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Despite growing public opposition, megaevents such as the Summer Olympics continue to proliferate both in the Global North and South, thus reshaping the built environment of cities and the living conditions of their inhabitants. This paper presents a novel analytical tool that expands the perspectives from which to explore urban megaevents. Building on the controversy among megaproject scholars around Albert Hirschman's Hiding Hand principle, we study the diverse roles that optimism can play in the justification, planning, implementation, and evaluation of megaevents. This approach has the potential to unveil key urban policy agendas underpinning the hosting of megaevents. It does so by focusing on two key aspects: first, the various types and degrees of power exercised by the involved stakeholders in their attempts to justify and support or oppose an event during the planning phase, and second, the coping mechanisms deployed by the promoters as they face unexpected constraints during the implementation phase. In doing so, the approach can help to develop more nuanced and context-specific criteria for evaluating the success of megaevents. We exemplify the approach by using the 1992 Barcelona Olympics as an illustrative case study. • The Hiding Hand controversy provides a framework for the analysis of urban megaevents. • We use the Barcelona 1992 Olympics as case study to illustrate the framework. • Sincere and strategic overoptimism play diverse roles throughout a megaevent lifecycle. • The analysis exemplifies the context-dependence of the notions of success and failure. • Sincere and strategic overoptimism typically operate in tandem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theories of Jane Jacobs have gained momentum as a framework to address the challenges faced by present-day cities. Of special relevance is the concept of urban vitality as an indicator of street vibrancy and quality of life among city residents. This study aims to revisit her principles from an applied perspective by developing an updated index that measures the conditions for urban vitality as described in her most celebrated book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), and by also incorporating contemporary contributions made by recent literature on the topic. We develop a composite measure of 22 variables of the built and social environment, and we test it in the urban context of a peripherical and low-income district in Barcelona (Spain). Results show that urban vitality can be found in a wide variety of urban spaces such as compact fabrics and even housing projects, only when population density is combined with physical features that promote intense and diverse human activity. The methodological tool developed in this paper is intended to serve as a basis for future research as well as to guide public policies that aim to address some of the key challenges of contemporary urban agenda. • We present an updated version of Jane Jacobs urban vitality index. • Peripheral and low-income enclaves are able to foster the conditions for vitality. • Keys for vitality: population density, everyday facilities, dense network of local business and accessibility. • An index of urban vitality is a useful and replicable tool for urban practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The built environment can mediate or constrain the opportunities for social interaction, essential to the formation of social ties. This study uses the large inflow of immigrants in Barcelona between 1998 and 2008 to study whether the configuration of buildings and open urban areas in a block is associated with the residential segregation of immigrants—a proxy for social interaction. Based on a rich set of shape metrics, I use machine learning techniques to classify each block in Barcelona into one of eight typologies, which provide a summary measure of their built environment. I then combine these data with measures of residential segregation constructed at the building level using data on the exact address of each resident of Barcelona. The findings show that some features of the built environment of a block—as measured by the typologies—are systematically associated with reduced residential segregation of Spaniards and newly arrived immigrants in that block. • The paper uses the large inflow of immigrants in Barcelona between 1998 and 2008 to study how the configuration of buildings and open urban areas has mediated the residential segregation of immigrants. • The empirical analysis combines several geometric indicators for urban shape and uses Machine Learning techniques to create a categorical measure of urban form. • The results suggest that certain spatial qualities of the built environment are associated with the degree to which immigrants become segregated and are potentially relevant to the fields of urban design, planning, and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]