The Accelerator at Highlander Omaha, Neb. El Dorado

摘要

What was the Highlander neighborhood like when you started work there, and how did you approach its revitalization? Othello Meadows, president and CEO, Seventy Five North Revitalization Corp.: Highlander is on the near north side of Omaha, and for a long time it's been an epicenter of public housing. You had three large housing projects and a highway that went through the neighborhood in the early '80s with eminent domain. In 2008 or 2009, the [Omaha] Housing Authority demolished the housing projects, and those 23 acres of land sat vacant. So the neighborhood as we found it had not much density and a lot of decay. We wanted to re-densify the neighborhood and to bring people back to this community that has been down for a really long time. The Sherwood Foundation [a local social justice organization] and I were discussing ways to be impactful in Highlander and having a bunch of meetings with people in the community and going to see other developments. I was tipped-off about one in Atlanta that was done by Purpose Built Communities, and the idea for this holistic neighborhood redevelopment came about as a result of learning more about what was going on there.