1999 photograph looking northeast on Chicago's Cabrini–Green housing project, one of many urban renewal efforts.

Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of reconstruction. The process has had a major impact on many urban landscapes, and has played an important role in the history and demographics of cities around the world.

Urban renewal may involve relocation of businesses, the demolition of structures, the relocation of people, and the use of eminent domain (government purchase of property for public purpose) as a legal instrument to take private property for city-initiated development projects.

In some cases, renewal may result in urban sprawl and less congestion when areas of cities receive freeways and expressways.^[1]

Urban renewal has been seen by proponents as an economic engine and a reform mechanism, and by critics as a mechanism for control. It may enhance existing communities, and in some cases result in the demolition of neighborhoods.

Many cities link the revitalization of the central business district and gentrification of residential neighborhoods to earlier urban renewal programs. Over time, urban renewal evolved into a policy based less on destruction and more on renovation and investment, and today is an integral part of many local governments, often combined with small and big business incentives.

History[link]

The concept of urban renewal can be traced back to the earliest days of urban development, and often stems from an expansive style of governance. Its potential value as a process was noted by those who witnessed the overcrowded conditions of 19th century London, New York, Paris and other major cities of the developed world affected by the industrial revolution. From this a reform agenda emerged, using a progressive doctrine of that renewal would reform its residents. Such reform could be argued on moral, economic, and many other grounds. Another style of reform – for reasons of aesthetics and efficiency – could be said to have begun in 1853, with the recruitment of Baron Haussmann by Louis Napoleon for the redevelopment of Paris. Both strands of slum abolition valued the destruction of degraded housing and other structures above the welfare of slum-dwellers who, then as now, are often dispersed and might well discover themselves to be less well-off than before a slum clearance program.^[2]

In North America[link]

Projects such as the design and construction of Central Park, New York and the 1909 Plan for Chicago by Daniel Burnham might be considered early urban renewal projects. Similarly, the efforts of Jacob Riis in advocating for the demolition of degraded areas of New York in the late 19th century might also be seen as formative urban renewal programs.

Robert Moses[link]

The redevelopment of large sections of New York City and New York State by Robert Moses between the 1930s and the 1970s was a notable and prominent example of urban redevelopment. Moses directed the construction of new bridges, highways, housing projects, and public parks. Moses was a controversial figure, both for his single-minded zeal and for its impact on New York City.

Other cities across the USA began to create redevelopment programs in the late 1930s and 1940s. These early projects were generally focused on slum clearance and were implemented by local public housing authorities, which were responsible both for clearing slums and for building new affordable housing.

Postwar suburban growth[link]

In 1944, the GI Bill (officially the Serviceman's Readjustment Act) guaranteed Veterans Administration (VA) mortgages to veterans under favorable terms, which fueled suburbanization after the end of World War II, as places like Levittown, New York, Warren, Michigan and the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles were transformed from farmland into cities occupied by tens of thousands of families in a few short years.

Title One of the Housing Act of 1949 kick-started the "urban renewal" program that would reshape American cities. The Act provided federal funding to cities to cover the cost of acquiring areas of cities perceived to be "slums." (The Federal government paid 2/3 of the cost of acquiring the site, called the "write down," while local governments paid the remaining 1/3.) Those sites were then given to private developers to construct new housing. The phrase used at the time was "urban redevelopment." "Urban renewal" was a phrase popularized with the passage of the 1954 Housing Act, which made these projects more enticing to developers, by among other things, providing FHA-backed mortgages.

Renewal[link]

Under the powerful influence of multimillionaire R.K. Mellon, Pittsburgh became the first major city to undertake a modern urban-renewal program in May 1950. Pittsburgh was infamous around the world as one of the dirtiest and most economically depressed cities, and seemed ripe for urban renewal. A large section of downtown at the heart of the city was demolished, converted to parks, office buildings, and a sports arena and renamed the Golden Triangle in what was universally recognized as a major success. Other neighborhoods were also subjected to urban renewal, but with mixed results. Some areas did improve, while other areas, such as East Liberty and Lower Hill, declined following ambitious projects that shifted traffic patterns, blocked streets to vehicular traffic, isolated or divided neighborhoods with highways, and removed large numbers of ethnic and minority residents.^[3][4] Because of the ways in which it targeted the most disadvantaged sector of the American population, novelist James Baldwin famously dubbed Urban Renewal "Negro Removal" in the 1960s.^[5][6][7]

The term "urban renewal" was not introduced in the USA until the Housing Act was again amended in 1954. That was also the year in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the general validity of urban redevelopment statutes in the landmark case, Berman v. Parker.^[8]

