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An Urban Community-Based Intervention to Advance Social Interactions

Jan C. Semenza and Tanya L. March Environment and Behavior 2009 41: 22 originally published online 19 March 2008 DOI: 10.1177/0013916507311136 The online version of this article can be found at: http://eab.sagepub.com/content/41/1/22

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An Urban Community-Based Intervention to Advance Social Interactions

Jan C. Semenza Tanya L. March
Portland State University

Environment and Behavior Volume 41 Number 1 January 2009 22-42 2009 Sage Publications 10.1177/0013916507311136 http://eab.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com

Blighted urban environments can be detrimental to community life and result in alienation and isolation. An intervention was developed in 2003 in Portland, Oregon, to engage low- to moderate-income, urban communities in creating pleasant amenities in the public right-of-way, including ecologically built information kiosks, benches, trellises for hanging gardens, and interactive art features such as large street paintings and art walls. As part of a postintervention survey of 359 residents within a two-block radius at three project sites, 53% rated their neighborhood better than before and 44% or 53% rated their present neighborhood as an excellent or good place to live, respectively. In open-ended qualitative comments, 30% mentioned increased social interactions, 13% revealed an enhanced sense of place, 43% described neighborhood participation, and 20% discussed aesthetic aspects of their local environment. Community involvement in urban design can enrich social networks with direct benefits for social capital and well-being. Keywords: social capital; collective social action; community intervention; neighborhood; urban environment; social networks

lthough civic engagement is a cornerstone of sustainable societies, it has proven difficult to encourage public participation in the civic decision-making process (Portney, 2005). Sustainable communities are threatened in part by the physical design of urban neighborhoods that are not conducive to social interactions. There is growing awareness among public health and urban planning professionals that the layout of our cities is, in part, responsible for the emerging epidemics of chronic diseases (Jackson, 2003). Over the past few decades, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity prevalence rates, with two thirds of Americans now being obese or overweight (Ogden et al., 2006). The nationwide trend of depression indicates a steady increase in frequent mental distress over the

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past decade (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2004). Asthma prevalence, morbidity, and mortality have increased among U.S. adults over the past two decades (CDC, 2002, 2006) and so has the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes (CDC, 2003). Many of these chronic diseases have been associated with urban environments designed to promote rapid transportation of automobiles and commodities rather than promote community heath (Jackson, 2003). These fractured metropolises can stifle physical activity, degrade the environment, and curb spontaneous social interactions. Public squares, where residents can gather and socialize, are vital nodes for urban life. However, the geometric form of many American cities is a rectangular network of streets that tend to lack such squares (Semenza, 2005, 2007). According to Maholy-Nagy (1968), the grid blueprint was embraced in America in 1785 by the Continental Congress as part of the National Land Ordinance, and it applied to all lands during the westward expansion, including cities and towns (Figure 1). Cities on such a grid pattern have high connectivity, providing many different routes from any two random points on the grid. High connectivity is advantageous for the efficient movement of goods and services within the city, because it augments the transportation options. Grid cities also tend to have high densities of people and amenities, as well as a mix of uses, bringing together residential and commercial activities and maximizing infrastructure. Taken together, the grid has many functional advantages. Despite its functional

Authors Note: The Human Subjects Research Review Committee at Portland State University reviewed and approved the protocol and consent forms for compliance with Department of Health and Human Services policies and regulations covering the protection of human individuals. Funding for this study was obtained from the Meyer Memorial Trust, Portland, Oregon; from the Community Initiatives Small Grant Program, the Bureau of Housing and Community Development at the City of Portland; a faculty enhancement award; and scholarly and creative activity grants for undergraduates (to Andrea Thompson, Eva Rippetau, and Troy Hayes) from Portland State University, Portland, Oregon. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments on the manuscript and the members of the City Repair Project, who are dedicated to creating communityoriented places, in particular to Mark Lakeman, Daniel Lerch, Saskia Dresler, Charla Chamberlain, Dr. Lisa Weasel, and many others; City of Portland traffic engineers, Robert Burchfield and Elizabeth Papadopoulos; and artists Matt Cartwright, Brian Borello, Sukita Crimmel, and Robert Boleman. Please address correspondence to Jan C. Semenza, PhD, MPH, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Tomtebodavgen 11 A, Solna 171 83 Stockholm, Sweden; e-mail: Jan.Semenza@ecdc.europa.eu

