Urban improvement districts in urban restructuring – first results of the German ESG research initiative

Local property owner's associations (Eigentuemerstandortgemeinschaften (ESG)) are a new approach to implementing public–private partnership in urban redevelopment. The approach focuses on smaller landlords in residential areas, providing incentives for the modernization of real estate if their local associations work cooperatively for the revitalization of their neighbourhood. The research initiative consists of 14 model projects spread throughout Germany, which test this relatively informal urban redevelopment approach. The article considers public–private partnership initiatives in the context of stagnating federal financial assistance for urban redevelopment and provides new financing tools such as endowment funds. This article presents first results and suggestions for the continuation of model projects beyond the pilot stage.     

The different faces of private rented housing

The relation between public policy and the private rented sector is usually unclear. The private rented sector often suffers from public policy, although private landlords mostly enjoy fiscal advantages as well. In many European countries, private renting housing has been losing ground. Nevertheless, private rented housing fulfils a number of useful functions in the housing market: as a tenure for urban starters; for the elderly; and for a mobile, well-to-do segment of the population engaged in flexible labour markets. The main lines of seven country profiles are sketched here: (West) Germany, England, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Canada and the United States. In his comparative contribution at the end of this special issue, Maclennan points out that the private rented sector has indeed declined in many European countries. But he also shows that in countries like the USA, Germany and Sweden the sector has had a broadly constant share since about 1980. In the future, private rented housing will remain an attractive sector, at least for those who are unable to afford owner-occupied housing and those unable to gain access to social housing. Hugo Priemus holds the chair in housing at Delft University of Technology and he is managing director of OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies. Duncan Maclennan is McTaggart professor at the Centre for Housing Research and Urban Studies, University of Glasgow, Great Britain.     

New towns for the Great Society: a case study in politics and planning

This article deals with the US Congress's flawed legislative attempt in the late 1960s to address urban redevelopment's shortcomings by resurrecting resettlement programmes akin to the earlier garden city and greenbelt town designs. Despite the opposition of real estate and building interests, as well as public housing advocates and big city mayors, new towns legislation was passed in 1968 and 1970. The federal government provided financial assistance to the private developers who built the thirteen new towns in various locations around the country. By the early 1980s, however, officials of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development concluded that the experiment had failed in all but one of the thirteen new towns and arranged for bankruptcy and foreclosure proceedings. The article discusses the reasons for the inefficacy of this little-known Great Society programme and suggests that the episode reflected the chequered history of urban planning in the US.     

城市公共领域微更新驱动的整体提升行动——《广州天河中央商务区整体提升行动纲要》

By analyzing master planning of the Overall Improvement Initiative for Tianhe Central Business District, Guangzhou, this paper focused on the overall improvement initiative driven by micro regeneration in the urban public realm. To deal with challenges such as a variety of issues, multiple stakeholders, and long time span in this initiative, the planning team came up with a systematic roadmap including three stages, i.e. fundamental principals, design strategies, and implementation measures. In response, they built a goal-oriented Holistic Quintuple-Value System, drew Three Urban Public Realm Maps on urban governance, and launched the pilot action projects based on the “Influence-Complexity Matrix”. Additionally, the team valued public participation and feedback, and played diverse roles, e.g., consultant and organizer for public participation events, promoter for communication of communities, and propellant for project implementation. The Initiative has been reviewed and legalized in 2019, wherein, the implemented ones by stage since 2020, not only enhance the regional governance in Guangzhou, but offer references to urban governance and space quality improvement of the built areas in downtown metropolis of the same kind.     

The Los Angeles Community Development Bank: The Possible Pitfalls of Public‐Private Partnerships

In response to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the federal government, city and county officials, commercial banks and community leaders established the nonprofit Los Angeles Community Development Bank (LACDB). This public‐private partnership was a new development model, designed to spur economic growth in some of Los Angeles' most disadvantaged areas. The LACDB was capitalized with $435 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and ranks as the federal government's largest inner‐city lending initiative. By January 2001, however, the bank had experienced unacceptably high losses and was seeking permission to continue operations, after reducing its staff by half and closing most of its offices. This article examines why this innovative public‐private economic development partnership confronted such difficulties. Public‐private partnerships continue to be an important vehicle for urban economic development. This case study provides a warning of potential pitfalls that can occur from such arrangements.     

Urban Improvement Districts as new form of local governance

A growing number of German towns established Urban Improvement Districts (UIDs) as instrument of redevelopment of urban neighbourhoods. Real-estate owners and further actors participate politically and contribute financially to the process of revaluation, but this brings about problems of local democracy, legitimation, participation and accountability. The article examines the implementation of UIDs in three German cities and compares experiences made with this new instrument of participative urban development. It focuses on the implications for local democracy and explores whether UIDs could be useful instruments of city governance and appropriate arrangements to unlock additional resources at local level.     

