Urban Renewal

12 Key excerpts on "Urban Renewal"

• 

  eBook - ePub

  (Re)Generating Inclusive Cities

  Poverty and Planning in Urban North America

  • Dan Zuberi, Ariel Judith Taylor(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Introduction Urban Renewal in North America in a Neoliberal Context

  Cities today are essential economic, cultural and social hubs of global connectivity. As changing political and economic priorities push individuals out of suburban neighborhoods and into urban cores, planners and policy-makers have embraced a variety of strategies to revitalize urban communities. In short, the twin processes of neoliberalism and Urban Renewal have worked to push and pull people into growing cities across North America. This book explores the social-spatial consequences of changing urban landscapes through policies of neoliberal urban regeneration. We pay particular attention to the confluence of urban mega-project development, strategies of residential social mixing, and brownfield cleanup. We contribute to a growing tradition of critical scholarship that seeks to better understand processes of “actually existing neoliberalism”1 by focusing on the socio-spatial dislocation of the urban poor on both sides of the Canadian–American border. Despite historical differences in socioeconomic policy, we find that both countries face mounting socioeconomic pressure associated with urbanization. Gentrification, or the physical displacement of low-income by higher-income populations, is generated through the competitiveness of urban planning under conditions of neoliberal restructuring. However, despite the similarity of outcomes, processes of actually existing gentrification are far from homogenous and in turn open new possibilities for change. We argue the realization of more equitable and livable urban spaces can only be achieved through the inclusive regeneration of democratic urban communities.

  Urban regeneration is widely understood as a process of socio-spatial change, driven by increased political and economic investment in urban landscapes and supported by heightened rates of urbanization. Once a prominent feature of the North American postwar Fordist economy, processes of urban regeneration have now been transformed under conditions of neo-liberal restructuring. Neoliberalism constitutes both an idea and a set of processes (Jessop 2002; Hackworth 2007; Bridge et al. 2012). Conceptually, neoliberalism is the ideological rejection of egalitarian liberalism as practiced under the Keynesian welfare state. Defined by principles of individualism and laissez-faire economic decision making, neoliberalism embraces principles of market competition and applies them to social life. A rich body of literature spanning the social science disciplines now exists on neoliberalism as a political idea and epistemic phenomenon. However, less well documented are the myriad of often contradictory ways neoliberalism occurs in practice, in communities profoundly shaped by its political, economic and sociological implications. Recent works by Hackworth (2007), Leitner et al. (2007), Purcell (2008), Bridge et al. (2012) and others have attempted to demystify processes of neoliberal urban restructuring and the myriad ways in which urban landscapes are being transformed.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Urban Economics: A Global Perspective

  • Paul N. Balchin, David Isaac, Jean Chen(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  Finally, an improved envi-ronment and higher property values would widen the tax base and enable the local authority to provide better services where required. Ironically, areas with poor environments requiring the greatest amount of public expendi-tures are least able to raise revenue to facilitate this process. But to realize the above benefits, considerable costs would have to be incurred. These include research, survey and planning costs; administrative expenditure; the cost of acquiring decayed property; demolition costs; the cost of public and private developments; relocation costs (both economic and non-economic); and possibly the cost of land value write-down if sites are released for development at below their market value. By identifying and quantifying the above advantages and costs of renewal investment carefully, cost–benefit analyses could be undertaken to a limited extent, and renewal projects ranked in order of greatest net benefit as a guide to decision-making. Full account would have to be taken of the urban economic base and the effects of the multiplier (Chapter 2). The Processes of Urban Renewal The term ‘Urban Renewal’ has three different meanings: redevelopment – the demolition, clearance and reconstruction of a whole area; rehabilita- Urban Development and Renewal 279 tion – bringing buildings of poor condition up to a prescribed standard; and conservation – involving partial clearance and appropriate rehabilitation in order to physically enhance an area (Richardson, 1971). THE ECONOMICS OF REDEVELOPMENT AND REHABILITATION Redevelopment and rehabilitation are often seen as alternative solutions to adapting buildings and sites to new demands and economic uses. Whereas rehabilitation involves maintenance, repair and adaptation in order to ensure a sound structure and some functional adjustment of the building, redevelopment implies the total replacement of existing buildings.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  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.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Town and Infrastructure Planning for Safety and Urban Quality