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Figure 1 The Urban Grid Blueprint With Rectangular Blocks, Where Public Squares as Public Gathering Places Have Been Omitted (Portland, Oregon)

Source: City of Portland. Reproduced With Permission.

advantages, a strict grid tends to favor transportation over human interaction, and community life succumbs to a steady stream of through-traffic (Kunstler, 1994, pp. 29-37). Calthorpe and Fulton (2001) state that usable public space and civic facilities have decayed, resulting in loss of community and loss of a sense of place (p. 39). The lack of public gathering places can stifle spontaneous socializing and thus adversely affect density of interpersonal networks. Loss of opportunities for people to interact with each other can deteriorate mutual understanding, trust, and reciprocity, which has been described as a decline in social capital (Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 1995). Thus, the civic capacity that once enabled citizens to engage in the civic decision-making process of a democratic society has become weak.

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The City Repair Project (2006), a nonprofit organization in Portland, Oregon, devised Intersection Repair, a strategy to retrofit the relentless grid design with public squares (Semenza, 2005, 2007; Semenza & Krishnasamy, 2007). The mission of the organization is to inspire and empower communities to creatively transform the places where they live. In 2003, through collective social action, guided by the City Repair Project, resident and nonresident stakeholders participated in urban design projects transforming spaces into human-scale neighborhood places with walkable streets, human-scaled environments, and usable public places (Calthorpe & Fulton, 2001; Lepofsky & Fraser, 2003). In the course of a participatory process, the City Repair Project assisted communities in developing a shared vision for their urban environments. The goal of this strategy was to revitalize urban neighborhoods through community-initiated designs with public gathering places in the public right-of-way (e.g., street or road owned by a governmental entity; Semenza, 2003). By reconfiguring places with participation of residents, the City Repair Project hoped to transform the cardominated grid of the city into a human-scaled environment for pedestrians. These innovative urban interventionsenvisioned, designed, permitted, and installed by community members with the support of the City Repair Projectwere intended to successively build social capital (Figure 2). Social capital is defined as the potential embedded in social relationships that enable residents to coordinate community action to achieve shared goals (Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 1995). Social capital manifests itself through two complementary components: structural and cognitive social capital. The former is inherent in social organization of communities and can be described through social networks. In contrast, cognitive social capital includes norms, values, attitudes, and beliefs that emerge during community meetings, and it is defined as peoples perception of the level of interpersonal trust, sharing, and reciprocity. This two-dimensional construct can also be portrayed as bonding (localized) and bridging/linking social capital (Hawe & Shiell, 2000; Szreter, 2002). Bonding social capital is the normative content of the community (inherent in homogeneous groups) and is necessary but not sufficient for problem solving, because it may produce redundant information not relevant to improving inner-city neighborhoods (Granovetter, 1973). Bridging social capital comes to light during asset mapping, when professional skills and talents are mapped and connected in the neighborhood. Thus, it connects different groups, such as community groups, with design professionals (e.g., architects), and it can reveal new information for problem solving and creating new opportunities. The goal was to sequentially build social networks among residents, and thus augment localized social capital. Intersection Repair was also designed

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Figure 2 The Process of Intersection Repair as Developed by the City Repair Project (Portland, Oregon, 2003)

Note: Intersection Repair builds bridging social capital during asset mapping, when professional skills and talents are mapped and connected in the neighborhood. Linking social capital is developed when construction plans are submitted to city engineers for permission. Construction and installation of the projects create friendship ties and increase bonding social capital. See text for details.

to increase linking social capital (Szreter, 2002), an extension of bridging social capital, which connects parties unequal in power and access (such as connecting residents with city officials) through the permitting processes for their construction projects. It was hypothesized that promoting interactions among residents for the purpose of solving problems of urban blight should benefit the civic decisionmaking process. Furthermore, the gardens and other amenities were intended to foster social interactions and help reverse isolation (Sarason, 1974). In light of the positive association between social capital and health (Islam, Merlo, Kawachi, Lindstrom, & Gerdtham, 2006), Intersection Repair may be beneficial for community well-being. In the long run, it may even promote physical activity by encouraging residents to stroll outdoors, which, in turn, can help reverse the epidemics of chronic diseases discussed above.

