Neighborhood Services & Restoration

Strategy:   Restructure City Government

To successfully turn the city around, as mayor, David Tessitor will restructure our City government to eliminate those areas that support real estate speculation, such as much of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, and move the beneficial programs which are scattered through out a number of agencies into a new Department of Neighborhoods.   It is especially designed to coordinate and provide for city services and will provide special City programs that will make it easier for city residents to acquire and restore city properties.   Such a governmental structure has been used successfully elsewhere.

Department of Neighborhoods

The Tessitor proposal for a new Department of Neighborhoods divides the department into two basic areas of responsibility:

• Division of Neighborhood Services -- responsible for the coordination of city services at the neighborhood level -- most basic component at the individual neighborhood level is the Neighborhood Integrated Services Committee ("NISC") which brings together the direct service providers for a neighborhood every other week to jointly address that neighborhood's problems.
• Division of Neighborhood Restoration & Improvement -- responsible for the restoration of our traditional neighborhoods -- under the direction of a restoration architect, would assist residents; coordinate numerous small projects; and administer special City programs that will make it easier for city residents to acquire and restore city properties.

Division of Neighborhood Services and the NISC

At the core of administering city services is a new government structure called Neighborhood Integrated Services Committees ("NISC").   This concept and name is borrowed from Vancouver, BC, where it has been successfully utilized for a number of years.   They were so pleased with their results that they came to Pittsburgh to a present a program about it during the Neighborhoods USA Conference when it was held here a few years ago.

Simply put:

• the members of the NISC for each neighborhood consist of every service provider who has direct, hands on responsibility for the provision of their service in that particular neighborhood (e.g. the local police, fire, refuse, rec, etc.)
• The NISC meets every other week to review the problems within the neighborhood.
• It is left to the NISC to coordinate a solution among themselves, within the limits of their responsibilities.   (Having everybody at the table makes it practically impossible to pass the buck.)
• If the NISC decides upon a solution that requires approval from higher up, then that recommendation is delivered to the appropriate office with the weight of the NISC behind it, rather than an employee trying to tell their boss what to do.

The result is improved communication among all parts of the City government, enhanced coordination in the provision of city services, and more responsive decision making at all administrative levels.

Division of Neighborhood Restoration and Improvements

The Division of Neighborhood Restoration and Improvements would be coordinated under the guidance of a restoration architect who would head it and be responsible for developing its internal structure.

Purpose and responsibilities

The purpose of the Division of Neighborhood Restoration and Improvements would be:

• to work with existing community organizations in their restoration efforts
• to encourage and facilitate the diversification of restoration efforts among local craftsworkers and contractors
• to help generate a larger number of small projects that can be dispersed among the local community
• to expand and develop programs which assist individuals in restoring their own properties
• to undertake the restoration of public spaces in conjunction with the restoratioon of a community's private buildings.

The Division would also be responsible for maintaining a complete inventory of the city's buildings, including their conditions and a record of their historic context which can be used as a reference for what once worked well within various parts of each neighborhood (the latter can serve as a valuable guide for restoration efforts and can suggest desirable infill where there are currently vacant properties).

A better restoration process

The Dept. of Neighborhoods approach relies more upon coordination than upon traditional "planning" to bring about the meaningful restoration of our neighborhoods.   Historically, the most interesting and vibrant parts of the city were not created through the design of master planners.   Instead, they evolved through an organic process in which various uses were tested and proved themselves over time -- those that were ineffective being replaced by other uses.   Unfortunately, attempts to replicate the results through deliberate design using the traditional planning process generally tend to reek with artificiality and never seem to work as well.   Central planning, though often said to be the answer, is really no more effective today in our society than in the last century under the Soviet block.

The goal of this approach under the Dept. of Neighborhooods is to spread participation in the restoration of the community among the largest number of small projects as is reasonably possible.   This enables the projects to be generated organically from throughout the community rather than concentrated in the hands of a few as now happens through the CDCs and block grant programs.   Single property owners and small scale local landlords will have a better chance for taking advantage of available resources.   The wide dispersal of smaller projects throughout a community enhances the diversity of uses, approaches, economic levels, and social backgrounds within the community.   The mix that eventually derives will be that of a healthy, organic, socially spontaneous, normal interaction among the residents of the community rather than being dictated from above or outside.

It is just such a process that can most effectively revitalize our City's urban neighborhoods.

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