Shaping vibrant affordable communities: insights, observations and trends

What makes a great neighborhood? The American Planning Association (APA), a nonprofit that provides leadership in the development of vital communities, highlights examples every year as part of its Great Places in America program. To choose the honorees, APA considers criteria in three categories: neighborhood form and composition, neighborhood character and personality, and neighborhood environment and sustainable practices. In 2008, the 40,000-strong education and membership association named California’s Echo Park, a suburb of Los Angeles, to its list of 10 Great Neighborhoods in America.

Just two miles northwest of downtown LA, Echo Park “is a vibrant mix of cultures, incomes, architecture, commercial activity, and social activism that has retained its unique character and charm for more than a century,” observes APA.1 Among Echo Park’s historical landmarks is the Angelus Temple, opened in 1923 by the Foursquare Church.2 Over the years, the church has grown into an international Christian denomination, with almost 64,000 churches and meeting places worldwide, including nearly 1,800 in the United States.2 And the Foursquare Foundation, established in 2005, has funded projects in over 103 countries.3 The Foundation has recently been exploring opportunities closer to home, and is starting to develop underused church properties into affordable seniors housing.