Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

Redevelopment, renewal, revitalization, regeneration: all are buzzwords for the government policies aimed at reversing the urban blight and decline that has continually plagued the once thriving cities of the United States and the United Kingdom. The loss of jobs and people to the suburbs has left the cities and their remaining residents behind to deal with issues of poverty, homelessness, and crime. Despite the fact that politicians, social scientists and even urban residents have attempted and proposed various solutions over the past several decades, today such problems continue to plague the inner city neighborhoods of both nations.

Probiems of urban blight and decline come to the top of a government's agenda when key events prompt extensive media coverage. For example, following the Los Angeles riots in the early 1990s, the "urban crisis" in the United States was the subject of magazine cover stories, congressional debate and television talk shows. As part of their presidential campaigns, President Bush and his Democratic rivals visited Los Angeles and other cities to demonstrate their concern. 2 More recently, in the United Kingdom, the 2003 New Year's shootings of two teenage girls in the city of Aston sparked a debate about gun violence and the need to empower communities to overcome their social problems.' Yet with forecasts in Great Britain estimating that 4 million new households will form in that country by the year 2021," and increasingly less land left undeveloped, the revitalization of cities must remain a crucial part of any government's agenda.

The cities of the United States and United Kingdom are not in their present state for a lack of effort aimed at their revitalization. Since World War II, the governments of both nations have attempted to make their cities places that people want to both live and work in. These attempted solutions have been economic in nature, focusing on the growth and sustainability of businesses and residents; social, focusing on education, health and welfare systems; and physical, focusing on the quality and nature of the cities.' This note will argue, however, that past policies and solutions were unsuccessful because they failed to make connections among all three aspects. Only now are programs, specifically the Community Renewal Initiative of the United States and the United Kingdom's more comprehensive program of Urban Renaissance, giving urban communities the tools they need to take a holistic approach to their problems from the inside out.

In section one, this note will first examine the problems facing the inner cities of the United States and the United Kingdom and the need for their revitalization. Section two will examine the historical policy responses and programs of both governments from post-World War II through the conservative governments of the 1980s. Section three will then show how the lessons learned from past policies are now being used to create comprehensive solutions to urban problems, with Great Britain setting an example for other nations to follow. Ultimately, while there is not a single solution that can solve every city's problems, the new urban policies that have been implemented by both nations represent a dramatic break from past thinking, and therefore may be the first step towards enacting long-term changes.

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