Creative Places: Post-Industrial Cultural Districts in the Urban Northeast
Open AccessAmerican cities have redeveloped their urban landscapes in the last century due to the collapse of once significant industrial centers. Industry has both moved to local outlying suburbs and globally relocated. Those movements of mass production have resulted in the vacancy of land in the city center. Growing urban populations and the desire to concentrate business activity in city centers has led to the vacant land being rediscovered and reclaimed for the potential valuable in prime city center locations. Yet many post-industrial cities struggle to redevelop and attract businesses that might capture the land for profitable use. This paper explores the role cultural planning in post-industrial cities, specifically through cultural districts. These districts are formalized areas of concentrated cultural activity, often supported with tax incentives and state regulation. The districts serve to preserve and promote cultural value, revitalize and redevelop declining urban centers, attract residents and reintegrate the land into the surrounding community, and promote economic stimulation. While cultural district implementation is often found in cities across America, post-industrial cities face particular challenges over other urban centers, combating mounting issues of economic downfall and gentrification, and struggling with successful long term implementation, community buy-in, and changing general perception, but when successful, the districts can re-image the industrial city. This paper examines the successes and challenges of cultural districts through using examples from three post-industrial cities located in the Northeast.
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