Neighborhood Revitalization and Historic Preservation in U.S. Legacy Cities

Legacy cities – also known as shrinking, rust belt, and post-industrial cities – are places facing persistent population decline, disinvestment, and structural economic challenges. Scholars and practitioners argue that historic buildings are among the key assets for neighborhood stabilization and revitalization, yet demolition of existing buildings is a dominant public policy approach in legacy cities. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods, this three-essay dissertation (1) develops a typology of legacy city neighborhoods across five cities (Baltimore, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Richmond, & St. Louis) and five census decades (1970-2010), (2) identifies patterns of federal historic rehabilitation tax credit (RTC) activity and evaluates the effects of RTC investments on racial, socioeconomic, and housing characteristics across legacy city neighborhood types from 2000 to 2010, and (3) examines how and why RTCs are deployed as a preservation tool in different neighborhood contexts. Hierarchical cluster analysis and discriminant analysis are employed in the first essay, identifying eight distinct neighborhood types (Established & Stable Homeowners; Highly Bifurcated; Competitive, Educated, & Struggling; Educated Newcomers; White Immigrants; Declining & Black; Black, Stressed, & Disadvantaged; Collapsed Urban Core) and supporting the coherency of legacy cities as a meaningful analytic grouping. In the second essay, descriptive statistics show the distribution of RTC activity across all legacy city neighborhood types, and a difference-in-differences regression model counters arguments in the existing literature that RTCs contribute to revitalization or gentrification in legacy cities. Using key person interviews and a comparative case study approach of two St. Louis neighborhoods, the final essay uncovers key lessons as to how and why the RTC functions as a preservation and reinvestment tool across different types of neighborhoods in a declining citywide context, including the size/scale of historic urban fabric, importance of stable neighborhoods as testing grounds for RTC investments, role of situational conditions and cultural contexts, and the economic and cultural values rooted in RTC decision-making

Ohio Utica Shale Region Monitor

In 2011, drilling for oil and gas recommenced in the state of Ohio after a century of dormancy, due to recently developed technologies enabling the extraction of hydrocarbons from shale reservoirs that had previously been assumed impermeable and therefore uneconomical. The purpose of this report is to analyze two indicators of economic activity, sales receipts and employment, related to the early stages of Utica and Marcellus shale development in the State of Ohio. Tracking these two measures will assist in the preliminary detection of economic trends that are likely related to the growth of the oil and gas industries in Ohio. Data for these two indicators are readily available from the State of Ohio, which will facilitate the planned quarterly updates to this report

Ohio Utica Shale Gas Monitor

This report analyzes aggregate indicators of economic activity related to the early stages of Utica and Marcellus shale development in the State of Ohio from January through August 2013, reviewing sales receipts as a leading indicator of economic activity, total employment based upon where people live rather than work, well activity, and gas prices

Neighborhood Revitalization and Historic Preservation in U.S. Legacy Cities

Legacy cities – also known as shrinking, rust belt, and post-industrial cities – are places facing persistent population decline, disinvestment, and structural economic challenges. Scholars and practitioners argue that historic buildings are among the key assets for neighborhood stabilization and revitalization, yet demolition of existing buildings is a dominant public policy approach in legacy cities. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods, this three-essay dissertation (1) develops a typology of legacy city neighborhoods across five cities (Baltimore, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Richmond, & St. Louis) and five census decades (1970-2010), (2) identifies patterns of federal historic rehabilitation tax credit (RTC) activity and evaluates the effects of RTC investments on racial, socioeconomic, and housing characteristics across legacy city neighborhood types from 2000 to 2010, and (3) examines how and why RTCs are deployed as a preservation tool in different neighborhood contexts. Hierarchical cluster analysis and discriminant analysis are employed in the first essay, identifying eight distinct neighborhood types (Established & Stable Homeowners; Highly Bifurcated; Competitive, Educated, & Struggling; Educated Newcomers; White Immigrants; Declining & Black; Black, Stressed, & Disadvantaged; Collapsed Urban Core) and supporting the coherency of legacy cities as a meaningful analytic grouping. In the second essay, descriptive statistics show the distribution of RTC activity across all legacy city neighborhood types, and a difference-in-differences regression model counters arguments in the existing literature that RTCs contribute to revitalization or gentrification in legacy cities. Using key person interviews and a comparative case study approach of two St. Louis neighborhoods, the final essay uncovers key lessons as to how and why the RTC functions as a preservation and reinvestment tool across different types of neighborhoods in a declining citywide context, including the size/scale of historic urban fabric, importance of stable neighborhoods as testing grounds for RTC investments, role of situational conditions and cultural contexts, and the economic and cultural values rooted in RTC decision-making

Heraldo de Castellón: Año XLIV Número 13381 - 13 Junio 1933

Copia digital. Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. Subdirección General de Coordinación Bibliotecaria : Madrid, 201

Reviving Cleveland’s Commercial Corridors: Analyzing the Storefront Renovation Program, 1983–2016

In shrinking cities, commercial district decline has mirrored other patterns of depopulation and deindustrialization. Uneven development has emerged as the prevailing spatial pattern for shrinking cities in recent decades. Cleveland’s Storefront Renovation Program (SRP) is a local historic preservation-based strategy focused on improving commercial corridors. In this paper, we investigate whether the urban geography of the SRP aligns with theories of uneven development in shrinking cities. Using address-level data of projects and investments from 1983 to 2016, we analyze the spatial distribution using hot spot analysis, the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, and a neighborhood typology. Overall, we find the SRP program moderately contributed to uneven development, and increasingly so in recent decades, with clear clusters of investment in gentrifying neighborhoods and downtown Cleveland, while also supporting reinvestment in White, working-class areas early in its history

Historic Preservation and Urban Revitalization in the Twenty-First Century

Historic preservation is largely an urban profession with strong ties to city planning and development. Advocates tout preservation as a key driver of urban revitalization, but there remains a dearth of empirical research that addresses this intersection. This article reviews the current state of affairs in preservation, practice and scholarship and builds new connections with four leading discourses in urban revitalization: the New American City, place matters, anchor institutions, and legacy cities. We call for an expansive research agenda to address preservation’s role in revitalization and to rethink preservation policy in the twenty-first century

Historic Preservation in Declining City Neighbourhoods: Analysing Rehabilitation Tax Credit Investments in Six US Cities

Historic preservation is common practice across the world, including in US cities. At the same time, population decline, economic distress and vacancy prevalent in declining cities, also known as legacy, shrinking or post-industrial cities, creates a pressing threat to a vast array of urban historic buildings. In the USA, recent planning and policy emphasises strategic demolition and/or targeting resources in potentially viable neighbourhoods, with little attention paid to historic preservation. To fill this gap, we use a comparative case study of federal historic rehabilitation tax credit (RTC) investments from 2000 to 2010 across the neighbourhoods of six legacy cities: Baltimore, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Providence, Richmond and St. Louis. This is the first study to use disaggregated, longitudinal RTC data to analyse investment at the neighbourhood scale. We use the Hirschman-Herfindahl Index to evaluate investment concentration and US Census 2000 data to characterise neighbourhoods where developers chose to undertake RTC projects. The findings show that RTC investments occurred across a wide range of places, including very low- and low-income neighbourhoods, and produced both market-rate and affordable housing across each city’s neighbourhoods. The findings indicate that preservation occurs across a wide range of legacy city neighbourhoods and inform urban planners and policymakers about locations where the private sector is willing to invest with favourable financing