Urban Renewal (similar to Urban Regeneration in British English) is a controversial U. British English or UK English ( BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the S. program of land re-development in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. This process began as an intense phase in the late 1940's and continued into the late 1970's with traces of it still occurring in the early 1980's. It has a major impact on the urban landscape. Similar mechanisms play an important role in the history and demographics of cities around the world, including; Beijing, China, Melbourne, Victoria; Saint John, New Brunswick; Glasgow, Scotland; Boston, Massachusetts; Warsaw; San Francisco, California; and Bilbao, Spain. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Melbourne ( is the second most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 3 Saint John is the largest city in the Province of New Brunswick, and the oldest incorporated city in Canada. Glasgow (ˈglæzgoʊ is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Warsaw (Warszawa; also known by other names) is the Capital and Largest city of Poland. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city Bilbao, (also Bilbo) in the North of Spain, is the largest city in the Basque Country and the capital of the province of Biscay (Basque Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Commonly cited examples include Canary Wharf, in London, and Cardiff in Wales. Canary Wharf is a large business and shopping development in London, located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, centred on the old West India Docks London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Cardiff Bay (Bae Caerdydd is the area created by the Cardiff Barrage in South Cardiff, Wales.
Urban renewal is extremely controversial, and typically involves the destruction of businesses, the relocation of people, and the use of eminent domain (known as Compulsory Purchase in the UK) as a legal instrument to reclaim private property for city-initiated development projects. Eminent domain ( United States) compulsory purchase ( United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland) resumption/compulsory acquisition Eminent domain ( United States) compulsory purchase ( United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland) resumption/compulsory acquisition The justifications often used for Urban Renewal include the "renewal" of residential slums, blighted commercial and industrial areas. A slum, as defined by the United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security Urban decay is a process by which a City, or a part of a city falls into a state of disrepair In the 1960's James Baldwin famously dubbed Urban Renewal "Negro Removal". [1][2][3].
In the second half of the 20th century, renewal often resulted in the creation of urban sprawl and vast areas of cities being demolished and replaced by freeways and expressways, housing projects, and vacant lots, some of which still remain vacant at the beginning of the 21st century. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading of a city and its Suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area Public housing is a form of Housing tenure in which the property is owned by a Government authority which may be central or local The 21st century is the current century of the Christian Era or Common Era in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. [4]
Urban renewal's effect on actual revitalization is a subject of intense debate. It is seen by proponents as an economic engine, and by opponents as a regressive mechanism for enriching the wealthy at the expense of taxpayers and the poor. It carries a high cost to existing communities, and in many cases resulted in the destruction of vibrant—if run-down —neighborhoods.
Urban renewal in its original form has been called a failure by many urban planners and civic leaders, and has since been reformulated with a focus on redevelopment of existing communities. However, many cities link the revitalization of the central business district and gentrification of residential neighborhoods to earlier urban renewal programs. Gentrification, or urban gentrification, is the change in an Urban area associated with the movement of more affluent individuals into a lower-class Over time, urban renewal evolved into a policy based less on destruction and more on renovation and investment, and today is an integral part of many local governments, often combined with small and big business incentives. Big Business or big business is a term used to describe large corporations in either an individual or collective sense But even in this adapted form, Urban Renewal projects are still widely accused of abuse and corruption.
