Third, Learn the Life Cycle of Resilient Places
Planners should study places that have undergo significant transformations over many decades, if not centuries. Such places, by virtue of their long-term vitality and survival, meet the definition of resilient. Most often, such places bounce back from social, economic, and environmental challenges — all three dimensions of the Triple Bottom Line. One such place is Leadenhall Market dating back to the 14th century. London, 2002.
Start With Examples From Older Cities
A profound example of a sustainable place is the old City of Jerusalem — not because it is beautiful or intriguing, but because of the challenges it survives. Circumstances today, in 2023, are no exception. Jerusalem has survived for millennia in the face of great destructive forces. It suffered through major wars and crusades, it lacks adequate water resources, the climate is inhospitable, cultural violence occurs almost daily, and political battles never end. So why has Jerusalem sustained itself?
The world values Jerusalem for its cultural, spiritual, and political history. Despite millennia of hardships, the city survives socially, economically, and environmentally.
For planners, the question is: Can we generate long-term, city-wide commitments within our local communities to sustain social, economic, and environmental survival? For me, the answer begins when cities recognize the regret that would be felt if such communities did not survive. The world, for example, seems to love Jerusalem for many different reasons. We could call Jerusalem a “necessary” or “essential” city just as the United Nations has identified many “world heritage sites”. Yet not all world heritage sites still function as cities. How does a city become, and then remain, so “essential” that we sustain it despite its misfortunes?
A sustainable place within the city must have an innate ability to experience “ups and downs” and reinvent itself over and over. How many economic, social, and physical storms has a place weathered, and from how many has it bounced back? That is, what is the life cycle of a so-called necessary sustainable place? Which places, after a pandemic or disaster, have bounced back and why?
Find ‘Comparables’ – Smaller Scale, Contemporary Places
Most places and buildings follow a repeating life cycle — more akin to a spiral in which the phases overlap with modest differences each time the cycle is completed. A few main streets, for example, were devastated by the pandemic of recent years and did not bounce back. Many more local main streets, however, entered a new part of their life cycle on the way back up. Just as some forest fires are viewed as necessary to the ecology of a local forest, other forest fires seem cataclysmic. Planners must learn the difference.
Each time, the cycle of recovery and reinvention may be a bit different. Planners need to understand how the underlying structure of a “place” helps it rebound. Most likely the ability to reinvent a place, and make it more sustainable, depends on the number of different futures one place can easily accommodate. A street that can include hundreds of different uses and activities offers a much stronger opportunity to bounce back than a street with just a few options for its future.
For example, one block of a main street with many narrow buildings on each side of the street has a much higher chance of long-term resilience that that same street with only one large size building on each side of the street. In some places we see a street-level façade that appears to be many separate businesses when, in fact, it is just one large building with different tenants. Moreover, a main street may appear to have different tenants when, in essence, they are really part of one corporate entity. Such inauthentic main streets are less sustainable. The whole street succeeds or fails — all at once.
Disney’s main street, for example, fabricates an image, quite successfully, of multiple businesses. On an authentic main street, each building represents an independent business that will thrive or fail on its own. Disney offers a main street that rests on the survival of one corporation. Many failed shopping malls maintained a similarly artificial image of multiple businesses that ultimately failed as part of a larger corporate entity. Put another way, a main street in which you can always find one new independent business about to thrive and another independent business about to close, depicts a strong potential for resilience — pieces come and go, but the whole place remains.
All of the places in these photographs have been reinvented — a sign of long-term resilience. Clockwise from upper left: a medieval plaza in Florence used for twentieth century parking (1976), Copenhagen’s Nyhavn (2002) once used for freight and now for tourism, Milwaukee’s Third Ward transformed from manufacturing (in late nineteenth century) to recreation (late twentieth century) , and San Antonio’s Riverwalk (2003) converted from a drainage system to a tourist destination. All of these places include multiple independent businesses that create an appealing visual diversity and an underlying, robust economic strength.
Compare Life Cycles In Both Built And Natural Environments
Ultimately, all parts of our built and natural environments exist within life cycles. People, places, and plants, however, have different types of life cycles. Making places resilient does not mean that such places have life cycles that should last forever. Each part of our environment exists within its own life cycle with its own internal logic and history. Studying microcosms of plants and animals provides one of the best ways to understand, by analogy, the different life cycles of our places.
Every picture tells a story about natural life cycles that offer lessons for cities. The resilience of nature can be captured in all aspects of our daily lives. Over time, as our population sees examples of resilience in small details, we may also begin to understand the issue of resilience as part of large neighborhoods and cities.
Topic Summary
Start With Examples From Older Cities
Find Comparables – Smaller Scale, Contemporary Places
Compare Life Cycles In Both Built And Natural Environments