In 1956, the Federal-Aid Highway Act gave state and federal government complete control over new highways, and often they were routed directly through vibrant urban neighborhoods—isolating or destroying many—since the focus of the program was to bring traffic in and out of the central cores of cities as expeditiously as possible and nine out of every ten dollars spent came from the federal government. This resulted in a serious degradation of the tax bases of many cities, isolated entire neighborhoods,^[9] and meant that existing commercial districts were bypassed by the majority of commuters.^[10] Segregation continued to increase as communities were displaced and many African Americans and Latinos were left with no other option than moving into public housing while whites moved to the suburbs in ever-greater numbers.^[11]

In Boston, one of the country's oldest cities, almost a third of the old city was demolished—including the historic West End—to make way for a new highway, low- and moderate-income high-rises (which eventually became luxury housing), and new government and commercial buildings. This came to be seen as a tragedy by many residents and urban planners, and one of the centerpieces of the redevelopment—Government Center—is still considered an example of the excesses of urban renewal.

Fallout shelters[link]

In the early 1960s, The Kennedy Administration worked with developer Louis Lesser to develop Barrington Plaza in Los Angeles, at the time the largest urban renewal project in the western United States, which also served as a nuclear fallout shelter during the peak of the Kennedy Administration's nuclear crisis.^[12][13]

Redlining[link]

Redlining began with the National Housing Act of 1934 which established the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to improve housing conditions and standards, and later led to the formation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). While it was designed to develop housing for poor residents of urban areas, that act also required cities to target specific areas and neighborhoods for different racial groups, and certain areas of cities were not eligible to receive loans at all. This meant that ethnic minorities could only obtain mortgages in certain areas, and resulted in a large increase in the residential racial segregation in the United States.

This was followed by the Housing Act of 1937, which created the U.S. Housing Agency and the nation's first public housing program—the Low Rent Public Housing Program. This program began the large public housing projects that later became one of the hallmarks of urban renewal in the United States: it provided funding to local governments to build new public housing, but required that slum housing be demolished prior to any construction.

Reactions[link]

In 1961, Jane Jacobs published The Death and Life of Great American Cities, one of the first—and strongest—critiques of contemporary large-scale urban renewal. However, it would still be a few years before organized movements began to oppose urban renewal.

In 1964, the Civil Rights Act removed racial deed restrictions on housing. This began desegregation of residential neighborhoods, but redlining continued to mean that real estate agents continued to steer ethnic minorities to certain areas. The riots that swept cities across the country from 1965 to 1967 damaged or destroyed additional areas of major cities—most drastically in Detroit during the 12th Street Riot.

By the 1970s many major cities developed opposition to the sweeping urban-renewal plans for their cities. In Boston, community activists halted construction of the proposed Southwest Expressway but only after a three-mile long stretch of land had been cleared. In San Francisco, Joseph Alioto was the first mayor to publicly repudiate the policy of urban renewal, and with the backing of community groups, forced the state to end construction of highways through the heart of the city. Atlanta lost over 60,000 people between 1960 and 1970 because of urban renewal and expressway construction,^[14] but a downtown building boom turned the city into the showcase of the New South in the 1970s and 1980s. In the early 1970s in Toronto Jacobs was heavily involved in a group which halted the construction of the Spadina Expressway and altered transport policy in that city.

"Urban renewal" as "community development"[link]

Some of the policies around urban renewal began to change under President Lyndon Johnson and the War on Poverty, and in 1968, the Housing and Urban Development Act and The New Communities Act of 1968 guaranteed private financing for private entrepreneurs to plan and develop new communities. Subsequently, the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 established the Community Development Block Grant program (CDBG) which began in earnest the focus on redevelopment of existing neighborhoods and properties, rather than demolition of substandard housing and economically depressed areas.

Currently, a mix of renovation, selective demolition, commercial development, and tax incentives is most often used to revitalize urban neighborhoods. An example of an entire eradication of a community is Africville in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Though not without its critics—gentrification is still controversial, and often results in familiar patterns of poorer residents being priced out of urban areas into suburbs or more depressed areas of cities—urban renewal in its present form is generally regarded as a great improvement over the policies of the middle part of the 20th century. Some programs, such as that administered by Fresh Ministries and Operation New Hope in Jacksonville, Florida attempt to develop communities, while at the same time combining highly favorable loan programs with financial literacy education so that poorer residents may still be able to afford their restored neighborhoods.