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History
Urban renewal goes back to the work of Robert Moses in the redevelopment of New York City and New York State from the 1930s into the 1970s. Robert Moses ( December 18 1888 – July 29 1981) was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long The City of New York New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. Moses directed the construction of new bridges, highways, housing projects, and public parks. A bridge is a Structure built to span a Gorge, Valley, Road, railroad track, River, Body of water * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Before adding any more images to this * * page please do carefully consider * * whether they would be mere decoration * * or actually improve Public housing is a form of Housing tenure in which the property is owned by a Government authority which may be central or local A park is a protected area of Land and Water, usually in its natural or semi-natural (landscaped state and set aside for some purpose often to do with human Moses was a controversial figure, both for his single-minded zeal and for its impact on New York City, as sweeping as Haussmann's was in Paris. Moses is responsible for most major traffic arteries in the city and for its largest parks, except Central Park and Prospect Park. Central Park is a large public Urban park in New York City, with about twenty-five million visitors annually Prospect Park is a 585 acre (24 km² public Park in the New York City borough of Brooklyn located between Park Slope,
Urban Renewal in the United States
Redlining and segregation
Redlining began with the National Housing Act of 1934 which established the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to improve housing conditions and standards, and later led to the formation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Redlining is the practice of denying or increasing the cost of services such as Banking, Insurance, access to jobs access to health care or even Supermarkets Redlining is the practice of denying or increasing the cost of services such as Banking, Insurance, access to jobs access to health care or even Supermarkets The National Housing Act of 1934 was passed during the Great Depression in order to make Housing and home Mortgages more affordable The Federal Housing Administration (FHA is a United States Government agency created as part of the National Housing Act of 1934. While it was designed to develop housing for poor residents of urban areas, that act also required cities to target specific areas and neighborhoods for different racial groups, and certain areas of cities were not eligible to receive loans at all. This meant that ethnic minorities could only secure mortgages in certain areas, and resulted in a large increase in the residential racial segregation in the United States. A mortgage is the pledging of a property to a Lender as a security for a Mortgage loan.
This was followed by the Housing Act of 1937, which created the U. The Housing Act of 1937, aka the Wagner-Steagall Act, provided for subsidies to be paid from the U S. Housing Agency and the nation's first public housing program—the Low Rent Public Housing Program. This program began the large public housing projects that later became one of the hallmarks of urban renewal in the United States: it provided funding to local governments to build new public housing, but required that slum housing be demolished prior to any construction.
Postwar problems and suburban growth
In 1944, the GI Bill (officially the Serviceman's Readjustment Act) guaranteed Veterans Administration (VA) mortgages to veterans under favorable terms, which fueled suburbanization after the end of World War II, as places like Levittown, New York, Warren, Michigan and the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles were transformed from farmland into cities occupied by tens of thousands of families in a few short years. The GI Bill (officially titled Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 PL346 58 Statutes at Large 284 provided for college or vocational education for returning The United States Department of Veterans Affairs ( VA) is a government-run military Veteran benefit system with Cabinet -level status World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Levittown, a Suburb of New York City is a hamlet in the Town of Hempstead located on Long Island in Nassau County New York. Warren is a city in Macomb County in the US state of Michigan. The San Fernando Valley or The Valley is an urbanized Valley located in the north-western section of the city of Los Angeles California, United States Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West
Housing Act of 1949
Title One of the Housing Act of 1949 kickstarted the "urban renewal" program that would reshape American cities. The Act provided federal funding to cities to cover the cost of acquiring areas of cities perceived to be "slums. " (The Federal government paid 2/3 of the cost of acquiring the site, called the "write down," while local governments paid the remaining 1/3. ) Those sites were then given to private developers to construct new housing. The phrase used at the time was "urban redevelopment. " "Urban renewal" was a phrase popularized with the passage of the 1954 Housing Act, which made these projects more enticing to developers, by among other things, providing FHA-backed mortgages.
Urban destruction
Under the powerful influence of multimillionaire R.K. Mellon, Pittsburgh became the first major city to undertake a modern urban-renewal program in May 1950. Richard King Mellon ( June 19, 1899 – June 3, 1970) commonly known as R Pittsburgh was infamous around the world as one of the dirtiest and most economically depressed cities, and seemed ripe for urban renewal. A large section of downtown at the heart of the city was demolished, converted to parks, office buildings, and a sports arena and renamed the Golden Triangle in what was universally recognized as a major success. Downtown Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, officially called the Golden Triangle or Central Business District, specifically referring to the view of Downtown Other neighborhoods were also subjected to urban renewal, but with mixed results. Some areas did improve, while other areas, such as East Liberty and Lower Hill declined following ambitious projects that shifted traffic patterns, blocked streets to vehicular traffic, isolated or divided neighborhoods with highways, and removed large numbers of ethnic and minority residents. East Liberty is a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 's East End.
