Post-industrial City Research Articles

Post-industrial, post-socialist or new productive city? Case study of the spatial and functional change of the chosen Warsaw industrial sites after 1989

IntroductionIn 1989 in Poland the transition period was initiated, which caused a profound change not only of a political and institutional nature, but also an economic change of local labour markets and urban space. One of the most prominent change was de-industrialization, encompassing also the capital city.Case descriptionThe paper describes the change of an area in Praga, developed for decades on the basis of industry and in last 25 years losing this character. 29 former factories have been identified and described, varying in current functions—from modern factories, to residential areas, to unused sites. There are several actors present: municipal, enterprises (both of local, country and international level), free-lancers and NGOs. The sites’ transformation analysis was based on the public records, focus groups and interviews and professional experience.Discussion and evaluationAuthors present the changes in ownership and use and discuss the role of municipal and private actors in the structural and spatial change in the area. The case is presented within the framework of the productive city model and the relations between the local and supra-local context of the re-development.ConclusionsAnalyzed area may profit of the delay in public and private investments by establishing new productive ventures, based on the existing tangible and intangible heritage of the place. Public sector should be the main player in such urban adaptive re-use. However, the authors found no coherent municipal policy towards the chosen sites, their heritage and potential. The existence of such a potential for modern form of a productive city and the need for new policies answering better to grass-root activities and socio-economic potential of the area is the main conclusion of the analysis.

Citizen science reveals lead in garden soils

Urban gardening has blossomed across the US as a way to engage and educate communities and to battle food deserts. In many postindustrial cities, however, reclaiming abandoned lots for gardens engenders worries about soil quality. At the ACS national meeting in San Diego last week, researchers revealed high levels of lead in seven gardens across Newark, New Jersey. Despite the widespread use of urban gardens in Newark, said Omanjana Goswami, a graduate student at Rutgers University–Newark who presented the data, there’s “no information on what’s in the soil.” Goswami and her coworkers teamed up with local schools and community groups to collect soil samples, then analyzed them for lead content. All the gardens had detectable lead in their soils; three gardens had at least one sample that exceeded the US Environmental Protection Agency’s lead limit. Most of the lead is due to the city’s legacy of industrialization, including leaded gasoline

Hoboken Is Burning: Yuppies, Arson, and Displacement in the Postindustrial City

Hoboken Is Burning: Yuppies, Arson, and Displacement in the Postindustrial City

Revitalization of buildings and urban areas on the example of Gdańsk, Venice, Milano and Zabrze

Revitalizations are becoming a common activity giving new life to the abandoned buildings, districts, degraded areas, etc. The necessity of such actions results, among others, from the changing needs of users of these spaces, climate change and new technologies used. These activities are a strategic element of urban policy. They also fit into the context of sustainable development, causing a change in the value, reception and perception of degraded spaces and objects. New functions give a new quality, but also affect the neighbourhood, improve the quality of the immediate environment. They also enable the elimination of spatial conflicts, as well as the introduction of ecosystem services that reinforce the multi-range potential of these areas and facilities. During the study trips, the authors analyse in detail interesting examples of successful revitalization. The revitalizations are discussed: the factory building in Venice on the Giudecca Island (Italy), the entire quarter in the old town of Gdansk (Poland), the mine shaft in the post-industrial (mining) city of Zabrze (Poland) and housing estates with office buildings of Milano (Italy). The aim of the research was to analyse the effects of revitalization activities in these European cities. Relationships and correlations in these activities were analysed. The research also concerned the applied principles that may have an impact on the effectiveness of revitalization and its positive implementation. The quality of revitalized space and its impact on the surroundings was also analysed. Particular attention was paid to the importance of qualitative research at the revitalization programming stage. The analyses concerned various sizes and scope of the revitalization activities, i.e. from the object to the building quarter. The research results indicate the existence of universal principles of successful revitalization, which are applicable at different scales of revitalization. At the same time, the applications indicate 12 golden rules for a successful revitalization. The importance of qualitative research at the revitalization programming stage is underlined. These studies constitute the success of revitalization. Qualitative research conducted at the stage of programming activities may ensure the coherence of activities in various scales of urban space (from the object to the city’s quarters) and prevent the transmission of conflicts and problems to other urban areas.

