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In 1989, the San Francisco Chronicle rated Suisun City, California, a town of 25,000 people midway between San Francisco and Sacramento, the worst place to live in the Bay Area. At that time, Suisun City's historic Main Street was a strip of boarded-up storefronts, vacant lots, and auto body shops. Several blocks away, an oil refinery sat at the head of the heavily polluted, silt-laden Suisun Channel. Today Suisun’s harbor is filled with boats and lined with small businesses. A train and bus station that connects the city to the rest of Northern California sits a few blocks away. The town is diverse, walkable, and picturesque. Its crime rate is low and its housing affordable.
How did Suisun City transform itself in a decade? Was it the beneficiary of a huge government redevelopment grant or a gift from a rich foundation? No such luck. Instead, Suisun City's residents, businesses, and elected officials agreed on a common vision for their town's future. Clean-up polluted Suisun Channel and make the waterfront a focal point of their town, they said. Re-establish historic Main Street as a social and retail gathering place. Strengthen municipal finances by encouraging tax-generating commercial development such as retail shops and restaurants along Main Street and the waterfront.
In its rebirth, Suisun City avoided large-scale redevelopment projects such as shopping centers and industrial parks that would have obliterated its historic, small-town character. Suisun City is still a work-in-progress. But this once-troubled town has turned the corner. Suisun City is invigorated with new businesses and residents, rekindled community spirit, and unbridled optimism about its future.
Growth and development can cut two ways. As the example of Suisun City illustrates growth can improve quality of life by adding services, creating opportunity, and enhancing access to amenities. It can also drive disinvestment, reduce competitiveness, and degrade the environment. Businesses, community leaders, developers, and local governments need to work to ensure that new growth improves the economy and environment of existing communities. In building places, communities must build places people want to live in for what they are, rather than for what they are not. This is smart growth.
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