URBAN POVERTY AND THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF PRIVATIZED FOOD ASSISTANCE

ABSTRACT: Urban affairs research has not examined how broad social forces and policy changes affect daily life in urban communities, organizations, and families. Drawing on ethnographic field work in urban food assistance sites as well as analyses of the comparative roles of government and the voluntary sector in responding to social problems, this study provides evidence that: (1) voluntary organizations (in this case food assistance providers) have been drawn into a growing institutionalized “shadow government” (Wolch, 1990); (2) this newly institutionalized voluntary bureaucracy closely parallels the bureaucracy, the rigidity, and the depersonalization of government agencies; (3) willingly or not, this increasingly institutionalized food provision network contributes to the continued view of poverty in America as primarily the result of personal defects and temporary misfortunes requiring only an “emergency,” albeit virtually permanent, response from society; and (4) these changes have consequences for the transfer of responsibility for assistance from the public to the private sector under welfare reform.     

The Rules of the Game and How to Change Them: Urban Planning Between Formal and Informal Practices. A Colombian Case Study

During the last several years a dynamic transformation has been taking place at the northern city fringe of Barranquilla, Colombia: shopping malls, gated communities and gated tower buildings have been built — a process very similar to other Latin American cities. The aim of this article is to reveal the underlying planning approaches and explain the role and influence of the private and public actors involved. This work contributes to the discussion on formal and informal practices of urban development in the global South and shows the blurring borders between the ‘formal’ and the ‘informal’. The main finding of the analysis is the coherence between the interests of the landowning company, the official land-use plan and the actually implemented projects. This coherence was achieved through the massive influence of private interests in public planning and a multitude of informal arrangements between the landowner and the public authorities. This form of urban planning is described as ‘arranged urbanism’ and stands in a tradition of similar forms of spatial development in Latin America. Nevertheless, forms of ‘arranged urbanism’ can also be found outside of the Latin American context.     

论新版《城市用地分类与规划建设用地标准》对城市规划的支撑作用——基于公共政策视角的分析

城市用地分类表面上是针对土地属性和特征来进行用地划分,实则是基于反映人们目标与意图的土地分类方法。城市规划作为一项公共政策,发挥着调控城市空间资源、指导城乡发展与建设、维护社会公平等作用。原《城市用地分类与规划建设用地标准》施行下所存在的规划编制与规划管理脱节、城市规模控制乏力、公共服务设施用地控制要求缺乏所带来的公众利益难以保障等问题,都影响到了城市规划公共政策作用的发挥。新版《城市用地分类与规划建设用地标准》适应当前市场经济条件的发展,针对城市发展转型及政府职能转变,在调控城市空间资源、维护社会公平、协调各方利益、促进城乡统筹发展等方面,对城市规划公共政策作用的发挥起着技术支撑作用。     

Building bridges with the grassroots: housing formalization process in Egyptian cities

In the last few years, Egypt??s emerging legitimization of informal markets has played a critical role in the ongoing economic reforms and poverty alleviation strategies. This paper aims to elucidate the mechanism and complexity of housing informality in Egypt??s secondary cities, to contribute to the understanding of participatory planning and to offer local officials and urban professionals insight into how they could integrate informal housing development in the urban fabric. The opportunities created by the government initiative to prepare a General Strategic Urban Plan (GSUP) for secondary cities in collaboration with UN-HABITAT are highlighted. Specifically, the paper aims to contribute to the GSUP by presenting a case study of one of its phases, that of action plan elaboration. The case study concerns an informal settlement located in a peripheral (rural) area seeking to formalize land titles. Understanding the built environment of informal housing developments would enable the state and housing professionals to encompass, eliminate, and integrate informal housing areas within formal areas in Egyptian cities. It concludes that the role of the government should be changed from that of provider or facilitator or enabler into that of an agent of cost recovery.     

Urban development agreements: Do they meet guiding principles for a better deal?

Urban regeneration involves cooperation between public and private parties. Parties conclude urban development agreements (DAs) that contain the specific conditions under which they are willing to cooperate for the realisation of an urban development project. Based on a relational approach to contracting which holds that all contracts are embedded in relations, this paper presents five guiding principles for the drafting and negotiation of DAs for such projects. These guiding principles are used to analyse four urban development projects, located in Amsterdam (Zuidas), London (King’s Cross) and New York City (Battery Park City and Hudson Yards).     

