Richmond Learns To Grow Smaller, Smarter

28 December 2006 - 1:00pm

Richmond, Virginia is one of many cities using innovative strategies to deal with the consequences of a shrinking population.

"Richmond's population has lost 56,000 since its peak in 1970, when it had 250,000 residents, and the city is finally coming to terms with it. Green space is replacing boarded-up houses. Small single-family homes are rising where crowded cinderblock apartment buildings once stood. Singles and couples are moving into rehabilitated homes that once housed families of eight.

Slowly, old American cities that have been in a downward population spiral for a half-century or more are reinventing themselves as, well, smaller cities. They're starting to adopt -- many, like Richmond, do it unknowingly — tenets of the burgeoning, European-born 'Shrinking Cities' movement. The idea: If cities can grow in a smart way, they can also shrink smartly."

Source: USA Today, December 28, 2006
Bookmark and Share
But what can planners do to support the kind of connections between people I just described? One idea is promoting mixed-use places where there are simply more opportunities for people to run into each other and connect.