abstract: This dissertation examines the way in which social capital, or productive networks, can be used to support downtown renewal. This case study examines the way in which Phoenix Community Alliance (PCA) and Downtown Phoenix Partnership (DPP)--two, critical downtown-focused organizations ostensibly founded for civic improvement--use social capital to advance downtown urban development initiatives. This case study also explores how and the extent to which new social capital is generated by PCA and DPP through the processes of planning, designing, and implementing downtown development projects and the kinds of initiatives this social capital enables, whether and how the focus of downtown Phoenix development has shifted over time, the challenges facing contemporary downtown development and role PCA and DPP might play in addressing these issues, and recommended strategies for advancing future downtown development through social capital that evolves as downtown needs change. This dissertation contributes to the general understanding of how pivotal groups responsible for impacting downtown development and quality of life can become more effective in their roles by examining how they create networks pivotal to advancing urban downtown renewal. Research findings illuminate how community development groups can more effectively use networks to inspire downtown improvement. Findings emphasize the need to engage a broader downtown community, including both emerging and established organizations and those who desire to contribute to a diverse and exciting heart or city core. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Public Administration 2011

This master’s thesis examines how the density of food-based businesses in New England’s post-industrial urban neighborhoods relates to neighborhood demographic characteristics. The relationship between food-based businesses and demographic change has been examined in larger metropolitan areas like New York City and Chicago and has found that younger, wealthier, and more highly educated residents tend to live where there are greater densities of food businesses. However, there has been little research on the topic in New England’s post-industrial cities that have historically struggled to attract highly sought knowledge workers. I find that food business density and the share of residents employed in creative class professions is positively correlated in most cases; however, over time, the share of creative class workers and food businesses per capita has a negative relationship. Additionally, the share of residents living below the poverty line and food business densities have a significant and positive relationship. Neighborhood racial composition is a less significant factor, overall. In sum, the findings from this study suggest that food business density and creative class populations have a more nuanced relationship in regional post-industrial cities compared to larger metropolitan areas.

Historic preservation has been a successful economic development tool that has led to heritage tourism in some Tennessee towns but not in others. The problem studied was to determine if there was a set of tangible attributes a town must possess to be successful in using historic preservation as an economic development tool. Through an extensive literature review, 59 predictor variables were identified and arranged into 6 research questions looking at the tangible attributes related to town demographics, geography, organizational structure, historic preservation organizations, heritage tourism organizations, and town financial structure. Data were collected from a mailed survey of 32 town managers. The response rate was 68.8% (N = 22). Secondary sources, such as U.S. Census data, were used to collect data when those sources appeared consistent and mandatory. The study used logistic regression analysis to compare successful towns, defined as those towns in the upper third of study towns for tourism expenditures per capita, with less than successful towns. The 32 study towns met the criteria of having a 2003 population of fewer than 10,000 and a nationally-recognized historic district that coincided with the towns' central business districts. The results of the logistic regression analysis on the individual predictor variables indicated that 5 were statistically significant--median age, distance to a major city, restaurant beer sales, Grand Division, and merchants' association. Constraining the final predictive model (Garson, 2006) to no more than 1 variable per 10 cases 3 led to the inclusion of median age and merchants' association as the 2 predictor variables that provided the highest predictive value of correctly classified towns (95.8%). In summary, this study is inconclusive in determining whether historic preservation leads to heritage tourism and can be used as an economic development tool by small Tennessee towns. However, it has been established that 5 attributes or characteristics of small towns does contribute to the probability of success and that median age and the existence of a merchants' association proved to be the best predictive model.

