Building Community through Urban Design and Development:
An Analysis of Social Vitality and Equity
A research proposal submitted to the Urban Studies and Planning Program
University of California at San Diego
Kristen Shields
Urban Studies and Planning Program
Senior Sequence USP 186 Section A04
kshields@ucsd.edu
November 2, 2010
Abstract
This proposal outlines a research strategy to examine the effect that a
development project can have on the social vitality and equity of a neighborhood.
Current research on public space in urban environments suggests that inclusion of
human-scale design elements that facilitate user interaction in public spaces will
be key in creating vibrant and socially equitable communities. In order to create a
sustainable settlement model in redeveloped areas, spaces should be designed to
facilitate social vitality and equity, however many redevelopment areas contain
underutilized, exclusionary and unsafe public spaces that do nothing to improve
the social community life of a neighborhood. This proposal aims to examine
these problems by conducting a case study of the Market Creek Plaza
development in San Diego, California. I will rely on survey data from users of
the space, interviews with residents of the area and the project developer, as well
as observational data. This research will contribute to the literature on Urban
Design by expanding on an analysis of how residents and other users function in
the spaces designed for them to include an analysis of how developer techniques
can operationalize social community development. It will be shared with local
developers and San Diego’s Centre City Development Corporation in the hopes
that priority will be given to designing well-used, safe, and pleasant public spaces
that will support a sustainable settlement model in redeveloped areas.
Key terms: infill redevelopment, social equity, urban design, public space
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The Importance of Community Life in Public Spaces
Recent attention in the planning field has been given to redeveloping blighted areas in an
effort to return to a walk-able, urban village settlement type. The suburban sprawl that occurred
during the middle of the twentieth century has since been denounced as an unsustainable and
undesirable development and alternatives must be sought in order to accommodate the growing
population. With a diminishing supply of resources, including fossil fuels that facilitated the car
culture that brought the American Dream to the suburbs, it will be imperative to redevelop the
denser, walk-able, transit-oriented communities that previously defined American life. Popular
movements have risen that emphasize the sustainability of this new American neighborhood,
which includes improving community and civic life through social equality, ensuring
environmental health, and increasing economic vitality.
This research will focus on sustainability through social equity, particularly the ability to
create and maintain a vibrant and equitable social life in neighborhoods through well-designed
streetscapes, open spaces and public plazas. Developers have an opportunity to use projects to
operationalize ideas of a vibrant social community through implementing design principles that
function positively for users of the space. There are several challenges to building a vibrant
public social life and a community identity in a redeveloped area. These challenges include a
decline in the value of public space caused by the rise of electronic communities and the
increased privatization of open space. Additionally, within the antiquated suburban American
Dream is a fear of the heterogeneity of dense urban villages and a desire to live in predictable,
homogenous communities. There is an opportunity in redevelopment projects to use design
elements to create public spaces where users of various socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds
can coexist in a pleasant and safe environment that facilitates positive communication and
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interaction. Well-designed spaces that increase face-to-face interaction between users in
heterogeneous communities will create a unified sense of identity for the neighborhood thus
creating equity through design. Reviving public spaces and increasing the social value of faceto-face interaction does little to directly address the challenges associated with the rise of
electronic communication and the exclusionary aspects of private space, but can begin to reshape
the vision of the ideal American neighborhood. By designing functional public spaces, the
community life of an urban village can become more vibrant, desirable, and equitable than the
suburban model.
Although there are many theories on how to improve the community life and equity
within neighborhoods and regions, this research will be limited to analysis of two key aspects of
community social life on a neighborhood scale: increased social vitality as evidenced by
frequency of interactions in the public arena and increased community identity as evidenced by
cooperative participation in neighborhood projects and events. Attention will be given to how
particular design elements in the public space of Market Creek Plaza can both facilitate and
hinder interactions between users, the variances in use and population in spaces, and the
inclusionary and exclusionary aspects of the overall development project. By conducting a
thorough case study of how Market Creek Plaza has contributed to the social vitality of the
surrounding community, projections can be made on how similar public spaces of the built
environment may function to create a community identity in other neighborhoods. This will
provide insight on how these spaces can be improved in future redevelopment areas. This study
will be limited to San Diego’s Market Creek Plaza development, but hopes to uncover patterns of
behavior that give insight to how users will function in similar city centers and public spaces.
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Community Development: Social Equity’s Role in Sustainability
The concept of sustainability has been defined, dissected, and reinvented countless times
in scholarly literature in the past few decades. Though many disagree on the exact definition, the
underlying idea remains constant: the world contains limited resources and in order to sustain
life on this planet the use of such resources needs to be managed under the umbrella of
sustainability. In neighborhood development, this definition is widely used: “development that
meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs” (Hodge 1997, 9). Sustainable development must also include a symbiotic
relationship between three main goals: social equity, economic vitality, and environmental
health. These are commonly known as the three E’s of sustainability (Hodge 1997, 16).