Urban renewal around the world[link]

The Josefov neighborhood, or Old Jewish Quarter, in Prague was leveled and rebuilt in an effort at urban renewal between 1890 and 1913.

In Rio, Porto Maravilha is changing all the harbor's area. The Porto Maravilha Urban Operation is a large-scale urban waterfront revitalization project. It covers a five million square meters area centrally located. The project aims to redevelop the port area increasing the city center attractiveness as a whole and enhances Rio’s competitiveness position in the global economy. The urban renovation involves: 700 km of public networks for water supply, sanitation, drainage, electricity, gas and telecom; 4 km of tunnels; 70 km of roads; 650 km² of sidewalks; 17 km of bike path; 15.000 trees; 3 plants for sanitation treatment;

Other programs, such as that in Castleford in the UK and known as The Castleford Project [3] seek to establish a process of urban renewal which enables local citizens to have greater control and ownership of the direction of their community and the way in which it overcomes market failure. This supports important themes in urban renewal today, such as participation, sustainability and trust – and government acting as advocate and 'enabler', rather than an instrument of command and control.

During the 1990s the concept of culture-led regeneration gained ground. Examples most often cited as successes include Temple Bar in Dublin where tourism was attracted to a bohemian 'cultural quarter', Barcelona where the 1992 Olympics provided a catalyst for infrastructure improvements and the redevelopment of the water front area, and Bilbao where the building of a new art museum was the focus for a new business district around the city's derelict dock area. The approach has become very popular in the UK due to the availability of lottery funding for capital projects and the vibrancy of the cultural and creative sectors. However, while the arrival of Tate Modern in the London borough of Southwark may be heralded as a catalyst to economic revival in its surrounding neighborhood.

In post-apartheid South Africa major grassroots social movements such as the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign and Abahlali baseMjondolo emerged to contest 'urban renewal' programs that forcibly relocated the poor out of the cities.

Africa[link]

• Alexandra Renewal Project, Johannesburg, South Africa
• Chiawelo, Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa
• District Six, Cape Town, South Africa
• Joe Slovo, Cape Town, South Africa (planned)

Asia[link]

• Cheonggyecheon, Seoul, South Korea
• Eskişehir, Eskişehir Province, Turkey
• Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

South America[link]

• Porto Maravilha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Bogotá, Colombia
• Malecon 2000, Guayaquil, Ecuador
• Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Australia[link]

• Barangaroo, Sydney
• Central Park, Sydney
• Dandenong, VIC^[15]
• Fortitude Valley, Teneriffe, Queensland Brisbane, QLD^[16]
• Green Square, Sydney, NSW^[17]
• Melbourne Docklands, Melbourne, VIC^[18]
• Port Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC^[19]
• Pyrmont and Ultimo, Sydney, NSW^[20]
• South Brisbane, West End, Woolloongabba area, Brisbane, QLD^[21]
• Southbank and South Wharf precinct Melbourne, VIC^[22]
• Westwood Urban Renewal Project (Angle Park, Mansfield Park, Woodville Gardens, and Athol Park), Adelaide SA^[23]

Europe[link]

• MediaPark, Cologne, Germany
• Rheinauhafen, Cologne, Germany
• Medienhafen, Düsseldorf, Germany
• HafenCity, Hamburg, Germany
• Birmingham City Centre, England, United Kingdom
• The Bruce Report, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
• Clyde Waterfront Regeneration, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
• Irvine Bay, Ayrshire, Scotland, United Kingdom
• Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
• Óscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre, Avilés, Spain
• Croydon Vision 2020, London, England United Kingdom
• Edgar Street Grid, Hereford, England, United Kingdom
• Neithrop, Banbury, Oxfordshire
• Easington, Cherwell, Banbury, Oxfordshire
• Ruscote, Banbury, Oxfordshire
• London Docklands, London, England, United Kingdom
• Ordsall, Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom
• Manchester city centre, Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom following 1996 bombing
• Salford Quays, Salford, England, United Kingdom
• Waterfront, Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom
• Fjord City, Oslo, Norway
• Parque das Nações, Lisboa, Portugal
• Porto Vivo, Porto, Portugal
• Redevelopment of Norrmalm, Stockholm, Sweden
• 22@ in Poblenou, Barcelona, Spain
• Diagonal Mar, Barcelona, Spain
• Gran Via L'H, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain
• Grand Paris, Paris, France
• Eastern Harbour District, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Wilhelminapier, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Moscow City, Moscow, Russia

North America[link]

