The City After Abandonment

by Dewar, Margaret; Thomas, June Manning

• ISBN13: 9780812244465
• ISBN10: 081224446X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-10-17
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Pr

Summary

A number of U.S. cities, former manufacturing centers of the Northeast and Midwest, have suffered such dramatic losses in population and employment that urban experts have put them in a class by themselves, calling them "rustbelt cities," "shrinking cities," and more recently "legacy cities." This decline has led to property disinvestment, extensive demolition, and abandonment. While much policy and planning has focused on growth and redevelopment, little research has investigated the conditions of disinvested places and why some improvement efforts have greater impact than others. The City After Abandonmentbrings together essays from top urban planning experts to focus on policy and planning issues related to three questions. What are cities becoming after abandonment? The rise of community gardens and artists' installations in Detroit and St. Louis reveal numerous unexamined impacts of population decline on the development of these cities. Why these outcomes? By analyzing posthurricane policy in New Orleans, the acceptance of becoming a smaller city in Youngstown, Ohio, and targeted assistance to small areas of Baltimore, Cleveland, and Detroit, this book assesses how varied institutions and policies affect the process of change in cities where demand for property is very weak. What should abandoned areas of cities become? Assuming growth is not a choice, this book assesses widely cited formulas for addressing vacancy; analyzes the sustainability plans of Cleveland, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; suggests an urban design scheme for shrinking cities; and lays out ways policymakers and planners can approach the future through processes and ideas that differ from those in growing cities.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The City After Abandonment	p. 1
What Does the City Become After Abandonment?
Community Gardens and Urban Agriculture as Antithesis to Abandonment: Exploring a Citizenship-Land Model	p. 17
Building Affordable Housing in Cities After Abandonment: The Case of Low Income Housing Tax Credit Developments in Detroit	p. 41
Detroit Art City: Urban Decline, Aesthetic Production, Public Interest	p. 64
What Makes a Difference in What Cities Become After Abandonment?
Decline-Oriented Urban Governance in Youngstown, Ohio	p. 87
Targeting Neighborhoods, Stimulating Markets: The Role of Political, Institutional, and Technical Factors in Three Cities	p. 104
Recovery in a Shrinking City: Challenges to Rightsizing Post-Katrina New Orleans	p. 133
Missing New Orleans: Lessons from the CDC Sector on Vacancy, Abandonment, and Reconstructing the Crescent City	p. 151
What Helps or Hinders Nonprofit Developers in Reusing Vacant, Abandoned, and Contaminated Property?	p. 174
Targeting Strategies of Three Detroit CDCs	p. 197
What Should the City Become After Abandonment?
Strategic Thinking for Distressed Neighborhoods	p. 227
The Promise of Sustainability Planning for Regenerating Older Industrial Cities	p. 244
Rightsizing Shrinking Cities: The Urban Design Dimension	p. 268
Planning for Better, Smaller Places After Population Loss: Lessons from Youngstown and Flint	p. 289
Notes	p. 317
List of Contributors	p. 373
Index	p. 379
Acknowledgments	p. 387
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.