Of particular interest to me is the aspect of social equity and how it manifests in
redevelopment areas. Many redevelopment areas seem to be focused on improving and
upgrading the neighborhood and inadvertently- or intentionally- create a gentrified space that
excludes the lowest socioeconomic classes. The two other concepts, environmental health and
economic vitality, are given much more prominence in most applications of sustainability theory.
Advancements have been made to infuse the aspects of environmental health into collective
American consciousness. “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” has become the mantra of the masses.
Popular emphasis has also been placed on economic vitality in light of the recent economic
climate of the nation. Where sustainability practices are on the rise, the third “E” is easily
ignored. This study intends to provide a perspective on how social equity relates to development
practices and the design and functions of the public arena.
As mentioned in one discussion of injustice in development: “the people whose needs
justify the whole development industry are the people with the least power to influence
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development and to whom there is least accountability” (Wheeler 2009, 201). This research
project seeks to show how the developers of Market Creek Plaza are doing something contrary to
this universally applied view of developers and holding themselves accountable to the residents
and users of the project. There is much scholarly discussion of how developers (quite literally)
bulldoze the rights of lower income and minority groups and of the inequitable impacts of
development policies, but little research on how some commercial developers consciously and
purposefully contribute to social equality (Wheeler 2009, 183). The study of the planning
process behind Market Creek Plaza’s public spaces will provide a model for including resident
and user needs in projects. The success in the project in incorporating resident design review
panels may perhaps lead to policy changes that require consideration of such needs in future
developments.
Many scholars have discussed the importance of public space in the evolution of
community. The following is a modern example of ideas on public space:
The street as a site of interaction, encounter, and the support of strangers for each
other; the square as a place of gathering and vigil; the corner store as a
communicator of information and interchange. These spaces, without romanticism
or nostalgia, still define an urban culture. (Vidler 2002, 84)
Although this modern American life prizes the autonomy of the individual and public spaces are
increasingly virtual and digital, there is still a need for face-to-face interaction. Interactions in
public space not only define urban culture, but continually redefine and reinvent that culture.
Jan Gehl describes a contact scale that ranges from high to low intensities, from passive
encounters to close friendships. She argues that without passive encounters in public spaces the
lower end of the contact scale disappears and the “boundaries between isolation and contact
become sharper- people are either alone or else with others on a relatively demanding and
exacting scale” (Gehl 1980, 87). This type or pressure undoubtedly has negative effects on the
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human psych. In other words, humans need human interaction on a casual and public scale and
developers need functional examples of how to create spaces that will facilitate this social need
in order to create sustainable neighborhoods.
To have these types of interactions, people need to have safe and inviting spaces to
frequent. Scholarly literature on urban design elements includes theories on how to design a
variety of public spaces, including particular examples of cities in which certain design elements
have been successful. Where the urban design literature offers numerous ideas on what makes a
space succeed, it fails to offer specific and proven solutions on how create spaces that promote
social equity and promote community identity. (These sources are numerous, redundant, and
generic, but to include examples of such literature, see the following in bibliography: Bohl 2002,
Brown 2009, Paumier 2004,).
Community identity and participation are essential to the success of any neighborhood.
The decline in interconnectivity of community began to materialize in settlement patterns during
the middle of the twentieth century with suburbanization. The suburbs contained major social
defects in their design, creating a caricature of a real community and a predictable homogeneous
environment. Lewis Mumford wrote extensively of the problems with this type of settlement,
describing “families in space” and the damaging effects of living in “the irreality of retreat”
(Mumford 1961, 494). In an effort to bring connectivity back to the neighborhood, the idea of
urban villages emerged. These villages were envisioned as equitable, heterogeneous
neighborhoods, in which residents could benefit from inclusion in a community identity. This
was described by some scholars as a “sense of place and community commitment” (Biddulph
2003, 167).
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While the sum of this literature offers a general idea on the importance of public space
and community building, this research hopes to contribute an in depth analysis of functional
development practices. This research aims to provide a dynamic view of sustainability (through
a social equity lens) and the development methods and design elements that have been utilized in
Market Creek Plaza to achieve community goals.
Market Creek Plaza Case Study: Design and Methods
In an attempt to understand the symbiotic relationship between development projects and
community development, a project that would serve as an adequate case study would be one that
prioritizes social equity and community involvement. In the San Diego area- in which the
researcher is most familiar with the regional dynamics- Market Creek Plaza (MCP) serves as a
prime example. MCP is a project in which the developers made great strides to ensure that the
members of the existing community were involved in all aspects of the project including
planning, building, and staffing the plaza. The Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, the
development agency responsible for the MCP project, spent a significant amount of time
collecting neighborhood input on user needs and desires. The plan for MCP was devised to
include public spaces and services that responded directly to the needs of the neighborhood,
improving the quality of life for the residents without the displacing effects that come from
gentrification. In order to understand and detail the successes and failures of the MCP project,
research will seek to answer the following question: How did the Jacobs Center for
Neighborhood Innovation operationalize social community development in the Market Creek
Plaza Development Project?
