Neoliberalism and the splintering of city-regionalism: the case of Denver’s regional transit agency in times of COVID-19 urban austerity

Abstract

ABSTRACT Public transit service provision is fraught with contradictions and tensions, which today tend to converge around the city-regional scale of planning and governance. The promise of public transit is to promote economic development and improve regional accessibility, mobility, equity, and sustainability. However, these priorities can often conflict with each other, resulting in the splintering of the corresponding city-regional planning and governance structures set up to finance and deliver major transit infrastructure projects. Drawing upon a case study of transit-led city-regionalism in Denver, Colorado, USA, this article explores how the tensions and contradictions embedded within regional public transit service planning are exposed and exacerbated during times of financial austerity, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines how the neoliberal goals of promoting transit-oriented redevelopment in Denver alongside expanding service to Denver’s wealthier suburbs clash with the pandemic-induced expediency of targeting transit service for front-line workers and transit-dependent populations in core urban neighborhoods. The article demonstrates that in times of COVID-19-induced urban austerity the entrepreneurial city-regional approach to infrastructure provision originally developed for the FasTracks expansion program is increasingly at odds with regional objectives to use mass transit to foster equity and transport justice.