Alleyway Development Model Framework

Community Engagement: Engaging with, educating, and listening to the communities around the alleyways will be vital to not only creating spaces the community can use, but also spaces that the community will independently care for and protect. The following recommendations will focus on how to build the neighborhood and community engagement required to revitalize these spaces.

Cooperate with Local Organizations: The County government is not a lonely organization in the International District; there are neighborhood associations, business associations, non-profits, activist groups, and plenty of others. Cooperating with them will not only allow for the County to gain a better understanding of what improvements are wanted and needed, but also establish a culture of cooperation that will help maintain the alleyways in the long term.

Ask, Do Not Tell: A notable concern voiced by many community members was an irritation with previous municipal initiatives which seemed to not respond to their concerns, even during public outreach when it’s important to have such discussions. A core tenant of successful community engagement for alleyway development will be to respect community member’s opinions, and approach community engagement as a series of questions for community members to answer, rather than as a set public announcements for community members to understand.

Intersectional Events: Both of the community events hosted by the UNM studio were not hosted by UNM alone, but with other organizations. This was because these other organizations had a much further reach in the community than our studio alone, or the County government, could possibly have on our own. Our first event coincided with a community garden clean-up; the second took place next to a neighborhood association meeting. In both cases, people attending for the other event were happy to participate in ours, giving us far more engagement than we would’ve had otherwise.

Try Before You Buy: Drawing from the tactics of guerilla urbanism, our second event was more than a discussion; it was a presentation of what was possible in a given alley. This involved putting up shade structure, benches, planter, and other temporary infrastructure that was meant to show just a bit of what changes were possible. This spurred deeper conversation, with community members pointing out specific concerns and preferences, and allowed for a more constructive discussion based out of a vision that is already partially materialized. Further events such as this could not only generate important conversations, but also build trust within the community; after all, they’ve already seen the project in action.

Local Participation Requires Local Creativity: Many community members responded positively to the idea of alleyways becoming beautiful spaces that reflect their neighborhood; places with personality. In order to achieve that, it will be important to engage with community members and let them express themselves creatively, be it through the design of the alleyways, art within them, or even as simple as asking what sort of art they would like to see. Our own events found that community members were happy to be involved, not only in making ideas for the art, but painting it as well, as a community event.

Funding and Organization: Any successful infrastructure project requires methods to acquire funds and to distribute them equitably. The following recommendations draw from case studies around the nation and how they organized their funding.

Modular, not Monolithic: In successful, large-scale alleyway revitalization projects, such as San Francisco's Living Alleyways or Baltimore’s Alley Makeover Project, the basic unit of organization was the individual alley, not the network as a whole. Individual alleys were designed, funded, and revitalized; this was often done at the same time as other alleys, but fundamentally, the alleys were self-contained projects.

Unilateral Planning has a Price Tag: The many examples we found of traditional, top-down planning with little community involvement, such as the case of Roswell, Georgia, were universally the most expensive. A lack of community or inter-organizational collaboration meant that the punching-power of each dollar was extremely low, limited by high design and maintenance costs.

Organize for Use-Value: Regardless of how well an alley is planned or constructed, if people do not start using them, they will fall into disrepair. It is vital to inaugurate new alleyways with events like Cincinnati's Five Point Alley Beer Garden and Music Night, or even new traditions, like Gallup’s Downtown Night Out. Beyond creating an alley, we must renormalize being in them.

Grants Will Be Vital: Every single alley project, regardless of scale, acquired funding via grants, be they state, federal, or main street; beyond that, many of them distributed funding to various specific alleys via grants. It is likely impractical to try and fund an alleyway revitalization project without any form of grant funding, be it for acquisition or distribution of funds.

Typology and Design: Recommendations in this category pertain to the use and practical design of individual alleys; they way individuals interact with them, and how we can categorize and design the alleys to encourage that.

Diversity in Design: A critical suggestion we must put forward is to recommend against creating a one-size-fits-all approach to how any given alley should be designed and developed. While there are countless ways the alleys can be developed, a fact that should be embraced so that each one is tailored to the needs of its surrounding community, several broad categories can be defined:

Gardens and Green Space: This category refers to alleys which have been retrofitted to serve as vital points of access to green space and naturalistic outdoor spaces in an urban environment that often lacks such amenities. These are meant to be spaces of relaxation and recreation. Examples may include pocket parks, community gardens, and small sections of cultivated nature for native species.