In 1956, the Federal-Aid Highway Act gave state and federal government complete control over new highways, and often they were routed directly through vibrant urban neighborhoods—isolating or destroying many—since the focus of the program was to bring traffic in and out of the central cores of cities as expeditiously as possible and nine out of every ten dollars spent came from the federal government. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (Public Law 84-627 was enacted on June 29 1956 when Dwight D This resulted in a serious degradation of the tax bases of many cities, isolated entire neighborhoods, and meant that existing commercial districts were bypassed by the majority of commuters. Commuting is the process of Travelling between one's place of residence and regular place of work
Segregation continued to increase as communities were displaced and many African Americans and Latinos were left with no other option than moving into public housing while Whites moved to the suburbs in ever-greater numbers.
In Boston, one of the country's oldest cities, almost a third of the old city was demolished—including the historic West End—to make way for a new highway, low- and moderate-income high-rises (which eventually became luxury housing), and new government and commercial buildings. The West End of Boston Massachusetts is a neighborhood bounded generally by Cambridge Street to the south the Charles River to the west and northwest North Later, this would be seen a tragedy by many residents and urban planners, and one of the centerpieces of the redevelopment—Government Center—is still considered an example of the excesses of urban renewal. Government Center is a city square and plaza in Boston Massachusetts, bounded by Cambridge Court Congress and Sudbury Streets
Another important project in Boston was the transformation from the Columbia Point housing projects, opened in 1954, but which had been later left to deteriorate significantly, to be totally re-vitalised starting in 1984 by the development team at Corcoran, Mullins, Jennison and later renamed the Harbor Point Apartments. [5] [6]
Reactions against urban renewal
In 1961, Jane Jacobs published The Death and Life of Great American Cities, one of the first—and strongest—critiques of contemporary large-scale urban renewal. Jane Jacobs, OC, OOnt ( May 4, 1916 – April 25, 2006) was an The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, is arguably the most influential book written on Urban planning in the 20th century However, it would still be a few years before organized movements began to oppose urban renewal.
In 1964, the Civil Rights Act removed racial deed restrictions on housing. Origins The bill was introduced by President John F Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11 1963, in which he asked for legislation "giving This began desegregation of residential neighborhoods, but redlining continued to mean that real estate agents continued to steer ethnic minorities to certain areas. Desegregation is the process of ending Racial segregation, most commonly used in reference to the United States. Redlining is the practice of denying or increasing the cost of services such as Banking, Insurance, access to jobs access to health care or even Supermarkets The riots that swept cities across the country from 1965 to 1967 damaged or destroyed additional areas of major cities—most drastically in Detroit during the 12th Street Riot. Riots are a form of Civil disorders characterized by disorganized groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of Violence, Vandalism or other Year 1965 ( MCMLXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. Year 1967 ( MCMLXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the 1967 Gregorian calendar.
By the 1970s many major cities developed opposition to the sweeping urban-renewal plans for their cities. This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. In Boston, community activists halted construction of the proposed Southwest Expressway—but only after a three-mile long stretch of land had been cleared. This page is about the cancelled highway near Boston Massachusetts. In San Francisco, Joseph Alioto was the first mayor to publicly repudiate the policy of urban renewal, and with the backing of community groups, forced the state to end construction of highways through the heart of the city. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city For the current California politician (Joseph Alioto's grandson see Joe Alioto Veronese. Between 1956 and 1966, more than 12% of the people in Atlanta lost their homes to urban renewal, expressways, and a downtown building boom turned the city into the showcase of the New South in the 1970s and 1980s. New South or New South Creed is a phrase that has been used intermittently since the American Civil War to describe the American South, in whole or in part This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989.
