Even as Richmond's City Council prepares to consider amendments to the newly approved Downtown Master Plan, boosters of the plan heard what sounds like sage advice from mayor of another revitalized southern city.
Mayor Joseph Riley P. Riley spoke to about 400 people yesterday, and if Will Jones' report in the Times-Dispatch is any indication he's a big fan of making the downtown a public space. Much of what Riley said echoed the words of Richmond's Director of Community Development more than a year ago; Rachel Flynn acknowledged at the time that Riley was one of her heroes when it comes to how to build a city for the people.
Riley said Richmond's future is bright with historic neighborhoods, the James River, the state Capitol, a growing region and a diverse local economy. He praised the city's efforts to adopt a new Downtown Master Plan and claimed to have found no secret to "city-building."
"You just work at it," he said.
Riley said cities are like ecosystems in that they depend on the proper mix of buildings block to block. He stressed the importance of urban-design principles, such as putting retail on the street-level of buildings and widening sidewalks to accommodate pedestrians even if cars are inconvenienced...
...he stressed the importance of preserving the best land for the public. He described a fight with a developer in Charleston that ended in a land-swap that produced prime waterfront property for a city park.
Such amenities are critical, he said, because some residents won't have the ability to experience anything nicer.
"It is the public realm. It's the part of the city that everyone owns," Riley said of downtowns. "It's the democratic space. It's where citizenship is reinforced."
He also said cities must insist on quality in whatever is built.
"The fact of the matter is, in city-building, there's no reason to build anything that doesn't add to the beauty of your city," he said, showing photographs of subsidized housing with third-floor porches that blended into the historic neighborhood.
