After Urban Renewal

Chapter 2 traces the changing nature of urban governance and participation between the 1940s and the present. It argues that much of HOPE VI variation is rooted in a city’s experience with earlier efforts at slum clearance, urban renewal, and central-city highways. In those cities where past backlashes against perceived excesses in land taking and displacement in residential areas led to lasting citywide movements to prevent this from happening again, there seems to be much greater protection for the poorest citizens under HOPE VI. Instead of more narrowly constructed urban regimes or growth machines focused in public-private partnerships, broader coalitions develop. Using the metaphor of constellations, the chapter identifies four types of poverty governance: the Big Developer, Publica Major, Nonprofitus, and Plebs. Each of these encompasses diverse players in development initiatives, but corresponds, respectively, to a polestar located in the private sector, public sector, not-for-profit sector, or community sector.