Savitch: Strategy for Neighborhood Decline (French Connection)

The research perspective drew upon a diachronic mode for the periods between 1970-1990 and 1990-2010 (Feagin, Orum, and Sjoberg 1991; Gerring 2007).

Nothing as practical as good theory: Exploring theory-based evaluation for comprehensive community initiatives for children and families.

A case study of Marseille France highlights this strategy along with possible criteria for policy transfer to American cities.

Another strategy, known as “urban enterprise zones” (UEZs), became popular during the 1980s.

In this case, the strategic objective was to entice middle-class house buyers into the city’s segregated West Side and deconcentrate poverty.

I now turn to a closer examination of HICAD’s achievability.

Disintegrative decline gnaws at the social and physical assets of a city, leaving a disjointed, noncontiguous urban fabric whose corrosion creeps elsewhere.

For example, a library may benefit the residents of a community who use it but also distribute books or films to other localities (positive internality and externality).

That strategy might evolve over time, but it began with an explicit geostrategic orientation.

For one, it assumes that areas really are comparable— effectively neighborhoods can be treated as replicas of one another (“twins,” “quadruplets,” “sextuplets,” etc.) that respond or do not respond in the same ways to an intervention.

His research and writing mainly cover the fields of comparative urban development, urban policy, territorial rescaling, and city-county consolidation

Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 810 Urban Affairs Review 47(6) • Legibility: Making development visible, understandable, and memorable matters a great deal.

In short, “build for people” and for producing clear, utilizable results.

For one, it assumes that areas really are comparable— effectively neighborhoods can be treated as replicas of one another (“twins,” “quadruplets,” “sextuplets,” etc.) that respond or do not respond in the same ways to an intervention.

Over the years, EuroMed has been careful not to overbuild or oversupply its stock of office space.10 As a matter of practice, no more than 40,000 square meters (430,556 square feet) are released each year in order to ensure there are enough clients for the built spaces (personal interview, 26 October 2009).

As a critical event, Marseille’s long path into decline can be traced through a strong, seemingly inexorable trend line.

An audit report of the Government Accounting Office concluded the program did not accomplish its objectives and funds were not always “efficiently and effectively used” (Government Accounting Office, Inspector General 1998).

Should this ratio steepen, the balance of fiscal forces could well upset the balance required for holistic development.

Downtown redevelopment as an urban growth strategy: A critical appraisal of the Baltimore Renaissance.

Reseaux politiques locaux et internationalization des villes: Marseille et le projet euromediterraneen.

In this sense HICAD was Pareto optimal––it helped some but left others no worse off than they had been before.

Other aspects of decline can be seen in rubble-strewn lots, contaminated land, dilapidated buildings, broken infrastructure, and fiscal indebtedness (Rozhon 2006; Glaeser and Gyourko 2005).

Further to the point, not all cities can or should “regrow.”

Background Briefing by Senior Administrative Officials, May 4.

Much of this occurs through normal pedestrian uses where office workers descend onto the streets at one time of the day, dock workers at another hour, residents at still different times and tourists by nightfall.

Whether to favor a good deal of success with narrower benefits or favor lesser success with broader benefits is a value judgment best decided by a democratic process.

The HICAD strategy differs from those used in the United States and employs five basic ideas—selection, pressure, magnification (connectivity), leverage and a holistic perspective.

From brew town to cool town: Neoliberalism and the creative city development strategy in Milwaukee.

In Marseille, the initial space consisted of 311 hectares (768 acres) within a core area of waterfront, docks, and commerce.

Notice too the increased density of the transit network as it approaches the waterfront, especially the tramway and metro.

Catalysts of Revival Context: French Cities and Sprinkler Policies From an institutional perspective, any account of urban development in France should recognize the overarching importance of the national government (the State).

Like American cities, Marseille’s older housing rotated down the social hierarchy to poor families within the central city.

Similar to American cities, Marseille’s downtown had suffered from disinvestment as capital flowed outward to suburban localities.

Rather, a carefully constructed urban strategy catalyzed revival in a key neighborhood of Marseille and may very well have brought on other ripples of change.

Employment in EuroMed: 1991-2007 Source: Agence d’Urbanisme de l’Agglomération Marseillaise, Euroméditerranée, Marseille, France Mars, 2010 Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 Savitch 819 Keeping the theory of change in mind, I put some numbers to conceptual use.

The third deals with portability or how HICAD can fit different ongoing strategies.

Much the same strategy is located in shorter “Urban Planning” and “Strategic Development” documents (EuroMéditerranée 1998; Marseille Provence Metropole n.d.).

Declining neighborhoods can be identified by significant losses in population, employment, business establishments, investments, house ownership, and building occupancy (Schilling and Logan 2008; Oswalt 2005, 2006; Rybczynski and Linneman 1999; Glaeser 2010).

The second Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 824 Urban Affairs Review 47(6) concerns choice of the best candidates for HICAD; specifically the conditions and type of cities where this strategy is optimally applied.

These include converting derelict land uses into urban forests, playgrounds, landscaped quadrangles, community gardens, new waterfronts, and designed gateways.

Without a multilevel consensus, the organization’s objectives would languish, but with it popular consent could be mobilized around difficult issues of land clearance and housing.

The respondents were broken down into thirds and came from (1) EuroMed, (2) neighborhood associations and nongovernmental organizations, and (3) elected representatives.

Its strategic premise was to directly target distressed Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 802 Urban Affairs Review 47(6) industrial/commercial areas (Bendick and Rasmussen, 1996).

Even Marseille’s older reputation as a headquarters for organized crime gave it an American aura as some dubbed it the “French Chicago.”

Rather than concentrating on areas that hold a potential for success, the United States disperses assistance and has a tendency to begin with the poorest communities.14 This practice goes back many decades and among its shortcomings is that policies rarely meet their objective, thereby souring the public taste for further assistance (Lawrence, Stoker, and Wollman 2010; Savitch and Osgood 2010).

All told, the area encompassed 28,700 people living in 14,500 housing units, half of which was built before 1915 (EuroMéditerranée 2000, 3; Dubois, Douay, and DaSilva 2007, 26) Figure 1 shows this area along with five neighborhoods designated for redevelopment.

Keywords urban strategy and planning, neighborhood decline and growth, development versus social equity, French vis-à-vis American urban policy, Marseille’s development Searching: A Strategy for Declining Cities When something is broken, our immediate inclination is to try and fix it, so it has been with the decline of American cities.

Its geography encourages public officials and planners to position it as a “global city” (EuroMéditerranée 2008, 2009; Donzel & Maisetti 2009, 17).

Restoring prosperity: The state role in revitalizing America’s older industrial cities.

Declining neighborhoods can be identified by significant losses in population, employment, business establishments, investments, house ownership, and building occupancy (Schilling and Logan 2008; Oswalt 2005, 2006; Rybczynski and Linneman 1999; Glaeser 2010).

Antipode 38 (1): 59–80.

A case study of Marseille France highlights this strategy along with possible criteria for policy transfer to American cities.

Hollander, Justin B., Karina Pallagst, Terry Schwarz, and Frank Popper.

The idea is to begin a sustained and coordinated effort to revive communities by leveraging investments in housing.

