URBAN NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL ISSUES

The overall goal of this paper is to place the gentrification and reinvestment process in the context of broader metropolitan growth and change. In the first section, the gentrification and reinvestment processes are examined within the broader contexts of several general models of urban morphology. In general, these processes are viewed as normal responses of a residential area to changing economic and ecological forces in the city. In the second section, weaknesses in the literature on revitalization are identified and a research design to overcome these weaknesses is suggested. This research, if pursued, would overcome the myopia of previous research by placing revitalization in the context of overall change in the internal structure of the city.     

MODELING THE CONTEXT AND CONTINGENCY OF GENTRIFICATION

ABSTRACT: Recent criticisms of the coherence of theories of gentrification, the potential for its continued expansion in the 1990s, and methods for assessing its extent and significance have cast doubt on the utility of further research on the subject. This paper presents an empirical analysis of how gentrification altered the socioeconomic profile of the inner areas of four US cities between 1960 and 1990. Field surveys are conducted to delineate areas of visible housing reinvestment in Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Washington, DC. Stepwise discriminant analysis of tract-level census data indicates that the degree to which gentrification reverses the urban status gradient is mediated by the context in which the process occurs. While restricted in magnitude, gentrification inscribes remarkably similar changes in socioeconomic composition in different cities and signifies a new and distinct dimension of urban socio-spatial structure.     

中西方绅士化研究进展及其对我国城市规划的启示

绅士化是1960年代产生的一种城市社会地理现象,经过几十年的发展,绅士化研究为城市发展提供了很多借鉴.本文首先时西方绅士化的概念及其发展进行了描述,指出西方绅士化的概念已经在最初的基础上有了改进,并且对西方目前存在的各种绅士化现象进行了分类;其次回顾了我国时绅士化研究的进展和所取得的成果;最后,分析了绅士化运动对我国城市建设带来的正负两方面的影响,并据此对我国城市规划建设和发展提出了建议.     

Urban renewal without displacement? Belgium’s ‘housing contract experiment’ and the risks of gentrification

Gentrification has become part and parcel of urban policies throughout the world. Critics have argued against those policies but they have not yet developed concrete and comprehensive alternatives. This paper seeks to remedy this omission by investigating the Belgian ‘housing contract’ experiment (2005–2007). Quite exceptionally, Belgium’s ‘housing contract’ experiment was based on the premise that housing policies should improve the quality of life in deprived urban neighborhoods without displacing the poor. We investigate both the philosophy of the housing contract experiment as well as its effects. On the basis of this evaluation, we sketch the contours of a housing policy that incorporates rent gap theory and counters the negative effects arising from disinvestment and gentrification.     

On gaps in gentrification theory

Relations between rent gap and value gap explanations of gentrification have not been subjected to close analysis, though they have occasionally been presented as incongruent. This article argues for an integration of the two theories — that value gaps and rent gaps do not contradict or exclude each other but are on the contrary best perceived within a common theoretical framework. The case of gentrification in Sweden is examined from this perspective. In Swedish cities, value gaps were probably negligible before the 1970s, but have become an increasingly potent force of change since then, primarily in central locations. This however precludes neither instances of rent gap‐induced gentrification nor the more general presence of rent gaps as one important force behind reinvestment in the built environment.     

Alternative strategies for urban redevelopment: A case study in a squatter housing neighborhood of Ankara

Since the 1980s, the redevelopment of squatter housing settlements has been a primary policy focus of the local and central authorities in Turkey. Their strategies have adopted two different models: one approach was not effective at generating redevelopment activity and produced low quality living environments, and the other approach resulted in dislocation and gentrification. The literature stresses three issues. First, redevelopment sites are areas where market forces failed; thus, they are perceived as high risk, low-demand, and low-return investments with high transaction costs. Second, institutions that lower transaction costs boost market forces and increase economic performance in property development. Third, local authorities remain active in urban redevelopment; despite having no direct tools for local economic development, they do have tools for urban development. This study reformulates the basic transaction cost thesis and hypothesizes that local authorities can boost urban redevelopment by making changes to institutions or ‘the rules of the game’ by increasing information flow, positive externalities and perceived returns and by decreasing transaction costs, negative externalities and risks, all of which motivate land owners and house-builders. To test this hypothesis, I have conducted household surveys and semi-structured interviews with house-builders in a squatter housing neighborhood undergoing a gradual transformation. The goal of this study was to search for the impacts of the local authority’s strategies on homeowner inertia, private sector disinvestment and the implications of urban redevelopment. My findings revealed that the local authorities can produce desirable results for less attractive neighborhoods with the help of marketing, institutional strategies and effective land use planning without leading to dislocation and gentrification. Overall, this study suggests that ‘institutional’ strategies are crucial for urban policies and future urban redevelopment activities.     

