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Strategies to Improve Communities Creating Livable Communities The Many Faces of "Livability" Most leaders charged with running local governments seek to create "livable communities." However, the phrase has been used to cover so much territory that it no longer is clear what anyone really means by it. For the literal minded, a livable place is, redundantly, where people reside and, if a place were not livable, it would be empty, save for passers- by — including those who arrive temporarily for commerce. However, by livable, most people mean something symbolic. The phrase "livable community" evokes a place that is not simply habitable but that is desirable. It is not only where people do live, but where they want to live. Awards are given for the most livable places in America and the winners are chosen, often by magazines, based on many quality of life criteria like safety, affordability and beauty. Because livability means so many things to different people, researchers and community organizations have explored just about every window into the meaning of the term. For some, livability has to do with the built environment — a place that hews to land conservation, avoids sprawl and funnels activity into pedestrian - friendly space with low rise buildings and attractive greenery (Kunstler, 1993). Proper land use in a livable place results in the "spirit of community," (Fischer, 2000) where neighbors trust and rely on each other and turn to each other for help. One organization reminds us that livability should not be the aspiration of only well off communities: "livability extends to economic dynamism and career opportunities as well as recreational, aesthetic, cross -generational and cultural activities." (Community Research Connections in http: / /crcresearch.org /case- studies/case-studies-sustainable- infrastructure /land-use-Dlanning /what-makes-a- citv-liveable). A livable community not only attracts people because its infrastructure represents good planning principles, it may also provide expansive opportunities like those of great cities. One simple characteristic of a great city that intersects with livable communities is the creation of a place where people want to spend time outside (httD: //ecolocalizer.com/2ooa/07/o8 /what-is-a- good-citv/). A more elaborate set of amenities comes from the mid -twentieth century, when Lewis Mumford described this way what exceptional cities provide: "The chief function of the city is to convert power into form, energy into culture, dead matter into the living symbols of art, biological reproduction into social creativity." This is a tall order but one that some believe would contribute to a city becoming "livable." Below is a word cloud of definitions of livability that came from 18 articles reviewed by the National Association of Regional Networks (NARC).1 It demonstrates the salience of Transportation and Community Quality as well as the diversity of other terms used to describe "livability." Figure 1: Livability Word Cloud avom OPf1ONS cLr:wL�u�aLxcc..> v �HQUS1 g � TRANSPORTkTi Lv-% mums gT BUM COMMUNITY QUITY �a a,ov�c L LT1 � EgcLuTaS A ‘1:74411- PL,ANN1N rinueiG� LIfE s �iil�i�.ra-� X4LK8L l� <S� ' Livability Word Cloud Including Scholarly and Practitioner Definitions (www.wordle.net) in LIVABILITY LITERATURE REVIEW: A SYNTHESIS OF CURRENT PRACTICE. National Association of Regional Councils and U.S. Department of Transportation 2012, Washington, D.C. © 2014 National Research Center, Inc. Page 2