The Urban Community is roughly coterminous with the metropolitan area and consists of 675 square kilometers (261 square miles) with a population of 982,000 residents.

Declining cities already have dense networks of mass transit and airport terminals, utility lines, and drainage systems.

Disintegrative decline gnaws at the social and physical assets of a city, leaving a disjointed, noncontiguous urban fabric whose corrosion creeps elsewhere.

As some writers put it, planned shrinkage does not necessarily entail a change “from something to nothing” but rather a promising adaption to new realities (Hollander et al.

As some writers put it, planned shrinkage does not necessarily entail a change “from something to nothing” but rather a promising adaption to new realities (Hollander et al.

It entails a confluence of five strategic prongs within a precise, spatially targeted neighborhood.

UEZs have been used in the United Kingdom and a variant has been adopted in France (Zones Franches or “free zones”).

Reseaux politiques locaux et internationalization des villes: Marseille et le projet euromediterraneen.

Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research 12 (1): 133–51.

Enterprise zones and inner city economic development.

As designed, CDCs are nonprofit corporations that anchor capital in neighborhoods, mainly by investing in housing and to a lesser extent by stimulating local business and enhancing services (Robinson 1996; Stoecker 1997).

Declining cities already have dense networks of mass transit and airport terminals, utility lines, and drainage systems.

As designed, CDCs are nonprofit corporations that anchor capital in neighborhoods, mainly by investing in housing and to a lesser extent by stimulating local business and enhancing services (Robinson 1996; Stoecker 1997).

To oversimplify, the limitations make them more attuned to incremental amelioration than to rapid, fundamental change.

Marseille’s famous harbor bustled with large excursion vessels, pleasure craft, small fishing boats, and an occasional barge.

Further away, cities in the region like Aix-en-Provence and Nice had absorbed the bulk of new growth in tourism, services, and high technology.

Some 1.5 kilometers of highway are now in the process of going underground at a cost of 150 million euros (pers. interv.,

Further away, cities in the region like Aix-en-Provence and Nice had absorbed the bulk of new growth in tourism, services, and high technology.

In one way, Marseille is no different from most American cities that emphasized “bricks and mortar” development over “soft services” (Levitan and Taggart 1976).

Census Bureau 2002; Savitch and Kantor 2002, 75; Hoffman-Martinot and Nevers 1989, 183).

French local policy change in a period of austerity.

In Anyplace, USA, Anyone Corporation.

By the criteria listed here, Camden is “beyond the point of no return” and would not be suitable for HICAD.

By comparison, air pollution from a public incinerator may harm local residents as well as spillover into nearby communities (negative internality and externality).

One comprehensive study of CDCs reports that they “produced a moderate level of neighborhood improvement” while another cited numerous failures in the design of these organizations (Vidal 1992, 9; Rohe, Bratt, and Biswas 2003).

The “theory of change” focuses on the linkage between a priori theory (expressed in this case as strategic propositions) and a posteriori outcomes (demonstrated through case results).

The strategy differs markedly from the American or British practice of overbuilding and leaving office stock vacant until renters are found (Fainstein 2001).

The upshot of housing tenure is as follows: About one-third consists of owner-occupied apartments, slightly more than a third represents market-rate rentals, and the remaining proportion consists of assisted rentals.

Disintegrative decline gnaws at the social and physical assets of a city, leaving a disjointed, noncontiguous urban fabric whose corrosion creeps elsewhere.

Marseille is also connected by place and function to outlying smaller cities like La Ciotat (maritime industry) and Marignane (helicopters and aeronautics).

Edition 2002—tome 2: Les habitants, pp.

A case study of Marseille France highlights this strategy along with possible criteria for policy transfer to American cities.

Accordingly, more than 14 hectares (34.5 acres) were turned into parkland.

Another aspect of this approach is to expect that as the propositions take root, the indicators should increasingly change.

It holds a large number of blue-collar families; it is home to a significant number of poor immigrants; and it suffers from a substandard educational system.

Further away, cities in the region like Aix-en-Provence and Nice had absorbed the bulk of new growth in tourism, services, and high technology.

Since its inception in 1992, approximately 166 cities participated in HOPE VI (Popkin et al.

These include converting derelict land uses into urban forests, playgrounds, landscaped quadrangles, community gardens, new waterfronts, and designed gateways.

A partial list includes Luminy (health, biotechnology, high tech), Chateau Gombert (robotics, instrumentation, and electronics), Saint-Mitre (chemistry), and Les Arnavaux (agriculture).

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Under the aegis of the State, cities have agreed upon mutually beneficial contracts for long-term cooperation.

The Schema du Reference (2000) is published in three sections, listed below along with relevant page numbers.

By comparison, air pollution from a public incinerator may harm local residents as well as spillover into nearby communities (negative internality and externality).

Open space and ancient geological formations along the seacoast add to the area’s attraction.

One study does demonstrate that residents of shrinking cities have no less a favorable perception of their quality of life than those who live in growing cities (Hollander 2010).

Over the course of 15 years it brought back densities, increased employment, rebuilt infrastructure and renewed a community.

Similar to American cities, Marseille’s downtown had suffered from disinvestment as capital flowed outward to suburban localities.

Several issues come to mind concerning any possible transfer of the HICAD strategy to the United States.

Its strategic premise was to directly target distressed Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 802 Urban Affairs Review 47(6) industrial/commercial areas (Bendick and Rasmussen, 1996).

Strategists are fond of situating Marseille within the “blue banana” of Europe—a vertical curvature in the shape of a banana that stretches from London at its northern tip into Brussels, Paris, and Lyon at midpoint and terminating in Marseille at its southern tip (EuroMéditerranée 2000).

Accordingly, terms like “creative shrinkage,” “smart decline,” or “right sizing” are used to convey that something positive can occur.

The record on UEZs is mixed, with some researchers finding moderately positive results and others finding no significant change (Engberg and Greenbaum 1999; Boarnet and Bogart 1996; Bondonio and Engberg 2000).

The strategy differs markedly from the American or British practice of overbuilding and leaving office stock vacant until renters are found (Fainstein 2001).

The purpose of this article is to examine how regrowth restored a neighborhood as well as explain its catalytic and transformative qualities.

French francs for this period are calculated at the rate of 6.55 ff = 1 euro.

Its major components consist of the Chevenement Act (metropolitan institutions and financial assistance), the Voynet Act (interlocal governance and public policy), and the Social Solidarity and Renewal Act (planning and social policy).

In the United States, UEZs failed passage by Congress, though 43 states have now created 3,000 zones in more than a thousand localities (Pulsipher 2008).

Over the years, EuroMed has been careful not to overbuild or oversupply its stock of office space.10 As a matter of practice, no more than 40,000 square meters (430,556 square feet) are released each year in order to ensure there are enough clients for the built spaces (personal interview, 26 October 2009).

Camden (New Jersey) illustrates another way in which HICAD can work in conjunction with planned shrinkage.

By and large, this kind of decline is benign and calls for an approach that differs from HICAD.

Despite the differences of geography and nationhood, Marseille’s experience has broader implications.

