Placemaking Week 2024

This panel discussion will illustrate how simple and scalable place-based interventions can overcome legacies of neighborhood disinvestment and have implications for health and leadership development broadly and crime specifically.  This panel will be moderated by Community Development Administrator Dan Baisden, and feature Professor of Criminology and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and Co-Editor of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Dr. John MacDonald; Neighborhood Planner and CPTED Program Manager, Megan Grable; and Neighborhood Planner and former nonprofit Community Development Director, Réna Bradley. Dr. MacDonald will present the results of his cross-sector studies with departments ranging from Anthropology and Public Policy to Biostatistics, Public Health, and Schools of Medicine. His research demonstrates how vacant lot improvements, trees, structural housing repairs, and land use effect crime rates, perception of safety, and health outcomes. Ms. Grable will present the basics of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and their application in the High Street CPTED Pilot Area case study in Fort Wayne, IN. Through specific, replicable infrastructure, social capital, and public art interventions, the program demonstrated significantly reduced crime rates. She will also present the theoretical support for each intervention, and the process of engagement with Neighborhood Associations and residents that supported and informed the pilot program.  Ms. Bradley will provide an introduction to Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), Design Thinking, and the 3DM leadership development process. She will share how each of those philosophies and strategies was implemented by a grassroots organization in the Mount Vernon Park (MVP) neighborhood and yielded both quantitative and qualitative outcomes including: blight mitigation, crime rate reductions, and increased agency of community residents. She will also share how the City of Fort Wayne is building upon lessons learned from her experience in MVP to equip neighborhood leaders through their new Neighborhood Accelerator program.