examination of these cases the team argues for using a broader lens to understand neighborhood resilience and suggest key “light touch” policies and practices, such as supporting neighborhood governance, facilitating neighborhood serving retail, and instituting physical design controls and enforcement, as interventions to advance neighborhood resiliency. While there is no set of practices can ensure resiliency, prioritizing these and other key approaches in planning and development is likely to produce better overall outcomes with lower overall costs.