  Proceedings of the XXIII International Conference on Living and Walking in Cities (LWC 2017), June 15-16, 2017, Brescia, Italy

  • Michèle Pezzagno, Maurizio Tira(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  Urban regeneration involves comprehensive and integrated actions which seek to resolve urban problems and bring lasting improvements in the economic, physical, social and envi-ronmental condition of an area that has been subject to change or offers opportunities for improvements (Roberts, 2000). But what makes a regeneration project successful? And how should such interventions be pursued and managed? It is now widely recognised in the literature that successful urban regeneration projects need to ensure affordability, access to facilities and involve local communities and residents (see, i.a., Forrest, 2017; Roberts et al., 2016; Santangelo et al., 2014). Regeneration is a process that takes time, and should be adaptable enough to give residents a genuine voice. At European level, noteworthy urban regeneration experiences include the case study of 78 Manchester, the King’s cross station area in London and the Hammarby Sjöstad district in Stockholm (see, i.a., Bianchini and Parkinson, 1993; Iverot and Brandt, 2011). Within this background, an urban regeneration project is being developed in Brescia, a city in the North of Italy, with a population of nearly 196,000. Brescia is a municipality with a great amount of emissions per year, and is characterized by the presence of many industries also located within the urban area. The main objective of the regeneration project here described is to make the rundown neighbourhood of Porta Milano , in the periphery of the city, attractive and vibrant again, and to find new purposes for underused and neglected spaces in that area. 2 URBAN REGENERATION IN THE STRATEGIC URBAN PLAN (PGT) OF BRESCIA Like in the most of Italian cities, in the recent years a deep economic crisis affected the real estate market in Brescia. This crisis, together with demographic dynamics (due both to natu-ral balances and migration flows), marked the history of its urban transformations.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Economics, Planning and Housing

  • Michael Oxley(Author)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 9

  Housing, Planning and Urban Renaissance

  In Chapter 5 it was shown that sustainable development is a key planning objective throughout the world. In advanced economies, and in Europe and America in particular, less urban sprawl and more compact energy-saving residential development have been viewed as important components of this environmental agenda. In this chapter we review ideas about combining compact development with an improved quality of urban living. These have been objectives of ‘urban renaissance’ in Britain and ‘new urbanism’ and ‘smart growth’ in America. The essence of these concepts will be examined, with an emphasis on the aims and instruments of urban renaissance.

  In Britain, the government-appointed Urban Task Force, in its report Towards an Urban Renaissance (DETR, 1999a), set out a vision for improved urban living. This vision, in which towns and cities provide a high quality of life and accommodate an increased proportion of new housing development, was endorsed by the White Paper Our Towns and Cities: The Future: Delivering an Urban Renaissance (DETR, 2000a). In this chapter the meaning and implications of urban renaissance are reviewed. Three related issues are then be examined: promoting brownfield residential development, the role of urban capacity studies, and the low demand for housing in some urban areas.

  More development on previously used or brownfield land is now an objective in many advanced countries. In Britain, achieving 60 per cent of future housing development on brownfield sites by redeveloping previously used land and buildings is a key government target. The role of economic policy instruments such as new taxes in promoting this target will be examined, and the connections between economic policy instruments and the planning system will be explored. Urban capacity studies are required to assess how much new housing can be accommodated in towns and cities, and the methodology and the implications of these studies will be examined. In some inner-city neighbourhoods in England urban renaissance has been threatened by low and falling demand for housing; the reasons for this and possible responses will be examined.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  The Routledge Companion to Urban Regeneration

  • Michael E. Leary, John McCarthy, Michael E. Leary, John McCarthy(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  2 Emerging reconceptualizations of urban regeneration Passage contains an image

