Ward Two Council Member Cam Gordon, a past member of the Seward Redesign board, led a panel discussion about the value of community development corporations (CDCs) during Seward Redesign’s annual meeting on Jan. 24.

“There are benefits to CDCs. Some neighborhoods don’t have them, and there’s a difference in what happens in different areas,” he said.

In some cases, CDCs are more effective or divisive than others, creating “healthy tensions,” as Gordon put it, as has often been the case between SNG and Redesign, he and others testified.

Mary Keefe, who sat on the panel as a representative of Hope Communities, a nearby CDC in the Portland and East Franklin area, said “community listening” projects led to more affordable housing, while John Erchul from Dayton’s Bluff Neighborhood Housing Services pointed to the revitalization of many businesses on Central Avenue Northeast. Last fall, the group canvassed every block in Northeast, he said proudly. “It’s like going back to the 60s,” he said, with “community-driven grassroots organization.”

Another strong CDC that rose directly from that grassroots heyday is the West Bank Community Development Corporation, which has long fostered housing and development projects in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. Like Redesign, the West Bank CDC recently drew a new business to one of its buildings; Acadia Café (see story here) relocated to the former home of the New Riverside Café, at the corner of Cedar and Riverside avenues, in February.

That is the essence of a CDC, said David Fey, who was not on the panel but who works in the city’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department (CPED). Fey formerly led Redesign (though some may recognize him as mayor R.T. Rybak’s deputy mayor during his first term). When it comes to CDCs, said Fey, the key word is “community.” Throughout the years, Redesign responded to all kinds of community concerns during his tenure. In the 1980s, it broadened its scope to include other issues, aside from its original focus on affordable housing, which at the time was controversial.

Jim Welna, who owns Welna Hardware stores in Seward and Phillips and leads the Seward Civic and Commerce Association, said CDCs provide a structured framework and vision for long-term projects. It brings together people with the expertise to carry things out, rather than leaving them to chance, he said.

But in recent years, CDCs have become larger and larger, straying away from the neighborhood level, a trend Brian Miller, executive director of Seward Redesign, said he hopes to reverse. He attributed the changes in part to strained budgets; with fewer funds available for CDCs, in general, the emphasis has been on organizations that work in needy areas.

“We are trying to emphasize that our work and the work of CDCs in general should focus on opportunity and building healthy neighborhoods,” said Miller, adding that it means coming up with long-term solutions, not just quick fixes.

last revised: February 20, 2008

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