President Clinton’s policy of Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities (EZ/EC) was enacted into law in 1993 and provided $1.3 billion in funds over approximately five years (GAO 1998).

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with step-by-step improvement and there may be a lot right with restraining harmful intrusions of “growth” into stable communities.

Positive internalities reflect the capacity of an area to mobilize its social attributes (not overburdened by extreme poverty and crime, possessing racially integrated neighborhoods, able to draw on a reasonably educated population or immigrant talent pool).

Acknowledgment The author wishes to thank the Fulbright Commission for time spent in France and for the generous help of Andre Donzel of Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme and Patricia Antolovsky of Agence d’Urbanisme d’Agglomération Marseillaise (AGAM) as well as those particular organizations.

One study does demonstrate that residents of shrinking cities have no less a favorable perception of their quality of life than those who live in growing cities (Hollander 2010).

Marseille is France’s single great gateway to the Mediterranean, its port is unmatched by any other French city, its population Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 Savitch 805 is among the most heterogeneous in the country, and its built environment of nineteenth-century Hausmannian architecture coupled to an open seacoast puts it in the mold of a “dual city” (Mollenkopf and Castells 1991).

Keywords urban strategy and planning, neighborhood decline and growth, development versus social equity, French vis-à-vis American urban policy, Marseille’s development Searching: A Strategy for Declining Cities When something is broken, our immediate inclination is to try and fix it, so it has been with the decline of American cities.

Strategic success not only depends on reversing decline but on achieving equity and this challenge transcends national boundaries (Krumholz and Forester 1990; Thomas and Huang 2003; Grant 2002).

Those living in other parts of the metropolitan area wanted nothing to do with a run-down central city, whose persona has been defined by crime and “ethnic” minorities (in this instance from North Africa).

Both figures also contain insets that display increases for a given time.13 Note the dramatic upturn in jobs, especially after the turn of the century.

Rather than concentrating on areas that hold a potential for success, the United States disperses assistance and has a tendency to begin with the poorest communities.14 This practice goes back many decades and among its shortcomings is that policies rarely meet their objective, thereby souring the public taste for further assistance (Lawrence, Stoker, and Wollman 2010; Savitch and Osgood 2010).

concentrated development” (II:4); to magnify that pressure, planners outlined transport and other means by which “ruptures in the urban tissue can be brought together” and “continuities re-established with adjoining neighborhoods” (II:11 and 18); to pursue legibility, the plan maps out ways in which the landscape can be made “legible” (“lisibilité”) (II:4); and the notion of holistic development can be found almost everywhere, including an initial declaration that EuroMed was to be a “city

Atlas des métropolitains de la région urbaine de Marseille—Aix-en-Provence.

concentrated development” (II:4); to magnify that pressure, planners outlined transport and other means by which “ruptures in the urban tissue can be brought together” and “continuities re-established with adjoining neighborhoods” (II:11 and 18); to pursue legibility, the plan maps out ways in which the landscape can be made “legible” (“lisibilité”) (II:4); and the notion of holistic development can be found almost everywhere, including an initial declaration that EuroMed was to be a “city

Its objectives centered on business investment and job creation.

Moving towards a shrinking cities metric: Analyzing land use changes associated with depopulation in Flint, Michigan.

Marseilles encountered especially bad times between 1970 and 1990.

It is not by coincidence that the organization designated to spearhead Marseille’s comeback takes the prefix “Euro.”

Much as the French have carefully chosen a city of “national interest,” so too might an American state choose a city of “state interest.”

Part of this revolves around the idea of success begetting success, applying the principle that once an innovative program gains public support others are also likely to be approved.

The tramway (light rail) began operations in 2007 as EuroMed was fully underway.

Its strategic premise was to directly target distressed Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 802 Urban Affairs Review 47(6) industrial/commercial areas (Bendick and Rasmussen, 1996).

It is not by coincidence that the organization designated to spearhead Marseille’s comeback takes the prefix “Euro.”

The consequent smothering of activity can squeeze out any glimmer of hope.

A partial list includes Luminy (health, biotechnology, high tech), Chateau Gombert (robotics, instrumentation, and electronics), Saint-Mitre (chemistry), and Les Arnavaux (agriculture).

Conversely, planned shrinkage can complement HICAD by helping it produce compactness and continuity.

Even the cleanup and rebuilding of the docks took EuroMed afield in order to work with the public corporation managing the waterfront.

The overall design provides a distinct vision that is effortlessly etched into memory of those who live, work, or visit the area.

In France, the figure is closer to about 44% when we adjust for services undertaken by the State, though without adjusting for national services other writers put the figure as closer to 66% (U.S.

They establish the geographic limits of cities; they regulate cities through mandates, restrictions, limits on taxation; they furnish aid, infrastructure, and transportation; and most importantly, they serve as regional development agencies.

Both figures also contain insets that display increases for a given time.13 Note the dramatic upturn in jobs, especially after the turn of the century.

Distinct paths into EuroMed are carved out by a tramway, a major avenue (République), and rebuilt roads.

More pedestrians and shoppers appeared on the streets.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The transformation can take place along the edges of a city, thereby ringing it with a green belt, or it can occur throughout the urban core, where residents can enjoy green islands and vest pocket parks.

Since that time, the area has gained nearly 22,000 jobs, almost halved the unemployment rate, added 35,000 new inhabitants, and built 400,000 square meters (4,305,564 square feet) of residential housing (Donzel 2009; EuroMed 2009; pers. interv.,

The area is also centered by major nodes at La Joliette and Saint Charles, made possible by a large, attractively refurbished warehouse.

Further down the coastline and within commuting distance of the zone lie Marseille’s finest neighborhoods.

The notion that American cities cannot be compared to European cities may be overstated––especially when we consider the richness that still remains within older localities.

The efforts paid off, not only by leveraging resources but in garnering sponsorship from other constituencies in the region.

These observations are buttressed by sheer numbers.

It began with a budget of 1.7 billion Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 Savitch 809 francs ($259 million) and its progenitors made sure it would reflect a partnership between all levels of government (State, city, metropolis).8 EuroMed’s multilateral partnership was more than just a matter of cost sharing, but a mechanism to engage important actors at all levels of the political establishment.

HICAD did bring about new jobs, new housing, and a refreshingly new environment, albeit within a limited scope of benefits.

There are other reasons for Marseille’s suitability as a site for comparison.

For this reason, CDCs might be seen as taking a “buckshot approach,” scattering pellets of revitalization into a multiplicity of distressed neighborhoods.

Canberra, Australia: Anthropos Research and Publications.

A partial list includes Luminy (health, biotechnology, high tech), Chateau Gombert (robotics, instrumentation, and electronics), Saint-Mitre (chemistry), and Les Arnavaux (agriculture).

Bio Hank Savitch is a former President of the Urban Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.

Similarly, Louisville’s Park Duvalle neighborhood used HOPE VI and local funding to replace public dwellings with market-rate housing.

For the first time in decades, population began to increase and this occurred at a rate of 0.71% per year.

One of the more prominent strategies suggests that cities actively respond to decline through “planned shrinkage.”

Greening the rust belt: A green infrastructure model for right sizing America’s shrinking cities.

