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I can't think of any particularly negative urban renewal impacts in the core of New York City (Manhattan south of 110th street or so) except for maybe the projects lining the East River.
We do? We all know that? Such ideological certainty gives me the impression that I wandered into the Religion Forum by mistake.
Unlike religion, we can touch and see the effects of urban renewal from that period. It's largely unappealing. Plus, go to any city and ask people about their favorite areas. It's a good bet none of the urban renewal areas will be mentioned.
We do? We all know that? Such ideological certainty gives me the impression that I wandered into the Religion Forum by mistake.
In fact the opposite ought to be assumed true: More often than not urban renewal, rather than religion was a fait accompli paired with ideological certainty. Planners and architects played the part of arrogant gods. The religion I know allows for and advocates query.
Wanted to bump this thread up a bit, since it's been more than a decade since it was last discussed.
I was thinking about this a couple days ago, and could mostly think of those that were hurt tremendously with urban renewal, and many that were hurt by the inner-city construction of interstate highways.
Some cities off top of my head that lost a lot of amazing, vibrant, many times ethnically strong neighborhoods are--
The Bronx, NYC
Stamford, CT
New Haven, CT
St Louis, MO
Chicago, IL
Dallas, TX
Atlanta, GA
Nashville, TN
Least damaged? That's a tougher one.
I'd have to say much of Manhattan, much of Brooklyn, and much of the Bronx has actually gentrified well and has a ton of older, dense infrastructure still standing--and in many cases, large areas protected.
Same with San Francisco, Chicago, and New Orleans.
Any others come to mind with examples? There are so many, I think....
...amazing, vibrant, many times ethnically strong neighborhoods ...
How did "horrible crime ridden slums with nothing but pawn shops, bucket-of-blood saloons, transient hotels ("Hotel Adler for Men, Transients Welcome, Rooms by the Hour Day Week or Month", and sweatshops magically become "amazing, vibrant" neigborhoods? I grant you that what replaced them isn't always that great, but you need to take off the rose-colored nostalgia glasses when you look at some of those places that NEEDED a freeway run through them.
How did "horrible crime ridden slums with nothing but pawn shops, bucket-of-blood saloons, transient hotels ("Hotel Adler for Men, Transients Welcome, Rooms by the Hour Day Week or Month", and sweatshops magically become "amazing, vibrant" neigborhoods? I grant you that what replaced them isn't always that great, but you need to take off the rose-colored nostalgia glasses when you look at some of those places that NEEDED a freeway run through them.
Oh, that's a pretty easy one to answer. It's because most of them were amazing, vibrant neighborhoods that had a lot more than pawn shops, bucket-of-blood saloons, transient hotels, and sweatshops.
jjbradleynyc mentioned some smaller cities, so I'll mention Burlington, Vermont as a place that kept its downtown from a freeway carving through it.
Oh, that's a pretty easy one to answer. It's because most of them were amazing, vibrant neighborhoods that had a lot more than pawn shops, bucket-of-blood saloons, transient hotels, and sweatshops.
How about you're a real piece of work if you think the solution to any less desirable area is NEEDING a freeway to clear them out?
Ithaca NY is another smaller city that comes to mind, but I’m wondering if the Route 13 arterial road may have had an impact on a portion of the city.
There are several Canadian cities that seemed to have avoided the urban "renewal" of the 50s, 60s, and 70s mostly because Canadian cities didn't create massive inner-city freeways. Canadian cities did go on a freeway building binge in that time period but unlike US cities, they never actually cut thru existing downtown areas unless going thru industrial zones like Toronto's Gardiner. This is probably due to Canada not experiencing "white flight" like American cities did so the population that would have needed to be displaced for them were generally white and wealthy.
That said, not having urban freeways does not mean that your city has escaped urban renewal. Edmonton is a case in point. It doesn't have an urban freeway even close to downtown but the city basically levelled the core and replaced all its older stock buildings with concrete bunkers and parking garages. Downtown "Deadmonton" remains a ghost town to this day and has, far and away, the most unattractive, unappealing, and uninteresting downtown of any major city in the country.
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