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Because health behavior change interventions have consistently revealed disappointing results at best, this macrosocial approach aims to humanize urban environments physically and socially, making them conducive to social interactions and well-being (Semenza & Maty, 2007).

Method
This strategy of community outreach and project implementation is termed intersection repair (Figure 2), and it was developed by the nonprofit organization, the City Repair Project (Semenza, 2005, 2007; Semenza & Krishnasamy, 2007). The staff reached out to a number of low- to moderate-income neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon, and documented community resources and deficiencies as part of a situation-analysis and asset-mapping step (Green & Kreuter, 2005). Extensive outreach to residents and other stakeholders was conducted in an effort to bring interested parties together and to discuss urban design strategies for their communities. These activities included workshops with public presentations at community centers and neighborhood associations, discussions with neighborhood groups and city officials, and door-todoor outreach. Three communities expressed interest and embarked on a broad participatory process. The City Repair Project staff promoted discussions about design options for gathering places in the public right-of-way with community members, landscape designers, architects, and natural/ecological builders. During design workshops, the three communities independently developed plans to improve regular street intersections through ecological construction. Proposed ideas were circulated among various organizations and neighborhood associations, and they were then submitted to the City for permission. Community members, under the guidance of expert natural/ecologic builders, implemented the projects during a one-week construction workshop (village building convergence [VBC]) in May 2003, which attracted more than 1,000 volunteers and workshop participants from Portland and beyond. Ecological construction methods were employed using recycled and natural materials, such as cob (a mixture of sand, straw, clay, and water), to promote the principles of sustainability.

Data Collection
Through a cartographic survey, all occupied households at the three intervention sites were mapped and recorded prior to the field investigation. The

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sampling frame was defined by a comprehensive line listing of all occupied residences within a two-block radius of the three sites; vacancies were excluded. One month after project completion, in June/July 2003, all households within a two-block radius of the three intervention sites were contacted: 131 residential units at Site 1, 295 residential units at Site 2, and 134 residential units at Site 3. Households belonging to the core group of community organizers were excluded from the survey to prevent information bias. Residents within this sampling frame had been required by city ordinance to approve the design concept prior to construction. Portland State University undergraduate students, trained in interviewing techniques, systematically sampled all residences by going from door to door. At least four attempts were made to enroll one adult (more than 21 years of age) head of household from each household at each site. The survey was initiated in June, immediately after the end of the workshop, and completed in July. The three neighborhoods differed somewhat by median household income (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000), and it was $37,181 for Site 1, $28,960 for Site 2, and $39,984 for Site 3. The sites were all predominantly White (86.1%, 81.1%, and 81.7% for Sites 1, 2, and 3, respectively). The questionnaires addressed the effects of the improvements to the neighborhood on the respondents lives and whether respondents had participated in the design and/or the construction of the art. The data were entered into EpiInfo (CDC, 2000) and analyzed in Microsoft Excel. Open-ended responses were subjected to content analysis. Categories were created, and comments were aggregated into groups for analysis.

Results and Discussion

Over a period of 9 months, three low- to moderate-income communities in Portland, Oregon, were engaged by the City Repair Project and developed plans for urban renewal, which were implemented during a 10-day workshop on sustainable construction (Figure 2). The art features included colorful street paintings, information kiosks, stained glass mosaics, trellises for hanging gardens, benches, planters in the street, publicly accessible chessboards, and a sauna (Figure 3 and Table 1). Of the 560 eligible residences from the occupied households, 359 (64%) household members agreed to be interviewed99 (76%) individuals from Site 1, 160 individuals (54%) from Site 2, and 100 individuals (75%) from Site 3. The majority of respondents were renters (56%), females (53%), and between 21 and 50 years of age (84%). Only 3% of study participants lived in public housing.

