Redevelopment Planning and Distributive Justice in the American Metropolis

The paper examines the forces shaping American redevelopment policy and its outcomes. Its central argument is that nearly sixty years of programs have involved significant changes in administrative form, funding, scale, justifications, content, public participation, and the composition of redevelopment coalitions. At the same time, however, the separation of physical and social components of redevelopment efforts has changed little and the distribution of benefits has largely favored developers and business interests regardless of the alleged aims of the program. Consequently while redevelopment programs have contributed to revival of previously declining cities, they have rarely acted as agencies for producing greater justice within metropolitan areas. I briefly trace the history of government-sponsored redevelopment programs in the United States since the Housing Act of 1949. That history is periodized according to each phase’s general thrust, with the recognition that there was always local variation. The causal factors underlying the shifts delimiting each period are delineated. These factors, which are numerous and interactive, include political pressures and changes in national and urban regimes; economic restructuring; changing demographics; and ideological currents. The paper concludes with an argument concerning the relationship between spatial and social justice, indicating the general principles – equity, democracy, and diversity – that should govern urban redevelopment policy, and specifying particular types of policies that would embody those principles