Regeneration in practice: lessons from across the pond
Author: Alex Thomson, Localis, in the Guardian Local Government Network |
Pittsburgh was once a typical American rustbelt city that had suffered heavily from decades of decline. In recent years it has undergone a radical transformation to shake off its industrial image.
The city has a long history of attempting urban regeneration with mixed results, but it was not until the 1970s and 1980s that success began to materialise. The approach was to look beyond simply saving the “poorest” areas and instead looked for the sites that had potential for redevelopment or repurposing, relying on local knowledge to identify areas with the greatest potential.
Efforts continued, and in the 1990s more than a thousand acres of former industrial land was repurposed for mixed development.
The redevelopment of this vacant land into productive or attractive spaces has helped to boost the feel good factor in Pittsburgh. This can be likened to the “broken windows” theory, whose proponents argue that if a building has broken windows, people’s perception of that building changes, encouraging vandalism and further damage.
Similarly, significant swathes of decrepit brownfield sites will affect public and, consequently, investor perceptions. Tackling this problem has led to a massive rebranding of the city, much for the better.
In doing so, Pittsburgh hasn’t become fixated on the decline in the city’s population. By making the most of the opportunities available and accepting that, while its population may shrink, Pittsburgh’s public spaces will improve making it more attractive for both residents and businesses alike.
Pittsburgh is also a poster child for that particularly American activity, philanthropy. The city has been a major receiver of investment, through the Heinz and Mellon foundations in particular, with a legacy of philanthropy that goes back a century to the days of Andrew Carnegie. As recently as 2006, almost $200m (126m) was given towards improving community facilities and schools in the city by the top three foundations alone.
Having a strong local leader in the form of the city’s mayor has also played a vital part in Pittsburgh’s regeneration. Tom Murphy has been given the credit for providing much of the impetus during his tenure from the mid 1990s to the mid 2000s ? and the numerous similar success stories across America are likely to have formed part of the UK government’s recent support for directly-elected mayors in England.
Although referendums returned a no vote in most of our core cities, the well-documented success of US city mayors will undoubtedly keep the debate alive.
Despite the obvious differences in structures, scale and culture, many of the challenges and solutions are equally pertinent in the US and the UK. The common themes of making the most of local opportunities, thinking differently, accepting a new economic purpose, innovative finance and positive leadership echo throughout the case studies in our forthcoming report. English cities could learn much from Pittsburgh’s successes.
Alex Thomson is chief executive of the thinktank Localis. ‘Grow your own way: taking a localist approach to regeneration’, a report by Localis produced as part of the Local Government Association’s local growth campaign, will be published in late May 2012