Urban renewal

Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in British English) is a movement in urban planning that reached its peak in the United States from the late 1940s through the early 1970s. It has had a massive impact on the urban landscape and continues to the present day. It has also played an important role in cities worldwide, such as Saint John, New Brunswick, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, and Bilbao, Spain.

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. 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.

Related Topics:
Lyndon Johnson - War on Poverty - Community Development Block Grant

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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. 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.

Related Topics:
Gentrification - 20th century - Fresh Ministries - Jacksonville, Florida

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During the 1990s the concept of culture-led regeneration gained ground. 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. The approach became very popular in the UK due to the availability of lottery funding for capital projects. Though culture-led regeneration has proven more politically acceptable than other forms of business and leisure led development it also has its critics. In most cases the number of new jobs are lower. In the case of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Gateshead the majority of jobs created by its culture-led regeneration of its waterfront have gone to people outside the local area. Civic authorities investing in new cultural facilities are often accused of doing so at the cost of other programmes.

Related Topics:
Culture-led regeneration - Temple Bar - Dublin - Barcelona - 1992 - Bilbao - Newcastle-upon-Tyne - Gateshead

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