Rust Belt Chic: Deindustrialization, place and urban authenticity

Abstract In the context of deindustrialization and urban decline, America's industrial heartland came to be re-imagined as the 'Rust Belt'. Synonymous with outmoded and decrepit landscapes, identities and practices, the term has operated as a form of stigma, as places such as Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh became symbols of industrial, institutional and individual failure. However, in the contemporary period 'Rust Belt' is increasingly accompanied by an apparently incongruous term: 'chic'. Focusing on the narratives and essays of a younger, educated and predominantly white demographic, the article explores discourses of 'Rust Belt Chic', examining the social, cultural and political significance of this emergent phenomena thinking through the ways in which it constructs the past, present and future of deindustrialized landscapes. It is argued that within these narratives the region is valued for its liminality, for its proximities to the industrial past and a sense of history and tradition, along with its distance from what is seen as the failures of the post-industrial city. The article considers this reappraisal of the region and its material and symbolic significance in the context of deindustrialization and urban regeneration, examining how claims about the region are used to articulate a particular form of urban 'authenticity'.

Finding and losing a place. Łódź underground towards experience of everyday life of a city

The Łódź underground had emerged from the punk aesthetic, yet it absorbed successive genres surprisingly quickly: hardcore, industrial, later also, among others, techno and rave. It utilized diverse forms of expression: most of all sound, but also projections, site-specific actions, graphic design or fashion. The article, drawing from the memories and output of several most important participants of the movement, poses the question, in what way the underground so easily absorbed new genres and aesthetic patterns on the one hand, while on the other – it remained so strongly separate. The separation is revealed in the tension between experiencing new, experimenting musical and aesthetic trends, and the overwhelming everyday life of the post-industrial city. This tension was the reason why the underground movement was so intensely performative in its character, in which new knowledge and new inspirations were mostly created in action.

Odnajdując i tracąc miejsce. Łódzki underground wobec doświadczenia miejskiej codzienności.

The Łódź underground had emerged from the punk aesthetic, yet it absorbed successive genres surprisingly quickly: hardcore, industrial, later also, among others, techno and rave. It utilized diverse forms of expression: most of all sound, but also projections, site-specific actions, graphic design or fashion. The article, drawing from the memories and output of several most important participants of the movement, poses the question, in what way the underground so easily absorbed new genres and aesthetic patterns on the one hand, while on the other – it remained so strongly separate. The separation is revealed in the tension between experiencing new, experimenting musical and aesthetic trends, and the overwhelming everyday life of the post-industrial city. This tension was the reason why the underground movement was so intensely performative in its character, in which new knowledge and new inspirations were mostly created in action.

Negotiating the Postindustrial City

Negotiating the Postindustrial City

Implementation of a sustainability monitoring tool into the dynamics of an urban brownfield regeneration project

Within the context of post-industrial European cities, the regeneration of urban brownfields contributes to limit urban sprawl by increasing cities density while revitalizing neighborhoods. Yet because of their complex nature, urban brownfields regeneration projects (UBRP) are not automatically sustainable. To foster the integration of sustainability objectives into these projects dynamics, an operational monitoring tool was created. Entitled SIPRIUS+, this tool is a collaborative web-based software combining sustainability indicators adapted to UBRP issues and several management functionalities. Test applications conducted on case studies and presented to the related stakeholders gave positive insights about the potential of SIPRIUS+ to provide decision-making support. However, because of the long duration of UBRP, some aspects inherent to monitoring were not verified and the tool not piloted in real conditions. In order to confront SIPRIUS+ with the reality of the practice and its end-users, the tool is now being implemented for an 18-month period in the Gare-Lac neighborhood project located in Yverdon-les-Bains (Switzerland). The paper investigates how SIPRIUS+ is actually implemented into the project’s ongoing urban planning procedure. Then, we analyze preliminary feedbacks to measure the level of adoption of the monitoring approach by the different stakeholders and to identify points of improvement.