Multi-Use Pathways: A category that most of the alleyways already fall into, intentionally or not, Multi-Use Pathways are defined by being used for movement by pedestrians, bikers, and cars. These will continue to be vital, as many alleyways are used by drivers to access their rear yards, but careful design can make these friendly and safe spaces for those on foot or bike.

Pedestrian Corridors: Providing a resource that is dangerously absent in much of the International District, Pedestrian corridors are meant to be places where individuals can comfortably walk their dog, commute to a bus stop, go for a jog, or even simply mingle outside comfortably. Creating these will be key to a successful alleyway revitalization.

Community Spaces: Able to be mixed with any of the other types of alleys, community spaces are important for the social fabric of the neighborhood. They are supposed to be multi-use social spaces, where community members can host block parties, spend time with friends, or any other number of social activities.
Diversity in Development: On this website, we have defined four distinct variables that impact the alleyways’ current usage, and future potential: zoning, paving, accessibility, and fencing material. These factors, while not wholly defining the alleyways, do offer guidelines for which future uses may be the most easy to develop and integrate.

Zoning: The zoning and land use surrounding a given alley can drastically change the potential healthy uses of that space. For example, retail and commercial land use may encourage alleys that act as pedestrian or multi-use corridors, while those near residential areas may be more inclined to integrate park or green space elements.

Paving: Paving significantly impacts the current uses, and future potential, of various alleyways. For example, paved alleys tend to be easier for pedestrians and bikers, particularly those who have mobility challenges, but simultaneously makes the creation of green space more difficult, as it would require planting boxes or the removal of paving.

Accessibility: Some alleyways (and former alleyways) are no longer as accessible as they once were. Over the decades, residents have modified the alleyways, which includes taking over the alleyways in various capacities, such as narrowing them by extending their own fences or completely fencing off the entrances to the alleyways. This does, and in the future will continue to, impact how community members can interact with those alleys.

Fencing: The fencing that divides the alleyways from the adjacent properties can come in a variety of materials, and designs for alleys ought to be adjusted to make the best use of each type. For example, some alleyways are fenced with tall concrete walls, which effectively insulate sound and are good for painting murals and other public arts, while other alleyways are made of chain link fencing, which increases visibility and is more easy to modify.

Beautification: Beautification recommendations are about making the alleyways beautiful, but beyond that, they are about how to create and maintain beautiful places which people enjoy being in.

Art and Murals: Blank walls in the alleyways are an open canvas. Filling them with paintings, chalk drawings, and other art can help bring color to the space. They also provide a way for residents to take ownership of the spaces by allowing them to create their own art or advocate for murals that celebrate the community. For example, in our Pop-Up demonstration event, we painted the footprints of all the houses on the block on the wall in the alleyways using chalkboard paint so community members can draw on their house. 

Gardens and Flowers: Plants were one of the most desired things that community members want in the alley. In addition to creating a welcoming and interesting environment, they provide numerous mental health benefits and create opportunities for community plantings and gardening. 

Lights: Safety was a primary concern that community members expressed about the alleyways. Although lighting will not solve this problem, it further encourages community activity in the alleys which also discourages unwanted activity. Lights can also be used to enhance the space at night by installing string lights, creative lamp designs, etc. 

Tables/Benches: Creating spaces for rest and socialization encourage people to spend time in the alleyways so they truly become community spaces. 

Community Clean-up Days: By creating regular clean-up events in which residents gather to pick up trash and clean the alleyways, it helps maintain them as well as create more community ownership. This has been an effective strategy in other alleyways in the area and helped build community desire for this type of project.

Alleyway Networking: While the individual alley is the basic unit of design, the must be conceptualized as a network in order to be an effective transit network. 

Enthusiasm to Walk: A key fact we uncovered during our community events is that, if provided the option, many community members would be happy to walk or bike to many of their daily destinations, such as schools, grocery stores, or work.

Multimodal Network: One key advantage the International District has is the presence of the ART bus, alongside 10 other bus routes, which is a much higher transit density than the rest of Albuquerque. Connecting the alleyway network to transit stops is a way to effectively extend the network to wherever there is reliable transit.

The San Pedro Corridor: While there are many alleyways around the International District, San Pedro in particular runs parallel to a long, continuous corridor of alleys. This corridor, which is near large amounts of residential and commercial land uses, has the potential to form the spine of any new alleyway transit network.