published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

This case study provides an analysis and evaluation of a contemporary inner-city revitalization initiative, the subject case being the Victory Square planning process and subsequent draft Concept Plan released in June, 1995. The subject case is analyzed in terms of the impact of inner city "revitalization" initiatives on the low-income residents who live within districts targeted for revitalization, the fundamental question being: "Who benefits (or suffers) from revitalization efforts?" Evaluation of the subject case begins with the normative proposition that direct benefits from revitalization should accrue to the existing residents of affected low-income communities. The central research question involves identification of the key elements or characteristics of planning process and policy necessary to achieve the normatively defined outcome. These elements are employed as criteria against which the subject case is analyzed and evaluated. The thesis reviews the evolution of urban renewal/revitalization strategies in the post-war period, and parallel shifts in inner-city demographics as Vancouver continues its transition to a post-industrial economy. Gentrification trends, land use policies, and the senior government retreat from housing, are discussed in terms of their negative consequences for low-income inner-city residents.

This case study provides an analysis and evaluation of a contemporary inner-city revitalization initiative, the subject case being the Victory Square planning process and subsequent draft Concept Plan released in June, 1995. The subject case is analyzed in terms of the impact of inner city "revitalization" initiatives on the low-income residents who live within districts targeted for revitalization, the fundamental question being: "Who benefits (or suffers) from revitalization efforts?" Evaluation of the subject case begins with the normative proposition that direct benefits from revitalization should accrue to the existing residents of affected low-income communities. The central research question involves identification of the key elements or characteristics of planning process and policy necessary to achieve the normatively defined outcome. These elements are employed as criteria against which the subject case is analyzed and evaluated. The thesis reviews the evolution of urban renewal/revitalization strategies in the post-war period, and parallel shifts in inner-city demographics as Vancouver continues its transition to a post-industrial economy. Gentrification trends, land use policies, and the senior government retreat from housing, are discussed in terms of their negative consequences for low-income inner-city residents. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

As an organization of the powerless, H15 Concern Group has a good internal operating mechanism, and the core volunteers and residents make sacrifices and persist in advanced claims to good city. The pluri-class volunteers and multilevel networks from grassroots organization to international civil society concerned and devoted into this social movement, which made H15's struggling action showed positive and productive power. And this is the important reason that the power of powerless could be showed by the mass media and recognized by many people. H15 transformed from social movement organization to civil educational organization according to the changed situation. Although the efforts of H15 suffered a lot of failures, it became a very influential and powerful actor in the area of urban renewal and planning. The government also made efforts and improvements in the administration and ideas as a reaction of civil society's fights and appeals. / Relational and processual are the natures of Power. This research combines two theoretic frameworks of 'processualism' and 'generative' to suggest that power is generative, i.e. to acquire power is a process in which power is keeping generative. With an ethnography of a social movement in urban renewal area in Hong Kong, the dissertation systematically illustrates the generation of the power of the powerless, what is the opportunities and constrains of the powerless, the social drama of the generating process, the mechanism of its organization and social networks, the effective and variable repertoire of collective action, different ways in which it generates, and the political ecology it. / The power generating from bottom to top, which is the power of the powerless, coexist with the governmental power without force, show a "contending cooperation" pattern of political culture in the complicated urban political ecosystem. This public managing pattern not only gives an opportunity for the powerless to voice and act, but also helps the political governance of the municipal authorities nowadays. / 夏循祥. / Adviser: Chan Kin-Man. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-04, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 307-315). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Xia Xunxiang.