Gentrification in black and white: the racial impact of public housing demolition in American cities

The gentrification that has transformed high-poverty neighbourhoods in US cities since the mid 1990s has been characterised by high levels of state reinvestment. Prominent among public-sector interventions has been the demolition of public housing and in some cases multimillion dollar redevelopment efforts. In this paper, the racial dimension of state-supported gentrification in large US cities is examined by looking at the direct and indirect displacement induced by public housing transformation. The data show a clear tendency towards the demolition of public housing projects with disproportionately high African American occupancy. The pattern of indirect displacement is more varied; public housing transformation has produced a number of paths of neighbourhood change. The most common, however, involve significant reductions in poverty, sometimes associated with Black to White racial turnover and sometimes not. The findings underscore the central importance of race in understanding the dynamics of gentrification in US cities.     

An Uneasy Match: Neoliberalism, Gentrification and Heritage Conservation in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South Africa

It is increasingly argued that gentrification is incorporated into public policy and the by-product of a range of contemporary neoliberal urban development policies intent on attracting investment capital. However, gentrification can also be the unintended outcome of well-meaning urban policy frameworks, such as urban densification, inner-city regeneration and urban heritage conservation but with arguably negative consequences. Focusing on Cape Town, the argument of this paper is that one of the outcomes of a neoliberalist approach to urban regeneration in the city centre is the impact it has on conserving the living and built environment heritage of the historic Bo-Kaap district. The last remaining inner-city neighbourhood that has not yet gentrified appears to be succumbing to this process. The outcome is a neighbourhood which is in economic and social flux and challenging the coherence of this once “indigenous” community.     

Gentrification as Corporate Growth Strategy: The Strange Case of Charlotte,North Carolina and the Bank of America

Abstract: In keeping with calls for gentrification research to show greater sensitivity to contextuality, this article uses Charlotte, North Carolina as a case study to illustrate a geography of gentrification in which motivations to gentrify and stage trajectories do not quite fit traditional expectations. In this mid‐sized Southern city, gentrification was first introduced in the early 1970s when corporate leaders recognized the importance of revitalizing central city space in a manner that would enhance their corporate identity and advance their strategic goals. Early stage gentrification in Charlotte was characterized by the production of gentrifiable space in one of the city's most deteriorated districts, the absence of marginal gentrifiers and traditional urban pioneers, unconventional profit motives, and significant deviations from traditional stage theory. Beyond providing an analysis of gentrification at a level of the urban hierarchy (and in a region) that has long been overlooked, the article contributes a critical and contextual perspective to our understanding of gentrification's causality and process.     

还原建筑立面广告化的真实性 韩国首尔江南区清河大楼立面改造

首尔的城市肌理是亚洲城市村落的典型代表,"自下而上"的自我更新给首尔带来了无限的活力和创造力。文章介绍了MVRDV对江南区狎鸥亭路清河大楼的立面改造,通过这个项目,MVRDV延续了对亚洲城市村落的非正式性、个体性、密集性的讨论。     

波士顿大都会区的情景规划：探索城市未来发展的环境和社会影响

波士顿大都市区城市长期生态研究区（BMA-ULTRA-EX）项目是一个跨学科的项目,正在研究对城市生态系统有影响的社会经济和生物物理领域。波士顿地区正在经历着的城乡结合部的低密度城市扩张（郊区化）对自然资源和环境产生了一定的影响。与此同时,像波士顿这样的中心城市,伴随着商业中心和交通枢纽附近的有限的加密开发（致密）,一些低收入社区正在面临着经济的衰落。这些社会经济力量竞争过程中的郊区化、致密化和撤资也对城市生态环境系统产生影响。通过景观规划措施来解决这些问题,需要一个积极主动的做法,将目前建成的土地集中发展,而在边缘郊区保护自然资源,同时在当前高密度的城市核心区增加绿化并提高生态系统服务功能。通过这种景观规划方法,研究小组利用一个利益相关者驱动的过程,制定出一套4个情景规划方案来探索区域的未来。描述了这个利益相关者参与的规划过程,并进行初步分析,最后,为其他从事情景规划的景观规划师们总结了项目的经验。     

Gentrification in London and New York: An Atlantic gap?

This paper is concerned with differences and similarities between gentrification in England and the United States. The central argument is that processes of gentrification are context specific. Three aspects of local contexts that are crucial to gentrification are explored: (1) the institutionalisation of property transfer; (2) the capitalisation of property, and (3) urban conservation practices. These are illustrated with reference to two examples of gentrification: in Barnsbury, part of the inner London borough of Islington and in Park Slope, part of the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The analysis demonstrates that differences between the English and the US land and housing markets and urban conservation practices have important effects on the gentrification process, and that concepts which are relevant in one national setting are not necessarily appropriate in another national setting.     

DIVERSE IMAGERIES OF GENTRIFICATION: EVIDENCE FROM NEWSPAPER COVERAGE IN SEVEN U.S. CITIES, 1986–2006

ABSTRACT: This study indicates that newspaper coverage of gentrification is far more diverse than the gentrification literature predicts. Our analysis of 4,445 articles published between 1986 and 2006 in nine papers in seven U.S. cities with a population of one million or greater suggests that newspaper frames of gentrification range from those that are wholly supportive of gentrification to those that are strictly critical. Papers also regularly publish accounts of gentrification that reference both its perceived “costs” and “benefits.” We find that coverage changes over time and that newspaper frames vary in relation to depictions of place characteristics, gentrifiers, and long‐timers. As a result, this paper addresses questions in the gentrification literature about the content and tone of representations of gentrification, speaks to urban studies scholarship on culture's role in urban change processes, and reveals the mutability of the meaning and use of the term “gentrification.” Finally, it serves as a call for further studies of representations of gentrification, as well as future analyses of their influence.     

