Redevelopment Programs Research Articles

Measuring Great Society Impact: Bedford-Stuyvesant and Newark

Measuring Great Society Impact:Bedford-Stuyvesant and Newark Bell Julian Clement (bio) Mark Krasovic. The Newark Frontier: Community Action in the Great Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. 366 pp. Photographs, notes, and index. $45.00. Michael Woodsworth. Battle for Bed-Stuy: The Long War on Poverty in New York City. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2016. 416 pp. Photographs, notes, and index. $35.00. Fifty years after the fact, the Great Society endeavor continues to grip the American social imagination. Lyndon Johnson's campaign to end poverty and social inequality by bringing the power of the federal government to bear is a monument to the faith that public action can improve quality of life and, moreover, should be used to do so. As such, the Great Society draws broad-stroke anti–big-government vituperation. Detractors damn Johnson's War on Poverty for having failed to end poverty: in Ronald Reagan's glib and devastating gibe, Americans "fought a war on poverty, and poverty won." At bottom, what Great Society advocates and detractors are arguing about is how social-policy effectiveness should be measured. It is fair enough to ask whether a war on poverty did in fact vanquish poverty: Johnson's effort failed to extirpate the economic inequalities that are deeply structured in U.S. society. Yet that criticism indicts the program for failing at what it never attempted. True, in hindsight it is clear that victory against poverty required a federal commitment to types of job creation and economic redevelopment programs never included in the lengthy Great Society roster. But Great Society policymakers did not believe that the economy required restructuring in order to produce economic equity, a view made credible by the robust economic performance of the early 1960s. The magnificent U.S. economy could provide for all, so the thinking went; what was needed was simply to reconnect those who had been excluded. Therein lay the task for national policy action. Initiatives like the Community Action Program (CAP), created by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and administered by the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), sought to build [End Page 496] structures of civic participation that would connect marginalized communities with the thriving mainstream. Recent studies by Michael Woodsworth on Bedford-Stuyvesant and Mark Krasovic on Newark evaluate the impact of the War on Poverty in this community-building endeavor. Woodsworth's materials suggest the importance of preexisting community organization in shaping the outcomes of federal urban initiatives; Krasovic's suggest the power of the federal presence to create new forms of local community. Both studies concede that the federal effort was unable to alter inner-city economic outcomes permanently; both also raise questions about the impacts of federal community building. ________ Woodsworth tells the story of community development in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood from the late 1940s, when "juvenile delinquency"—the ur-issue of Great Society community-action policy—first emerged as a focus of activists' energies through the establishment, under Robert Kennedy's patronage, of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (BSRC) and the first decade of its effort at economic revitalization in central Brooklyn. Along the way, Woodsworth offers a concise history of Bedford-Stuyvesant itself, then thought of by outsiders as a "ghetto" wasteland. The area that emerges in his telling, however, is a complex and vibrant, if under-resourced, community. Bed-Stuy in this period comprised some 450,000 souls, its boundaries racially rather than geographically defined, and shifting outward as black newcomers flocked to Brooklyn. Solidly black, but hardly monolithic, the community included home-owning families with long histories in New York City; impoverished Southern newcomers—met with less than exuberant welcomes from their longer-tenured neighbors; and a contingent of West Indian strivers who made themselves prominent in Bed-Stuy political life and economic development initiatives. Woodsworth's investigation works its way through several distinct phases of Bed-Stuy organizing. The years immediately following the end of WWII saw rising concern among social activists with the city's alienated and, increasingly, publicly obstreperous youth. One of Woodsworth's particular contributions is to show how concern with these social-policy issues burbled up more or less simultaneously from a...

The role of redevelopment in the development of the spatial organization of production

Modern enterprises are steadily developing. Development takes place with different speed, but lack of development leads to reduction activities. The company is constantly introducing innovations to keep the pace of development. The development involves the extension activities. The expansion focuses on the physical boundaries of the enterprises. In the future, its development, the company must predict the time when the estate should be expanded. On the other hand, the extension is not always possible within the boundaries of a given territory. So each company goes through a stage of transformation of its location. The change of place of activity related to the transfer of production capacity, we disclose via the category of redevelopment areas. In European practice, proceedings of the technology of redevelopment have a practice for over 30 years. Russian economy is faced with the necessity of solving such problems, only in the new Millennium. Previously planned organization of the economy is clearly shaped conditions for the functioning of industries and given expert guidance on the timing and the postponements of the proceedings. The Russian economy is building new inter-industry relations and problems of implementation of redevelopment programs are in demand. They affect the interests of the state, construction companies and manufacturers directly. The combination of these market participants need to develop organizational solutions that will not hinder the progressive development of the economy of the region and specific production.