In order to measure how the project contributes to the increased social vitality of the
neighborhood, vitality will be measured by quantifying the frequency of interactions in the
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public arena, the diversity of user population and the types and levels of interaction within these
spaces. Key public arenas will be identified, and observational data will be gathered in order to
determine the diversity of uses and the number of users at a given time. This data will be
collected across several days of the week and several times of day for each space. Survey and
observational data will be gathered regarding the levels of interaction, in order to determine
whether there are adequate spaces for both passive and engaged interactions to ensure that users
are meeting both of these particular social needs. Observational data will also be gathered in
order to hypothesize how specific design elements in the plaza facilitate social interaction.
Social vitality will be considered directly proportionate to frequency and diversity of use and
population.
Census data from 2000 and 2010 will be used to determine the changing socioeconomic
composition of the neighborhood and how it compares to the region of San Diego County as a
whole. A comparison will be made in unemployment rates and household incomes over the
decade, with necessary attention to the decline in national employment, to determine if MCP
may have had a positive impact on the financial situations of the residents. Census data will also
be analyzed in regard to home values, again with relative attention to the national and regional
real estate crisis. It can be assumed that developments that are valued by the general population
will raise the property values of homes in the vicinity, and this census information will be
adjusted to the national average decline and evaluated to determine if the development of MCP
has had any influence on improving property values in the neighborhood.
To analyze the community involvement during the processes of planning and
implementation of MCP, interviews will be conducted of residents, workers, and other members
of the community. This information will be used to determine the extent of an increased
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community identity as evidenced by cooperative participation in MCP as a neighborhood project.
Questions will be posed so as to compare the involvement of residents with their community
prior to the MCP project, during, and in MCP’s current state of completion. An analysis will be
made of current and ongoing community events and the extent of resident involvement in such
events.
Interviews will be conducted of members of the Jacobs Center development team.
Jennifer Vanica, of the Jacobs Center team, will be interviewed regarding the project’s goals and
implementation. The researcher has also been made aware of a pilot program by the Department
of Housing and Community Development that is using MCP as an example of successfully using
neighborhood development projects to improve social equity in a given neighborhood. Jennifer
Seeger, the Housing and Policy Manager for the department, will be assisting the researcher in
acquiring more data on how this pilot program analyzes and quantifies social vitality and
community equity. This information will then be used as further framework for testing the
successes and failures of the Jacobs Center in operationalizing social community development
through the MCP project.
Observational and survey data collection will be conducted several times per month from
November to January, 2010. Interviews will also be conducted in this time frame. Analysis and
synthesis of data will be conducted throughout the research project with the culmination and
presentation of findings scheduled to occur in March 2011. The costs of this research project are
minimal, with the most exorbitant cost being the researcher’s transportation to and from the
MCP project for purposes of data collection.
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Outcome
The results of this research will assist urban designers and developers in creating
functional public environments in the communities they create that create and support a positive
community identity and contribute to the social vitality of the neighborhood. The information
gathered in the research and analysis will give insight into how public spaces succeed or fail in
supporting an equitable and socially diverse neighborhood, both in San Diego and in
redeveloping areas nationwide. San Diego’s Centre City Development Corporation can benefit
from designing public spaces that will support an equitable community, as these spaces fit into
the popular sustainable settlement model in redeveloped areas. This study hopes to provide an
argument for the importance of face-to-face interaction and an equitable community identity so
as to ensure that priority is given to including quality public spaces in neighborhood designs.
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Bibliography
Biddulph, Michael et al. “From Concept to Completion: A Critical Analysis of the Urban
Village.” The Town Planning Review 74, 2 (2003): 165-193.
Bohl, Charles. Place Making: Developing Town Centers, Main Streets, and Urban Villages.
Washington D.C.: Urban Land Institute, 2002.
Brown, Lance. Urban Design for an Urban Century: Placemaking for People. New Jersey:
John Wiley and Sons, 2009.
Gehl, Jan. Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space. New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold, 1987.
Hodge, Tony. “Toward a Conceptual Framework for Assessing Progress Toward
Sustainability.” Social Indicators Research 40 (1997): 5-98.
Mumford, Lewis. The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects. New
New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961.
Paumier, Cy. Creating a Vibrant City Center: Urban Design and Regeneration Principles.
Washington D.C., 2004.
Vidler, Anthony. “A City Transformed: Designing Defensible Space.” Grey Room 7 (2002):
82-85.
Wheeler, Stephen M. and Beatley, Timothy. The Sustainable Development Reader. London:
Routledge, 2009.
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