Stakeholder Representations of Gentrification in Amsterdam and Berlin: A Marginal Process?

In recent years, several studies have highlighted how gentrification strategies are imposed under the discursive umbrella of ‘social mixing’. However, most evidence is based on Anglo-Saxon experiences. This paper sets out to expand the geography of gentrification by looking at the representation of processes and policies of gentrification as put forward by key stakeholders in Nord-Neukölln (Berlin) and Indische Buurt (Amsterdam). It shows that in both contexts, stakeholders and policy documents engage with the concept of gentrification, rather than avoid it. Due to public-policy influence and local criticisms, this engagement differs between both cases. In Nord-Neukölln, the term is heavily contested and policy-makers attempt to refute accusations of gentrification, while in the Indische Buurt, the process is explicitly pursued as a positive policy instrument by policy-makers. Different representations within each case are shown to be influenced by the characteristics of in-moving and out-moving residents; the employed timeframe and the perceived influence of institutions on urban regeneration.     

传统聚落人居智慧研究——以福建廉村为例

传统聚落中蕴藏了古人将哲学观念、生活方式、生产方式与自然条件巧妙结合在一起的人居智慧,是最具中国特色的本土规划思想。该文以福建廉村为研究对象,从城乡规划学的视角解读其在村落选址、聚落平面布局、公共空间体系、建筑营建方面的借自然、顺气候、重人文精神的营建方法与理念,为廉村的保护与发展提供理论基础。     

Philadelphia

During the post-war period, Philadelphia has been through three periods of redevelopment activity. In the first, local public awareness of decline coupled with political reform led to numerous plans for major redevelopment projects. By the early 1950s, those projects were well underway, but population and business were declining. Beginning in the late 1970s public reinvestment waned to be replaced by privately-driven office development and gentrification. As the demographic economic context has stabilized, federal and state assistance has diminished. One result has been a shift towards project-centred economic development and away from comprehensive planning.     

平行东村

方案从区域概念规划和公共建筑设计入手探讨可能的建设模式,并以成都东村新城发展为背景,力求避免在大规模建设过程中出现的生态破坏与邻里交流缺失现象,将关注点放在街道的十字路口上。通过对生物习性的研究、对社区服务范围的探讨以及对新城公共功能的重组建立起社区环、生态环、城市环三环相套的新城原型模式,在新城的发展过程中不断运用原型和衍生变体,使新城的建设过程同时成为完善社区,维护生态连续性的全过程。     

中国中产阶层化过程、特征与评价——以南京为例

在城市更新改造过程中,中产阶层化现象开始在我国城市中出现。中国中产阶层化是在全球化背景下,由政府推动,投资者、金融机构和中产阶层等共同参与的社会空间再造过程。为了解我国现阶段中产阶层化的发育程度与演化机制,采取实地调研与问卷访谈等研究手段,对南京中产阶层化过程进行探讨。认为南京中产阶层化过程经历了孕育、发生和快速发展三个时期;宏观上表现为中产阶层向城市中心集聚、封闭社区整体植入等空间特征;微观上中产阶层化社区文化与阶层认同正在不断发育与成熟。在中产阶层化过程中,需要警惕如空间私有化、阶层排斥加剧与公平性缺失等社会负面效应。随着大规模城市拆迁接近尾声和《物权法》等法规政策的出台,中国以城市更新为契机的第一波中产阶层化过程即将进入平稳缓行阶段。     

Urban triage: saving the savable neighbourhoods in Milwaukee

During the 1970s, an era of increasing fiscal austerity and deindustrialization, cities across the United States sought to arrest the spread of urban disinvestment. In 1974, faced with similar concerns, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, implemented a two-part planning programme. First, planners conducted the Relative Residential Status (RRS) evaluation to assess, classify, and map neighbourhood health. The RRS map delineated three types of neighbourhoods: healthy, threatened but savable, and unsavable. Second, Preservation Planning prescribed policies and resources based on the RRS neighbourhood types, concentrating resources in the neighbourhoods classified as threatened but savable. The paper examines the implementation of RRS and Preservation Planning. I argue that RRS/Preservation Planning functioned as urban triage by seeking to bolster the housing market in moderately healthy, white neighbourhoods as it prescribed market-determined, inevitable death for less healthy, African-American neighbourhoods. The main point supporting this argument is that planners borrowed and recalibrated RRS/Preservation Planning to officially and systematically redline neighbourhoods that would have been judged savable in other US cities. In doing so, this form of urban triage exacerbated urban decline and racial injustice instead of arresting the spread of urban disinvestment.