Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Essay 2
Essay 2
run-down urban areas, there is only limited evidence on the precise impact of these kinds of
regeneration activities. A number of conceptual and methodological problems that impinge on
all evaluations of regeneration policies have constrained the required evidence base. This paper
evaluates the impact of publicly funded physical improvements of run-down industrial sites in
the Netherlands and seeks to address several of these challenges; namely, selecting
appropriate comparison areas, attributing change to specific interventions, access to small-
scale, longitudinal data and selecting outcomes congruent with policy goals and rationales.
Pooled data from various sources provide us with information on regeneration initiatives and
other site characteristics for more than half of all sites in the country. Propensity score matching
enables us to systematically compare economic outcomes related to regeneration policy goals
between sites that have been subjected to regeneration and those that have not. The results of
this study suggest that physical regeneration of industrial sites has a negligible effect on
economic outcomes that are related to the most commonly articulated policy goals: the increase
of employment, of firm numbers, of property values and of the intensity of land use on these
sites. These findings add to a small but growing body of work that investigates the economic
impact of regeneration programmes that fund physical investments on commercial and industrial
areas.
The downtown areas and older neigbourhoods of our cities provide powerful symbols of our
cultural heritage. Both buildings and landscapes tell stories about those who came before, and
architecture seems unable to achieve. Without knowing anything about the people and history of
a place, we can observe signs within our historic urban centres that tell us where people gathered
for worship, commerce and recreation. Historic built forms also point to the time periods during
Despite the cultural importance of our city centres, they have suffered significant decline. This
pattern has been well documented and correlated with the rise of suburban living and increased
availability and use of private motor vehicles. There is no need to repeat this analysis, except to
say that in most cases, we are now undoing fifty years of neglect and less than successful large-
scale interventions, such as downtown malls. And happily, we have moved from a largely
pessimistic view that suggested that attempts to intervene in the decline of downtown areas were
doomed to failure, to an optimism buoyed by numerous successes. What has made the
difference?
Urban regeneration (a much more palatable expression than “urban renewal”) requires a number
of actors to be effective. Two that play key roles are local governments and private investors.
The local government’s role begins with a clear policy direction that places value on historic
urban centres and supports urban regeneration to that end. This involves identifying what is
transportation problems, deteriorating streets and services, neglected public spaces and run-down
old buildings that are no longer economically viable—and developing various plans to address
these issues. Understandably, no private investor will invest in an area where streets, public
spaces and key public buildings show major signs of neglect. Well-thought-out improvements to
those same spaces send a clear message that the local government is involved and serious about
making a difference within the community, and that private investors can move forward with a
greater degree of confidence. There is a clear need for capable developers who have the
specialized knowledge and skills necessary to deal with the challenges of renovating and
downtown parks, and called for strategic funding of improvements to privately-owned buildings.
Financial incentives for private property owners are widely used to support redevelopment of
existing downtown buildings. Funding programs help encourage renovation and restoration of
older buildings, as well as the redevelopment of vacant properties for new uses. These programs
are typically combined with some form of urban design policies to ensure that new developments
are sympathetic with the historic built form, and that they maximize benefits to the community.
Such programs are often tied directly to the increase in taxes paid on redeveloped properties. In
this way, the higher costs of re-using building sites (compared to clean and vacant sites on the
periphery of a city) are mitigated, and communities benefit in the long term because existing
streets, underground utilities, and other services are used more efficiently.
demonstrated through street improvements, financial incentives such as loans for building
improvements and fee waivers, and notably, a major renovation and enlargement of the historic
Carnegie Library. The City’s Library Board intentionally chose to remain in the downtown as a
In the mid-2000s, a plan was developed to take advantage of the Speed River’s proximity. In
addition to making detailed recommendations for improvements to public spaces, the plan set out
ideas and principles for the eventual re-use of obsolete industrial buildings.
The vision for Hespeler Village was realized in a significant way after a circa-1900 stone factory
owned by American Standard was closed. A developer acquired the building, and is now
working toward redeveloping the building for a mix of residential and commercial uses. The
historic architecture is impressive, and its location is superb: on the riverbank, overlooking a
park. The developer, who is investing about $30 million in this venture, is obviously a risk taker,
and he has a reputation for having a heart for his community. This development may prove to be
In some remarkable cases, private sector interests have partnered with public institutions in
School had long outgrown the space. A number of community-minded business people from
Cambridge, about a half-hour drive to the south, made a pitch to the director of the school that he
simply couldn’t refuse. They would make sure that a suitable building would be provided if he
An obsolete 90,000 square foot textile mill built built in the 1920s, located on a prime downtown
site on the Grand River within the former City of Galt, became available at a reasonable cost.
The City of Cambridge agreed to fund a building endowment ($7.5 million over a fifteen-year
maintenance—and provincial funding was secured to undertake a very thoughtful renovation that
represents a superb example of adaptive re-use and emphasizes natural light and views of the
The City also provided project management and procurement expertise, and the same group of
local business people used their networks to secure substantial donations of building materials,
like high-quality modern light fixtures, worthy of a school of architecture. The end result has
been a great success, enthusiastically received by the students who are able to learn their craft in
a unique setting that is distinct from the modern University of Waterloo campus.
This is an excellent example of a partnership—undertaken by willing and enthusiastic people
with the credibility and expertise to make it happen—that is serving to infuse an historic
downtown with interest and vitality. It required a champion—a group of them, in this case—
along with a local government that already had a plan for downtown revitalization and could
Urban regeneration requires partnerships and coordination, where governments work with
private owners to effect positive changes that benefit communities by ensuring that locally
important spaces and buildings continue to be valued and used. We can imagine that this is not
unlike the manner in which many of these places were first created 150 years ago or more, in