A place for us : the territory of the quotidian in suburban downtown redevelopment-- Needham, Waltham, Watertown

In recent years, planners, architects, and developers alike have all begun to look to suburban downtown redevelopment as a strategy for economic development, housing development, and for creating a social and cultural amenity for town residents. Suburban downtown redevelopment holds the promise of increased employment opportunities that could reduce commute times for residents, improved economic conditions that could provide tax revenue for fiscally strained municipalities, downtown housing that could help alleviate the affordable housing crisis, and the creation of a social amenity that could help build community and social capital. Since many visions of the contemporary redevelopment of suburban downtowns appear to modeled on early nineteenth century downtowns, three case-studies with historic downtown districts were chosen for study. The downtown districts' businesses were tabulated by type, compared over time and analyzed through the framework of contemporaneous planning and development trends. There was a clear trend towards the loss of locally-oriented businesses such as retailers of staples and household goods concomitant with the development of businesses that catered to the non-local. During the same time-periods, there were attempts by local planners and business people to court the regional market, sometimes to the detriment of the local market, and many times to the detriment of the physical environment downtown.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Houston, Kelly J. (Kelly Jean), 1970-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Terry S. Szold.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17688

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/17688