Social networks of rural–urban migrants after residential relocation: evidence from Yangzhou, a medium-sized Chinese city

This paper analyses the effects of residential relocation on China’s rural–urban migrants’ social networks in light of evidence from Yangzhou, Jiangsu province. Our study contrasts voluntary moves with forced moves driven by demolition-led redevelopment of urban villages. Based on data from a survey conducted between 2012 and 2013, the regression analysis shows that voluntarily relocated migrants are more likely than forced movers to use phone/computer to contact their former neighbours, and communication technology allows them to maintain the frequency of their contact. Furthermore, when moving to a gated neighbourhood, voluntary movers are more likely than forced movers to participate in public activities, to have more contact with new neighbours and thereby to get more help from the residents’ committee and new neighbours. The results suggest that forced moves have negative effects on migrants’ social networks in the neighbourhood and that the demolition-led redevelopment programmes do not promote the migrants’ integration in the city.

Urban renewal and social sustainability: An exploratory study of the urban life of Wan Chai

Background Urban renewal has become an important issue in Hong Kong, which is experiencing considerable population growth pressures and urban decay in various districts. Ho et al. [1] noted that urban renewal often creates not only environmental problems such as demolition waste, but also social problems such as destruction of existing social networks and the fabric of long-established communities. Despite the Urban Renewal Authority (URA)’s claim to foster, encourage, and support sustainable development, it is not difficult to find negative comments from the public about various aspects of urban renewal, in particular with regard to urban sustainability the social dimension of sustainable development. In fact, in the past ten years, there have been several social movements concerned with or directed against redevelopment programmes in urban areas. What these social movements have in common is that participants are not only affected residents or business owners, but also members of civil society who do not live in the affected districts. Some scholars have started to criticise the URA’s planning approach, and stated that there is a need to review the practices of urban renewal in Hong Kong [2]. Through a comprehensive review of urban development, urban planning and urban renewal in Hong Kong, and case studies and observations of Wan Chai, this study attempts to explore the influence of planning ideology and modernist urban planning on urban renewal practices in Hong Kong. It also considers why most residents do not support, and even oppose, the urban renewal projects of the URA.

Waiting on the gene revolution: Challenges for adopting GM crops in the developing world

Ensuring food security in the developing world faces new challenges as climate change and population growth strain resources. Genetically modified (GM) crops are a promising technology but face opposition due to perceptions of possible health risks and external interests, which ultimately affect trade policies between nations. Additionally, the lack of appropriate infrastructure in food insecure regions—poor access to financing, inadequate government support for agricultural extension, and unenforced laws on land tenure—make growers reluctant to adopt new technologies. In this paper, we present these themes and their interactions to help inform the discussion on the adoption of GM technology in the developing world. We focus our review on Sub-Saharan Africa, as it is often the target of new agricultural redevelopment programs from developed nations.

My Career as a Planner

In this essay, the author traces her development from a political scientist to an urban planner. Looking back on more than 40 years as a scholar and professor of planning, Fainstein deems issues of inequality derived from class, ethnicity, and gender to have been the focus of her teaching and scholarship. At first, she approached these questions through empirical investigations of citizen participation and theoretical exploration of the neo-Marxist literature and her early research focused on the politics of planning in American cities, the contributions of community groups, and the roles played by business interests. Later, she examined redevelopment and housing programs in London and Amsterdam to contrast these more welfare-oriented European cities to the American model and examined the relationship between gender and planning. Eventually, she brought together her empirical and theoretical research to develop a theory of urban justice and to suggest policies at the local level that were in line with these principles.

