New Urbanism's Role in Inner-city Neighborhood Revitalization

Abstract

The new urbanism has become an increasingly popular development strategy for outlying greenfield sites. Recently, the Congress for the New Urbanism, the formal arm of the movement, began emphasizing urban infill and revitalization. This paper explores the public sector's application of the new urbanism through planning and regulatory tools intended to foster inner-city revitalization. Specifically, it examines a local variation of the new urbanism and its implementation within a broader framework of neighborhood revitalization that seeks to balance economic development, smart growth and equity goals to realize the ideal of the just city. Assessing over 12 years of experience in Orlando, Florida, this study demonstrates the difficulty of fully implementing the new urbanism in such projects, particularly in lower-income neighborhoods, and inherent conflicts when design solutions, economic development and housing goals are not mutually supportive.

Keywords:

• Gentrification
• affordable housing
• new urbanism

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Charles Connerly and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.