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Table 1 Community-Initiated Urban Art Projects in Three Neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon, 2003
Site 1 Street paintings: sunflower Three trellises and one dome Eight planters in the street Coba information kiosk Stained glass mosaic art wall with solar powered fountain Site 2 Street paintings: labyrinth Coba information kiosk Permaculture activities
a

Site 3 Two cob bench/planters on intersection park Lawn chess board Garden labyrinth Eight planter boxes with coba siding (to narrow street) Sauna accessible to public

a. Cob is a sustainable building material made from clay, straw, sand, and water.

Interviewers recorded quantitative and qualitative responses in person at the site (65%) or by phone (35%). Study participants were asked whether they had been aware of community activities in their neighborhood. The majority of the respondents (201 individuals, 56%) knew of the construction workshop (VBC) and had noticed the new urban features built in the public right-of-way by residents and natural/ecological builders; however, 156 respondents (44%) were not aware of the construction workshop. The majority of respondents (66%) never participated in the planning, design, or construction of the urban features, whereas 87 individuals (34%) contributed at least once (21% participated once or twice, 5% three or four times, and 8% at least five times). The 201 respondents who were aware of the intervention provided openended comments about the impact of these activities on their community life. Although not all participants agreed with the urban interventions, the conceptualization of the issues were remarkably consistent, which was observed in other case studies also (Bush & Moffatt, 2002). Of the 201 open-ended comments, 60 addressed neighborhood interactions, 27 mentioned sense of place, 87 provided information about community participation, 40 described aesthetic aspects of the project, 87 provided general statements about the activities, and 7 voiced concern (Table 2).

Neighborhood Social Interactions

The nature of social interactions of these new social networks was assessed qualitatively. The organizing activities and subsequent communal

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Figure 3 Intersection Repair Interventions

Note: In clockwise order, painting of a street painting at Site 1, dome raising ceremony at Site 1, completed cob bench at Site 3, and inauguration of street painting at Site 2 (Portland, Oregon, May 2003).

activities in the public right-of-way generated a wealth of opportunities for interaction and bonding among residents; they could help resolve problems or generate a surplus of amenities for the common good. For example, conversations and friendships emerged during the painting of intersections, landscaping of parking strips, and cob construction.
I went to one of the seminars, painted, chatted with neighbors and friends about it, and took surveysthe art is great. Wish I could have gone to more events. Its a strong way to build and be a better community, [its] very

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Table 2 Categories and Comments of Content Analysis of 201 Open-Ended Interviews, Portland, Oregon, 2003
Categorical Aggregation Sense of place Neighborhood social interactions Aesthetic aspects Approve Disapprove Mixed comments General Voicing concerns Neighborhood participation Sweat equity Passive Both Brought people together Talked about family or children a. Overlapping categories (not mutually exclusive). Frequency of Comments 27 60 40 31 13 2 87 7 87 23 44 13 21 17 Percentage of Totala 13 30 20 15 7 1 43 4 43 11 22 7 11 9

important. I could see it being better and bigger. This is a good way to keep the neighborhood safe. When you know your neighbor, everything is a lot more simple [sic].

