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To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2007.00373.x Byline: ELIZABETH STROM (1) Abstract: ABSTRACT: In the political science literature, downtown redevelopment has long been seen as the project of a region's economic elites. But in recent years, large corporations, banks, and department stores have in many cases abandoned central business districts, and downtowns are now more likely to be developed as centers of entertainment and culture, or as residential districts. This article posits that changing downtown land uses are accompanied by changes in the downtown influence structure, with nonprofit sector and real estate industry leaders now dominating downtown business organizations. Author Affiliation: (1)University of South Florida Article note: Direct Correspondence to: Professor Elizabeth Strom, Department of Geography, NES 107, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620. E-mail: estrom@cas.usf.edu.

Over the past three decades, those advocating for arts funding have shifted their arguments. When the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) was created in 1965, its supporters praised arts and culture for their uplifting qualities, and for their ability to counterbalance trends toward materialism and militarism. By the 1990s, arts advocates were far more likely to use instrumentalist arguments, showing that investment in arts and culture produce other desirable benefits, most notably economic development advances. This article reviews the changing discourse of arts advocacy in several ways: (1) by reviewing and coding Congressional debates on arts funding from 1965-2000, (2) reviewing arts coverage in the New York Times and selected arts periodicals during this same time period. Comparing this case to others in the literature on policy redefinition, the paper argues that cultural advocates have consciously reframed their arguments to broaden their appeal in the face new and more threatening opposition., Let us realize that the nonprofit arts industry alone generates more than $36.8 million annually in economic activity. It supports 1.3 million jobs. It returns more than $3.4 million to [...]

This article develops an integrated framework for comparing urban governance cross nationally. Joining together structural, cultural, and rational actor approaches to cross-national comparison, it explains the institutional milieux of urban governance in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany. Comparison of public-private partnership arrangements in cities of these four countries is used to demonstrate the utility of this integrated framework.

The importance of cultural institutions to contemporary revitalization efforts in U.S. cities is attributed to several factors. First, the transformation of the urban political economy has made cities more dependent on their consumption economies. Second, urban cultural institutions have a strong interest in improving their surroundings, especially now that they have become more dependent on revenue-generating activities and on funding sources interested in attracting broad audiences. Finally, cultural hierarchies have become less rigid, allowing cultural institutions to draw on serious and popular art forms.

The unification of Germany led to a debate on the relocation of the capital with Berlin winning majority of parliamentary votes in June 1991. However the contradictory ideas of the capital as an urban city and as a center of authority hazard the redevelopment of Berlin. The unification of east and west Berlin with a demand for economic restructuring and land and office space cannot be solved by changing the seat of government.

Arts and culture are seldom a central concern of United States public policy literature. Indeed, United States cultural policy is often both neglected and misunderstood. This neglect may stem from [...]

Arts and cultural activities have become an increasingly important aspect of urban and regional development. Can such projects be seen as socially innovative? Socially innovative projects are here understood as those that create new ways of looking at problems, new organisational means for dealing with problems and solutions that go beyond market efficiency. This paper considers arts-based redevelopment projects at regional, municipal and neighbourhood scales. Its focus is on US cities with some examples drawn from Europe. Initiatives to build regional creative economies and creative clusters, and to revitalise buildings and neighbourhoods through cultural activities can be seen as socially innovative, although they can also catalyse market processes that can have deleterious impacts on vulnerable communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of new cultural facilities has become a key aspect of urban economic development strategy. This article analyzes the confluence of interests that brings public officials, arts entrepreneurs, and arts patrons together in support of these projects. The case of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center is Newark is offered as an example. Here, the state government took the lead, city officials, private sector interests and the arts community have all mobilized to bring about the arts center's creation. The center's development process is discussed and its impact evaluated.

In this study, we find the subsequent price for a property initially sold as a real estate owned (REO) property occurs at market prices. The subsequent price to the REO purchaser is related to indicators that the property has been remodeled, renovated, or updated. This suggests that the difference between the price received by servicers/lenders that foreclose and sell a REO property, and the price received by subsequent property owners that sell is in large part due to timely improvements made postforeclosure. Lenders are not selling REO properties at irrational prices, but rather at prices that reflect the condition of the properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful transformation of Asheville’s downtown from desolate to vibrant is noteworthy. This article shows how successful redevelopment coalitions have shaped the downtown, with focus on the post-1980 period. In recent decades, public-sector officials and private investors have collaborated to create a downtown rooted in an architecturally significant historic built environment and based on independent business. Those most active have often crossed business, creative, and philanthropic sectors in ways we describe as “social entrepreneurial.” The Asheville downtown coalition differs from the progrowth as well as the populist (progressive) regimes identified in other literature, but offers insights into downtown development efforts as urban governance becomes more fragmented and city development policy more focused on tourism and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Place Matters speaks eloquently of the shifts within and between US metropolitan areas, and the problems of growing racial and economic segregation. It's argument is more compelling, however, in describing the "legacy" cities of the Northeast and Midwest than it is in illuminating the most pressing issues for Sunbelt cities. Sunbelt metropolitan areas continue to grow, but they exhibit different economic geographies and political dynamics. This article probes some of these differences and suggests future avenues for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores some of the contradictions that have risen as the location of the seat of government has been debated and its accommodations in Berlin, Germany, have been planned. We first describe the Hauptstadt debate as a national political issue and the focus on its significance to Berlin. We go on to outline the economic and spatial consequences of the city's division and unification before describing the actual plans and planning process for the center of government. The Hauptstadt debate, which preoccupied German editorial pages as well as the Bundestag during the spring of 1991, was waged over both historical and contemporary conflicts. These wide-ranging arguments can be grouped into three categories: capital city as historical symbol, capital city as political milieu, and capital city as a catalyst of regional development. Optimists view recent developments as a brief hiatus before the abating of the recession and the arrival of the federal government make their impacts on the local economy. Pessimists see high vacancy rates and failed investments lasting well into the new century. The local regime in Berlin has, meanwhile, done little to help the city meet its new economic challenges.