Social Housing and Redevelopment of Building Complexes on Brownfield Sites: The Financial Sustainability of Residential Projects for Vulnerable Social Groups

The global economic crisis has caused a sharp contraction in many Italian productive sectors, with the construction industry experiencing a decline of about 22% over the last few years (2009-2013). In the residential property market, sale prices for houses have fallen by 40% and rental prices by 30% [. Despite a greater supply of housing at lower prices, there remains a significant demand for low-cost housing from lower-middle-income families, young couples, single-parent families and from non-resident and foreign university students. This is also due to the lack of public resources to create substantial policies to support social housing construction. Social Housing (SH) programmes, with joint financial support from public and private stakeholders, are aimed at responding to the demand for accommodation for rent at social rates, for sale at concessionary prices and/or for rent (with or without redemption) at controlled rates. At the same time, especially in large cities, there is a continuing need to initiate processes for the redevelopment of numerous public and private residential building complexes in brownfield sites that have become functionally obsolete and dilapidated. The implementation of urban and building redevelopment programmes in this situation requires the definition of management models and methods for assessing the financial sustainability of such programmes. This article, based on a contextual analysis of these market segments, outlines a methodological approach, tested on a restructuring proposal for the Corviale (Rome) building-city housing development, to assess the financial sustainability of redevelopment projects on brownfield sites, providing a new range of functions that include housing, student residences and services.

Superfund Me: A Study of Resistance to Gentrification in New York City

Municipal governments have incorporated brownfield redevelopment programmes into urban sustainability plans to encourage the redevelopment of these sites into productive uses. The combination of government support and developer initiatives indicates potential for the gentrification of brownfields. However, developer proposals to expedite the conversion of contaminated properties along the Gowanus Canal in New York City into residential and commercial venues resulted in the addition of the canal to the US National Priorities List (NPL) of uncontrolled hazardous sites, rendering the site less attractive to developers. It is argued that the listing process became an effective tool in the struggle to resist gentrification in the Gowanus Canal neighbourhood. Place stigmatisation slowed developer-driven redevelopment and the NPL designation allows for a comprehensive remediation approach and increases opportunities for community input. This study provides an interesting case study of resistance to developer-driven ‘smart-city’ planning that represents a meaningful departure from neoliberal urbanism.

Do spatially targeted redevelopment programs spillover?

This paper estimates spillover effects from a spatially-targeted redevelopment program, the Federal Empowerment Zone (EZ), on neighboring and economically similar areas. EZs are a set of generous tax incentives and grants aimed at small, economically depressed areas of large U.S. cities. We find areas that border or are economically similar to EZ locations experience a decline in the number of establishments and employment compared to areas that border or are similar to rejected EZ applicants. We also demonstrate that using spillover prone areas to estimate program effects causes upward bias when the spillover is negative. We find that for many of our estimates, spillovers more than offset positive program effects, although there are instances when the net effect is small and positive.

Spatial Analyses of the Urban Village Development Process in Shenzhen, China

AbstractUrban villages are widespread in many Chinese cities, providing affordable and accessible housing for rural migrants. These urban villages develop rapidly over time to create more housing units and accommodate increasing numbers of residents. This article provides systematic analyses of urban village development in Shenzhen in the period 1999–2009. It reveals that the development of urban villages was driven by the overall planning and urban growth of the city, which resulted in significant variation in urban village development at the city scale. Three distinct but overlapping phases were observed: expansion, densification and intensification. The growth of urban villages was spatially clustered and changes over time in the distribution of growth centres suggest the possible diffusion of migrant employment out of the Special Economic Zone into two outer districts. In the recent urban regeneration process, the pattern and trend of urban village development is shown to contradict the city's urban village redevelopment programmes. This not only helps to explain the slow progress of the policy implementation, but also implies severe risks of jeopardizing the migrant housing market in certain urban sections.RésuméDes villages urbains sont dispersés dans de nombreuses villes chinoises, procurant un habitat accessible et économique aux migrants ruraux. En essor rapide, ces implantations multiplient les logements à faible loyer et accueillent un nombre croissant d’habitants. Le développement des villages urbains de Shenzhen entre 1999 et 2009 a fait l’objet d’analyses systématiques: il a été induit par la croissance et l’aménagement d’ensemble de la ville, qui ont abouti à une importante variation de ce phénomène à l’échelle urbaine. On distingue trois phases, en partie superposées: expansion, densification et intensification. La croissance des villages urbains s’est concentrée dans l’espace, et les changements progressifs dans la répartition des pôles de croissance suggèrent la dissémination possible de l’emploi des migrants vers deux quartiers situés hors de la Zone économique spéciale. Il est montré que, dans le cadre du récent processus de régénération urbaine, le schéma et la tendance du développement de ces villages dans Shenzhen vont à l’encontre des programmes de réaménagement des villages urbains. D’une part, ces résultats permettent d’expliquer la lenteur dans la mise en œuvre des politiques publiques; d’autre part, ils suggèrent que, dans certaines zones urbaines, le marché du logement des migrants pourrait connaître une crise grave.

