Regenerating Places

7 Key excerpts on "Regenerating Places"

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  Social Sustainability

  • Sudha Menon, University of Kerala, India(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Society Publishing

    (Publisher)

  Urban Regeneration and Social Sustainability 173 Source: http://static.kremlin.ru/media/events/photos/big/LPKa8jambC5Pz-Dn7FqPaL2oJ0SQOTYKU.jpg Progressive development of urban planning can be explained as ongoing regenerative procedure in urban spaces through developing existing environments by attaining new examples. Appreciation of old values in urban planning, as discussed above, has made different strategists and policy-makers respectful of old urban structures, such as shopping at small and local retailers. In this context, many metropolitan cities of America have highlighted retail developments as stated by Frisch and Servon in the year 2006, Halebsky in the year 2004 as well as Nunn in the year 2001 to refresh and regenerate their sectors from the dramatic suburbanization in the United States since the 1950s. Suburban expansion has been criticized by many researchers such as Baum-Snow in the year 2007, Massey, and Denton in the year 1988, Mieszkowski, and Mills in the year 1993 as well as Rowley in the year 1980 for producing negative consequences such as metropolitan fragmentation, hollowing out, residential segregation, and deteriorated inner city. Because of these negative effects, scholars, and practitioners have been evaluating better alternatives to improve socioeconomic and natural environments in urban areas. These endeavors have created diverse urban planning paradigms legally and administratively since the early years of the last century. Information and communication technology which is the full form used in place of ICT have facilitated the assessment and planning of human environments; in particular, urban planning works are increasingly dependent on Information and communication technology like Geographic Information System, Internet-based communication, etc. as stated by famous researchers Graham in the year 2002, Hanzl in the year 2007 and the same by well-known researcher named as Van der Meer and Van Winden in the year 2003.

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  Financial Engineering in Sustainable Funding of Urban Development in the EU

  Reflections on the JESSICA Initiative

  • Piotr Idczak, Ida Musia?kowska, Ida Musia?kowska, Ida Musia?kowska, Ida Musiałkowska(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter

    (Publisher)

  de Magalhães, 2015 ). Regeneration interventions realise the need to counter localised market failures and to achieve an equity objective (regarded as social cohesion). These actions lead to attaining additional social, economic and environmental outputs and outcomes which would otherwise not have occurred or which would have been yielded at an unsatisfactory level.

  Of particular importance in this context is a holistic approach. This stipulates that any regeneration initiatives should be implemented by bringing a wide range of social, economic and environmental considerations into the decision-making process on an integrated programme of urban development. The idea considers the regeneration programme as relating to a complete city system, and rejects a piecemeal approach. To address the issues resulting from this comprehensiveness, the needs and aspirations of local residents to redevelop their locality are supposed to be met in the wake of the coordination of a number of private and public sector actions (Couch, Sykes, & Börstinghaus, 2011 ). Moreover, the formulation of solutions to the problems of deprived urban area residents and people living in the neighbourhood should take place by way of a common vision, agreed objectives and priorities, pooled expertise and common decisions for the allocation of resources. In this respect it should also be underlined that, following de Magalhães’s view (2015) , the core understanding of what socio-economic decline in cities means must be seen as social, economic and environmental problems of a city (locality) rather than as social, economic and environmental problems that happened to take place in that locality. Therefore urban regeneration through holistic approach policies seeks to address the problems of cities in all their multiple dimensions. It is then characterised by agendas of inclusiveness, multi-agency partnerships, and a shift from government to governance (J. Evans & Jones, 2008

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  Regeneration, Heritage and Sustainable Communities in Turkey

  Challenges, Complexities and Potentials

  • Muge Akkar Ercan(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  raison d’être for conservation in all senses’ (Avrami and Mason, 2000: 4). Hence, protecting poor, vulnerable communities living and working in deprived historic urban quarters in accordance with their multifaceted needs, aspirations and values, and ultimately turning them into SCs is also indispensable for sustainable urban conservation. Therefore, particularly in historic neighbourhoods, the difficult task of conservation initiatives is to develop strategies not only ensuring the continuing contribution of heritage to the present and the future through the thoughtful and intelligent management of change responsive to the heritage environment and collective needs, but also preserving the fundamental elements of the social environment. If such strategies find ways of reconciling the needs, aspirations and concerns of local communities and the conservation of the heritage geographies with multiple values, they are likely to develop more equitable and sustainable solutions to the problems of historic quarters.

  The effectiveness and success of (sustainable ) regeneration endeavours in heritage geographies, therefore, depend on three main conditions: first, the extent to which they protect vulnerable, poor communities by meeting their economic, social, cultural, environmental, health and political needs, ultimately turning them into SCs; second, the extent to which they restore heritage geographies by adopting present needs without risking the loss of inherited built resources with their interrelated sets of values for future generations; and finally, the extent to which they achieve both objectives in a sustainable and balanced fashion. The understanding of community needs is elaborated further in the next sections.