Through consensus decision making, this pragmatic approach to civic engagement provided an opportunity for the community to come together to discuss shared problems and possible solutions. Great opportunity to meet more neighbors [and] learn more lessons about human nature: We are challenged to share different opinions. By meeting each other and working toward a common goal, residents were able to overcome their differences in the true tradition of building civic capacity and augmenting bonding social capital (Figure 2). The communal gathering places created through this collective social action brought unconnected people together, as expressed by a resident: I think the intersection painting is finethe project is greatanything that brings people together and creates a sense of community is great. The public gathering place stimulated conversations that would not have occurred otherwise: Just a place you can be more informal with a chance conversation with others. Ten study respondents mentioned meeting new

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neighbors they would not have met otherwise: I feel better about the neighborhood and coming together as a community, meeting people who I hadnt before; and 13 study respondents mentioned that they had deepened their friendship ties: It also further strengthened bonds I already had. These data indicate both an extension and deepening of social networks, and Intersection Repair provided the contextual basis for this development. Thus, the extent and intensity of these informal interactions indicate an expansion of structural social capital. In light of the historic context of Portland, Oregon, and many other cities in the United States, transforming the natural topography of a terrain by imposing a grid blueprint is a very efficient method for subdividing land and organizing cities, yet sufficient open space for civic activities is rarely set aside. Hence, sidewalks and streets become the limited public areas for people to spontaneously interact. The results presented above support the notion that Intersection Repair interventions can augment social interactions where a lack of common gathering places has impaired community life, and they can thus help to reverse alienation among residents.

Sense of Place
Cognitive social capital is reflected in the norms and values among the residents and can be translated into interpersonal trust, sharing, and reciprocity (Figure 2). Intersection Repair aimed at advancing sense of place by increasing public areas in car-dominated neighborhoods through construction of activity nodes. Streets and intersections that had not been used for gatherings up to that point were now available to each community to express its local culture and identity. On reflecting on their modified intersection with the added interactive art features, residents reported:
It is a wonderful and great community builder because it gives people the sense of ownership of their neighborhood; I feel it is a creative and positive way to have people do something for the neighborhood; I think it definitely adds to the sense of community.

Sense of place was strengthened both through urban beautification and project participation as suggested by the following remarks:
I wish that all the intersections were paintedcoolgood thing. I highly agree with [the] neighborhood getting together. It creates a nice environment,

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Figure 4 Evaluation of Intersection Repair Interventions: Neighborhood Ratings (Portland, Oregon, 2003)
A) How would you rate your present neighborhood as a place to live? 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
a. excellent b. good c. fair d. poor

B) How would you rate your present neighborhood compared to your previous (old) neighborhood? 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
a. better b. same c. worse d. N/A

Respondents

C) It is very important to me to live in this particular neighborhood. 160 140 120

Respondents Respondents

D) I think my neighborhood is a good place for me to live. 250 200 150 100 50 0

Respondents

100 80 60 40 20 0
agree strongly agree somewhat neither agree nor disagree disagree somewhat disagree strongly

agree strongly

agree somewhat

neither agree nor disagree

disagree somewhat

disagree strongly

E) I feel at home in this neighborhood. 250 200

F) People in my neighborhood share the same values. 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
agree strongly agree somewhat neither agree nor disagree disagree somewhat disagree strongly

Respondents

150 100 50 0
agree strongly agree somewhat neither agree nor disagree disagree somewhat disagree strongly

and I helped paint the sunflower. I walk across [it] everyday [sic], so I had to help paint it. In the wintertime, it is so bright, it just lights up the street. I love the sunflower, it cracks me up and everyone knows where I live because of it.

These observations are consistent with the quantitative parts of the survey (Figure 4). Study participants expressed a strong sense of belonging after the interactive art projects in the public right-of-way: A total of 144 (40%) individuals rated their present neighborhood as an excellent place to live, whereas 190 (53%) rated it as a good place to live (Figure 4A). In response to a differently

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worded question, 190 (53%) of the 359 study participants stated that their present neighborhood was better than it had been prior to the intervention (Figure 4B). Residents expressed a strong sense of place, with 236 (66%) individuals reporting that their neighborhood was a good place for them to live, whereas 216 (60%) participants felt strongly at home in this neighborhood (Figure 4D,E), which was also reflected in their open-ended comments:
I helped put up [the] sunflower and painted [the] sunflower. Made me feel more connected to the neighborhood; I was 9 months pregnant at the time, so my participation was limited. I think it was great and a great example of our neighborhood coming together. I hope that the efforts continue and we can fully develop that area to be what the community wants it to be; I think it is great [that] people are making an effort to provide a better sense of community[I] feel that it should happen on every streetgood idea, look forward to more events like this.