Both figures also contain insets that display increases for a given time.13 Note the dramatic upturn in jobs, especially after the turn of the century.

Taking EuroMed’s figures of 20,000 workers plus 63,000 new and former residents, the cost comes to $11,843 per capita.

The segregation of residents of North African ancestry is also a serious problem.

Like so many neighborhoods in deindustrialized American cities, the area around Marseille’s docks looked like a war zone.

Like American cities, Marseille’s older housing rotated down the social hierarchy to poor families within the central city.

For the most part, programs are spread thinly across the nation (CDCs, UEZs) or reliant on a single sector (housing-led development) or heavily defensive (planned shrinkage).

Those living in other parts of the metropolitan area wanted nothing to do with a run-down central city, whose persona has been defined by crime and “ethnic” minorities (in this instance from North Africa).

Declining neighborhoods can be identified by significant losses in population, employment, business establishments, investments, house ownership, and building occupancy (Schilling and Logan 2008; Oswalt 2005, 2006; Rybczynski and Linneman 1999; Glaeser 2010).

The downtown area also turned around with restored buildings and new shops.

Notice too the increased density of the transit network as it approaches the waterfront, especially the tramway and metro.

Marseille is France’s single great gateway to the Mediterranean, its port is unmatched by any other French city, its population Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 Savitch 805 is among the most heterogeneous in the country, and its built environment of nineteenth-century Hausmannian architecture coupled to an open seacoast puts it in the mold of a “dual city” (Mollenkopf and Castells 1991).

On its western and eastern flanks sit the port cities of Barcelona and Genoa; on the rim of North Africa are port cities like Algiers, Tunis, and Alexandria; and on the eastern flank of the Mediterranean Sea we find Athens, Haifa, and Beirut.

Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Even Marseille’s older reputation as a headquarters for organized crime gave it an American aura as some dubbed it the “French Chicago.”

New York: Community Development Research Center, Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, New School for Social Research.

Marseille is France’s single great gateway to the Mediterranean, its port is unmatched by any other French city, its population Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 Savitch 805 is among the most heterogeneous in the country, and its built environment of nineteenth-century Hausmannian architecture coupled to an open seacoast puts it in the mold of a “dual city” (Mollenkopf and Castells 1991).

For this reason, CDCs might be seen as taking a “buckshot approach,” scattering pellets of revitalization into a multiplicity of distressed neighborhoods.

One might assume that if Marseille can return, cities located elsewhere are also capable of recovering.

Its strategic premise was to directly target distressed Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 802 Urban Affairs Review 47(6) industrial/commercial areas (Bendick and Rasmussen, 1996).

The Urban Community is roughly coterminous with the metropolitan area and consists of 675 square kilometers (261 square miles) with a population of 982,000 residents.

Some cities may decline because of natural disasters (Galveston), others decline because of warfare or adverse politics (Leipzig), and still others wane because time has passed them by (Winnipeg).

The combination of pedestrian access, commuter voyages, and mixed land uses has gone a long way toward reinvigorating the area.

Proponents of planned shrinkage also argue that the reduction of decayed land would enhance property values in healthier parts of the city and investments could be better applied (Schilling and Logan 2008; Lanks 2006).

Funding The author received financial support for the research from the Fulbright Commission (European Union) and from the University of Louisville’s Office of the Executive Vice President for Research (Research Completion Grant).

The HICAD strategy differs from those used in the United States and employs five basic ideas—selection, pressure, magnification (connectivity), leverage and a holistic perspective.

The Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 Savitch 825 table uses criteria that are suited for cities in decline but also taps into their potential.

On the face of it, there is no reason why urban development in America cannot profit from an experience elsewhere.

Without a multilevel consensus, the organization’s objectives would languish, but with it popular consent could be mobilized around difficult issues of land clearance and housing.

A quasi-experimental study of Richmond demonstrated that when targeted over a sustained period, NiB brought about a significant rise in house prices (Galster, Tatian, and Accordino 2006).1 A key study of HOPE VI that relied on aggregate data concluded that the program “achieved substantial success” while case studies showed mixed results (Popkin et al.

To be sure, many facilities and especially transit systems need to be modernized, but the infrastructure is present—one might say American cities are “richly dormant” in their ability to restore themselves.

Its objectives centered on business investment and job creation.

On its western and eastern flanks sit the port cities of Barcelona and Genoa; on the rim of North Africa are port cities like Algiers, Tunis, and Alexandria; and on the eastern flank of the Mediterranean Sea we find Athens, Haifa, and Beirut.

The fabricated shortage allows for demand to stay pent up and permits EuroMed to make its own calls with respect to building standards and developer contributions.

A large number of landmarks (public squares, a cathedral, and monuments) mark the area.

Declining neighborhoods can be identified by significant losses in population, employment, business establishments, investments, house ownership, and building occupancy (Schilling and Logan 2008; Oswalt 2005, 2006; Rybczynski and Linneman 1999; Glaeser 2010).

Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 804 Urban Affairs Review 47(6) Approaching Marseille Through a Theory of Change The locus of this study is not in the United States but in Europe, where some cities have faced similar challenges of deindustrialization and middle-class flight.3 The lens of investigation focuses on Marseille, France, as it struggled with decline over the past three decades.

Also seen in the map is the proximity of this development to the centers of Marseille such as the Old Port (Vieux Port), the principal avenue (La Canebière), the rail station (St. Charles), and the stock exchange (Centre Bourse).

An audit report of the Government Accounting Office concluded the program did not accomplish its objectives and funds were not always “efficiently and effectively used” (Government Accounting Office, Inspector General 1998).

In working through HICAD candidacy, three criteria stand out.

Marseille is no exception to the difficulties posed by coupling neighborhood revitalization and equity.

By this time too, outlying localities in other parts of the region began to outdo their larger neighbor.

We might understand these actions, not as marketing fluff but as a belief in the city’s geographic destiny.

Some possible candidates include Providence (Rhode Island), Bridgeport (Connecticut), Charlestown (South Carolina), Richmond (Virginia), Birmingham (Alabama), and Louisville (Kentucky).

Over the course of 15 years it brought back densities, increased employment, rebuilt infrastructure and renewed a community.

The upshot of housing tenure is as follows: About one-third consists of owner-occupied apartments, slightly more than a third represents market-rate rentals, and the remaining proportion consists of assisted rentals.

The White House spokesperson put it succinctly saying, “This is not a city program, it’s not an urban program; it’s a program for depressed communities” (White House 1993, 3).

New York: Community Development Research Center, Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, New School for Social Research.

President Clinton’s policy of Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities (EZ/EC) was enacted into law in 1993 and provided $1.3 billion in funds over approximately five years (GAO 1998).

NCSL/Annie E. Casey Partnership on Family Economic Success. http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=12806 (accessed March 2, 2011).

Journal of Political Economy 113 (2): 345–75.

It began with a budget of 1.7 billion Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 Savitch 809 francs ($259 million) and its progenitors made sure it would reflect a partnership between all levels of government (State, city, metropolis).8 EuroMed’s multilateral partnership was more than just a matter of cost sharing, but a mechanism to engage important actors at all levels of the political establishment.