The study examines the influences of the Qianmen urban renewal project on its original residents, which is one of a few demonstration projects under the new policy orientation of urban renewal practices in Beijing, China, entering the new century. It employs "residential satisfaction" as an evaluative indicator to understand the residents' experiences before and after urban renewal. Seventy-two residents were interviewed. Among them, 25 remained in Qianmen; 20 relocated to Hongshan, a neighborhood in the central city area; 21 moved to Longyue, a neighborhood in one of the suburban areas; and 6 residents relocated to other locations. The study found that the participants' level of residential satisfaction was skewed toward dissatisfaction before the urban renewal, whereas participants showed a much higher satisfaction level after the urban renewal, which means that overall the Qianmen urban renewal project had positive impacts on the residents' residential environment. However, among the three neighborhoods, there are no statistically significant differences. The policy arrangements of the Qianmen urban renewal project contribute to the results. Under the new policy orientation, the policy arrangements of the Qianmen urban renewal project featured a government-led approach with a large amount of public investment, which formed a good basis to provide better compensation to the residents, in particular to provide extra aid to low income residents. Therefore, the residents got their housing conditions improved to a large extent contributing to their higher level of residential satisfaction after the project was implemented. Because of the extra aid, the low income residents were even more satisfied than the middle-high income residents. On the other hand, the policy arrangements took into account the opinions of the original residents, in other words, most residents made their own decision about where to live after the urban renewal. In this circumstance, they actually saw the urban renewal as an opportunity to improve their residential environment, in spite of the fact that the urban renewal project was initiated by the municipal government. Therefore residents stayed or relocated voluntarily, which significantly predicts the resulting higher level of residential satisfaction. The findings in the Qianmen case remind us that we do need a more open, balanced perspective for analysis of urban renewal processes and outcomes, rather than a predominantly negative displacement view embedded in a gentrification discourse; and that policy arrangements toward more redistribution and social equity are more likely to achieve positive outcomes for disadvantaged people. However, the improvements in unit size and housing quality are the main achievements of the urban renewal. Many residents still face the shortage of community facilities in the short run, and in the long run they might continue to suffer from poorer accessibility to public facilities and other resources. Furthermore, the urban renewal inevitably caused social disturbances for many residents, in particular for disadvantaged people (low income residents, and the elderly, etc), although the negative impacts of relocation on social networks were mitigated by the benefits of escaping the social conflicts and annoyance in the original neighborhood, and were compensated by the improved housing conditions. Generally, the key argument of this study is that policy makers need to pay more attention to the disadvantaged class; in other words, the government needs to assume its role more actively in redistribution and social equity.

In South Africa, gentrification has a huge impact on the makeup of city spaces where it has been used as a redevelopment tool in order to restore and enhance these spaces. However, socio-economic turmoil is created when development benefits mainly the elite minority whilst marginalising the poor majority, which occurs in many instances of gentrification. In the worst cases, gentrification creates a trickle-up affect whereby the benefits of such a process are felt predominantly by the urban elite. This is evident in this study, where gentrification at the Point Precinct in Durban led to the marginalisation of residents of the Ark, a Christian-run homeless shelter that was forced to shut down as its residents no longer fitted in with the image-conscious ideals of the redeveloping area. These residents were displaced and ultimately relocated to a severely under-developed area known as Welbedacht approximately 30km away. This study aimed to explore the negative socio-economic impacts of displacement as a result of this gentrification and found that these impacts are vast, severe and long-lasting, including the social implications of isolation and exclusion coupled with the economic loss of living along the periphery. The implications of displacement are severe primarily due to the following reasons: the community’s displacement from the core to the urban periphery, the lack of social justice in the area, and the high levels of social exclusion. Furthermore, the implications of the gentrification process itself has resulted in a cycle of impoverishment in which Welbedacht has become entrenched. Due to the neo-liberal policies favoured by developers and policy makers, the urban poor are pushed out of the core and into the periphery with little support from local government, thereby resulting in the further marginalisation of a vulnerable community. Developers and policy makers should therefore strive for development that is equitable for all parties. Furthermore, facilities such as homeless shelters which provide countless services to the urban poor should not be shut down, but rather local government should strive to either redevelop such facilities or relocate them to an area that offers the same characteristics for the continued successful socio-economic development of the urban poor. / Geography / M. Sc. (Geography)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The narrative of the Fall Creek Parkway YMCA is central to the record of the historically black community northwest of downtown Indianapolis, which was established in the early 1900s, as well as reflective of the urban revitalization projects and demographic fluxes that changed this community beginning in the 1960s. This is because the conflict between administrators of the Fall Creek YMCA branch and Greater Indianapolis YMCA or Metropolitan YMCA over the viability of the branch at 10th Street and Indiana Avenue was a microcosm of the conflict between community and city leaders over the necessity of large-scale forces. This thesis specifically examines the large-scale forces of urban revitalization, defined in the study as the city’s implementation of construction projects in Indianapolis’ downtown area, and school desegregation, which was the focus of a federal court case that affected Indianapolis Public Schools. Delineating the contested visions held by Fall Creek and Metropolitan YMCA administrators about how the Fall Creek YMCA should have functioned within an environment changed by urban revitalization and school desegregation is crucial to understanding the controversies that surrounded major construction projects and desegregation measures that took place in the downtown area of Indianapolis during the late twentieth century. The study therefore understands the conflict between the Metropolitan and Fall Creek YMCAs over targeted membership groups and autonomy as a reflection of changes in the branch’s surrounding area. Moreover, the study utilizes such conflict as a lens to the larger conflict that took place in Indianapolis between the agents of citywide urban revitalization plans and community leaders who opposed the implementation of these plans, as well as school desegregation measures, at the expense of the historically black community located in the near-downtown area of the city. This thesis is informed and humanized, respectively, by archival research and oral history interviews with individuals who were involved in either the administration or advocacy of the Fall Creek YMCA between 1971 and 2003.