Recovering The Unrecoverable? Understanding the Processes of Urban Stabilization and Redevelopment in America’s Legacy Cities

Abstract

Vacancies have been spreading in many declining cities in America’s rustbelt for decades, referred to now as legacy cities. With a long history of policies disadvantaging minority residents, legacy cities that had previously relied on steel and automobile industries were unable to recover economically after the shift to a globalized service economy. Population loss accelerated, leaving many cities with a quarter of their original residents. “White Flight” into suburban areas dramatically resulted in disproportionately high numbers of black residents living in urban poverty. Racialized New Deal housing policies implemented by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Homeowners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), limited minority movement to the suburbs, consigning them to depreciating neighborhoods. The effects of these actions are still being felt today and inner-city decay has continued.

This thesis focuses on the development strategies employed by three legacy cities: Youngstown (“Youngstown Plan of 2010”), Detroit (“Detroit Future City 2012”), and St. Louis (“A Plan to Reduce Vacant Lots and Buildings in the City of St. Louis 2018”). It begins by defining the concepts of “market-centered” and “social-centered” development. Social-centered development prioritizes public enhancement and works to benefit people directly and widely. Market-centered development focuses on job creation and population growth and sees individual free choice as the key to economic prosperity. Youngstown implemented a series of social-centered developmental policies and largely ignored market-centered strategies. In contrast, St. Louis and Detroit employed a mix of these two strategies. After laying out the structural causes of high rates of housing vacancy and abandonment and how they shifted immense costs to the city as a result, the thesis continues by analyzing policies implemented in the three legacy cities and ascertaining how they fared dealing with the issue. It concludes with two main points: 1) market and social-centered development strategies cannot work exclusively of one another in fighting vacancies and 2) although market-centered development may boost the overall economic outlook of a city, it does so at the expense of areas that need the most assistance.

This thesis defines a term, ethical development, to mean whether or not development and redevelopment initiatives are accomplished with ignorance of (or at the expense of) a given area’s residents. Noting that market-centered development is unbalanced, this term sees social-centered development as a counterweight. The thesis concludes with possible initiatives to employ with ethical development in mind. In addition, it explores the proposed direction of future research focus with this term in mind.