Mapping urban public spaces based on the Nolli map method

In 1748, Giambattista Nolli published a large map of Rome, which accurately depicted the form and system of public space in the city. This graphic presentation has become a powerful tool for urban space research. However, given the increasingly abundant types of contemporary urban spaces and diverse functions of public buildings, the application of the drawing principle of the Nolli map to contemporary cities remains uncertain. Taking the Laochengnan area in Nanjing as an example, this study investigates the mapping of urban public spaces based on the Nolli map method. On the basis of a field survey, the public and private spaces in the blocks are identified. By comparing the graphic information of the Nolli map and that of the Nolli-type map in terms of public, private, and green spaces, this work also reveals the similarities and differences between traditional and modern urban spaces. Urban spatial mapping methods, including the figure-ground map, street map, and Nolli-type map, are explored and compared using complementary mapping techniques. The practicality and effectiveness of each technique are also discussed. Results show that the Nolli map method is effective in mapping contemporary urban public spaces and provides an effective tool for urban designers and architects to depict and analyze urban public spaces.     

Accessible and Inclusive Public Space: The Regeneration of Waterfront in Informal Areas

Public open spaces play an important role in achieving equity and inclusion in cities. They are vital elements that shape the urban life and public realm in communities. This paper deals with waterfronts as key spaces in the urban, social, and economic structure of the city, with reference to informal areas where accessibility poses a severe challenge. The paper discusses the interactions between water front uses, potential interventions and the local community’s aspirations, while tackling land properties, and participation issues during the decision-making process for regenerating inclusive public spaces.

Within this context, the authors present, debate, and analyze the case of Al Warrak Cornish project in the Northern Sector of Giza Governorate in Egypt. They discuss three main aspects in water frontage urban development including: water front as an accessible public space, regeneration as a process, and participation as a tool. This is emphasized through the application of an international policy, namely the three – legged approach that was adopted by the ASUD program in UN Habitat since 2013 (Achieving Sustainable Urban Development) including: Design, regulations, and finance to support developing contexts, aiming at regenerating the waterfront urban area, with the presence of informal urbanization, through the methodology of collaborative and participatory planning.

The findings of this research present a methodological decision-making approach for the formalization of the local spatial development framework for waterfronts in informal areas with a focus on the participatory approach. This approach aims at achieving sustainability, and maximizing the economic valorization resulting from the regeneration of informal water frontage areas, balanced with the existing and neighboring community socioeconomic needs. It further highlights the process of reaching common objectives among all stakeholders, especially if they are from different social strata.

The paper concludes that this emblematic project possesses significant implications regarding issues of spatial justice, combining conventional road infrastructure with urban regeneration and community energizing as critical aspects of mediating and articulating success in such contexts.     

Business Improvement Districts and the recession: Implications for public realm governance and management in England

BIDs were introduced in the UK in 2003/2004 and their widespread adoption is linked to their ability to raise funds to invest in the locality, through a mandatory supplementary levy on business rates, voluntary contributions, sponsorship and public sector grants. However, the economic downturn has already restricted those sources of funding, and public sector spending cuts are likely to restrict them even further. This paper discusses a case-study research on the impact that recession and spending cuts have had on the way BIDs operate, and identifies the threats and opportunities to them as stakeholder-led instruments for the management of town centres and commercial and industrial areas. The research shows that although the recession and spending cuts have had an impact on most BIDs, the model itself has not been put in question, and BIDs are becoming permanent features of the governance of town and city centres, and increasingly also of industrial areas. Their roles in public realm management have been varied, from a minor function in complementing local environmental services, to being active players in the transformation of public places into arenas for festivals and spectacle, to coordinators of surveillance, policing and occasionally exclusion. The implications for the public realm of the evolution and consolidation of BIDs will therefore be varied. Some BIDs are likely to play an increasing role in the delivery of public realm services and the shaping of public realm quality, and in those cases the existence of adequate mechanisms to harmonise the interests of levy payers with other local stakeholders will be of considerable importance. Others might have a sporadic impact on the public realm, with a more pronounced role of the local authority in mediating that impact. Understanding how BIDs operate, the aspirations they represent, their relationship to other aspirations and to broader policy objectives, and the role in that operation of fluctuations in the economy, will be increasingly important in thinking critically about the limits and potential of emerging forms of urban governance.     

遗产保护:城市可持续发展的平衡之道——以法国雷恩市为例

遗产保护的概念在法国雷恩市的发展实践中得到了两方面的扩展,一方面以宏观的视角将城市区域作为整体的空间遗产,另一方面以历史的视角融合了传统遗产与当代的建设。在此基础上,遗产保护政策与交通、住房、公共设施和公共空间等城市空间政策有效融合,促进了雷恩城市的快速发展。当前,遗产保护更进一步在城市可持续发展的四项战略对策中,即城市发展的公共控制、城市发展的平衡控制、城市中心的崭新形象和城市公民的信息沟通方面,都发挥了深远的影响。总体上,遗产保护成为了平衡各项城市空间政策、实现城市可持续发展战略框架的核心工具。     

Contemporary Production and Urban Change: The Case of Milan

ABSTRACT

How do new sites of production and workplaces relate to the making of urban change in Milan’s peripheral areas? The paper answers this question by looking at two different fields of investigation related to peripheral areas. On one hand, the paper examines the policies promoted by the public administration at the municipal level to enhance urban innovation through new workplaces within the smart city agenda. On the other hand, the urban innovation brought by the establishment of cultural and creative industries promoted by private actors will be examined, ranging from the new geography of creative places to the creation of temporary transformations. Starting from these two fields of analysis, the paper identifies areas of difference and potential combined effects between public action and private initiative. These are placed against the backdrop of a conception of contemporary production that has worked as a tool for social inclusion and place-making in peripheral contexts in Milan.     