The impulse to “fix-it when broken” achieved a high point during the 1960s with the War on Poverty, and while most of its programs have been abandoned, a residue of that strategy exists in community development corporations (CDCs).

We might understand these actions, not as marketing fluff but as a belief in the city’s geographic destiny.

By comparison, air pollution from a public incinerator may harm local residents as well as spillover into nearby communities (negative internality and externality).

The French State also infuses funds into urban territories through “poles of competitiveness” that are designed to bolster innovation.

Strategists are fond of situating Marseille within the “blue banana” of Europe—a vertical curvature in the shape of a banana that stretches from London at its northern tip into Brussels, Paris, and Lyon at midpoint and terminating in Marseille at its southern tip (EuroMéditerranée 2000).

A case study of Marseille France highlights this strategy along with possible criteria for policy transfer to American cities.

A case study of Marseille France highlights this strategy along with possible criteria for policy transfer to American cities.

By this time too, outlying localities in other parts of the region began to outdo their larger neighbor.

As presented, the theory calls for applying explicit propositions to a potentially transformative situation—as that situation undergoes a significant alteration from a preintervention to a postintervention phase.

Today the city’s downtown/waterfront area radiates with prosperity, making for an unusual combination of commercial vitality and Mediterranean leisure.

The idea is to begin a sustained and coordinated effort to revive communities by leveraging investments in housing.

As required by law, planning in French cities is shaped by public consultation.

• Holistic: Ensuring the totality of development by including all neighborhood components yields greater rewards than partial or specialized strategies.

Observations, maps, descriptive statistics, or benchmarks are then used to test the propositions and explain the change.

The talent in science, health, and engineering is yet to be fully tapped, but remains a source of attraction to prospective industry.

Urban enterprise zones reduced taxes, relaxed environmental protections, and sped up permits, under the theory that less government would lead to more private investment.

The overall design provides a distinct vision that is effortlessly etched into memory of those who live, work, or visit the area.

Census Bureau 2002; Savitch and Kantor 2002, 75; Hoffman-Martinot and Nevers 1989, 183).

In this case, the strategic objective was to entice middle-class house buyers into the city’s segregated West Side and deconcentrate poverty.

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

As propositions take root, so too do results progressively become sharper and more apparent.

Some possible candidates include Providence (Rhode Island), Bridgeport (Connecticut), Charlestown (South Carolina), Richmond (Virginia), Birmingham (Alabama), and Louisville (Kentucky).

Translated into the world of bricks and mortar, this means the EuoMed area added the equivalent of one 10-story office building per year, which soon filled up.

The construction and placement of the tramway required working with the city at a municipal level as well as convincing various metropolitan actors to support the project.

• Magnification (connectivity): Connecting newly acquired assets to one another and to crucial areas of the city allows neighborhoods to build on their own strength.

Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

The reality for American cities is more severe because these cities are far more dependent on their own resources.17 Without regrowth, at least some of America’s declining cities fall short on services, on public amenities, and face cycles of more disintegrative decline.

In this case, the strategic objective was to entice middle-class house buyers into the city’s segregated West Side and deconcentrate poverty.

The consequent smothering of activity can squeeze out any glimmer of hope.

Bendick, Marc, and David W. Rasmussen.

These include converting derelict land uses into urban forests, playgrounds, landscaped quadrangles, community gardens, new waterfronts, and designed gateways.

That is, decline is more than a mere symptom but a cause of deeper disintegration, carrying into lost industries, rotted buildings, and neighborhood abandonment.

A partial list includes Luminy (health, biotechnology, high tech), Chateau Gombert (robotics, instrumentation, and electronics), Saint-Mitre (chemistry), and Les Arnavaux (agriculture).

The respondents were broken down into thirds and came from (1) EuroMed, (2) neighborhood associations and nongovernmental organizations, and (3) elected representatives.

Proponents of planned shrinkage also argue that the reduction of decayed land would enhance property values in healthier parts of the city and investments could be better applied (Schilling and Logan 2008; Lanks 2006).

Complementing this impressive hardware is a store of human capital located at nearby universities.

The fabricated shortage allows for demand to stay pent up and permits EuroMed to make its own calls with respect to building standards and developer contributions.

The city of Detroit presents an abject case of why some places cannot build themselves out of decline.

The record on UEZs is mixed, with some researchers finding moderately positive results and others finding no significant change (Engberg and Greenbaum 1999; Boarnet and Bogart 1996; Bondonio and Engberg 2000).

By the turn into the twenty-first century, the disparities between these localities and a declining central city were all too evident (Donzel 2007).

With more than 80% of the area’s population, Marseille plays the heavyweight role in metropolitan governance and land use.6 Another significant aspect to French urban development is the surfeit of assistance from the State and to a lesser extent from regional authorities.

Funding The author received financial support for the research from the Fulbright Commission (European Union) and from the University of Louisville’s Office of the Executive Vice President for Research (Research Completion Grant).

Employment in EuroMed: 1991-2007 Source: Agence d’Urbanisme de l’Agglomération Marseillaise, Euroméditerranée, Marseille, France Mars, 2010 Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 Savitch 819 Keeping the theory of change in mind, I put some numbers to conceptual use.

Strategies and models: Community development corporations. http://www.community-wealth.org/strategies/apnel/cdcs/index.html (accessed March 10, 2011).

Despite its congestion, Marseille is an easy city to get around by bus, rail, or automobile.

The accumulated data are derived from three distinct sources: (1) qualitative material (planning documents, published articles, technical reports, and maps); (2) quantitative accounts (censuses, special studies, and opinion surveys); and (3) structured interviews.

Even the cleanup and rebuilding of the docks took EuroMed afield in order to work with the public corporation managing the waterfront.

One way to reinforce this momentum is by patiently holding back on development until demand exceeds the supply of buildable space.

In Milwaukee, the fault has been located in “property led development” and class-bound efforts to build a “cool” city with “creative people” (Zimmerman 2008, 233–34).

We should not, however, mistake EuroMed for ordinary “property led” development or as a mere effort to cluster business (Porter 1995).

The fabricated shortage allows for demand to stay pent up and permits EuroMed to make its own calls with respect to building standards and developer contributions.

Quoted in Andersen, L. 2005.

Legibility puts considerable weight on how local residents, business, and workers perceive the built environment.

Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

They establish the geographic limits of cities; they regulate cities through mandates, restrictions, limits on taxation; they furnish aid, infrastructure, and transportation; and most importantly, they serve as regional development agencies.

Some cities may decline because of natural disasters (Galveston), others decline because of warfare or adverse politics (Leipzig), and still others wane because time has passed them by (Winnipeg).

Any such course of action would require removing infrastructure and city services from “shrunken” areas and declaring some land to be off limits for development.

Banks, department stores, hotels, and corporate headquarters filled once empty spaces.

In Leadership and urban regeneration: Cities in North America and Europe, edited by Dennis R. Judd and Michael Parkinson.

To elaborate, other major French cities like Paris and Lyon are rich at the center and enjoy plush riverfronts; most of their poor, immigrant population lives in the suburbs.

Strategic success not only depends on reversing decline but on achieving equity and this challenge transcends national boundaries (Krumholz and Forester 1990; Thomas and Huang 2003; Grant 2002).

