This research explores the effectiveness of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) as a financial tool to stimulate residential and commercial development in downtown Winnipeg. Cost is a commonly cited barrier to developing downtown, resulting in deteriorating and vacant city centers. TIF can remove some of the financial barriers to development, ultimately revitalizing downtown and benefitting the community as a whole. A comprehensive literature review was used to inform unstructured interviews with urban planners, developers, and various city officials to determine how TIF could be effectively implemented to revitalize Winnipeg’s downtown. Examining precedents from Winnipeg and across North America highlight the positive and negative impacts of TIF, as well as its promotion as a tool for urban renewal. TIF is an effective method of increasing property values, and encouraging development in priority areas. Tailoring present TIF methods to local conditions can help avoid increasing property taxes, wrongful use of land expropriation, or insufficient revenue generation.

The issue of downtown revitalization has been much studied over the past several decades. However, much of the existing knowledge base pertains to our largest urban centres. This leaves a significant information gap with regards to mid-size cities. As a result, past renewal attempts in these cities have often been scaled down versions of what has worked in larger cities. In most cases, this has resulted in detrimental rather than reviving effects. The current trend in cities of all sizes is the implementation of Creative City Theory. This thesis seeks to study this trend and its specific relevance to the mid-size city. The scope of research will then build on the current theory by exploring the effects of well-designed public spaces and their ability to not only unleash the creative spirit but to revitalize the post-industrial mid-size city downtown. This information will then be applied to a design study for Hamilton, Ontario where failed renewal attempts have crippled the city’s downtown. The design will concentrate on Jackson Square (formerly known as Civic Square), a superblock within the very centre of downtown Hamilton. Through a redesign of Jackson Square, the thesis proposes to create a place that not only fosters creativity, but is once again meaningful and significant to Hamilton citizens. While the application of research to Hamilton is specific, the goal is to produce a body of work with principles that can be applied to any number of mid-size cities across the post-industrial world.

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abstract: This thesis investigates how homeless men and women who use one of only six human services campuses (hscs) in the nation negotiate the stigmatization they may feel as homeless people living in Phoenix, Arizona. An hsc centralizes services to one area of the city to decrease the run around of scattered-site service delivery. It also creates a legitimized space for the homeless in the city. A place for the homeless can be a rarity in cities like Phoenix that have a history of implementing revanchist policies and neo-liberal land use planning, most notably found in its downtown revitalization efforts. During Phoenix's development as a major metropolitan area, the homeless population emerged and lived a life on the margins until the 2005 creation of the Human Services Campus. This research unearths the experiences of homeless men and women who use the HSC today. I used qualitative methods, including document review, 14 in-depth interviews with homeless men and women, 7 interviews with service providers, informal conversations with additional homeless clients, and 14 months of field observations at the HSC to collect the data presented in this thesis. The results of this research illustrate reasons why the homeless clients interviewed were sensitive to the stigmatization of their social status, and how they managed their stigmatization through relationships with homeless peers and staff on the HSC. The presence of an action plan to exit homelessness was critical to the nature of these relationships for clients, because it influenced how clients perceived their own stigmatization as a homeless person. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Sociology 2011

Statement of Problem Revitalization of downtowns across America continues to be challenged by the shift to the suburbs. The barriers to integrating large-scale retail in a small, medium, and large city downtown were examined. Forces of Data The System View Planning Theory (Taylor, 1998) guided the study of city planners’ and consumers’ perceived barriers to integrating large scale retail into the downtown. In order to ascertain the barriers to integrating large-scale retail into the downtown intercept-surveys with consumers (n=30, responded to the intercept survey in each city) and interviews with city planners were conducted. Conclusion Reached Some significant differences were found between perceived barriers towards integrating large-scale retail into small and large-city downtowns. Although most consumers reported a positive attitude towards large-scale retail, most consumers in Tucson and San Diego indicated that the cost of shopping in the downtown outweighed the benefits. Traffic, parking, pedestrian-friendly street-oriented environment, and local character are among the major barriers identified by the study cities to integrating large-scale retail into the downtown. However, over half of the consumers surveyed agreed that they would shop at large-scale retail on the weekdays if it were available, but less than half of consumers in Tucson and San Diego would shop at large-scale retail on the weekends. Recommendations Three recommendations were suggested to successfully establish and sustain large-scale retail in the downtown. 1. Continue to find creative solutions to parking and traffic barriers. 2. Create a multifunctional, walkable downtown, with amenities to meet most consumers’ needs. 3. Establish retail stores in the downtown that enhance the local character and cater to residents’ needs rather than mostly tourist needs.

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American downtowns were once the place to see and be seen, but the introduction of the shopping mall in the late 1950s challenged this notion and gave the American consumer a different place to spend their time and money. The prevalence of shopping malls has slowly been declining across the country since the beginning of this century, leaving room in the American retail landscape for downtowns to reclaim their status as community and retail centers. Towns across the U.S. are turning to national and local organizations to assist them in revitalizing their downtown districts. Downtown Bloomsburg, Inc. (DBI), a non-profit organization located in the small town of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, has been working since 2006 to revitalize its town’s downtown and main street area. The unique findings presented here were derived from a four month long ethnographic study of downtown Bloomsburg merchants and shoppers and are meant to be used by DBI as a supplemental guide for further revitalization of the town.

This document proposes historic preservation guidelines for the downtown area of the City of St. George, Utah. It grew from a summer internship with the city where I took inventory of the streetscape in the Historic Downtown and prepared recommendations in the form of a PowerPoint Presentation that was given to the city council. This paper summarizes the summer internship and introduces a more appropriate approach based on reflection of the internship. The new approach involves a thorough inventory of the historic character, in-depth research of the historic elements that contribute to the historic character, development of design guidelines and standards, reviews, and codification of the design guidelines and standards. The historic elements that contribute most to the city’s historic character are identified as 1) block and lot layout and building setbacks, 2) architecture, 3) irrigation ditches, 4) tree lined streets, and 5) other streetscape elements and site features. Through comprehensive research of old photography, literature, and existing conditions these historic elements are further defined. The historic elements are currently being specified in design guidelines and standards and reviewed by the city in preparation for possible codification. (173 pages)