1. Grassroots Disaster Recovery:
The Design Assistance Model

2. Agenda
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Describe the Design Assistance Program
Explain how it is relevant to disaster recovery
Share Case Studies and Lessons Learned
Questions and Discussion

3. What’s DAT?

4. The Design Assistance Program
• Began in 1967 – inspired by civil rights movement. First
community was a post-flood recovery for a downtown.
Over 200 communities in US & Canada since. Modeled
across communities in UK & Europe.

5. Key Components
• Customized
• Comprehensive (interdisciplinary teams)
• Objective Outsiders
(pro bono)
• Publicly Driven/Public
Participation
• Action-Oriented.

6. What distinguishes the DAT?
• We are NOT:
– Another Consultant Team
– A process to produce a
planning document
• “Please don’t give us
another plan. We have
plenty – they all sit on the
shelves. We need
implementation
strategies.” – Almost Every
community
– Government-focused
– “Green”-focused
– Building-focused
• We ARE:
– Public Service in the Public
Interest
• “Consultants work for
somebody. Design
Assistance Teams work for
everybody.”
– Action-Oriented
– Community-focused
– Holistic, Customized
• “It’s about the space
between the buildings, and
the people that inhabit
that space”

7. Outcomes– Newport R/UDAT
• Newport, Vermont (2009)
• Last town in state to receive
downtown designation,
double-digit unemployment
• R/UDAT: “I’ve seen Newport
come, and I’ve seen it go”
• Newport, Vermont (2011)
• $250 million in new
investment, and 2,000 new
jobs coming online
• “The biggest change here
has been one of attitude.
Now we realize that
through partnerships, we
can do anything. Now,
nothing is impossible.”

8. Port Angeles, WA 2009 SDAT

9. Today: $75 Million in New Investments

10. Waterfront: from SDAT to Masterplan
to…

12. How DAT Applies to Disaster Recovery
Disaster is constant

13. Case Study – Birmingham, AL

14. Impact

16. Frustration
• "I think everyone in the neighborhood is tired," said Patricia
Montgomery. Montgomery and others are tired of seeing
their neighborhood look the way it does. Trees are still
down, homes have been abandoned. While many are
rebuilding, others are not and Montgomery says lately it
doesn't seem like a whole lot of work is being done. "I
understand it's going to take a while to get stuff done but
when you look out your house everyday and you see trees
just laying, dead trees just laying there it makes you
like, I'm so sick of this," said Montgomery. "I'm willing to
get out there and help. My neighbors, I'm sure there are
willing to get out there and help but we don't know where
to start."

18. Immediate Outcomes
• “it is a plan than we can use as a guide as we
go back to restoring our community to not just
the way it was, but better than it was before.”Mayor William Bell
• ‘Greater Pratt Partnership’

19. Birmingham R/UDAT Outcomes
• $8 million in federal funds within 2
months
• June 2012 – TIGER Grant of $10
million
• “The coalition of communities and
organizations that have come together
behind this grant is incredibly
impressive. I think we all know we are
working in an environment of finite
resources, so from a federal
standpoint it is always extraordinarily
helpful to see a large commitment
from the local community, the private
and public sector and the region as a
whole behind one project.” – Federal
official
• 2013: another $17 million in federal
community block grants

20. Two Year Anniversary - 2013

21. Case Study - East Nashville, TN
• Tornado, 1998. One year later: “today many in East
Nashville feel that the tornado recovery is stalled.
”The long term recovery hasn’t been as fast or as
much as we’d hoped,“ says Lindsay Fairbanks, an East
Nashville resident and real estate agent. “Blue tarps
still flap in the wind. Recalcitrant insurance companies
and inadequate insurance coverage frustrate the
efforts of many to rebuild. East Nashville legend has it
that some absentee landlords pocketed their payoffs
and left for Europe, or at least to Destin. As a result,
their damaged buildings were left behind to molder in
the rain. And those with the funds and the will to
build new structures on the vacant lots find
themselves faced with a suburban-style zoning code
more at home in Bellevue.”
• R/UDAT – 800 participants, transformative community
event that organized the neighborhood and aligned
resources

22. R/UDAT Outcomes
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Rediscover East! Formed
CDBG and HUD funds
Kroger re-opened grocery stores
Town Square urban design
“The R/UDAT empowered the whole
community to identify a common
direction and form the partnerships –
and pools of capital – to make it a
reality. The most significant outcome
was the private investment that came
after the R/UDAT. Investors and
developers realized East Nashville’s
significant potential.”-Architect
magazine, 2011

23. Case Study: Rockaways, NYC

25. “A year after Hurricane Sandy flooded
hundreds of miles of eastern U.S. coastline,
thousands of people still trying to fix their
soaked and surf-battered homes are being
stymied by bureaucracy, insurance disputes
and uncertainty over whether they can even
afford to rebuild. Billions of dollars in federal
aid appropriated months ago by Congress
haven't reach homeowners who need that
money to move on. For many, flood insurance
checks weren't nearly enough to cover the
damage.”

