Published August 25, 2013
By Alan Mallach and Lavea Brachman

They have been called shrinking cities and gateway cities. But by any label — our preferred term is legacy cities — medium-sized metropolitan areas struggling with manufacturing decline and population loss are a never-ending project in many parts of the country, including Camden, the poorest town in America, which was once a manufacturing hub, home to RCA Victor and the New York Shipbuilding Co.

With Detroit’s recent filing for bankruptcy, the pressure is on legacy cities to find a singular answer, such as a major development, for revitalization.

But the truth is the search for one big fix can inhibit revitalization. A mega-project can become an important asset, but it is not a strategy for change in itself, unless it is integrated into larger schemes to make a meaningful contribution to the city’s future. The gleaming facilities along Camden’s waterfront have done little to enhance the city’s downtown or its neighborhoods.

A more incremental approach built on collaboration and partnerships — combined with a fresh appreciation of existing assets, beginning with the physical urban form of these cities — holds more promise for rebuilding, including these key areas:

• Downtown Camden has enormous potential. The physical fabric of the central core — with density, a walkable, urban texture and proximity to Rutgers University at one end and Cooper University Hospital at the other — can become a powerful attraction for young single people and couples, and a strong basis for residential redevelopment. Set a friendly regulatory environment for infill redevelopment, reinvent public spaces and encourage private market reuse of older buildings, including targeted strategies to fill the market gap currently discouraging private developers.

• Sustain viable neighborhoods. Camden is fortunate to have a strong network of community development corporations working in the city’s neighborhoods; areas such as Parkside, East Camden and Cramer Hill can become places where city/CDC partnerships can implement multifaceted neighborhood strategies that draw demand, rebuild housing markets and address destabilizing elements, including crime, foreclosure and property abandonment.

• Don’t be afraid to demolish. Repurposing large inventories of vacant land strategically is a major springboard for change in heavily disinvested areas. Camden should explore large-scale property acquisition and reconfiguration of land uses, including the use of vacant land properties for public open space, urban agriculture or storm water management.

• Reinvent the economic base. Not every city can become the next bio-tech capital, but an honest assessment of local assets and regional competitive advantages can help build new export-oriented economies, while building workforce development partnerships with major employers and educational institutions in the city and county can increase local employment, and make the local workforce more competitive in the regional labor market.

• Build new partnerships. In Camden as in almost every city, universities and medical centers — “eds and meds” — are bedrock institutions, part of a foundational network of public, nonprofit and private collaboration. Similarly, state and federal governments must rethink their roles, becoming more nimble, more effective, less biased toward suburban areas and more focused on urban transformation than on subsidizing the status quo.

• Make sure all city residents benefit from change. Many cities are fractured, with large and growing economic and racial disparities. Engaging residents and providing the educational and workforce development systems they need to become competitive can build a stronger city for everyone.

In our research for the report “Regenerating America’s Legacy Cities,” an analysis of 18 of these struggling cities published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, one additional theme came up time and again: that strong regions are a distinguishing feature of thriving cities around the world.

While legacy cities and their regions are already inextricably linked by social and economic realities, far more must be done to make these connections positive forces for regenerating both the city and the rest of the region. Public policy changes at state and national levels should be pursued to foster greater regional integration. Regionalized infrastructure, particularly transit, sewer and water systems, should be encouraged to strengthen city and regional ties that foster economic growth.

All this may sound as if so many pieces need to fall in place. They do. Yet an approach we call “strategic incrementalism” can help keep the momentum going.

The daunting obstacles to change can be overcome through a process of gradual, incremental actions driven by a shared vision. Rather than devote significant time and resources to large-scale comprehensive planning, legacy cities should focus on building partnerships, supporting multiple initiatives and more organically internalizing a shared vision for the future.

Cities such as Camden were once the great economic engines of this country. The right mixture of new forms and directions, fueled by their powerful assets and historic can-do culture of achievement, can provide the springboard for a new era of prosperity.

Alan Mallach, a senior fellow at the Center for Community Progress, and Lavea Brachman, executive director of the Greater Ohio Policy Center, are co-authors of “Regenerating America’s Legacy Cities,” published this month by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.