The urban landscape reflects the social, economic, and policy changes that have taken place in a community. The inner city has been previosly called a microcosm that indicates the changes that are occurring in society. The inner city can thus be studied to examine how it responds and adapts to economic change. This thesis asks in what ways are the historic and current economic transitions visible in Hamilton’s inner city landscape; and how do planning policies influence the emerging urban built form. The thesis examines select characteristics of the contemporary inner city derived from the literature (i.e. art and entertainment amenitites, recreational uses, residential revitalization, institutional uses, post-Fordist economy, decline in manufacturing activity, promotion of multi-modal transportation, sustainability policy, and statement place making) and their expected physical manifestations. The methods consist of a historical analysis and visual diagnosis that uses photographs and field notes in order to provide a bottom-up interpretation of downtown Hamilton’s changing urban landscape. There is evidence of arts-culture led rejuvenation of downtown Hamilton and the public realm. However, there is the challenge of promoting revitalization in a context of visual urban blight and the possibilities of policy-induced loss of employment lands.

The urban landscape reflects the social, economic, and policy changes that have taken place in a community. The inner city has been previosly called a microcosm that indicates the changes that are occurring in society. The inner city can thus be studied to examine how it responds and adapts to economic change. This thesis asks in what ways are the historic and current economic transitions visible in Hamilton’s inner city landscape; and how do planning policies influence the emerging urban built form. The thesis examines select characteristics of the contemporary inner city derived from the literature (i.e. art and entertainment amenitites, recreational uses, residential revitalization, institutional uses, post-Fordist economy, decline in manufacturing activity, promotion of multi-modal transportation, sustainability policy, and statement place making) and their expected physical manifestations. The methods consist of a historical analysis and visual diagnosis that uses photographs and field notes in order to provide a bottom-up interpretation of downtown Hamilton’s changing urban landscape. There is evidence of arts-culture led rejuvenation of downtown Hamilton and the public realm. However, there is the challenge of promoting revitalization in a context of visual urban blight and the possibilities of policy-induced loss of employment lands.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Performing arts centers have been touted as a strategy for revitalizing downtowns by increasing activities that bring in residents with higher incomes, tourists, arts employees, educated workers, and housing. Despite their popularity, civic leaders have encountered complexity in these projects, from financial challenges, to delayed openings and operating deficits. Previous downtown studies examine public facilities, such as stadiums and cultural institutions, through essays, surveys, case studies, or by quantifying transactions exchanged between the public and the facility. This dissertation focuses solely on performing arts centers, excluding all other forms of public facilities and cultural venues, by examining self-collected data on literature-based characteristics of 218 downtowns with and without performing arts centers, all over a seven-year period of time. It was hypothesized that the presence of a performing arts center would contribute to increases in the values of all downtown revitalization characteristics, and community characteristics, as well as organizational attributes of the performing arts center itself (age, size, and revenue types) would in turn, increase the values of the overall health of the performing arts center. Through the use of multiple linear regressions, this research shows that performing arts centers can play a role in revitalizing downtowns. This research also shows that a single characteristic is not solely responsible for revitalizing downtowns; rather, the increased vitality results from a confluence of the characteristics. Endogeneity tests show that a performing arts center is less likely to enter a deserted downtown bereft of vitality. Instead, performing arts centers serve as harbingers of revitalization, confirming the presence of downtown vitality, before they proceed to activate vitality further. Finally, through the use of binary logistic regressions, community characteristics are identified in order to determine the conditions of downtowns that would be most equipped to open a performing arts center, as compared with downtowns that could not.

Indiana University--Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The purpose of this thesis is to discuss and explain the commitment to arts and culture in Indianapolis from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1980s by focusing on the origins, activities, and legacy of an extraordinary event in the history of Indianapolis’ arts community: the 1986-1987 Pan American Arts Festival. Early efforts by the City Committee, a local growth coalition comprised of several civic leaders, focused on the physical revitalization of downtown Indianapolis’ cultural landscape. The group’s work in this area, which was part of a larger downtown revitalization project, played an important role in the creation of the Pan American Arts Festival. Ultimately, the planning and administration of this festival had a significant impact on the city’s arts community as it shifted the arts and culture commitment from Indianapolis’ physical structures to the actual livelihood of the organizations housed within them.