  Relational understanding of regeneration spaces in cities

  In an era of globalisation and neoliberal urbanism, Harvey (2016: 137) defines urbanisation as ‘a spatially grounded social process in which a wide range of actors with quite different objectives and agendas interact through a particular configuration of interlocking spatial practices’. It produces numerous artefacts, such as constructed spaces and resource systems, as well as institutional arrangements, legal forms, political and administrative systems and hierarchies of power (Harvey, 2016). Indeed, spaces are ‘interrelated entities’ that are open to and engaged with other spaces and places. They are ‘relational constructs’ made by biological, physical, economic, social and cultural processes and relations established between entities of various kinds (Murdoch, 2006). According to Harvey (1996), discrete spaces and places need to be regarded as dynamic configurations of ‘relative permanences’. The resonances of the relational approach to urban regeneration are therefore twofold: first, to conceptualise regeneration spaces as the notions of ‘relative permanence’ and ‘perpetual perishing’ in a time–space relation; and second, to conceive them with reference to the spatio-temporal dynamics; i.e. spatial changes in time. By conceiving regeneration spaces as ‘semi-permanent’ with a spatio-temporal perspective rather than ‘static’ and ‘contained’ in time moving in one directional and linear way, it is possible to discover the ‘flow’ and ‘fixity’ nature of spaces.

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  The Ecology of Place

  Planning for Environment, Economy, and Community

  • Timothy Beatley, Kristy Manning(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Island Press

    (Publisher)

  There are, unfortunately, reasons to be skeptical about our ability to meet these challenges, given current global trends of population growth, consumption, and environmental degradation. Yet at local and regional levels, the higher standards implied by sustainability are not only more conceivable, but necessary from a practical as well as an ethical standpoint. Indeed, there are encouraging examples of efforts to restore the environment, or at least important pieces of the environment. These range from recreating prairies in the Chicago area to reintroducing the red wolf in North Carolina to the reforestation efforts under way in a number of places (see Baldwin, DeLuce, and Pletsch, eds. 1993; for a good discussion of ecological restoration as a new perspective on the relationship between humans and nature, see Jordan 1993).

  Sustainable Places Strive for a High Quality of Life

  To be a viable paradigm, sustainability must incorporate a strong social component. Along with ecological issues, then, sustainable communities are equally concerned with social and human sustainability—creating and supporting humane living environments, livable places, and communities that offer a high quality of life. Characterizing the social dimension becomes much vaguer and more subjective than defining the environmental or ecological dimension; we cannot rely as readily on such measures as natural carrying capacity. Terms such as livability and quality of life, in turn, beg for definition and description and, ultimately, may be up to the community itself to clarify.

  It seems fairly clear, however, that current patterns of urban development in the United States are becoming more socially and psychologically stifling. We have created, or allowed to be created, urban and suburban places that will not stand the test of time. Increasingly, downtown urban areas are devoid of activity after 5:00 P.M.; meanwhile, suburban and edge cities lack charm and a sense of place and depend heavily on the automobile. The zealous separation of land uses promoted by conventional zoning and the scattered, sprawling development patterns that characterize much of our contemporary landscape require an increasingly dysfunctional transportation system that is plagued with traffic congestion and long work commutes (Fig. 2.1

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  Urban Regeneration

  • Peter Roberts, Hugh Sykes, Rachel Granger, Peter Roberts, Hugh Sykes, Rachel Granger, Author(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Having identified and traced the evolution of some of the major issues and factors that have been evident in previous eras of urban change and policy, the preceding section of this chapter isolated six important themes which represent the origins and outcomes of past problems and policy responses. Although they reflect the enduring and continuous nature of economic, social and physical change, they do not yield, by themselves, the basis for a comprehensive definition of urban regeneration. In order to help to construct a working definition of urban regeneration it is also necessary to identify emerging areas of concern and likely future challenges. As was argued above, the most important of these challenges is that which is represented by the need to ensure that all areas of public and private policy operate in accord with the economic, social, environmental and political principles embodied in the notion of sustainable development.

  A Definition of Urban Regeneration

  Although the very nature of regeneration makes it a constantly evolving and varied activity, the six themes provide the basis for an initial definition of urban regeneration as:

  comprehensive and integrated vision and action which seeks to resolve urban problems and bring about a lasting improvement in the economic, physical, social and environmental condition of an area that has been subject to change or offers opportunities for improvement.

  This somewhat ideal definition encompasses the essential features of urban regeneration identified by Lichfield, who points to the need for ‘a better understanding of the processes of decline’ and an ‘agreement on what one is trying to achieve and how’ (Lichfield, 1992: 19); by Hausner, who emphasises the inherent weaknesses of approaches to regeneration that are ‘short-term, fragmented, ad hoc and project-based without an overall strategic framework for city-wide development’ (Hausner, 1993: 526); by Donnison in his call for ‘new ways of tackling our problems which focus in a co-ordinated way on problems and on the areas where those problems are concentrated’ (Donnison, 1993: 18); and by Diamond and Liddle (2005) who emphasise the need for action across all relevant policy spheres.

