Kids in the Pearl

The usual suspects said that Portland's Pearl District would never have children in it - it was too poortly planned. Randy Gragg thought so. And so, in his own gloating way, did Jack Bogdanski.

Both WRONG!

From the American Planning Association's (APA) Planning Magazine, the following excerpt (available in full for members of the APA)

Parents with young children say 'yes' to living downtown.

By Isabelle Groc, AICP

Watching the trains come and go, listening to the ship horns, riding the streetcar, browsing the local bookstore, and splashing at the Jamison Square water fountain are some of the weekend activities Nancy Davis enjoys with her four-year-old son in Portland's Pearl District. "It is just wonderful for a child because you are exposed to so many new sights, sounds, and smells," Davis says.

The Pearl District is a relatively new neighborhood in the heart of Portland, the site of a massive conversion of historic warehouses into a transit-oriented, high-density, upscale residential community. Most activities are easily accessible by trolley or by foot, and the Davis family rarely ever needs to drive elsewhere. "There is always something to do just outside the doorstep," Davis says.

Nancy Davis and her husband both live within walking distance of their offices, making them part of a new generation of parents who have decided to move downtown with their children. They have given up the space offered by the traditional suburban single-family home to enjoy an urban lifestyle that includes reduced commuting time and convenient walks to parks, retail, and cultural amenities. Downtown has become an attractive playground for both parents and children to explore.

Families' aspirations to live downtown may have caught some city planners off guard. In the past decade, most urban revitalization initiatives have been based on the assumption that downtown living would be attractive primarily to young professionals and empty nesters.

"If I have a choice to live in a house with a yard that has twice as much square footage as I could afford downtown, why would I live downtown as a family?" According to Gil Kelley, director of the Portland Planning Bureau, that is the question families often ask themselves. But, he adds, "there is a new generation that says I can walk to the grocery store, to my day care, I can have a park two blocks away instead of eight or 10 blocks."

"In this neighborhood, we don't necessarily have families who move here; we have couples who move here, have families, and want to stay here very badly," notes Patricia Gardner, vice president of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association.

Still, the current number of children living in the Pearl is quite small. Portland State University's Population Research Center found that only 26 students enrolled in the Portland Public Schools District lived in the Pearl District in 2002, or about one student per 200 units. In October 2006, the number of students living in the Pearl was 54. The assumption that families do not want to live in the central city means that downtown neighborhoods often lack the necessary child-friendly amenities that would support the lifestyle that the Davis family enjoys.

A recent market study completed by the Portland Development Commission on the demand for family-oriented condominiums found that a significant number of families with children were interested in living in the central city. However, existing projects do not contain the right combination of unit types and prices to attract this demographic over the long-term. According to the Portland Development Commission, out of the 5,300 units in the Pearl District, roughly 68 percent are studios or one-bedroom suites, 28 percent are two-bedroom units, and four percent are three-bedroom units. Some of the units are luxury lofts not suitable for children.

To live in the Pearl, Davis worked hard to make her living space suitable for a child. She and her husband asked the developer who built their one-bedroom condo to convert the unit's second bathroom into a child's bedroom. When they moved to a 1,600-square-foot unit, they once again had to work with the developer to adapt the floor plan.

It is Saturday morning in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, and the Roundhouse Community Center in the Yaletown neighborhood is filled with people of all ages taking classes. In one of the rooms, 10 kids ages one to four years old and their parents are attending the Music Together program. They are all singing: "There's a cobbler on our street, Mending shoes for little feet, With a bang and a bang and bang bang bang." Roxy the instructor uses the chant to talk about who else might be working down the street. Parents and kids are quick to offer suggestions. How about the bakery? "There's a baker on our street, Making treats for us to eat, With a yum and yum and a yummy yum yum." And the singing goes on with a fruit and vegetable store, a park, and a market.

Kids don't have to look too far in their surrounding environment to add new verses to the nursery rhyme. Steps away from the Roundhouse Community Centre there is indeed a fruit and vegetable store and much more: the Dorothy Lam Children's Centre, the David Lam Park equipped with swings and play structures, the Elsie Roy Elementary School, the seawall, all within walking distance of residential developments.

"Our classes go on walking field trips to the public library, the art gallery, the symphony, the aquatic center, Science World. It is such a rich location," says Isabel Grant, the principal of Elsie Roy Elementary School.

Vancouver is often regarded as the poster child for family-friendly downtowns. In 2001, there were about 3,000 children 14 years old or younger living in the downtown peninsula, and the number of public school children living downtown has increased by more than 350 in the past five years.

This success is often credited to the city's high percentage of Asian and Eastern European immigrants, who are accustomed to raising kids in dense cities. But city planners say it is also the result of careful planning and design with families in mind.

In 1992, the city of Vancouver adopted design guidelines for high-density housing aimed at families with children. One-quarter of the units must have at least two bedrooms — to be suitable for families — and the city requires that developers contribute to public amenities such as child care facilities and parks. The renovation of the 19th century roundhouse now known as the Roundhouse Community Centre was financed by Concord Pacific, a Vancouver-based real estate development company.

But even with the amenities in place, planners were surprised by the downtown baby boom. "Families have taken up the urban core beyond our wildest dreams," senior housing planner Rob Whitlock says. The Elsie Roy Elementary School, which opened in Yaletown in 2004, is already operating at capacity. According to David Negrin, Concord Pacific's senior vice president of development, the company is responding to demand from families by increasing the number of units with two bedrooms or more from 30 percent to 60 percent in its recent developments. "It is such a large part of our market now," Negrin says.

In August 2006, a team of Portlanders took a trip to Vancouver to learn how they could make the Pearl more child-friendly. Portland Mayor Tom Potter has made children a priority, and in 2006 he supported the creation of a Children's Bill of Rights.

Several initiatives are under way in the Pearl District to make it more family friendly. In May 2006, a family forum attracted 150 parents and children, who discussed their needs for affordable, family-sized housing, a community center, and child care. Two neighborhood nonprofit organizations are now proposing to build an affordable housing development that would include a child care facility on-site. A new three-acre neighborhood park with play facilities is in the works. And according to Gil Kelley, a review of the needs of families wanting to live downtown will be part of the upcoming central city plan update in the next two years.

To Bill Anderson, FAICP, San Diego planning director, it is unlikely that downtown will ever be a major family residential community compared to other San Diego neighborhoods. The downtown should be designed as a "place that is conducive for families from throughout the city to visit and use," Anderson says.

This view is disappointing to Kristine and Gregg Zucchetti, who currently live downtown San Diego with their two children, ages three years and 10 months. "Nothing has been done to accommodate my lifestyle and the family that I have," Kristine Zucchetti says of the downtown that in her opinion offers very few amenities for children. The couple is now ready to give up the downtown life that they love and move out. "It is unfortunate because we will still be working downtown, but we will have to start commuting so that our kids can have a better area to play and grow up."

School availability and quality may be a contributing factor to parents' decision to stay downtown over the long term. Two elementary schools and one high school serve downtown Vancouver students, and all of them are at capacity. The Vancouver school district capital plan includes a proposal to build an additional elementary school on the International Village site downtown that would accommodate up to 500 K–7 students. The application is currently under review by the province. There are no plans to add a new secondary school downtown, partly because the school district is uncertain about whether there will be enough students to support such a facility.

Portland Public Schools are losing 300 to 500 students per year, but the schools currently serving families living in the Pearl District with K–12 children are well regarded, and enrollment rates are generally stable. "Both public elementary schools have good reputation and are easily accessible to us," says Nancy Davis.