New landscapes of the post-industrial city

This paper attempts to analyze modern urban space in the context of intercepting the effects of biopolitical production by means of a conceptual apparatus taken from urban landscape studies. Among the discussed sections of urban space, which illustrate the issue undertaken in this text, there are first and foremost places that focalize and intertwine practices of urban design, landscape architecture, design and media initiated by local governments, institutions, and private investors. All of these practices strive to create a new type of urban landscapes, characterized by their simultaneous functioning as sights and as “urban stages.” Following from the above findings, this paper aims to describe the listed forms of land use in terms derived from cultural concepts of landscape, considering the latter to be a useful tool for explaining the relations between modern urban subjects and the environment they exist in.

Understanding Cumulative Hazards in a Rustbelt City: Integrating GIS, Archaeology, and Spatial History

We combine the Historical Spatial Data Infrastructure (HSDI) concept developed within spatial history with elements of archaeological predictive modeling to demonstrate a novel GIS-based landscape model for identifying the persistence of historically-generated industrial hazards in postindustrial cities. This historical big data approach draws on over a century of both historical and modern spatial big data to project the presence of specific persistent historical hazards across a city. This research improves on previous attempts to understand the origins and persistence of historical pollution hazards, and our final model augments traditional archaeological approaches to site prospection and analysis. This study also demonstrates how models based on the historical record, such as the HSDI, complement existing approaches to identifying postindustrial sites that require remediation. Our approach links the work of archaeologists more closely to other researchers and to municipal decision makers, permitting closer cooperation between those involved in archaeology, heritage, urban redevelopment, and environmental sustainability activities in postindustrial cities.

Integration in the Shadow of Austerity—Refugees in Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne, a post-industrial city in the North East of England, has long been committed to hosting refugees. Although the city has suffered drastic cuts in government funding and faces high levels of deprivation, Newcastle declared itself a city of sanctuary and participates in several dispersal schemes for asylum seekers and refugees. This paper shows how political support as well as the self-motivating ambition to be a city of sanctuary are driving forces behind the city’s commitment to hosting refugees. This study then proceeds to explore the integration experiences of refugees in Newcastle, with a focus on housing, employment and the relations between refugees and local residents. While an overall positive picture emerges across these areas, language barriers, the refusal to accept refugees’ previous qualifications and experiences of racism remain major obstacles to integration. Moreover, the gulf in funding and support between resettled refugees and former asylum seekers greatly aggravates the latter’s access to housing and employment and contributes to a lower feeling of safety among this group.

Ruin tours: performing and consuming decay in Detroit

ABSTRACT In the face of economic, demographic, and infrastructural decline, Detroit, Michigan, has become a destination for those interested in viewing the city’s iconic ruins. Paradoxically, such tours represent a form of economic development that takes urban decay as its object. Using data collected through participant observation, interviews, and document analysis, this study examines how such tours operate in relation to broader practices of urban redevelopment. It argues that tours are not only a way of turning the city into a site of consumption, but also a more complicated response to failures of industrial capitalism in which tour operators suggest different political modes of responding to the city’s decline. This is demonstrated by tracing the development of ruin tour programs and examining three representative cases of ruin tours. Examining how local actors respond to urban decline in this way strengthens urban geographic understandings of the post-industrial city and its recapitalization..