Other aspects of decline can be seen in rubble-strewn lots, contaminated land, dilapidated buildings, broken infrastructure, and fiscal indebtedness (Rozhon 2006; Glaeser and Gyourko 2005).

In much the same way that focused pressure on a critical anatomical spot can make human bodies turn around, so too can focused pressure on a crucial space turn a city around.

The caveat for that success depends upon selection and careful husbanding of resources.

By the time clearance was completed, barely 100 households were moved and they were given guarantees of housing in the neighborhood—most of whom have now moved into new apartments on Rue de la République.

A Strategy for Neighborhood Decline and Regrowth: Forging the French Connection H. V. Savitch1 Abstract This paper examines neighborhood decline and takes up the larger issue of formulating a strategy for regrowth.

From brew town to cool town: Neoliberalism and the creative city development strategy in Milwaukee.

The strategy differs markedly from the American or British practice of overbuilding and leaving office stock vacant until renters are found (Fainstein 2001).

Moving towards a shrinking cities metric: Analyzing land use changes associated with depopulation in Flint, Michigan.

The story of high expectations and disappointing outcomes can be repeated for other declining American cities––sometimes for different reasons.

While the organization is overseen by a 20-member board of directors, its staff is quite small and limited by statute to just 30 individuals.

Any such course of action would require removing infrastructure and city services from “shrunken” areas and declaring some land to be off limits for development.

Key aspects of Marseille’s decline are best summed up as a product of long-term exogenous pressures that weigh heavily on the central city and drain its vitality.

Schema also calls attention to “re-balancing” (rééquilibrage) of the neighborhoods (II:6); further, holistic development is elaborated in a statement of EuroMed’s objectives that calls for establishing “social inclusion” (“mixité sociale”), “reducing poverty,” “improving the quality of urban life,” “creating conditions for welcoming new residents,” and “incorporating neighborhood associations into the development project and into the social, economic and cultural life of the community”

It all depends on the size of the area and the depth required for regrowth.

Perhaps the most effective sprinkler can be found in France’s transport system, which has made high-speed rail accessible to major metropolises of the county.

Washington, DC: Aspen Institute.

Rather than concentrating on areas that hold a potential for success, the United States disperses assistance and has a tendency to begin with the poorest communities.14 This practice goes back many decades and among its shortcomings is that policies rarely meet their objective, thereby souring the public taste for further assistance (Lawrence, Stoker, and Wollman 2010; Savitch and Osgood 2010).

Other aspects of decline can be seen in rubble-strewn lots, contaminated land, dilapidated buildings, broken infrastructure, and fiscal indebtedness (Rozhon 2006; Glaeser and Gyourko 2005).

Those living in the small cities outside Marseille resent the extraordinary amount of money put into streets and buildings that they are not apt to use (pers. interv.,

Whether the reference is to CDCs, housing-led development, UEZs, or planned shrinkage, the strategies involve efforts to combat threats to a city by improving its circumstances.

Marseille does not have the business cache of Paris or the technical prowess of Toulouse, but it is gradually carving a prominent niche for itself by magnifying its capacities.

A “housing-led” strategy was the catalyst in Richmond’s program of Neighborhoods in Bloom (NiB), as it sought to enhance capital investment, code enforcement, and counseling.

Nevertheless, everyone pushed on because EuroMed seemed like the best vehicle to spark Marseille’s recovery.

Gouvernance (La) métropolitaine: Réalisation d’un état des connaissances, critique et prospectif, sur les enjeux de la métropolisation.

Rather, a carefully constructed urban strategy catalyzed revival in a key neighborhood of Marseille and may very well have brought on other ripples of change.

Notwithstanding these benefits the strategy gives rise to issues of social equity.

Numbers for the years 2011-2012 are derived from legal commitment to build office space.

A quasi-experimental study of Richmond demonstrated that when targeted over a sustained period, NiB brought about a significant rise in house prices (Galster, Tatian, and Accordino 2006).1 A key study of HOPE VI that relied on aggregate data concluded that the program “achieved substantial success” while case studies showed mixed results (Popkin et al.

Neighborhood associations, local councils, ordinary citizens, and elected leaders took part in the deliberations.11 These debates also included national ministers, city politicians, and representatives from the chamber of commerce.

Jobs followed in the wake of improvement with an annual increase of 1.4% (INSEE 2009, 4).

While the organization is overseen by a 20-member board of directors, its staff is quite small and limited by statute to just 30 individuals.

Industry had moved closer to the airport at Marignane; upper-middle class households settled in hamlets such as Les Milles; and, Marseille’s northern rival, Aix-en-Provence, claimed preeminence as the region’s prestige location.

This aspect of the HICAD strategy can be likened to ju-jitsu, based on the twin strands of pressure and place.

An old port city with a colorful history, Marseille has also been ridden with severe problems.

Disintegrative decline gnaws at the social and physical assets of a city, leaving a disjointed, noncontiguous urban fabric whose corrosion creeps elsewhere.

Like American cities, Marseille’s older housing rotated down the social hierarchy to poor families within the central city.

As designed, CDCs are nonprofit corporations that anchor capital in neighborhoods, mainly by investing in housing and to a lesser extent by stimulating local business and enhancing services (Robinson 1996; Stoecker 1997).

A quasi-experimental study of Richmond demonstrated that when targeted over a sustained period, NiB brought about a significant rise in house prices (Galster, Tatian, and Accordino 2006).1 A key study of HOPE VI that relied on aggregate data concluded that the program “achieved substantial success” while case studies showed mixed results (Popkin et al.

One study does demonstrate that residents of shrinking cities have no less a favorable perception of their quality of life than those who live in growing cities (Hollander 2010).

Also seen in the map is the proximity of this development to the centers of Marseille such as the Old Port (Vieux Port), the principal avenue (La Canebière), the rail station (St. Charles), and the stock exchange (Centre Bourse).

Figure 6 shows the HICAD strategy taking off on its own by comparing the initial public investment to the infusion of private funding over time.

One is also dealing with a city that rose to greatness in the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries and whose time seemed to have passed.

On its western and eastern flanks sit the port cities of Barcelona and Genoa; on the rim of North Africa are port cities like Algiers, Tunis, and Alexandria; and on the eastern flank of the Mediterranean Sea we find Athens, Haifa, and Beirut.

At the very base of downtown, the waterfront took on a life of its own.

One might assume that if Marseille can return, cities located elsewhere are also capable of recovering.

Keywords urban strategy and planning, neighborhood decline and growth, development versus social equity, French vis-à-vis American urban policy, Marseille’s development Searching: A Strategy for Declining Cities When something is broken, our immediate inclination is to try and fix it, so it has been with the decline of American cities.

Over the course of 15 years it brought back densities, increased employment, rebuilt infrastructure and renewed a community.

In doing this, I take a city that reversed urban decline and elucidate its broader effects.

By the period between 2004 through 2007, that acceleration took off by an average increase of nearly 3,000 jobs annually.

The HICAD strategy differs from those used in the United States and employs five basic ideas—selection, pressure, magnification (connectivity), leverage and a holistic perspective.

