User:Kayla Yang/Urban renewal

Historical Origins[edit]
Modern attempts at renewal began in the late 19th century in developed nations, and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s under the rubric of reconstruction. The process has had a major impact on many urban landscapes and has played an important role in the history and demographics of cities around the world.

Urban renewal is a process where privately owned properties within a designated renewal area are purchased or taken by eminent domain by a municipal redevelopment authority, razed and then reconveyed to selected developers who devote them to other uses.

The concept of urban renewal as a method for social reform emerged in England as a reaction to the increasingly cramped and unsanitary conditions of the urban poor in the rapidly industrializing cities of the 19th century. The agenda that emerged was a progressive doctrine that assumed better housing conditions would reform its residents morally and economically. Another style of reform – imposed by the state for reasons of aesthetics and efficiency – could be said to have begun in 1853, with the recruitment of Baron Haussmann by Napoleon III for the redevelopment of Paris.

This process is also carried out in rural areas, referred to as village renewal, though it may not be exactly the same in practice.

In some cases, urban renewal may result in urban sprawl when city infrastructure begins to include freeways and expressways.

Urban renewal is a widely discussed and controversial program. It has been seen by proponents as an economic engine and a reform mechanism, and by critics as a mechanism for control. The controversy often involves the use of eminent domain, demolition of priceless historic structures and direct displacement brought by slum clearance. In terms of utilizing the eminent domain as a legal method to take private property for city-initiated development, Kelo case is the real-life example to demonstrate the resistance against eminent use. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the taking by a 5 to 4 vote, but nothing was built on the taken property. Though it may bring more wealth to communities, it may also edge out its preexisting residents.

Many cities link the revitalization of the central business district and gentrification of residential neighborhoods to earlier urban renewal programs. The goal of urban renewal evolved into a policy based less on destruction and more on renovation and investment, and today is an integral part of many local governments, often combined with small and big business incentives.

Lead-China
In Chinese urban planning principles and ideologies, the term “slum” does not exist. I’m not implying that China does not have poor people, uncomplemented infrastrures, and incomprehensive city services. The truth is that Chinese urban planning is all about the administrative geographical distribution. There are no exactly corresponding concepts such as “urban community” and “slum” since there are no urban units which are proposed and organized by the public. The different concept leads to the phenomenon of “poverty village or poverty county” but no slums: it is only possible to have a whole urban unit as a poor area rather than having certain spots in an urban unit as a poor area.

reaction against urban renewal
Then the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark law to discard the discrimination based on race, gender, religion, sex, national origin, and later sexual orientation and gender identity through legal means. At this time, racial deed restrictions on housing were legally removed and banned, which was an important step for Desegregation in the United States process. However, redlining still existed to present the unequal real estate transaction for many ethnic minorities. Even though the segregation was explicitly illegal, however, the discrimination under urban planning context has been deep-rooted.

From 1965 to 1967, riots swept many cities across the States—most drastically in Detroit during the 12th Street Riot. By the 1970s many major cities developed opposition to the sweeping urban-renewal plans for their cities. In Boston, community activists halted construction of the proposed Southwest Expressway but only after a three-mile long stretch of land had been cleared. In San Francisco, Joseph Alioto was the first mayor to publicly repudiate the policy of urban renewal, and with the backing of community groups, forced the state to end construction of highways through the heart of the city. Atlanta lost over 60,000 people between 1960 and 1970 because of urban renewal and expressway construction, but a downtown building boom turned the city into the showcase of the New South in the 1970s and 1980s. In the early 1970s in Toronto, Jacobs was heavily involved in a group which halted the construction of the Spadina Expressway and altered transport policy in that city.

pros and cons
Moreover, as an important method of urban renewal project, slum clearance seemed very effective in cleaning the city environment but failed in solving the real social problems that causes slums. And low-income residents were forced to move out of their communities, which is considered as direct displacement. Moreover, urban renewal is highly like to to open the door for gentrification, which leads to the outcome that the high middle-class residents take place of the urban renewal area by making the rising housing price no longer affordable by low-income residents. It's an outcome of indirect displacement. The threatened groups also sometimes suffer from social inequalities due to discrimination on racial identity. In 2000, the Portland, Oregon city leaders' promised to make amends for Portland African neighborhoods, whose community had decimated through the local urban renewal program. The promise said money spent in North and Northeast Portland would benefit the poor, the elderly and people of color, but after 16 years the city leaders still failed in fulfilling the promise. In these years, white developers leveraged city cash into multimillion-dollar apartment projects, the increasing prices force the African American and other low-income residents out of the market.