The development and redevelopment of urban villages in Shenzhen

China, like many other developing countries, has seen a huge influx of population into its cities coupled with urban expansion. The presence of massive numbers of rural migrants in cities does not result in slums or squatters due to institutional constraints. In the absence of government help, urban villages have evolved in many cities to provide adequate and affordable housing for the rural migrants. However, the urban villages are rejected by policy-makers and face aggressive demolition–redevelopment programmes to replace them with formal urban neighbourhoods. This article explores different dimensions of the development and redevelopment of urban villages in Shenzhen. By linking to the development practice of the city, the physical and socio-economic evolution of urban villages is found to be a result of the natural and logical response of the indigenous village population and the rural migrants in facing rapid economic development and social transition. Therefore, the demolition-redevelopment approach adopted by the government would be devastating not only for the rural migrants but also for the city’s economy which is largely based on labour-intensive sectors. Opportunities to explore alternative responses such as upgrading or the provision of village level development guidance do exist and could be explored.

La nuova arte nella sfera pubblica

The article looks at the development of the concept of art in public space by rereading a few critical texts. Since the publication in 1995 of the book Mapping the Terrain. New Genre Public Art edited by Suzanne Lacy, Public Art has aroused interest in the practice and theory of various authors and it has been redefined over the years. What has emerged is a progressive movement towards the issues of politics and society, as occurred with New Genre Public Art (Ngpa), interpreted in terms of a reaction to the consensus policies practiced on a large scale in urban redevelopment programmes. The Ngpa’s starting stance is the result of a decision to support minorities, in order to represent and defend a pluralist society.

Redevelopment Planning and Distributive Justice in the American Metropolis

The paper examines the forces shaping American redevelopment policy and its outcomes. Its central argument is that nearly sixty years of programs have involved significant changes in administrative form, funding, scale, justifications, content, public participation, and the composition of redevelopment coalitions. At the same time, however, the separation of physical and social components of redevelopment efforts has changed little and the distribution of benefits has largely favored developers and business interests regardless of the alleged aims of the program. Consequently while redevelopment programs have contributed to revival of previously declining cities, they have rarely acted as agencies for producing greater justice within metropolitan areas. I briefly trace the history of government-sponsored redevelopment programs in the United States since the Housing Act of 1949. That history is periodized according to each phase’s general thrust, with the recognition that there was always local variation. The causal factors underlying the shifts delimiting each period are delineated. These factors, which are numerous and interactive, include political pressures and changes in national and urban regimes; economic restructuring; changing demographics; and ideological currents. The paper concludes with an argument concerning the relationship between spatial and social justice, indicating the general principles – equity, democracy, and diversity – that should govern urban redevelopment policy, and specifying particular types of policies that would embody those principles.

Stakeholder preferences for contaminated land clean-up and redevelopment programmes in Italy

Contaminated land clean-ups and redevelopment programmes are likely to have large, but hard to quantify, impacts on human health, on economic and social development, on life quality, and on the environment. To obtain these many benefits and to mobilise the necessary financial resources, public participation and private sector active involvement are required. This article presents the results of two surveys recently completed in Italy, designed to investigate stakeholders' preferences for public clean-up programmes. Both the views of real estate developers who have to achieve the interventions and the attitudes of the population that can benefit from these interventions were under scrutiny. The results were applied to assess the benefit of clean-ups at Porto Marghera in the Lagoon of Venice, an example of a contaminated megasite in Italy.

Career redevelopment programmes for inactive nurses in Japan

The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges and problems in using career redevelopment programmes and individual hospital programmes to prepare inactive nurses to re-enter into the workforce in Japan. It is critical to supply sufficient skilled health human resources for medical care. Although, Japan has a mandatory retraining programme for supporting nurses to return to the workplace after a career break, it is unclear to what extent there are benefits to nurses from these programmes. The research of career redevelopment programme was undertaken in three administrative divisions' nurse centres in local prefecture A, B and C. A survey of nurses participating in the programme running in T Hospital was also conducted. The issues examined were the background and motivations of participants, the length of career break, the percentages returning to work and the effectiveness of each programme. The average age of participants was 40 years, ranging widely from the 20-60 years. Local prefecture A tended to have narrower age range than others, namely from the 30-50 years. The average period of career break was around eight years at two of three. Length of experience was quite varied from entry level to 20 or 30 years in nursing. Feedback from nurses in the case study T Hospital suggests that the most effective ways of providing support through the programme was to meet the need for continuing support, including working styles after return to work and using the resources programme in their own area of domicile. In the potential return of the nurse, the following are important: (i) job support system by using social resources effectively in the community level; and (ii) introduction of diverse working styles that take account of varying work-life balance, as well as childcare support, by using existing facilities or human resources.