Urban tree survival and stewardship in a state-managed planting initiative: A case study in Holyoke, Massachusetts

Stewardship is essential for the survival of trees planted in challenging urban conditions and for reaching canopy cover goals and anticipated benefits. The governance structure of the stewardship network can dictate stewardship efficacy and ultimately, tree survival. While many planting initiatives are managed locally, the stewardship network and survival rates of a state-managed initiative are not commonly addressed in scholarly literature. The Greening the Gateway Cities Program (GGCP) in Massachusetts is planting thousands of trees in post-industrial cities around the state. We carried out a mixed-methods case study of 2014 to 2016 tree planting in Holyoke, a GGCP pilot city, to assess the factors that influence survival. Specifically, we interviewed program stakeholders and coupled that data with field monitoring of trees planted along streets and on commercial and institutional landscapes. A logistic regression model shows that trees stewarded by state foresters were approximately 5.18 times more likely to survive, and trees which were not impacted by a summer 2016 drought were approximately 2.80 times more likely to survive. However, the drought impact was muted for trees stewarded by the state, and species characteristics were not significantly related to survival. Importantly, stewardship and planting site type strongly overlapped, providing insight into links between tree survival and stewardship network. At program launch, local recipients and partners agreed to water newly planted trees. But interviews revealed that tree recipients had neither the time nor staffing to adequately care for their trees. The GGCP intended for the local municipal public works department to assume stewardship responsibility, but the latter was unable and/or unwilling to do so due to a lack of funding and misalignment of goals, leaving stewardship as the state’s responsibility. Dedicated funding and staffing for maintenance is essential for strengthening stewardship networks and improving survival of large-scale urban tree plantings. Additionally, urban tree survival can be more strongly mediated by stewardship actors than some biophysical factors.

Brownfield sites as catalysts for sustainable urban regeneration in Middle Eastern contexts and the demand for objectives, tools and classifications for the support of their redevelopment

Almost two decades today, the topic ofhas extensively been researched in urban sociology, urban planning, and human geography, and numerous Western-Centric studies have linked the redevelopment of the abandoned, contaminated, vacant or derelict sites to sustainable urban regeneration and achieving smart cities and sustainability goals in general. Yet, until this day, the concept has received little academic and practical attention in Middle Eastern contexts.Western contexts on the other hand including Europe, UK and USA continue to offer unique perspectives on approachingin ways that reduce the alarming spatial cluttering and addressdisparities and spatial segregation in addition to achieving economic and environmental goals, and similar to the global scene, brownfield sites make a large portion of the post-industrial city of Amman, the capital of Jordan. However, with the lack of a systematic definition for the urban phenomenon objectives, methods to identifying potential brownfield sites and evaluating theof their redevelopment that takes into consideration context particularities, and with the absence ofapproaches that include the local community in the decision-making regarding these spaces, city planners fail to include the increasingly growing number of brownfield site that proliferate their cities in the urban planning practice.Through the examination of literature discussions on objectives, approaches, classification systems, methodologies, assessment and evaluation tools for the support of design anddecisions for brownfield regeneration in different contexts, and through looking at the numerous potential alternatives for brownfield sites regeneration these contexts highlight, this paper bids tothe importance of developing context specific,tools tailored for the Middle Eastern case.Building on the above, this paper identifies five potential brownfield typologies in the context of Amman; (1) residual planning outcomes; (2) discontinued mines and quarries; (3) unfinished mega-projects; (4) contaminated and hazardous sites, and; (5) miscellaneous abandoned sites and buildings, and ends on the note that looking at the increasing demand to meeting smart growth and sustainability needs, these urban landscapes may function as catalysts for achieving comprehensive sustainable urban regeneration.

