Government Programs for Commercial Redevelopment in Poor Neighborhoods: The Cases of Spitalfields in East London and Downtown Brooklyn, NY

Abstract

Since the economic crisis of the mid-1970s, urban governments in the United States and Great Britain have used programs to stimulate office development as their main vehicle for encouraging economic growth. Two cases of government-sponsored redevelopment are compared: Spitalfields in East London and downtown Brooklyn, New York. Both are in impoverished peripheral areas and involve the creation of large projects that require a transformation of land uses; each involves the activity of a public-private partnership. Despite some differences in types of governmental activity that result from different ideological and institutional traditions, the elements of the two projects are strikingly alike.