Machine Building and City Building

The deindustrialization of North American cities is generally told as a post-World War II narrative, featuring factory closings, highways to the suburbs, and urban renewal programs responding to the loss of jobs and population. Yet, as recent scholarship on industrial suburbanization has shown, the decentralization of manufacturing manifested itself throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some scholars of twentieth-century planning have observed that urban renewal programs hurt cities as much as they helped. This essay argues that some late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century redevelopment programs played a greater causal role in deindustrialization and the shift in Americans' conceptions of cities from places of production to places of consumption. Surveying the complex relationships between urban and industrial restructuring in Philadelphia during the pre-Depression decades, it examines the prehistory of federal urban renewal at the state and local level.

Intrajurisdictional Segmentation of Property Tax Burdens: Neighborhood Inequities Across an Urban Sphere

The results from this study extend the academic literature on vertical inequities in real property taxation by analyzing within jurisdictional variations in the property tax burden on residents of Chicago, Illinois. A two-stage model with an instrumental variable identifies tax burden variations between neighborhoods in a single metropolitan tax jurisdiction. A second model incorporates neighborhood and property characteristics in an examination of variations in the ratio of property tax to market value. The findings are vitally important to policymakers interested in funding urban redevelopment programs targeting wealth building through real estate ownership in low-income neighborhoods. The evidence is equally important to analysts concerned with market segmentation and the implications of property tax variations on real estate markets.

Sustainable energy? A feasibility study for Eastside, Birmingham, UK

Eastside, a 130 ha brownfield site located to the eastern side of Birmingham's city centre, is undergoing social, economic and environmental changes, driven mainly through public and private investment estimated to be worth £6 billion. The regeneration programme is well under way and it aims to turn a once deprived inner-city area into the regions first ‘sustainability quarter’ Achieving a sustainable quarter, in terms of energy, will require reductions to be made in energy demands compared to typical practice, for example through more thermally efficient buildings and utilisation of low-energy technologies. In addition it will require these demands to be met through renewable technologies rather than fossil fuels. This paper presents estimates for the total energy demands from the various developments planned within Eastside assuming typical and good-practice scenarios. The paper then assesses the feasibility of introducing various renewable energy supply technologies and combined heat and power (CHP) technologies in order to meet these demands. Finally the paper presents a simplified costing scheme for assessing the potential of renewable technologies to secure energy supplies while limiting carbon emissions. The renewable technologies are compared directly, aiming at providing an independent viewpoint for decision makers when considering which technologies to adopt. While the study focuses on Eastside, the lessons learned from this study are vitally important for redevelopment programmes being undertaken elsewhere.

Crushed aggregate production from centralized combined and individual waste sources in Hong Kong

Owing to the comprehensive building redevelopment programmes in Hong Kong, there is a huge volume of concrete waste generated that will soon exhaust all the available landfill areas. As such, recycled aggregate is advocated. However, the use of recycled aggregate has been confined to lower-grade applications until now, such as the lower layers of a pavement structures, e.g., capping and sub-base. The main reason is the variable behaviour of recycled aggregates collected from different sources to be crushed in a centralized recycling plant. This paper applies some international standards to classify recycled aggregates. Aggregates were collected from twelve sources, including 10 from demolition sites (Samples 1–10), one from Tuen Mun Area 38 centralized recycling plant (Sample 11) and one from ordinary virgin aggregate (Sample 12). From test results, Sample 6, akin to Sample 12 (virgin aggregate), was found to be suitable for all types of construction applications, while Samples 2 and 9 were completely unsuitable as recycled concrete aggregates for any application grade. Sample 11 (Tuen Mun Area 38 centralized recycling plant) was found only suitable for non-structural applications, such as base course and fill. It is concluded that the different sources of recycled aggregate should preferably be separately crushed and classified rather than processed in a combined form centrally which will lower its overall quality and limit its application.

Social Exclusion and Gender in Urban Regeneration Programs in the UK

Abstract: This article examines the gendered impact of a policy concept, “social exclusion”, on participation in urban redevelopment programs. It illustrates how the emphasis on developing “social capital” made women, as the keepers of “community” responsible for the success or failure of regeneration programs while the same regeneration programs frequently did not meet their needs.