These data indicate that a sense of place and pride had been reinforced through community organizing and collective building of participatory art features in the public right-of-way. Intersection Repair advanced shared norms and values of respondents by allowing them to feel more connected to their neighborhood, an indication of augmented cognitive social capital.

Neighborhood Participation
Besides social network density, structural social capital can also be assessed by indicators of civic engagement (Figure 2). These externally measurable aspects of social organization were also explored in this survey. Of the 201 open-ended comments, 87 study participants mentioned neighborhood participation, which included 23 comments about painting, cob construction, landscaping, carpentry work, and cooking, which is listed as sweat equity in Table 2. Thus, 43% of study participants declared some sort of civic participation. One of the 13 individuals who reported both contributing sweat equity and event participation expressed a fairly typical response: I painted the sunflower at 33rd and Yamhill from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then had a potluck. Forty-four individuals discussed only passive participation, such as attending a barbeque during a block party, a potluck, a lecture, or an outdoor movie. I listened to a band, enjoyed it but didnt participate [in construction]. The project work helped with my relationships with immediate neighbors. I loved the nightly presentations (workshop presentations), I only missed one. Some people just wanted information: I

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went to a meeting to learn about what was going on. Sharing meals during block parties proved to be an effective community organizing tool: BBQ involvement, and a little painting. I thought it was great and most seemed to be involved. No formal participant counts were taken during these block party events but the 44 reports of passive participation are most likely underreporting. During block parties and intersection paintings, the streets were blocked off to traffic, which provided a safe opportunity for children and adults to interact with each other in the intersections. This communal experience provided opportunities for everybody to participate and share project and child care responsibilities with their neighbors: I helped paint the street. I had a friends 4-year-old helping. Im hoping it was just the start and that it will continue. In contrast, another resident from the same neighborhood felt that the labyrinth project was geared more toward families with children; having no children, the resident chose not to participate.

Reasons for Nonparticipation

A total of 30 people used the open-ended question to explain why they were unable to participate, despite a desire to do so. Typically, these were people who were unable to take part in the activities because of time constraints, work, responsibilities, vacations, or health reasons. These were respondents who expressed a willingness to participate under other circumstances, but they seemed generally supportive of the project and the process. Representative quotes include the following:
I only know about the street painting. I would have liked to be more involved not sure how or what I would do. I am not quite at the point in my life where neighborhood involvement is most important but I recognize the importance. It makes me happy when work happens around here. The intersection is interesting, the concept is good. But not sure how helpful it is, not based in reality. The ideals are good but not sure how it works in reality. My job does not allow time during spring and summer to participate. It is very enjoyable to look atI like the Yamhill installation as well.

Time constraints were a major problem for 20 individuals (10%) and reflect a general trend in American society of feeling overworked and overscheduled: When were not working were busy doing family stuff. When everything gets straightened out we hope to participate more. Americans work the longest hours per day, the most days per year, with fewer vacation days, and the fraction of the population holding employment are the

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highest of any industrial nation (de Graaf, 2003) as illustrated with the following quote:
I like to look at all the stuff that is going onfeel that it has positive effect on the neighborhood. Without school, work, and newborn, I would be more involved. Makes me feel good to see all that is going on.

Aesthetic Aspects of the Community Projects

The 40 participants who commented on the appearance of the three projects expressed a range of feelings about their aesthetic value (Table 2). At Site 3, many residents articulated that although they were interested in what was going on in the park and liked the new landscaping and planter boxes, the project looked unfinished, but they anticipated that the project would meet their aesthetic standards upon completion. Even within a single neighborhood, the completed artwork, despite being based on a community-approved design, received a wide range of reactions from positive to mixed critique to negative, as expressed below:
Oh I like it. Didnt know it was going on, then I saw painting and various structures around the neighborhoodcool arty things (positive). I like the color choices of the painting on the street. I hate the barrels. All my friends and relatives hate the ugly barrels. The corner posts are neat. I think the community building is very important and good. These kinds of things bring people together and it is important to building values in children. I love the fountains and everything, including the solar-lit community board (mixed critique). I do not like the aesthetic of the intersection project. The barrels are a distraction. The sunflower was OK; now it is overboard. I would rather have sunflowers planted, not painted. It is too loud. I come home to relax. I like it that the community does something together. I just would prefer something more natural and quiet. The sunflower and brightness would be more suitable for a playground (negative).

