What do you think?
Rate this book
High Point: The Inside Story of Seattle’s First Green Mixed-Income Neighborhood
The transform a 120-acre, run-down, high-crime, isolated, low-income housing project into a thriving, safe, healthy, mixed-income community with public and market rate housing, and shared green spaces and a street network linking the neighborhood together as well as to the surrounding community. Today, Seattle's High Point is an internationally acclaimed model of green, mixed-income development. In the beginning, however, it was a visionary and highly risky experiment that would require strong leadership, grit, and determination to make it a reality. Enter Tom Phillips, the urban planner who agreed to take on High Point. The story follows his team’s journey from inception to completion, navigating the myriad needs and expectations of a broad range of stakeholders, from government agencies to the design team, contractors, residents, and the broader community, all while keeping his eye on the greater vision and expanding it to include green building and design, at the time a new and fairly radical concept. Throw into the mix the 2008 housing crisis and the subsequent economic recession, and the result is a highly instructive and entertaining narrative filled with wisdom, insight, and lessons learned. It is also, most importantly, a critical, as well as celebratory, look back 18 years from the project's inception, to ponder what worked and what was learned to inform and inspire the next generation who are engaged with the transformation of communities.
294 pages, Paperback
Published March 31, 2020
1 person is currently reading
11 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 11, 2020
I just completed this thoughtful read. I am embarrassed to admit I was born and raised in Seattle, was very present during this time of the careful planning and execution of High Point. However I paid little attention. Tom Phillip's writing and history has educated me about what was happening right under my noise. But just as important, I am encouraged to pass book on to civic leaders where I currently live, Ketchum Idaho. We could make such a different following the guidelines and attitudes of the likes of High Point, in Blaine County.
September 18, 2020
In the 1990s and 2000s, local governments tore down many decaying public housing projects, and substituted middle-income housing for some of the low-income units in order to make renovations less costly and make poverty less concentrated. As a result, many of these low-income projects were developed as mixed-income neighborhoods.
The author planned one such neighborhood; this book is the blow-by-blow story of his progress.
Probably the most important thing I learned was how time-consuming and difficult redevelopment is, for two reasons. First, to build or redevelop public housing, a public housing authority (PHA) must go through the same public hearing process that a private developer must go through. If there is any controversy, the project may become financially infeasible; the author estimates that one month's delay increased costs by $39,5000 per month. Second, there is not enough federal funding for a PHA to redevelop a housing project on its own; instead the PHA must cobble together funding from a variety of sources, including the federal government and the sale of land to private developers. Progressives often argue that only fully affordable housing should be allowed- but this would require a level of government support far beyond current levels.
I was also interested in the author's discussion of how the project was retrofitted to become more walkable. By building a new north-south street, the planners connected the project to nearby, more affluent blocks. By building smaller parking lots that were not right next to houses, they encouraged neighbors to walk past the front porches of other houses to get to their home. To slow down traffic, they made a major road narrower by taking land that had been used for cars and using some of it for mini-gardens to absorb stormwater.
At the end of the book, the author interviewed some of the neighborhood's residents- both middle-class new residents and residents who had lived there before the redevelopment. The former group was generally pleased with High Point- but because the neighborhood now attracts people who can afford to live elsewhere, it has become far more transient. The lower-income residents who lived in High Point before the redevelopment complained about the loss of "community feeling" - perhaps because of this transience.
The author planned one such neighborhood; this book is the blow-by-blow story of his progress.
Probably the most important thing I learned was how time-consuming and difficult redevelopment is, for two reasons. First, to build or redevelop public housing, a public housing authority (PHA) must go through the same public hearing process that a private developer must go through. If there is any controversy, the project may become financially infeasible; the author estimates that one month's delay increased costs by $39,5000 per month. Second, there is not enough federal funding for a PHA to redevelop a housing project on its own; instead the PHA must cobble together funding from a variety of sources, including the federal government and the sale of land to private developers. Progressives often argue that only fully affordable housing should be allowed- but this would require a level of government support far beyond current levels.
I was also interested in the author's discussion of how the project was retrofitted to become more walkable. By building a new north-south street, the planners connected the project to nearby, more affluent blocks. By building smaller parking lots that were not right next to houses, they encouraged neighbors to walk past the front porches of other houses to get to their home. To slow down traffic, they made a major road narrower by taking land that had been used for cars and using some of it for mini-gardens to absorb stormwater.
At the end of the book, the author interviewed some of the neighborhood's residents- both middle-class new residents and residents who had lived there before the redevelopment. The former group was generally pleased with High Point- but because the neighborhood now attracts people who can afford to live elsewhere, it has become far more transient. The lower-income residents who lived in High Point before the redevelopment complained about the loss of "community feeling" - perhaps because of this transience.
June 29, 2024
Obviously, I read this for work. But I really enjoyed it! Can't believe that I've lived in Seattle for five years and had no idea that this neighborhood existed at all. One of those years was in West Seattle, even. It's going to be interesting and challenging being a part of the management here, but I am really looking forward to the challenge.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews