Urban Renewal: The Concept Of Rehabilitating Cities And Urban Areas

History of Urban Renewal

This task as focused on urban renewal which is a concept of urban planning and development.

Urban renewal may be defined as the process of rehabilitating cities and urban areas through upgrading streets, buildings and neighbours that are in poor condition. This is an important aspect in management of central business districts with an aim of ensuring that there is development in terms of infrastructure and technological advancement so that it helps grows an economy of a country (Hyra,2012).

In reference to history, urban renewal started way back in 1949 to 1974 where nations joint efforts in ensuring that there was massive upgrading of cities through removal of poor structures that were hazardous to public health. The government in power also determined the outcome of the process since they helped in allocating finance and materials to facilitate such a process and it is through that they were able to provide loans and grants to various municipalities. It is important to note the countries that have enacted laws that promotes urban renewal which includes Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and United States. The mentioned countries have had successful upgrading of streets, buildings and neighbourhoods (Lees,2014).

Urban renewal has been defined as the process whereby buildings, streets and neighbourhoods in poor condition are renovated and from the historical happenings it is evident that power is important is important in urban planning and development. The role of power has merits and demerits therefore it is necessary to give in detail the cases where urban renewal has been considered and the effect of power.

The different scenarios that urban renewal was effective though had some negative impacts includes slum clearance that happened between 1930 and 1950 that saw many people displaced by government to allow upgrading of the urban land and this was motivated by the desire to have the poor moved out of the city and acts which include federal housing act of 1949 that an agreement was made to settle all families in the US in affordable and decent housing.

The major cause of slums includes the absence of law and Disparity in distributing wealth and inequality. Also, poor people generally believe the more the children the better life, but in fact it affects them negatively ending up not able to feed their children. The effects of slums are not only affecting the slums’ dwellers but also the surrounding neighborhoods and the government (Karaman,2013).

Neighbourhood rehabilitation is also part of urban renewal that took place in North America and this was motivated by the fact that the government preferred renovating existing housing instead of demolishing them. This happened between 1960 and 1970 that did not only upgrade buildings but also focused on social problems of the population (Zipp,2013).

The last case study is about urban renewal is on Revitalizations of city centers that was put in place after realizing that upgrading buildings and neighborhoods was not as expected since it had some setbacks. This renewal meant to empower small business and promote partnership between investors and government.

Successful Examples of Urban Renewal

The study has shown that power is a determinant in urban planning and development because the government has to allocate resources and enact laws that helps in enforcing rehabilitation of cities with an aim of improving the standards of people and business. It is also important to note that this urban renovation has negative setbacks that results due to displacement of people, conflicts and may lead to negative social impacts in rural areas which can be rise in crime rates and pollution of environment.   

The case studies of slum clearance that happened between 1930 and 1950 that saw many people displaced by government to allow upgrading of the urban land which was motivated by the desire to have the poor moved out of the city, neighbourhood rehabilitation and revitalizations of city centers has some negative impacts that mainly affect the citizens of the concerned country. The desire to have the poor move out of the city leads to more slums because its cause includes the absence of law and Disparity in distributing wealth and inequality. Also, poor people generally believe the more the children the better life, but in fact it affects them negatively ending up not able to feed their children. The effects of slums are not only affecting the slums’ dwellers but also the surrounding neighborhoods and the government.

There was severe emotional and psychological trauma experienced by Americans and Africans during the transition of renovation of urban centers that was a result of their social networks and roots destroyed also according to the research, communities that benefited especially from the minority community were few since it affected lives of many by disrupting neighborhoods and caused an alarming hate between the rich, poor and led to racism.

The poverty level increased in rural areas because slum clearance led to people moving from one city to another and most of them relocated to replacement public housing in other sections of the city. Much of the replacement public housing was built in areas that were already predominantly African-American. Thus, urban renewal facilitated the created of the ‘second ghettos and institutionalized segregation

It also led to development and congestion of slums in other cities as a result causing poverty because the major cause of slums includes the absence of law and Disparity in distributing wealth and inequality. Also, poor people generally believe the more the children the better life, but in fact it affects them negatively ending up not able to feed their children. The effects of slums are not only affecting the slums’ dwellers but also the surrounding neighborhoods and the government.

The bottom-up economy model, according to which benefits from rapid economic development filter down to all levels of society did not boost economy but led to division and conflicts because the rural areas felt neglected because the government concentrated so much in improving the urban centers. This is evident even in the current governments because there is no equality in distribution of resources whereby the rich are taken care of in terms of infrastructure and even allocation of jobs while the poor will travel for a long distance for them to access services because of poor infrastructure that has been put in place at the rural areas which finally leads to division and conflicts between the poor and the rich.

The case of North America where neighbourhood rehabilitation took place was motivated by the fact that the government preferred renovating existing housing instead of demolishing them could have caused mistrust between the government and citizens because those living in poor areas saw that the government only cared about buildings instead of providing basic needs for good living conditions, such as housing, water supply, sanitation, or solid waste collection

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the government in power determine the outcome of the urban renewal since it helps in allocating finance and materials to facilitate such a process and it is through it that they are able to provide loans and grants to various municipalities. It is important to note the countries that have enacted laws that promotes urban renewal should consider both the rural and urban areas since it not only yields positive outcome to the economy but also has a negative impact on the poor people.

The results of renewal are varied. In some places, private developers-built convention centers, shopping malls, office towers, and luxury apartment buildings on the remains of communities condemned as blighted. In other cities, local housing authorities erected new low-income public housing complexes, where displaced families were given priority over other potential tenants. All of this served to intensify the racial and economic divisions that still exist in most, if not all, American cities.

It also led to development and congestion of slums in other cities as a result causing poverty because the major cause of slums includes the absence of law and Disparity in distributing wealth and inequality. Also, poor people generally believe the more the children the better life, but in fact it affects them negatively ending up not able to feed their children. The effects of slums are not only affecting the slums’ dwellers but also the surrounding neighborhoods and the government.

References

Zheng, H.W., Shen, G.Q. and Wang, H., 2014. A review of recent studies on sustainable urban renewal. Habitat International, 41, pp.272-279.

Hyra, D.S., 2012. Conceptualizing the new urban renewal: Comparing the past to the present. Urban Affairs Review, 48(4), pp.498-527.

Karaman, O., 2013. Urban Renewal in I stanbul: Reconfigured Spaces, Robotic Lives. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 37(2), pp.715-733.

Lees, L., 2014. The urban injustices of new Labour's “New Urban Renewal”: The case of the Aylesbury Estate in London. Antipode, 46(4), pp.921-947.

Zipp, S., 2013. The roots and routes of urban renewal. Journal of Urban History, 39(3), pp.366-391.

Y?ld?z, S., K?vrak, S., Gültekin, A.B. and Arslan, G., 2020. Built environment design-social sustainability relation in urban renewal. Sustainable Cities and Society, 60, p.102173.

Zhuang, T., Qian, Q.K., Visscher, H.J., Elsinga, M.G. and Wu, W., 2019. The role of stakeholders and their participation network in decision-making of urban renewal in China: The case of Chongqing. Cities, 92, pp.47-58.