Social Equity in Urban Development the Leipzig Experience

Abstract

The article examines a unique experience in applying social equity in urban development in the city of Leipzig in the former East Germany. During the socialist era, many had fled to the West leaving Leipzig with many empty homes and office buildings. Recently, city officials took advantage of the situation as an opportunity to initiate a period of social transformation. They developed a plan to reposition a city with a surfeit of buildings and space in such a way as to preserve the qualities of that city, seize the opportunities presented by the transformation, and ensure that the city remains exciting, safe, and attractive for its inhabitants. Key projects were initiated to allow people in need of low-cost housing to use legally vacant dwellings. The strategy adopted by Leipzig is not a universal model that can be applied to all cities since each city has its own socio-economic, political, and legal systems that provide a framework for workable solutions. But the way Leipzig faces its challenge could be an inspiration for other cities that might want to borrow only some of the transferable features of the Leipzig solution to design their own responses to a similar problem.