Complete streets

All around the U.S., Team Better Block engages and energizes residents to take time and visualize what the streets in their cities can transform into through design planning. 

In 2018, the city of Birmingham was given an opportunity through a grant to partner with AARP Livable Communities and Team Better Block to transform the portion of Second Avenue South between 28th and 29th Streets into a pilot project, “where a new vision for the street came to life,” city of Birmingham Senior Planner Christina Argo said.

Each year, AARP Livable Communities ranks cities in Alabama based on their livability factors. Birmingham was ranked one of the most livable cities in the state, which qualified the city for the grant. 

“The goal is to help them dream big about what their block could be, about how amazing it could be with different design elements,” Argo said.

Team Better Block operates by installing a temporary setup of what improvements would look like on a single block. The leadup events and workshops, which are open to the public, end the project by featuring an orchestrated physical and economic environment. After the event, recommendations are shared to the city of Birmingham on how to move forward in permanent improvements or designs.

Argo, the project manager from the city’s standpoint, said Birmingham is still seeing the positive results since the Oct. 27 event, when the Better Block Birmingham project brought people out for a day to share their input while the temporary designs were in place. 

“[Better Block] gives citizens and residents a tangible thing to look at and help them envision how can they make their city better.  [As] opposed to looking at something from a piece of paper, … you can see it, experience it. It’s also an economic way to try out design ideas because everything is temporary and built on a small budget,” Argo said. 

Argo said she worked closely with the businesses and tenants along the street to make sure everyone knew what was going on and that they were encouraged to communicate feedback about what they wanted to see come from the project and permanent fixes they wanted in the future. 

Leigh Sloss-Corra, the executive director of the Market at Pepper Place under Sloss Real Estate, said they were thrilled for the opportunity to work together with nearby small businesses, the Lakeview Business Association, Mayor Randall Woodfin’s team and other real estate partners, because “collaboration is the formula for success.”

“This is the natural evolution of what happens when neighborhoods are transformed. It goes in stages, and in this case, it was first the restaurants and the offices and the human vibrancies, and now it’s time for the street infrastructures to step up and play its role,” Sloss-Corra said. “ … So many people got excited. I think that is what is fueling a lot of positive growth in Birmingham, people are doing a lot of dreaming.”

After the initial site visit to different places in Birmingham in August, Team Better Block decided the Pepper Place area was the block that would benefit the most, especially, Argo said, since there is already a funded project in the works. The funded project, which was briefly put on hold during Better Block Birmingham, spans a seven-block area along Second Avenue South, from 27th Street South to 32nd Street.

“Not to say there aren’t possibilities of connecting further down the road, but that seven-block trail is where we are starting,” Argo said.

The funded project focuses on renovations ensuring Second Avenue South complies with the Complete Streets ordinance the Birmingham City Council adopted in March 2018 in order to make the streets safer for all users. Under the ordinance, all work on streets must encourage designs that have convenient access for all users, including the elderly and disabled and those who walk, ride bicycles or take public transportation.

“This will benefit pedestrians, folks who are traveling from the eastern side of town who want to have a safe way to get into the city for the seven-block stretch. Typically, folks do avoid Second Avenue South if they are on a bike,” Argo said, which they want to change. “It’s just a great connector between the east side of town and the land down there in Pepper Place and toward Railroad Park.”

Through the Better Block grant, Argo said, they were able to use their findings and the feedback they got from Better Block and the nearby neighbors and businesses to inform design decisions about the Second Avenue South proposal, which they are hopefully submitting by March, Argo said.

Sloss-Corra said that the federal funding is there for the Second Avenue South improvements, but a huge part of the Better Block project was proving to the city, its residents and all the people organizing the budget that the cost for both the “functional and pretty” repairs and additions need to be allocated to keep people coming to the area.

“It proves the city is not afraid to improve. They’re being smart about it though, and they aren’t biting off too big of a bite and not getting into trouble financially,” Sloss-Corra said. “Part of the whole reason this rebuilding of Second Avenue is conceived is so much water accumulates down there [that] it blocks accessibility and it puts strains on systems that hurt everyone. The idea is to manage the water, and at the same time, let’s go ahead and make the sidewalks safer.”

It was determined through Better Block Birmingham that traffic along Second Avenue South wasn’t conducive to any users but cars, especially due to the speed limit and lack of bike lanes or crosswalks. A street design of a shared-use lane was recommended and, on the day of the Better Block event, they painted a temporary 10-foot-wide multi-modal lane to test it out.

Through the funded project, Argo said a variation of that lane will be put into place. Sidewalks will be added where there are none, as well as fixing some of the sidewalks that are in disrepair. It will also include adding intersections around the market through “a bulb-out design,” she said, which brings out the corners of the sidewalk to make it wider and the road narrower, “which gives the pedestrian a safer place to walk because they are not exposed to traffic quite as much.” 

Another huge part of the project is taking out the area for parallel parking and adding bike lanes, in addition to turning the traffic that goes both ways into a one-way with two lanes of traffic.

Another recommendation from Better Block Birmingham included taking active steps to liven up the area by the Ferguson Building in front of 21st and Second Avenue, which on the day of the event was occupied by pop-up stores and shopping opportunities. Argo said leading up to the October event, they painted a parking lot mural as a permanent addition, with hopes of bringing more people to the area on weekends. 

It was suggested to connect Second Avenue South to the Rotary Trail along First Avenue South, through signage and visibility. Through the funded project, Argo said, the owners of Pepper Place and Sloss Real Estate are committed to producing educational signage.

Argo said the signs also will share information about another permanent fixture they are hoping to put into place: a rain garden. Through the funded project, the city is planning street trees, planters and plant islands, as well as installing the city’s first rain garden.

 “It will have infrastructure underneath that will help with the flooding issues over there, so it’s [a] nice piece of green infrastructure,” Argo said. 

Although it will be difficult to know the exact timeline of construction until the drawings and designs are approved, Argo thinks implementing the designs will take a year and be complete in 2020. 

“I think people want choices when it comes to transportation. We have planned and built for cars and put that first for so many years, and I think it’s time to think about how are city streets going to be able to serve pedestrians and bicycles in a safer manner and give people choices,” Argo said. 

To learn more about Better Block Birmingham, go to teambetterblock.com/Birmingham.