Evaluate the Relative Successes of Different Re-Urbanisation Examples
Re-urbanisation is the movement of people and economic activities back in to the city centre. The four types focused on in this essay vary depending on the scale of re-urbanisation, the amount of money available and what the main aim is. Sustainable Communities focus on the environment; gentrification is economically based and Urban Development Corporations(UDCs) and City Challenge are socially and economically centred. This means that while they may be highly successful in some ways, they have failed to meet the needs in other ways.
The social impacts of re-urbanisation have been particularly successful in City Challenge and Sustainable Community schemes. City Challenge in Batley has reduced crime rate and made the area less deprived, meaning a happier, safer and friendly community. This is evident by the high numbers of participants in the Batley Bash- a multicultural festival. BedZED, a sustainable community, has created 82 homes and the car share initiative has led to a close knit community. Both areas, have few negatives, however, a City Challenge Initiative in New Islington failed, leaving residents let down. Gentrification and UDCs have also been successful but the negatives have a larger impact. The UDC in the London Docklands have refurbished 10,000 houses and invested £100million in training, education and healthcare. This would appear to be a positive, but the locals have been driven out by increased house prices and unemployment so the already wealthy newcomers have benefited instead. In the London Docklands, Canary Wharf can be reached within ten minutes, but the locals remained unskilled and therefore jobless so they do not need to use this. This makes the London Docklands a success for the newcomers, but not for the locals, who needed the benefits from the re-urbanisation more. Gentrification that occurred in Manchester saw a 300% population rise and 78% live in newly converted flats, which boosted the area. However, Manchester has a very young population structure meaning people move often and there is no close knit community as a result. Also, Manchester is at risk of losing its culture as bars and clubs are more important than museums and theatres. Therefore, gentrification in Manchester is the poorest success, socially, as it’s regarded as more of a stop of for students.
Environmentally, all four re-urbanisation types are very successful. This may be due to the national pressure to become more sustainable to reduce global warming. The bedZED community is the most successful, as would be expected, as the whole design is carbon neutral and renewable energy is used. There is also lots of greenspace, due to all houses having gardens but no car parks which also discourages car use. The London Dockland only benefits the environment with the planting of 160,000 trees and an attractive environment. The UDC gave incentives to use the waste land to build on, so Brownfield sites have been used. The improvement of the