  2 Ontroduction

  Michael E. Leary

  DOI: 10.4324/9780203108581-14

  One complication faced in any discussion of reconceptualizations of urban regeneration is that there is no certainty as to when it first emerged. If the term came into widespread use in the 1980s, there is no doubt that the policy and practice of large-scale state-led intervention in areas of cities suffering from concentrations of problems have a long history going back at least to the mid-nineteenth century. What is clear is that sometime between the 1980s and 1990s in a variety of jurisdictions, traditional wholesale clearance of working class areas through programmes of demolition and redevelopment, often called: Urban Renewal, slum clearance, city reconstruction or comprehensive redevelopment, merged into what we now recognize as urban regeneration. This Part asks some fundamental questions, not least about how and in what ways the concept of urban regeneration tends to change through time and has different meanings or connotations in different national and local contexts. It allows the further interrogation of issues raised in the opening Part of the book, exploring in greater depth how each national context and set of contingent particularities has specific implications for urban regeneration policy, programmes and projects. One of the aims of this Part is to demonstrate how locally based regeneration continually adapts and manoeuvres within the structural constraints and opportunities presented by globalized neo-liberalism discussed in the opening Part of the book. While the analytical focus is on reconceptualization, it should be appreciated that over the decades regeneration is also characterized by continuity and the endurance of certain concepts and assumptions, for example the area-based initiative (ABI) approach and the pathological metaphor discourse as a way of understanding urban problems (Matthews 2010

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Social Housing and Urban Renewal

  A Cross-National Perspective

  • Paul Watt, Peer Smets, Paul Watt, Peer Smets(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Emerald Publishing Limited

    (Publisher)

  Glynn, 2009 ). The rationale behind these programmes is twofold. First they are thought to improve the outcomes of disadvantaged social housing tenants by enabling them to live in more diverse and tolerant communities, and to take advantage of employment opportunities that arise through their interaction with, or emulation of, their employed neighbours. In addition, Urban Renewal works to ‘clean up’ problematic neighbourhoods, both through the upgrade of the physical environment and by attracting more ‘respectable’ incomers. This is expected to reduce the social problems that beset areas of concentrated disadvantage and shake-off the stigma developed through association with the presence of undesirable or troublesome social housing tenants.

  In the literature, the creation of socially mixed neighbourhoods has been seen as a step towards neighbourhood gentrification involving the arrival of middle-income groups into low-income areas and the subsequent displacement of the lower-income groups who already reside there (Bridge et al., 2012 ). Where initially thought to be an unfortunate, but unintended, outcome of Urban Renewal, researchers now view this process of gentrification as an active state-led campaign to capitalize on the market value of impoverished inner-city areas by remaking them into desirable places for cosmopolitan middle-class consumers (Lupton & Tunstall, 2008 ; Shaw, 2012 ; van Creikingen, 2012 ; Watt, 2013 ). It is for this reason that Lees (2008) accuses current narratives of social mix as a rhetorical device for masking an explicit gentrification and social cleansing agenda via positive overtones of rendering cities more liveable and sustainable (see also Walks & Maaranen, 2008 ).

  As the Queensland State Department of Housing and Public Works (DHPW) begins to roll out what has been heralded a ‘radical’ and ‘unprecedented’ (Pawson, Milligan, Wiesel & Hulse, 2013

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  The War on Slums in the Southwest

  Public Housing and Slum Clearance in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, 1935-1965

  • Robert B Fairbanks(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Temple University Press

    (Publisher)

