In an early April interview, Solotaroff said CCC s approach is based around identifying the root causes that drive people into homelessness so that you can begin to think about how you can address each of those root causes, or even better, you can try to address multiple root causes at once through a combined intervention.
Solotaroff said that at CivicCon, she will describe for people what our organization, Central City Concern, sees as those root causes, as those drivers. I also want to be sure to describe for people what Central City Concern is and how we work, because . if your mission is about ending homelessness not just at the individual level, but actually advancing the art and the science of ending homelessness you ve got to get your arms around those different complex factors, she said.
Lee Altman, project manager at landscape architecture firm SCAPE, said Wednesday that the design on display next week will be an evolution of initial idealistic renderings that have been fine-tuned taking into account such logistics as utility lines and parking.
“The drawings we developed earlier were highly conceptual and trying to make sense of what the vision was, and (the new design) is really bringing that vision down to earth, understanding what can fit where,” she said.
SCAPE was tasked in late 2019 with studying ways to make the downtown waterfront more vibrant, and how to invest money into development that would see the biggest return for the community.
Also part of the project is the installation of multiple traffic lights to slow traffic, the lowering of the speed limit to 30 mph and the installation of barriers across the median in areas where pedestrians often try to unsafely cross the street.
Neighborhood advocates are hopeful the work will be a catalyst for a bigger change in the Brownsville area, one that brings a sense of community back to the area by encouraging walkability and bikeability.
The current plan was a compromise after FDOT initially proposed a pedestrian barrier to run the entire length of the project, forcing pedestrians and jaywalkers to cross only at the traffic signals. Local officials and residents fought that plan and negotiated down to a few barriers at trouble spots.