• Atlantic Station, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
• BeltLine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
• Rockville, Maryland, United States
• Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States
• Downtown Oakland, California, United States
• Downtown San Diego, California, United States
• Distillery District, Toronto, Canada
• Miller Beach Arts and Creative District, Gary, Indiana, United States
• Hayti District, Durham, North Carolina, United States
• Gateway District (Minneapolis), Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
• Government Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
• Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Koreatown, Oakland, California, United States
• MetroTech Center, Brooklyn, New York, United States
• Pei Plan, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
• Penn Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
• Regent Park, Toronto, Canada
• Scollay Square, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
• West End, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
• Worcester Center Galleria, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
• Yesler Terrace, Seattle, Washington, United States
• The Gulch, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
• Downtown Niagara Falls, New York, United States

Long-term implications[link]

Urban renewal sometimes lives up to the hopes of its original proponents – it has been assessed by politicians, urban planners, civic leaders, and residents – it has played an undeniably^{[citation needed]} important role.

Additionally, urban renewal can have many positive effects. Replenished housing stock might be an improvement in quality; it may increase density and reduce sprawl; it might have economic benefits and improve the global economic competitiveness of a city's centre. It may, in some instances, improve cultural and social amenity, and it may also improve opportunities for safety and surveillance. Developments such as London Docklands increased tax revenues for government. In late 1964, the British commentator Neil Wates expressed the opinion that urban renewal in the USA had 'demonstrated the tremendous advantages which flow from an urban renewal programme,' such as remedying the 'personal problems' of the poor, creation or renovation of housing stock, educational and cultural 'opportunities'.^[24]

As many examples listed above show, urban renewal has been responsible for the rehabilitation of communities—as well as displacement. Replacement housing – particularly in the form of housing towers – might be difficult to police, leading to an increase in crime, and such structures might in themselves be dehumanising. Urban renewal is usually non-consultative. Urban renewal continues to evolve as successes and failures are examined and new models of development and redevelopment are tested and implemented.

An example of urban renewal gone wrong is in downtown Niagara Falls, New York. Several failed projects such as the Rainbow Centre Factory Outlet, Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center, the Carborundum Center, the Occidental^{[disambiguation needed ]} Headquarters building, the Wintergarden, the Fallsville Splash Park, Aquafalls, several parking ramps, the Falls Street Faire/Falls Street Station amusement complexes, parts of the Robert Moses State Parkway, and the Mayor E. Dent Lackey Plaza closed within twenty years of their construction. Ultimately, the former tourist district of the city along Falls Street was destroyed. It went against the principles of several urban philosophers, such as Jane Jacobs, who claimed that mixed-use districts were needed (which the new downtown was not) and arteries needed to be kept open. Smaller buildings also should be built or kept. In Niagara Falls, however, the convention center blocked traffic into the city, located in the center of Falls Street (the main artery), and the Wintergarden also blocked traffic from the convention center to the Niagara Falls. The Rainbow Centre interrupted the street grid, taking up three blocks, and parking ramps isolated the city from the core, leading to the degradation of nearby neighborhoods. Tourists were forced to walk around the Rainbow Center, the Wintergarden, and the Quality Inn (all of which were adjacent), in total five blocks, discouraging small business in the city.

Notable urban renewal developers[link]

• Thomas Kramer
• Louis Lesser
• Robert Moses
• Paul Tishman

See also[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Klemek, Christopher (2011). The Transatlantic Collapse of Urban Renewal, Postwar Urbanism from New York to Berlin. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-44174-1.

• Grogan, Paul, Proscio, Tony, Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighborhood Revival, 2000. (Business Week review of "Comeback Cities")

External links[link]

• the Bat Yam Biennale of Landscape Urbanism
• Africville - Forced removal of an entire community in Halifax, Nova Scotia in the name of Urban Renewal
• Contemporary Urban Regeneration in the UK
• Online Guide to what works in Neighbourhood Renewal (England, UK)
• Neighbourhood Renewal Unit (England, UK)
• Urban Renewal Authority, Hong Kong
• Urban Renewal in the Netherlands (the policy, projects, links)
• A Future Vision for the North American Suburb
• Community Development, Urban Regeneration and Drug Misuse^{[dead link]}
• Laboratory for Contemporary Urban Design, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
• Statement for Strong Cities: European vision on future of urban renewal
• The 12 Principles for Cautious Urban Renewal, developed in Berlin and interview with the author, Mr Hardt-Waltherr Hämer
• Paul Stanton Kibel, Rivertown: Rethinking Urban Rivers, (MIT Press, 2007)
• Urban Renewal in Chicago