Nevertheless, Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 830 Urban Affairs Review 47(6) some European cities, particularly in Great Britain but also on the Continent have suffered from deindustrialization.

HICAD is also portable and may be used in conjunction with other strategies currently applied in American cities.

A Strategy for Neighborhood Decline and Regrowth: Forging the French Connection H. V. Savitch1 Abstract This paper examines neighborhood decline and takes up the larger issue of formulating a strategy for regrowth.

An important part of opening up the sea to the public involved putting an unsightly auto route underground.

Rather than concentrating on areas that hold a potential for success, the United States disperses assistance and has a tendency to begin with the poorest communities.14 This practice goes back many decades and among its shortcomings is that policies rarely meet their objective, thereby souring the public taste for further assistance (Lawrence, Stoker, and Wollman 2010; Savitch and Osgood 2010).

HICAD is also portable and may be used in conjunction with other strategies currently applied in American cities.

In fact, HICAD would work better at state levels because they shorten the bureaucratic pyramid and states are less likely to be besieged by large competing cities.

By the criteria listed here, Camden is “beyond the point of no return” and would not be suitable for HICAD.

Some EZ/EC recipients like Baltimore, Detroit, and Cleveland received more than 100 million in funding, while others like Oakland received $47 million and many were awarded as little as $3 million (Louisville).

Declining neighborhoods can be identified by significant losses in population, employment, business establishments, investments, house ownership, and building occupancy (Schilling and Logan 2008; Oswalt 2005, 2006; Rybczynski and Linneman 1999; Glaeser 2010).

These figures have been rechecked through multiple sources (EuroMéditerranée 2000, 1; Dubois, Douay, and Da Silva 2007, 35; Donzel 2009; EuroMéditerranée 1998, 2) 10.

“Sprinkling” from higher level government includes substantial contributions to local budgets and taking on responsibility for key municipal functions.

By the period between 2004 through 2007, that acceleration took off by an average increase of nearly 3,000 jobs annually.

As such, it can be slotted into a variety of programs and strategies––some of which were discussed at the outset of this article.

These include converting derelict land uses into urban forests, playgrounds, landscaped quadrangles, community gardens, new waterfronts, and designed gateways.

As designed, CDCs are nonprofit corporations that anchor capital in neighborhoods, mainly by investing in housing and to a lesser extent by stimulating local business and enhancing services (Robinson 1996; Stoecker 1997).

Further away, cities in the region like Aix-en-Provence and Nice had absorbed the bulk of new growth in tourism, services, and high technology.

Labeled as “technopoles,” each is distinguished by a functional specialty.

Journal of Planning Education and Research 27 (3): 277–93.

A “housing-led” strategy was the catalyst in Richmond’s program of Neighborhoods in Bloom (NiB), as it sought to enhance capital investment, code enforcement, and counseling.

As designed, CDCs are nonprofit corporations that anchor capital in neighborhoods, mainly by investing in housing and to a lesser extent by stimulating local business and enhancing services (Robinson 1996; Stoecker 1997).

Those living in other parts of the metropolitan area wanted nothing to do with a run-down central city, whose persona has been defined by crime and “ethnic” minorities (in this instance from North Africa).

During the initial period of intervention the average yearly increase amounted Figure 5.

HICAD’s portability also carries into numerous community development corporations (CDCs) that dot American cities (Vidal 1996).

Old warehouses were refurbished, new buildings constructed, and a new, shiny tramway brought passengers to EuroMed’s doorstep at La Joliette.

On its western and eastern flanks sit the port cities of Barcelona and Genoa; on the rim of North Africa are port cities like Algiers, Tunis, and Alexandria; and on the eastern flank of the Mediterranean Sea we find Athens, Haifa, and Beirut.

The great advantage of developing proximate neighborhoods lies in their capacity to magnify the strength of development.

Government and Opposition 43 (3): 406–35.

For the most part, programs are spread thinly across the nation (CDCs, UEZs) or reliant on a single sector (housing-led development) or heavily defensive (planned shrinkage).

The questions turn on (1) What are the elements that can be found in such a strategy?

Keywords urban strategy and planning, neighborhood decline and growth, development versus social equity, French vis-à-vis American urban policy, Marseille’s development Searching: A Strategy for Declining Cities When something is broken, our immediate inclination is to try and fix it, so it has been with the decline of American cities.

Keywords urban strategy and planning, neighborhood decline and growth, development versus social equity, French vis-à-vis American urban policy, Marseille’s development Searching: A Strategy for Declining Cities When something is broken, our immediate inclination is to try and fix it, so it has been with the decline of American cities.

Also seen in the map is the proximity of this development to the centers of Marseille such as the Old Port (Vieux Port), the principal avenue (La Canebière), the rail station (St. Charles), and the stock exchange (Centre Bourse).

It holds a large number of blue-collar families; it is home to a significant number of poor immigrants; and it suffers from a substandard educational system.

Mixed use in theory and practice: Canadian experience with implementing a planning principle.

Certainly not everyone within the city was helped, and poverty persists in its northern neighborhoods.

On its western and eastern flanks sit the port cities of Barcelona and Genoa; on the rim of North Africa are port cities like Algiers, Tunis, and Alexandria; and on the eastern flank of the Mediterranean Sea we find Athens, Haifa, and Beirut.

By 2010, the area had grown into a vital neighborhood, more than doubling its population to nearly 63,000 people.

In Leadership and urban regeneration: Cities in North America and Europe, edited by Dennis R. Judd and Michael Parkinson.

HICAD is best treated as a flexible practice rather than a hardened institution.

Despite its congestion, Marseille is an easy city to get around by bus, rail, or automobile.

In much the same way that focused pressure on a critical anatomical spot can make human bodies turn around, so too can focused pressure on a crucial space turn a city around.

Transportation map of Marseille Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 814 Urban Affairs Review 47(6) One should note that some of the most critical portions of the transit system appeared in tandem with EuroMed’s efforts.

Declining cities already have dense networks of mass transit and airport terminals, utility lines, and drainage systems.

Key aspects of Marseille’s decline are best summed up as a product of long-term exogenous pressures that weigh heavily on the central city and drain its vitality.

One is also dealing with a city that rose to greatness in the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries and whose time seemed to have passed.

Declining neighborhoods can be identified by significant losses in population, employment, business establishments, investments, house ownership, and building occupancy (Schilling and Logan 2008; Oswalt 2005, 2006; Rybczynski and Linneman 1999; Glaeser 2010).

Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.

Bio Hank Savitch is a former President of the Urban Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.

Figure 7 shows the rest of Marseille tracking along with EuroMed for much of the recent period.

Marseille is also connected by place and function to outlying smaller cities like La Ciotat (maritime industry) and Marignane (helicopters and aeronautics).

His latest work was published in 2008 and is titled Cities in a Time of Terror: Space, Territory and Local Resilience.

Marseille is France’s single great gateway to the Mediterranean, its port is unmatched by any other French city, its population Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 Savitch 805 is among the most heterogeneous in the country, and its built environment of nineteenth-century Hausmannian architecture coupled to an open seacoast puts it in the mold of a “dual city” (Mollenkopf and Castells 1991).