From "urban renewal" to "community development"
Some of the policies around urban renewal began to change under President Lyndon Johnson and the War on Poverty, and in 1968, the Housing and Urban Development Act and The New Communities Act of 1968 guaranteed private financing for private entrepreneurs to plan and develop new communities. The War on Poverty is the name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B Subsequently, the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 established the Community Development Block Grant program (CDBG) which began in earnest the focus on redevelopment of existing neighborhoods and properties, rather than demolition of substandard housing and economically depressed areas. The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG, one of the longest-running programs of the U
Currently, a mix of renovation, selective demolition, commercial development, and tax incentives is most often used to revitalize urban neighborhoods. Though not without its critics—gentrification is still controversial, and often results in familiar patterns of poorer residents being priced out of urban areas into suburbs or more depressed areas of cities—urban renewal in its present form is generally regarded as a great improvement over the policies of the middle part of the 20th century. Gentrification, or urban gentrification, is the change in an Urban area associated with the movement of more affluent individuals into a lower-class The twentieth century of the Common Era began on Some programs, such as that administered by Fresh Ministries and Operation New Hope in Jacksonville, Florida attempt to develop communities, while at the same time combining highly favorable loan programs with financial literacy education so that poorer residents may still be able to afford their restored neighborhoods. Fresh Ministries is a non-profit charity based in Jacksonville Florida. Other programs, such as that in Castleford in the UK and known as The Castleford Project [1] seek to establish a process of urban renewal which enables local citizens to have greater control and ownership of the direction of their community and the way in which it overcomes market failure. Castleford is one of the five towns within the Metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. This supports important themes in urban renewal today, such as participation,sustainability and trust - and government acting as advocate and 'enabler', rather than an instrument of command and control. Sustainability, in a general sense is the capacity to maintain a certain process or state indefinitely
During the 1990s the concept of culture-led regeneration gained ground. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic Examples most often cited as successes include Temple Bar in Dublin where tourism was attracted to a bohemian 'cultural quarter', Barcelona where the 1992 Olympics provided a catalyst for infrastructure improvements and the redevelopment of the water front area, and Bilbao where the building of a new art museum was the focus for a new business district around the city's derelict dock area. Temple Bar (Barra an Teampaill is an area on the south bank of the River Liffey in central Dublin, Ireland. Dublin (ˈdʌblɨn/ /ˈdʊblɨn or /ˈdʊbəlɪn/, bˠalʲə aːha klʲiəh or cliə(ɸ is both the largest city and capital of Ireland. Barcelona ( Catalan bəɾsəˈlonə Spanish baɾθeˈlona is the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia Year 1992 ( MCMXCII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar) Bilbao, (also Bilbo) in the North of Spain, is the largest city in the Basque Country and the capital of the province of Biscay (Basque The approach has become very popular in the UK due to the availability of lottery funding for capital projects and the vibrancy of the cultural and creative sectors. However, while the arrival of Tate Modern in the London borough of Southwark may be heralded as a catalyst to economic revival in its surrounding neighborhood, some civic authorities in the UK - for instance Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Gateshead have been accused of investing in cultural facilities at the cost of other programs and projects. The Tate Modern in London is Britain 's national museum of international Modern art and is with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Southwark or The Borough is an area of south-east London in the London Borough of Southwark, situated 1 Newcastle upon Tyne ( (often shortened to Newcastle) is a city and Metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, England Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear, England. It lies on the southern bank of the River Tyne, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne.
Long-term implications
While urban renewal never lived up to the hopes of its original proponents, it has played an undeniably important role in cities throughout the United States, England, and many other nations. It has been hotly debated by politicians, urban planners, civic leaders, and current and former residents of the areas where urban renewal took place in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. It has brought economic and cultural development to many cities, but often at a great cost to low-income and minority communities living in them. It has also played a role in the economic devastation faced by many of the major industrial cities in the United States since the 1940s. The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949 Events and trends The 1940s was a period between the radical 1930s and the conservative 1950s which also leads the period to be Urban renewal continues to evolve as successes and failures are examined and new models of development and redevelopment are tested and implemented.