Innovation in Urban Policy: The Experience of Italian Urban Time Policies

ABSTRACT Urban time policies are public policies that intervene in the time schedules and time organization that regulate human relationships at the urban level. Urban time policies were launched in Italy at the end of the 1980s. Within a span of 10 to 15 years, 170 municipalities have been involved in time-oriented projects or timetable plans, or in studies of urban social time. There has also been a diffusion into several countries of the European Union, especially in Germany and France. Now the diffusion is starting in Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium. In this article, the development of urban time policies in Italy is reviewed up to the new national law of 2000. The article examines how urban and social time emerged as a new theme of public policy, and the way it has been translated into public actions. In Italy, 15 years of experience and a new national law brought urban planners, sociologists and policy makers to think over the role of these city actions and over the nature of innovation in these policies. In conclusion, the article underlines the innovative aspects of Italian urban time policies (urban and social time became a new way to examine urban transformations and a new stake for urban policies; it offered an integrated approach to planning management; experimentation has been the driver of innovation) and how urban time policies can be considered an enrichment of traditional town planning (they offered a wider problem solving articulation acting also on timetables; they provided a new concept, chronotopes, to study and design urban transformation and, finally, they encouraged social, political and institutional capacity-building in urban action and planning).     

城市增长和最佳规模理论在城市发展规划中的应用分析

城市增长和城市最佳规模理论是城市发展的经济学理论基础,该理论对城市发展规划具有重要的指导意义.文章通过对有关城市增长的理论的阐述,分析了城市最佳规模理论对城市发展规划的影响,并通过中国西安城市发展状况实例的分析,得出了规划部门可以根据城市增长规模理论,统筹规划城市不同功能分区的建设规模和位置、确定城市基础设施和公共设施的建设规模、对公共与民间资本的投向进行合理的规划的结论,并根据城市增长理论与现实的矛盾,提出了在城市发展规划中应用该理论的建议.     

A framework to analyse inclusiveness of urban policy

From 2007 onwards, Indian policy planning follows the broad vision of achieving inclusive growth. All sectors of national development align their policy objectives towards this overall vision. Urban policy is one such crucial policy sector oversees by the Ministry of urban development. This paper analyses the urban policy and investigates its impact in achieving inclusive urban growth in India. The traditional methodology of analysing urban policy by utility or output has its own limitations. It only considers summary variables of policy (utility or benefits) but not the situational variation on ground. Further, it cannot quantify the precise time of the change in opportunities or ability occurred over time. So it cannot inform the moment when a policy achieves its objectives. The research employs human capability instead of utility to overcome the present limitations. The analysis methodology is adapted from Professor Amartya Sen's capability approach. Capability approach emphasises a shift in policy analysis from direct assistance to expansion of opportunities and eliminate circumstantial imperfection in governance. The approach aims towards empowering urban citizen, and advancement towards the direction of more self-reliance society.     

Feasibility tools for urban animal husbandry in cities: case of greater Cairo

Productive urban landscape is a design concept integrating food growing and animal raising into the design of cities through public and private open spaces in an attempt to support local economic development. This research focuses on farm animals’ husbandry in cities as a type of local food production. Debates about governance tools for sustaining such economic sector arise frequently especially in Egypt, as one of the developing countries, striving to maintain urban quality of life, satisfy the community needs, and compensate the food prices’ increment. Accordingly, field questionnaires for residents of two rapidly expanding informal areas in Cairo (Zabaleen area in Agouza city) and (Masaken Osman in 6th of October city), together with questionnaires for experts and officials who are working in Urban Upgrading Units and those with experiences in the field of upgrading informal settlements were performed. This research thus aims at studying the feasibility and integration of such economic activities informally developing in unplanned areas in Egypt, as ‘new ruralism’, within the strategic and action planning of low-income and informal areas in a legalized regulatory system to tackle their challenges and enhance their economic role. Further, this research ends up with deducing specific values for prioritizing the types of governmental support (financial, space facilitations, social, and medical), as proposed by officials and residents representing the main incorporated stakeholders. This article also highlighted the unwillingness and the on-purpose ignorance of officials to sustain animal husbandry in cities, constituting a challenge that needs to be tackled in all developing countries not only in Egypt.