  The definition given above represents urban regeneration designed and delivered in a total package and to the final point of completion. However, as Tallon (2010) observes, the reality is that regeneration often operates in a fragmented manner and not all problems are solved.

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  The Regeneration Imperative

  Revitalization of Built and Natural Assets

  • William Humber, Gail Krantzberg, Velma I. Grover(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  Built regeneration is about intervening in places where humans live, work, relax, perform, create and all the other marvelous things we do. Returning those in apparent decline to a healthy, more vibrant and fulsome life however is subject to the many points of view held by humans. Like natural systems we also need diversity, not only to maintain human comfort in a changing climate but for reasons ranging from improved public health, to increased opportunities for all. Many jurisdictions are recognizing the megapolitan character of successful cites and the need to address issues of gentrification, likely dislocation, but also regional mobility for those living in the more expansive geographic territory of the city. Practicing Regeneration 85 As a reminder, on the one hand: • “I don’t mind when a community changes”, said the man, a photographer with a salt-and-pepper beard who gave his name only as Gregory. “But the way it’s changing, it’s not changing for me and you. It’s changing for them.” • Rob Williams, a 43-year-old train operator, lives in a council-owned tower block overlooking the Olympic Stadium that will be torn down after the Games. “The worst part by far is that the impact of the Olympics on land prices has meant that the council is relocating us, one by one, destroying what was a vibrant, happy community.” But on the other hand: • “You can’t say it’s not changing for the better for us,” Mr. Avery said. “A lot of black folks who owned homes here took the money and ran, moved to Staten Island or down South or wherever. I live here, and it’s changing for the better for me.” • JJ Jegede, a 26-year-old Olympic long-jump hopeful, said the transformation of the area where he grew up has been incredible. “As a kid growing up, East London wasn’t a good place to go,” he said. “Now you see thousands of people in East London coming ’round and seeing it as tourist venue.

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  Urban Planning and Real Estate Development

  • John Ratcliffe, Michael Stubbs, Miles Keeping(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The Urban Task Force Report of 1999 promoted a planning system that valued and promoted quality (in design), economy (in wealth creation), environmental responsibility (thus sustainability), governance (in other words, fair processes and engagement), and society (social benefits and a fairer society). The compact city was at the core of this, but we must not lose sight of the social and environmental components of sustainability – design must deliver or relate to all of these. Thus, the planning system achieves sustained investment to target economic decline and social exclusion, as well as promoting energy-efficient buildings, an awareness of biodiversity, housing on recycled land, the promotion of participatory democracy through urban government, and priority given to social well-being to ensure neighbourhoods have a balance of tenure and income groups proportionate to housing demand. The Town and Country Planning Association has a long pedigree of promoting urban extensions and new settlements (see TCPA 2007).

  Urban regeneration is something of an umbrella term to cover a variety of topics, including the economics of development, the physical improvement of the environment, including environmental actions, and the future management of a community and its citizens. Economic regeneration deals with the funding of infrastructure (often public transport upgrades and new projects) and frequently involves incentives in a range of financial and fiscal measures to encourage the development of vacant and derelict land (e.g. tax relief for such regeneration projects). Other cognate areas also cover the need to address market failures, in which the collapse of market activity is attributed to chronic environmental problems and poverty. Although the infamous and much criticised national Housing Pathfinder (see later in this chapter) offered a simple solution of demolish and start again, the real question and challenge here rest with carefully crafted market interventions. That means budgets of public money to acquire land for development and promote and discharge its regeneration and to fund physical improvements – open spaces/green infrastructure, streets and public realm, health, and community infrastructure. Although public–private joint working is the goal, it remains the case that the public purse, combined with the use of compulsory purchase powers to assist land assembly, renders local government and the agencies of national government (such as Homes England) key players in kick-starting the process. Recent examples include the new communities of Cranbrook (near Exeter) and Chalgrove (near Wallingford, South Oxfordshire).

  The role of public bodies in assembling sites and connecting them through public transport initiatives and new delivery mechanisms is not new, but the essential fulcrum link between infrastructure and development must be maintained. The development corporation is a traditional model in which a public agency is vested with powers to grant planning permission, set a vision, link up to transport, and fund favoured development. This was used in the post-war construction of British new towns, famously Milton Keynes (1967–92 for such status). Regeneration development corporations followed a similar path with their creation in London Docklands and Merseyside (1981); the Black Country (West Midlands), Cardiff Bay, Teesside, Trafford Park Manchester, and Tyne and Wear (1987); Central Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield (1988); and finally Bristol (1989).

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