See also
- Community development
- Housing Market Renewal Initiative
- List of planned communities
- List of urban planners
- New town
- Overspill estate
- Phase I Environmental Site Assessment
- Principles of Intelligent Urbanism
- Urban decay
- Urban economics
- Urban planner
- Urban planning
- Urban sprawl
Examples of urban renewal
- Alexandra Renewal Project, South Africa
- Atlantic Station, Atlanta, USA
- Big Dig, Boston, USA
- Croydon Vision 2020, London, United Kingdom
- Downtown San Diego, USA
- Distillery District, Toronto, Canada
- Hyde Park, Chicago, USA
- Docklands, London, UK
- Melbourne Docklands, Australia
- Ordsall, Greater Manchester, Salford, United Kingdom
- Redevelopment of Norrmalm, Stockholm, Sweden
- Regent Park, Toronto, Canada
- Scollay Square, Boston, USA
- Southbank, Victoria, Australia
- West End, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Edgar Street Grid, Hereford, England
References
- ^ The story of urban renewal: In East Liberty and elsewhere, Pittsburgh's dominant public policy tool didn't work out as planned Sunday, May 21, 2000, By Dan Fitzpatrick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
- ^ Urban Renewal: How Corruption Operates locally
- ^ Harsh urban renewal in New Orleans: Poor, black residents cannot afford to return, worry city will exclude them
- ^ Lobbia, J. Community development, informally called Community building, is a broad term applied to the practices and academic disciplines of civic leaders activists involved The Housing Market Renewal Initiative ( HMRI) is a package of policies in the United Kingdom aimed to improve housing in England This is a list of planned cities (sometimes known as planned communities or New towns by country List of urban planners chronological by initial year of plan c A new town, planned community or planned city is a City, Town, or Community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically An overspill estate is a Housing estate planned and built for the rehousing of people from decaying Inner city areas usually as part of the process of Slum A Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is a report prepared for a real estate holding which identifies potential or existing environmental contamination liabilities. Principles of Intelligent Urbanism ( PIU Urban decay is a process by which a City, or a part of a city falls into a state of disrepair Urban Economics is broadly the economic study of urban areas As such it involves using the tools of economics to analyze urban issues such as crime education public transit housing An urban planner is a professional who works in the field of Urban planning for the purpose of maximizing the effectiveness of a community's land use and infrastructure Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading of a city and its Suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area The Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP, is an Urban renewal project in Alexandra Gauteng, northern Johannesburg, South Africa. This article describes a recently developed mixed-use neighborhood in Atlanta Georgia The Big Dig is the unofficial name of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project ( CA/T) a Megaproject that rerouted the Croydon Vision 2020 is a regeneration programme by the London Borough of Croydon aimed at the centre of Croydon in South London. Downtown San Diego (also referred to as Centre City) is the city center of San Diego, California, U The Distillery District is a historic and entertainment precinct located east of Downtown Toronto. History (Hyde Park Paul Cornell a successful businessman real-estate speculator and Abolitionist, purchased of land between 51st and 55th Streets along the Lake Docklands is the semi-official name for an area in the east of London, England, comprising parts of several boroughs ( Southwark, Tower Hamlets Melbourne Docklands is a Coastal area within Melbourne, Australia. Ordsall is an Inner city area of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England The Redevelopment of Norrmalm ( Norrmalmsregleringen) was a major revision of the city plan for lower Norrmalm in Stockholm, Sweden Alternate uses Regent's Park (disambiguation This article is about the neighbourhood in Toronto Ontario Canada Government Center is a city square and plaza in Boston Massachusetts, bounded by Cambridge Court Congress and Sudbury Streets Southbank is an Inner city suburb of Melbourne, Australia in the state of Victoria. The West End of Boston Massachusetts is a neighborhood bounded generally by Cambridge Street to the south the Charles River to the west and northwest North The Edgar Street Grid is a major regeneration project taking place in Hereford city centre A. , "Bowery Bummer: Downtown Plan Will Make and Break History", The Village Voice, March 17, 1999
- ^ University of Massachusetts Library Collections, Library materials from Jane Roessner’s work A Decent Place to Live: From Columbia Point to Harbor Point (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2000)
- ^ Kamin, Blair, "Rethinking Public Housing", Blueprints magazine, Summer 1997, p. 4
Further reading
- Grogan, Paul, Proscio, Tony, "Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighborhood Revival", 2000. (Business Week review of "Comeback Cities")
External links
- Contemporary Urban Regeneration in the UK
- Online Guide to what works in Neighbourhood Renewal (England,UK)
- Neighbourhood Renewal Unit (England,UK)
- Urban Renewal Authority, Hong Kong
- Urban Renewal in the Netherlands (the policy, projects, links)
- Community Development, Urban Regeneration and Drug Misuse
- Redevelopment: What It Is. What Can Be Done.
- Statement for Strong Cities: European vision on future of urban renewal
- The 12 Principles for Cautious Urban Renewal, developed in Berlin and interview with the author, Mr Hardt-Waltherr Hämer
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