Resilient downtowns : a new approach to revitalizing small- and medium-city downtowns / Michael A. Burayidi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burayidi, Michael A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Urban renewal.

Community development, Urban.

Physical Description:

viii, 237 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

1 edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2013.

Summary:

Resilient Downtows details the innovative and successful approaches that cities have used to revitalize their core downtown areas. Downtowns play an important function despite the problems that city centers have faced in the last couple of decades-deteriorating infrastructures, high vacancy rates, and flight to the suburbs. What most of these communities need is not an enumeration of their problems, but a guide on how to move forward with programs and policies that can help them rejuvenate their downtowns. While the downtown success stories of large cities have been well touted, those of smaller urban communities where a majority of Americans live, is less well-known. With this in mind, Burayidi focuses on small and mid-sized cities. Resilient Downtowns explores how small-city downtowns have weathered economic boom and bust, through Burayidi's "en-RICHED" approach, a four-part strategy of residential development, immigration strategy, civic and cultural functionality, heritage tourism, and smart urban design practice. Key features include: fourteen case studies showing how successful communities have redeveloped, and how their success can be replicated in other downtowns; information on how to revitalize in periods of austerity and how the recession is affecting revitalization strategies in small cities; an alternative model to the Main Street Model with a focus on baby boomers, non-traditional families, new immigrants, cultural tourism, and regional culture. Resilient Downtowns is an essential guidebook for planning and real estate development professionals, main streets managers, and others involved in redeveloping downtown cores as well as students beginning their careers in these areas. Book jacket.

Contents:

Bringing downtowns back to life

Regional and historical context of the resilient downtowns

Cultivating downtown living

Courting new immigrants

Downtowns as civic and cultural centers

Historic preservation and heritage tourism

Designing resilient downtowns

Economic distress and downtown revitalization

Downtown alive!

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780415827652

0415827655

9780415827669

0415827663

OCLC:

823014080