Residents who were asked about the project in their own neighborhood expanded their critique to include various other VBC projects of which they were aware. There was a considerable interest to be involved in projects outside the immediate neighborhood.

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I like it. Its awesome. There are all kinds of cool stuff [sic] around town would like to know about these things ahead of time so I can plan or participate. I like going into new neighborhoods and seeing creative things.

Surprisingly, one respondent seemed to be unaware of the project within walking distance of her residence, but knew of a similar project 20 blocks away:
I love the one off Belmont. I dont know of the one at 19th and Washington, but I want to check it out and to go get some of the jam for my flapjacks. I like the idea, nice to look at, colorful things along the way.

In contrast, others were unaware of the projects until after their completion: . . . No one knocked on my door and said, Hey, can I have money to paint the streets? I would have given money for that. I feel that projects like this should happen everywhere. Aesthetic improvements can increase the artistic quality of the neighborhood, and they can create more inviting public places that appeal particularly to pedestrians and bicyclists. Such improvements, regardless of individual artistic tastes, can become destinations for nonmotorized transport and thus increase physical activity. Interactive art features can also act as catalysts for spontaneous conversations and stimulate discussions. In fact, the art features have become sightseeing destinations for out-of-town visitors, tours, conferences, and other events and regularly attract large crowds. They seem particularly attractive to children and young adults, who feel drawn to the sites:
I woke up late on Saturday and moseyed over and watched them working. I am jealous of the project in the Belmont area. I think ours looks like an alien landing site. Not lively enough, it looks sterile in comparison. I heard musicsounded like a tripped-out marching bandand was lured to the site.

Concerns
A small number of study participants expressed concern about the activities in their neighborhood and addressed aesthetic (13 respondents; see above) and process (7 respondents) limitations (Table 2). Complaints described unpleasant interactions with neighbors or workshop participants from out of town. One resident from Site 2 felt like an outsider.

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I walked by and felt very discouraged by the attitude from the participants. There were a bunch of people, and when we asked what was going on, they told us that it was a community thing and that we couldnt participate.

There was the impression that out-of-town workshop participants descended on the neighborhoods and executed their own agenda. These individuals failed to participate in the discussions and design workshops because of lack of information about the events, despite information being disseminated through a local radio station (KBOO), door-to-door outreach, flyers, listservs or Web sites, posted information on bulletin boards or in someones front yard, hosted small gatherings, and so on. Another resident from Site 2 reported conflicts and confrontation.
[The project] really set people against each other in a way I had never seen before. Some pushers acted that if you didnt agree, then you were a jerk; it got pretty ugly. The planners got belligerent about opposition or questioning of the project; it wasnt handled diplomatically.

This comment indicates a process failure to address disagreement among residents. Residents of all three neighborhoods expressed concern over traffic safety; for example, parents did not like the street paintings, because it placed children at risk on the street. The city traffic engineer had anticipated the street paintings to be traffic-calming devices (Robert Burchfield, PDOT, personal communication). In contrast, not a single resident perceived these interventions as calming traffic; rather, they were perceived to be a hazard for drivers:
When are they going to take the planters out of the street? From an emergency vehicle standpoint, those (planters) and traffic circles are a huge hazard. . . . I am concerned that it might cause confusion for some drivers.