  From Urban Redevelopment to Urban Renewal in the Southwest 119 rehabilitation of existing houses and neighborhoods, and for the demolition of worn out structures and areas must advance along a broad unified front to accomplish the renewal of towns and cities.” 7 It also warned that surrounding suburbs are often “poorly laid out, constructed, and serviced, and eventually show the symptoms of blight found in older cities, except for density of devel-opment.” Such urban decay and “disorganization of metropolitan regions” invited “national disaster” and warranted intervention, with an emphasis on metropolitan integration and ordered develop. 8 This statement expressed a long-standing, organic view of metropolitan areas that had been expressed by planners and others since at least the 1920s. Indeed, the Housing Act of 1954 accentuated the growing influence of planners in the housing debate. Not only did the President’s Advisory Committee recommend metropolitan integration and ordered development, but it mandated sound plans for the cleared areas covering “land uses, density, and other factors contributing to good neighbor-hoods,” requiring that they be “properly related to the growth and development of the city as a whole.” 9 Toward that end, it promoted federal legislation sensitive not only to the various problems of different cities but also to the differences within cities. “We should not try to pattern all urban residential areas on the stereotype of the neat, middle-class residential suburb, geared to the values and status-aspirations of its inhabitants and centered about children,” the committee stated, because the city included “ all kinds of people . . . who live according to different standards and want different things .” 10 This differed from the earlier public housing goal of promoting one type of lifestyle for everyone. The new emphasis sought to widen the opportunities of choice among neighborhoods for as many individu-als as possible.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  The Politics of Crime and Community

  • Gordon Hughes(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  The attempted purification of urban space is certainly to the fore in much contemporary governance of crime and safety, from the regulation of the ‘anti-social’ to the dispersal, con-tainment and expulsion of illegal immigrants/asylum seekers (see Chapters 5 and 6). The latest reincarnation of this obsession with orderly, pure, clean and revitalized urban spaces is associated with claims of urban renaissance across many contemporary social formations, locally, nation-ally and regionally. A large body of contemporary social scientific scholar-ship has rightly connected much of these city regeneration projects to both a neo-liberal, economic agenda of global competitiveness and foot-loose entrepreneurialism and a moral communitarian social agenda aimed at remoralizing communities as object, site and agent of governance. Taylor (1999: 97), for example, correctly notes the broad tendency for ‘a marketisation of life’ as a result of which we are witnessing the intrusion of capital (possession or absence thereof) into the different publics’ use of urban space, from beggars’ survival strategies to the rise of chic cafes and boutique markets. 27 Regeneration as Governmental Rhetoric, Project and Policy in the United Kingdom It is a widely claimed assertion among scholars of regeneration across the west that policy makers and at times practitioners see strategies and experi-ments in regeneration as an unproblematically good thing and a tangible public good. In turn, urban regeneration is often hailed by political elites, national, local and regional, as an important element in the ‘war’ against crime and disorder and in promoting the antidote of strong, cohesive communities. This is materially and symbolically expressed in the rebuild-ing, redevelopment and, at times, demolition, of both city centres and older, ‘worn-out’ parts of the ‘post-Fordist’ industrial cities and their hin-terlands.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Regions, Spatial Strategies and Sustainable Development

  • David Counsell, Graham Haughton(Authors)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Table 6.1 ). Interestingly, then, urban renaissance is perhaps best regarded as a political strategy and political resource in much the same way as sustainable development. It is a collection of ideas which can be drawn upon selectively by those seeking to advocate particular development approaches.

  Table 6.1 The urban renaissance agenda in regional planning, as at April 2003

  Sustainable communities?

  In early 2003 the government released its action plan Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future (ODPM 2003a), in the process launching some radical proposals for addressing the twin pressures of urban expansion in the South East and the East of England, and housing abandonment, particularly in northern cities. The action plan proposed new powers to intervene in areas with severe problems of housing abandonment, including the establishment of partnerships of local authorities and other key stakeholders to develop strategic plans for whole housing markets and the creation of nine low-demand pathfinder projects.

  In addition, it announced the government’s proposals for new housing in the south of the country, drawing on the initial findings of some sub-regional reviews commissioned as part of the regional planning process. Having reduced the proposed number of new households suggested by the South East RPG public examination panel by around 200,000 in RPG9 in 2001 (GOSE 2001), just two years later the government added back 200,000 households to the number of new households it expected to be built by 2016. The political masterstroke was to argue that the sub-regional studies suggested that many new households could be accommodated in four new ‘growth areas’: Thames Gateway, Milton Keynes–South Midlands, London– Stansted–Cambridge, and Ashford in Kent (Figure 6.2 ). In a speech following publication of Sustainable Communities

