Urban Management and Regeneration in the United States: State Intervention or Redevelopment at All Costs?

Abstract

For some commentators, urban regeneration in the United States is built around a narrowly economistic or neo-liberal model of redevelopment rather than a socially inclusive or participatory ‘new regionalist’ model. In considering whether or not there is a uniformly neo-liberal ‘US model’ of urban regeneration, this paper examines a variety of urban regeneration tools currently used in the US. These include: public–private partnerships; special purpose districts; revenue and general obligation bonds; tax-increment financing of redevelopment; and community activism and engagement. Although we discern a tendency towards ‘redevelopment at all costs’, actual regeneration tools as well as the uses to which they are put vary considerably according to conditions found in specific cities and metropolitan areas. We argue that the new Obama administration heralds a more interventionist federal urban policy regime. This new regime will be constructed out of the challenges posed by the material legacy of neo-liberal forms of urban development and the desire to build sustainable and inclusive metropolitan regions around a range of new federal infrastructural and housing programmes.