Rust Belt Requiem: Understanding Postindustrial Regions, Cities, and Spaces

Rust Belt Requiem: Understanding Postindustrial Regions, Cities, and Spaces

(Turning Rust into Gold?) Hamilton, Ontario and a Canadian perspective of shrinking and declining cities

Hamilton, Ontario, like many cities heavily dependent on manufacturing in the 20th century, experienced de-industrialization and associated change in its economic and employment fortunes, as well as comparative weakened fiscal strength. In contrast to cities in the United States though, Hamilton's population kept growing, at least slowly, and its unemployment rate never skyrocketed, even though the proportion of the population earning middle- to high-incomes declined for a time. In urban scholarship, dramatic population loss has attracted researchers to study shrinking cities, however population change fails to tell the entire story of the possible fates of rust-belt cities that also requires the analysis of economic changes. Our aim is to identify Hamilton's challenges and characteristics followed by how current political, financial and regional circumstances shape the city's development and create different circumstances for post-industrial cities. We review this using Hamilton's census data since 1951 and fiscal data, development projects, and interviews with local public officials and private business reveals the significant impact the post-industrial era and the Canadian perspective. Our findings suggest that despite differences between shrinking characteristics in Canadian and US cities, Canadian cities should receive more attention and offer a different perspective on the “rust-belt” literature.

De-industrialization: strengths and weaknesses as a key concept for understanding post-war British history

AbstractThis article argues for a central role for the concept of de-industrialization in understanding the evolution of the economies of urban Britain in the years since 1945. Above all, it is suggested, this concept is crucial because it focuses attention on the consequences of the transition from an industrial to a service-dominated labour market. To make this argument requires a careful definition of the term, along with recognition of its potential weaknesses as well as strengths. Key issues are highlighted by drawing on three diverse urban areas, which help to show the ubiquity of the process, but also its diverse patterns, chronologies and impacts. These examples are a stereotypical ‘post-industrial city’ (Dundee); a major city where de-industrialization has played an under-regarded role in developments (London); and a medium-size town in the south of England (High Wycombe), where the decline of a core industry (furniture) was crucial to its recent history. The final sections analyse the relationship between de-industrialization and other key frameworks commonly deployed to shape understanding of the recent history of Britain: ‘decline’, ‘globalization’ and ‘the triumph of neo-liberalism’.

Detroit’s lines of desire: Footpaths and vacant land in the Motor City

Informal footpaths known as desire lines crisscross the city of Detroit and are visible from space. Despite their prevalence, especially in postindustrial cities, no comprehensive study of desire lines exists for any urban area. How extensive are these lines, how do people use them, and how are they changing over time? What is their potential to reinvigorate the fabric of neighborhoods and communities? We conducted a spatiotemporal analysis of desire lines in Detroit by combining remote sensing and spatial analysis with physical audits and interviews. Our results show that Detroit has more than 5680 of these footpaths, totaling more than 150 miles (>240 km). Transportation planners may value desire lines for their efficiency, reducing travel time and distance. Urban theorists and community activists, however, view desire lines as a form of resistance and reclamation of space for a public poorly served by urban institutions. The results of our mixed-methods approach demonstrate how these two perspectives can co-exist. Desire lines are creative attempts to expand urban possibilities, enhance efficiency, and reaffirm agency in increasingly regulated cities. Desire lines in Detroit, however, are rapidly disappearing. From 2010 to 2016, the Lower Eastside region of the city witnessed a 70 percent reduction in the total length of these lines. Our analysis shows that this correlates with changes in land ownership, management practices, and population dynamics. The loss of desire lines exposes the limits of informal practices and indicates the need for connections to broader relationships of power and governance. Creative engagements with the state can formalize lines and help residents realize their rights to the city.

A tale of the last two film row districts: historic preservation and urban design in Kansas City and Oklahoma City

ABSTRACTFilm rows existed in 32 North American cities to distribute movies across the continent. This paper examines the diverging outcomes of the last two remaining film row districts in Kansas City and Oklahoma City. After a period of decline, these former warehouse districts have been remade and revalorized as creative spaces in the post-industrial city. Kansas City has no formal recognition of its district and development pressures threaten to erode it further, while Oklahoma City’s has formal historic designation, branding and design review for construction. This paper considers the challenges for historic preservation and urban design for these similar places.