Shrinking Cities: Urban Renewal Revisited?

[Hannah Bell]

First came urban renewal, destroying more residential units than replaced by towers in the park.

Then came the highways through the cities...

Then came "planned shrinkage," the idea that cities should close down failing neighborhoods, shut off the infrastructure built to accommodate density and concentrate investment in neighborhoods still worthy of middle income investment....

Then came the endless number of parking lots to accommodate all the cars driven by the commuters who fled the urban wreckage for the suburbs...

Then came Hope VI which has destroyed more low-income public housing units than it has replaced...

Then came urban agriculture...

Now comes the "theory" that the salvation of distressed cities is to once again "shrink..."

Can anyone point to one city, just one, where any of these "renewal" schemes that dedensify cities have worked to regenerate, rather than further erode, a city...?

http://www.planetizen.com/node/43826

[Hannah Bell]

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