26. “But on the periphery — in the Rockaways, on Staten Island’s South Shore
and along Brooklyn’s edges — where the storm surge was highest and the
damage greatest, evidence of Sandy still litters the landscape. There are
miles of shuttered coastline, building lots specked with rubble, entire
neighborhoods without habitable homes and blue tarps flapping like flags
of surrender.”

28. Lessons Learned: Common Challenges
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Overriding Uncertainty & Speculation
Confusion & Frustration
“Rootshock” & Identity Crisis
Overwhelming burden on local government
URGENCY

29. Lessons Learned: Keys for Local
Leaders
Enormous burden placed on government:
• Emphasis on Communications
• Address Uncertainty with clearly articulated
process
• Broaden civic leadership
• Engage and Involve the whole community in
visioning, decision-making & implementation
– Not just what gets done, but how it is done

30. Lessons Learned – Process Matters
• World Trade Center, Envisioning
the City
– Public rejected plans
• New Orleans, Post-Katrina
– ESF 14 FEMA Planning
– Bring New Orleans Back Plan
(Mayor)
• Disparate Efforts, Politically
Unpopular
• Famous “green dot” shrinking
footprint
– ‘The Lambert Plan’ (City
Council)
– Unified New Orleans Plan
• Citizen/Stakeholder ‘gap’

31. Lessons Learned: It’s HARD.
• There are no short cuts in disaster recovery. It is a
labor-intensive endeavor.
• There is no off-the-shelf fix – it must be
customized.
• It must involve everybody. It requires the whole
community.
• It must operate at multiple scales
(neighborhood, city, region, etc)
• 'If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to
go far, go together.‘

32. Key to Success – Civic Capacity
• Vision
• Novel Partnerships (Cross-Sector, Public-Private, etc)
• Civic vs. Political Process ( again, engage the whole
community)
• Transcend traditional roles and dependency on public
sector
• Civil society is our strongest sector

33. “We have no public
resources to do anything”
National Statistics: About a trillion dollars in the community
•Volunteerism = $171 billion (only 64 mill people)
•Total Charitable Giving = $298.42 billion.
•Non-profits = $300 billion in investment into local communities
•Over half of all states have enacted legislation to enable privatesector participation in infrastructure projects, where there is an
estimated $180 billion to be leveraged
•Crowdfunding - $1.5 billion in 2011 alone
•*billions in federal support

34. The Difference Community Makes
• Broadmoor, New
Orleans
• Revitalization Plan
• Formed CDC
• Charter School
• Education Corridor
• Formed Improvement
District

35. Multi-faceted community approach
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Community powered: 13,000
volunteers have contributed
300,000 hours
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Inclusive: "When you have solidarity
of people of different economic
groups, there's a power to that and
that can make a big difference"
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Outside help
(Harvard, MIT, etc), grants, etc
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Attractive partner: "We knew there
was money available. We
said, 'We're ready, we'll take your
money, and we'll show you
results.'" (Leveraged $40 million
initially)
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In 7 years, 85% of the 2,400 homes
were rebuilt and occupied, vs. other
neighborhoods that languished
Gentilly, 2011

36. Local Recovery DATs
• Greensburg,
Kansas
• Joplin, Missouri
• Brick, New Jersey

37. Resources
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R/UDAT Overview film
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SLxenuomss
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Birmingham R/UDAT Report
– http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab091780.pdf
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‘Building Birmingham’ Film
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkiEWreNnWs
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East Nashville R/UDAT Report
– http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab080327.pdf
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“Civic Lessons,” Architect Magazine
– www.architectmagazine.com/urban-development/civics-lessons.aspx
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National Civic Review, The Civics of Sustainability
– http://www.ncl.org/pdfs/99-3/MillsCivicssustainability.pdf
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Rockaways R/UDAT Report
– http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aiab099137.pdf