Reimagining Cities-Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop

ears” for the police (without assuming police powers), power washing sidewalks, and coordinating a greater number of neighborhood festivals to meet the higher demands of walkable urban residents, employees and visitors. 79 A case study of the higher level of service and capital investment from a place management organization can be seen in the transformation of Bryant Park on 42nd Street in Manhattan. In the 1990s, Bryant Park was managed by the NYC Parks Department with a $600,000 annual budget (adjusted to 2024 dollars) and had a reputation for being unsafe and neglected, with property owners turning their backs on it. Today, Bryant Park operates with a $15.6 million annual budget, funding amenities such as an ice skating rink in the winter, movies on the lawn in the summer, maintenance of 1,000 moveable chairs (with a loss rate of about one per month), and possibly the finest public restroom in the country—an unusual highlight for any park. The park also hosts tours of birds migrating along the East Coast flyway, and the largest Christmas festival in New York City. The operating budget and all capital improvements are funded by private sources: increased property taxes from surrounding building owners, rent from park-based restaurants and concessions, as well as contributions from foundations and corporations. In the 15 sample cities, there are 208 WalkUPs, 82 of which are managed by at least one BID, CID or other type of place management organization. (In total, we found 89 place management organizations, some of which operate in the same WalkUP.) These WalkUPs have an average size of 295 acres, roughly equivalent to the aggregate land mass of two to three regional malls,

to the issues that begin at the sidewalk level and extend upward. Place managers can advocate for change to higher levels of governance, such as the city/county, metropolitan and sometimes state or federal levels. Unlike other levels of governance, which tend to be siloed, place managers oversee the entirety of the experience for WalkUP employees, residents and visitors. WalkUPs have place management organizations because the market demands a higher level of service than what is uniformly provided by the city. If the city were to provide enhanced services only for WalkUPs, other neighborhoods might object to this preferential treatment. The level of service provided by place management organizations needs to be higher than the city level of service, with enhancements such as safety ambassadors who assist pedestrians and act as extra “eyes and

79 Leinberger, Christopher B. and Tracy Hadden Loh, PhD. “Beyond Downtown: Emerging Insights in Walkable Urban Development.” Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis, The George Washington University. 2019.

56 Cushman & Wakefield