No comments were made about the dangers of gentrification, despite the fact that the three project sites were in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods in Portland. However, one resident at Site 1 expressed: It will raise our taxes. It is difficult to quantify the contribution of this initiative to property values, because real estate prices have increased throughout the region. However, it is possible that reversing urban blight will lead to gentrification and higher taxes in the long run. The City Repair Project attempted to counteract the potentially adverse development of gentrification by

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including a wide range of community members, particularly minority groups or residents of lesser means.

Study Strengths and Limitations

One of the strengths of this study is the unique nature of the urban, communitybased intervention with physical improvements in the public right-of-way. Intersection Repair is possible in Portland, Oregon, through a city ordinance (#172207, September 19, 2001) that calls for public participation in urban design. This study documented a positive perception of this approach among residents and assessed what residents believed to be the impact of interventions on sense of community, social interactions, neighborhood participation, and so on. Furthermore, the comprehensive nature of this evaluation is reflected in the large number of quantitative and qualitative responses collected from residents in the immediate vicinity of the project. The systematic sampling strategy and the high participation rate of 64% minimize the risk of selection bias. The interventions were conducted in three different neighborhoods with a relatively wide distribution of median household incomes, making these results more generalizable. Nevertheless, Intersection repair projects in other settings are desirable, and they should be evaluated independently to replicate these findings. The purpose of this one-group, posttesting design was to capture the complexity of the experiences from urban community-based interventions, but a controlled prepost trial could document increase in social capital. Whereas the sampling frame of two city blocks next to an intersection repair project was chosen to evaluate quantitative and qualitative impressions of the residents, a larger sampling frame or the inclusion of workshop participants as opposed to simply residents could have captured additional information. Insofar as the objective of the study was to qualitatively assess the benefits of community organizing and the collective construction of urban art features, in-depth interviews with a small group of stakeholders could have enriched the qualitative data (Glaser & Strauss,1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1994).

Conclusion
Results from both the quantitative and qualitative assessments indicate that the community building activities in three neighborhoods in Portland, Oregon, have had a generally positive impact on the quality of life of their residents.

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Residents within a two-block radius of the same three sites were systematically sampled and interviewed before and after the intervention, of which 265 individuals completed both surveys of a panel study. A separate quantitative prepost analysis of objective measures of these subjects confirmed these observations with improvements in mental health (p = .03), increased sense of community (p < .01), and an overall expansion of social capital (p = .04) after these intersection repair projects (Semenza, March, & Bontempo, 2007). Intersection repair projects have now also been implemented in other cities, including Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, California; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Asheville, North Carolina; Ithaca, New York; and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The urban place-making interventions described here provided the opportunity for residents to meet their neighbors and to expand their social networks, which were overwhelmingly regarded as an enhancement to their community life. Friendship ties emerged not only through the process of community organizing, design, and construction workshops but also through the creation of interactive art features that acted as the catalysts for conversations (Semenza, 2003). The study also documented a strong sense of ownership and pride associated with participating in or viewing the intervention results (Alexander et al., 1977). The interactive art features were not commissioned by an established artist; rather, they were conceived and implemented by the community members themselves, which seems to have augmented respondents sense of place (Hayden, 1999). Considering the relative lack of quality time for family and friends in American life today, a considerable number of residents participated in the construction, as well as in the subsequent block parties; after the painting of the street paintings, the intersections were closed to traffic and opened to pedestrians with music, outdoor movies, and potluck food. A number of residents were concerned about the aesthetic aspects of the designs and complained about negative social interactions. Intersection Repair aims to improve cities physically (as illustrated in Figure 3) through a process of building both localized and bridging/linking social capital by engaging residents in the process of conceiving, developing, permitting, and constructing interactive urban art features. Intersection Repair can successfully augment collective efficacy and can encourage direct action for the common good.

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Jan C. Semenza, PhD, obtained an MS in molecular genetics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology; carried out his PhD at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, UK; and received an MPH from University of California at Berkeley. He is professor at Portland State University in Oregon and is currently a senior scientific expert at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm, Sweden. Tanya L. March holds an MS in historic preservation from Columbia University and is currently a doctoral candidate in urban studies in the College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University in Oregon.

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