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  City Visions

  Imagining Place, Enfranchising People

  • Frank Gaffikin, Mike Morrissey(Authors)
  • 1999(Publication Date)
  • Pluto Press

    (Publisher)

  7 Urban Regeneration: The New Policy Agenda Frank Gaffikin and Mike Morrissey This chapter elaborates some of the issues raised in Michael Parkinson’s overview of policy trends, assessing recent shifts in urban policy and delivery structure in Britain, elsewhere in Europe and in the USA, and examining the key lessons about urban regeneration from 30 years of urban programmes. Certain themes and trends were evident in 1980s urban revitalisa-tion. Among these was the relative emphasis on downtown compared to neighbourhood; the fashion for waterfront development ; the regen-erative role of services ; the increased influence of the private sector, sometimes via new forms of partnerships ; and the greater use of place marketing . But, fundamental to the approach in both the USA and the UK was a dependence on physical renewal . Since the 1990s, the agenda has moved on. Strategies that are more comprehensive and integrative are being sought, based on the following lessons: 1. Economic development • Regeneration based on a few flagship projects is ‘over-exposed’ to the volatility of the property market, and in any case, percolates down very little to the most deprived areas. • Stable regeneration depends on fine tuning the mix between indigenous development and inward investment , and in a similar way being selective about the sectors which are targeted for growth. • This selection should be based on a long-term development perspective – what projects are going to upgrade skills training of the workforce; introduce new technologies and/or efficient working practices ; bring management and marketing expertise; industrially link with, and spread good practice and technology to, existing local firms; and require significant R&D support? 1 • Urban economic competitiveness and social cohesion are not mutually exclusive. Cities that are open for global business don’t have to be closed to their own most needy neighbourhoods. 116

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Housing Politics in the United Kingdom

  Power, Planning and Protest

  • Lund, Brian, Brian Lund(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Policy Press

    (Publisher)

  Moreover, as Foucault’s ‘governmentality’ idea highlights, some clearance ‘subjects’ seem to have absorbed the dominant discourses on their condition, there being very little bottom-up resistance to clearance and its associated rehousing forms. Thus, it is hardly surprising that in the 1930s’ ‘clearance drive’, the slum inhabitants in clearance areas were never asked directly about their aspirations and were often placed in flats, although public opinion surveys always clearly demonstrated a clear distaste for such accommodation. This paternalistic approach continued throughout the 1950s and 1960s and into the 1970s, augmented by the professional, technical planners – the ‘evangelist bureaucrats’ – who, like Edwin Chadwick in the 19th century, claimed an expertise in the public good unknown to the ordinary man and woman. Resistance developed when clearance areas started to incorporate growing numbers of homeowners.

  As political attention switched from unfit property to economic regeneration, Michael Heseltine’s Enterprise Zones and Urban Development Corporations were set up to evade local involvement in decision-making, and the new approach, together with the ‘brownfields first’ policy, had some success in kick-starting property-led regeneration. Blair’s New Deal for Communities and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund had a strong emphasis on community involvement but a large proportion of the resources available to neighbourhoods were allocated outside the programmes, controlled by officials working in the education, health and employment sectors.

  Urban Renewal has been dominated by the politics involved in the ‘containment of urban England’ (Hall et al, 1973): building flats in inner cities, although contributing to urban renaissance in the 2000s, has also reflected an attempt to restrain suburban expansion and safeguard ‘rural England’. The ‘rural England’ preservers have been well organised, whereas those who had to endure the consequences of conservation have had a muted and dishonoured voice. Middle-class ‘sharp elbows’ and electoral concerns – the quest for the median voter (see Chapters One and Ten ) – favoured urban containment.

  Further reading

  Allen, C. (2008) Housing Market Renewal and Social Class, London: Routledge.

  Edwards, C. and Imrie, R. (2015) The Short Guide to Urban Policy, Bristol: Policy Press.

  Hancock, L. and Mooney, G. (2013) ‘“Welfare ghettos” and the “Broken Society”: Territorial Stigmatization in the Contemporary UK’, Housing, Theory and Society

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book