The Year That (Certainly) Made Me John Henshall LFPIA

• Need spatial indicators; tation provided audience members with much food for • Have Federal performance indicators; thought. It was a most timely input to remind us that cities • National data standards; are constructed by people and she invited as to all become • Five yearly reviews; and architects of Hobart’s future. What will the citizens of Hobart see in seventy years’ time? Will they hail and commemorate a • Metropolitan governance. modern day Abercrombie? Clearly some of these are more within Hobart’s control than Indra Boss MPIA is a town planner with JMG Engineers others, but even so the fundamental questions remain – where and Planners and a PhD Candidate within the School of do we want to go? And is there sufficient vision and leadership Technology, Environment and Design at UTAS. She can be amongst the key stakeholders? Professor Giles-Corti’s presen- contacted at [email protected] or [email protected] The year that (certainly) made me John Henshall LFPIA Many of us will be familiar with the ABC Radio National segment on Sunday mornings called ‘The year that made me’. The radio host interviews individuals about their time on earth, so to speak, and what it is that has guided them through the years. Many times I have reflected on the ‘year that made me’. Until now, I had never really identified that point in time. Perhaps it was the year I was born. Or the year I started school. Or the year I somehow passed the ‘Accountancy A’ exam at uni. Or got my first job. Who knows…? Now that I reflect on all of these years (too many to count just now), I feel that, yes, I have identified that ‘year that made me’. It was 2001. In March of that year I attended the American Planning Association’s annual congress in New Orleans. I had only been to the USA a handful of times previously, back in Clarksdale was taking up the the mid/late 1990s, so the geography and sociology of the challenge to ‘revitalise’ its place was still very ‘new’ to me. In 2001, as I drove in my downtown in the face of long- rental car from New Orleans to Memphis for the flight home entrenched economic adversity. to Melbourne, by happenstance I drove into the small town Recovery is now well under- of Clarksdale in Mississippi, on Highways 49 and 61. The way and much of this is assoc- Lonely Planet guide book said if you like Blues music, visit iated with Blues music and Clarksdale, birthplace of the Blues. I simply had to drop by. Delta culture, noting that For all of these years since 2001, I have been attracted by the Clarksdale and the surround- hospitality and friendship of locals, combined with the deep- ing Mississippi Delta is also home rooted appeal of Blues music playing live in the local juke to national icons in literature, art, culinary and other joints and bars. The fact is that Clarksdale is an economically cultural pursuits. These are key elements around which the poor town, and this is reflected in the 35% of residents living downtown revitalisation effort is now focused, with growth below the poverty line; truly a pointer to the underlying Blues in many new businesses ranging from music venues and art that rallies the Delta soul. galleries, to museums, cafes and restaurants, and specialist retailers. After all, this is the Crossroads where – as tradition has it – Robert Johnson made his midnight deal with the Devil in return This story is told in my forthcoming book titled “Downtown for knowledge on playing Blues guitar. This is the birthplace Revitalisation and Delta Blues in Clarksdale, Mississippi: of Son House, Earl Hooker, John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, Jackie Lessons for Small Cities and Towns” (Palgrave Macmillan). Brenston, Sam Cooke, Willie Foster and numerous other music If you get a chance to read it, you’ll recognise that 2001 icons. Muddy Waters grew up at nearby Stovall Plantation and was, indeed, ‘the year that made me’. The book charts started his early career in Clarksdale; Bessie Smith died there the background, process and progress through which at what is now the Riverside Inn (it was previously an African the Clarksdale community has embarked on the road to American hospital), following a highway accident. Sonny Boy downtown recovery, and highlights the town’s indelible links Williamson and Elvis Presley were heralded at the local WROX with Blues music, borne out of years of toil, hardship and radio station where Early Wright was the world’s longest- socio-economic deprivation visited upon the African-American serving black DJ for his 50-year hold on the microphone. community. The role of ‘champions’ and ‘creative people’ is highlighted, focusing on their individual and collective efforts On every return visit I could see that something was happ- to regenerate their downtown, breathing new life into the ening in downtown Clarksdale. I could see this small town of place with the support of its residents, old and new. Lessons some 16,000 residents, with a near-deserted downtown, was for small cities and towns are highlighted. slowly ‘revitalising’ in an economic context: with each visit, a few more new shops or businesses in downtown were in John Henshall is Founding Director of Essential Economics, evidence. And old buildings rehabilitated and re-purposed. and can be contacted at [email protected] Planning News Volume 44 No.11 December 2018 17.

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