Notice the locations of these neighborhoods as they roughly embrace the area around the ports and docks (Cite de la Méditerrané).

The statistical improvement also showed up in a visual improvement.

As some writers put it, planned shrinkage does not necessarily entail a change “from something to nothing” but rather a promising adaption to new realities (Hollander et al.

In working through HICAD candidacy, three criteria stand out.

Another element of development pressure pertains to limiting the supply of developable space.

A Strategy for Neighborhood Decline and Regrowth: Forging the French Connection H. V. Savitch1 Abstract This paper examines neighborhood decline and takes up the larger issue of formulating a strategy for regrowth.

Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 Savitch 835 Keating, W. Dennis, and Norman Krumholz.

A quasi-experimental study of Richmond demonstrated that when targeted over a sustained period, NiB brought about a significant rise in house prices (Galster, Tatian, and Accordino 2006).1 A key study of HOPE VI that relied on aggregate data concluded that the program “achieved substantial success” while case studies showed mixed results (Popkin et al.

Camden (New Jersey) illustrates another way in which HICAD can work in conjunction with planned shrinkage.

Further down the coastline and within commuting distance of the zone lie Marseille’s finest neighborhoods.

An important part of opening up the sea to the public involved putting an unsightly auto route underground.

Schema also calls attention to “re-balancing” (rééquilibrage) of the neighborhoods (II:6); further, holistic development is elaborated in a statement of EuroMed’s objectives that calls for establishing “social inclusion” (“mixité sociale”), “reducing poverty,” “improving the quality of urban life,” “creating conditions for welcoming new residents,” and “incorporating neighborhood associations into the development project and into the social, economic and cultural life of the community”

A quasi-experimental study of Richmond demonstrated that when targeted over a sustained period, NiB brought about a significant rise in house prices (Galster, Tatian, and Accordino 2006).1 A key study of HOPE VI that relied on aggregate data concluded that the program “achieved substantial success” while case studies showed mixed results (Popkin et al.

Like American cities, Marseille’s older housing rotated down the social hierarchy to poor families within the central city.

A related approach channels public and private funding into distressed neighborhoods.

Perforce these are “big picture” items, embracing multiple dimensions of urban regeneration that pertain to the built environment, employment, infrastructure, amenities, and housing.

Similarly, Louisville’s Park Duvalle neighborhood used HOPE VI and local funding to replace public dwellings with market-rate housing.

The transformation can take place along the edges of a city, thereby ringing it with a green belt, or it can occur throughout the urban core, where residents can enjoy green islands and vest pocket parks.

At another level, Marseille is connected to France’s other major cities with strong links to Western European cities.

Strategists are fond of situating Marseille within the “blue banana” of Europe—a vertical curvature in the shape of a banana that stretches from London at its northern tip into Brussels, Paris, and Lyon at midpoint and terminating in Marseille at its southern tip (EuroMéditerranée 2000).

There are numerous cities where reduced population actually indicates an improvement in the quality of life or no discernible difference from growing cities (Leo and Brown 2002; Savitch and Kantor 2002; Hollander et al.

The intention of treating EuroMed as high priority was clear and unmistakable, but it was one matter to make a declaration and another matter to ensure its implementation.

Popkin, Susan J., Bruce Katz, Mary K. Cunningham, Karen D. Brown, Jeremy Gustafson, and Margery A. Turner.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

It holds a large number of blue-collar families; it is home to a significant number of poor immigrants; and it suffers from a substandard educational system.

Phrased differently, the theory relies on the acuity of general propositions to expose the results of a specific intervention.

Today more than 4,000 CDCs are spread throughout 50 states in most major cities of the nation (Community-Wealth 2007).

As propositions take root, so too do results progressively become sharper and more apparent.

Two decades of French Urban policy: From social development of neighborhoods to the Republican Penal State.

In this case, the strategic objective was to entice middle-class house buyers into the city’s segregated West Side and deconcentrate poverty.

Greening the rust belt: A green infrastructure model for right sizing America’s shrinking cities.

UEZs have been used in the United Kingdom and a variant has been adopted in France (Zones Franches or “free zones”).

Some EZ/EC recipients like Baltimore, Detroit, and Cleveland received more than 100 million in funding, while others like Oakland received $47 million and many were awarded as little as $3 million (Louisville).

While Americans may question the costs relative to its benefits, public opinion in Marseille is pleased with the outcome.

It began with a budget of 1.7 billion Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 Savitch 809 francs ($259 million) and its progenitors made sure it would reflect a partnership between all levels of government (State, city, metropolis).8 EuroMed’s multilateral partnership was more than just a matter of cost sharing, but a mechanism to engage important actors at all levels of the political establishment.

Industry had moved closer to the airport at Marignane; upper-middle class households settled in hamlets such as Les Milles; and, Marseille’s northern rival, Aix-en-Provence, claimed preeminence as the region’s prestige location.

Sprinkler policies can alleviate fiscal stress or provide highly valued infrastructure or formalize a given objective.

An important part of opening up the sea to the public involved putting an unsightly auto route underground.

It began with a budget of 1.7 billion Downloaded from uar.sagepub.com at UNIV OF LOUISVILLE on April 7, 2013 Savitch 809 francs ($259 million) and its progenitors made sure it would reflect a partnership between all levels of government (State, city, metropolis).8 EuroMed’s multilateral partnership was more than just a matter of cost sharing, but a mechanism to engage important actors at all levels of the political establishment.

Over the years, EuroMed has been careful not to overbuild or oversupply its stock of office space.10 As a matter of practice, no more than 40,000 square meters (430,556 square feet) are released each year in order to ensure there are enough clients for the built spaces (personal interview, 26 October 2009).

As designed, CDCs are nonprofit corporations that anchor capital in neighborhoods, mainly by investing in housing and to a lesser extent by stimulating local business and enhancing services (Robinson 1996; Stoecker 1997).

Some cities may decline because of natural disasters (Galveston), others decline because of warfare or adverse politics (Leipzig), and still others wane because time has passed them by (Winnipeg).

Banks, department stores, hotels, and corporate headquarters filled once empty spaces.

The city also lost more than 50,000 jobs out of a base of more than 350,000, for a 14% drop (INSEE December 2002, 18).

Marseille is no exception to the difficulties posed by coupling neighborhood revitalization and equity.

All of this could change with cleverly implemented shrinkage.

Marseille does not have the business cache of Paris or the technical prowess of Toulouse, but it is gradually carving a prominent niche for itself by magnifying its capacities.

By early 2009, Marseille had climbed back to healthier levels with 852,000 residents (AGAM 2009).

In Marseille, the initial space consisted of 311 hectares (768 acres) within a core area of waterfront, docks, and commerce.

Stoecker, Randy.

Since that time, the area has gained nearly 22,000 jobs, almost halved the unemployment rate, added 35,000 new inhabitants, and built 400,000 square meters (4,305,564 square feet) of residential housing (Donzel 2009; EuroMed 2009; pers. interv.,

For one, it assumes that areas really are comparable— effectively neighborhoods can be treated as replicas of one another (“twins,” “quadruplets,” “sextuplets,” etc.) that respond or do not respond in the same ways to an intervention.