The City of Brotherly Love? : investigating collaborative planning in Philadelphia's contemporary revitalization initiatives

The revitalization of many cities across the United States is much less focused on the development of the city center and its flagship projects than was the case a decade or so ago. Substantial investment has begun to flow into once forgotten, deteriorating urban neighborhoods and community groups are becoming prominent voices in the reshaping of communities. Based on Naomi Carmon's Stages of Urban Revitalization and Patsy Healey's theory of collaborative planning, this thesis presents a theoretical framework that argues that a new stage of urban revitalization practice has emerged. Carmon's research describes three stages of urban revitalization since roughly 1940: The Bulldozer Era (1 940s - 1960s), Neighborhood Rehabilitation (1960s - 1970s), and Center Ciy Revitalization (1970s - 1990s). She then argues that since the late 1990s, a new urban revitalization paradigm has emerged that is more neighborhood focused than the previous stage. Healey describes collaborative planning as the coordination between hard infrastructure (city agencies) and soft infrastructure (neighborhood groups) that produces community plans. This thesis argues that contemporary revitalization planning is a combination of the two.

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

• Hébert, Jeffrey Paul, 1980-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lorlene M. Hoyt.

• 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/1721.1/17690

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/17690