Gentrification is a process of renovating deteriorated urban neighborhoods by means of the influx of more affluent residents. This is a common and controversial topic in politics and in urban planning. Gentrification can improve the material quality of a neighborhood, while also potentially forcing relocation of current, established residents and businesses, causing them to move from a gentrified area, seeking lower cost housing and stores.
Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl. It also advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a range of housing choices. The term "smart growth" is particularly used in North America. In Europe and particularly the UK, the terms "compact city", "urban densification" or "urban intensification" have often been used to describe similar concepts, which have influenced government planning policies in the UK, the Netherlands and several other European countries.
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local.
A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting mostly of closely packed, decrepit housing units in a situation of deteriorated or incomplete infrastructure, inhabited primarily by impoverished persons. While slums differ in size and other characteristics, most lack reliable sanitation services, supply of clean water, reliable electricity, law enforcement and other basic services. Slum residences vary from shanty houses to professionally built dwellings which, because of poor-quality construction or provision of basic maintenance, have deteriorated.
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in cities, often where there is urban decay. Urban renewal often refers to the clearing out of blighted areas in inner cities to clear out slums and create opportunities for higher class housing, businesses, and more. Modern attempts at renewal began in the late 19th century in developed nations, and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s under the rubric of reconstruction. The process has had a major impact on many urban landscapes, and has played an important role in the history and demographics of cities around the world.
Urban sprawl or suburban sprawl mainly refers to the unrestricted growth in many urban areas of housing, commercial development, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for urban planning. In addition to describing a particular form of urbanization, the term also relates to the social and environmental consequences associated with this development. In Continental Europe the term "peri-urbanisation" is often used to denote similar dynamics and phenomena, although the term urban sprawl is currently being used by the European Environment Agency. There is widespread disagreement about what constitutes sprawl and how to quantify it. For example, some commentators measure sprawl only with the average number of residential units per acre in a given area. But others associate it with decentralization, discontinuity, segregation of uses, and so forth.
Viçosa is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Minas Gerais. Its population in July 2016 was estimated at 77,863 inhabitants.
Suburbanization is a population shift from central urban areas into suburbs, resulting in the formation of (sub)urban sprawl.
Urban decay is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. It may feature deindustrialization, depopulation or deurbanization, economic restructuring, abandoned buildings and infrastructure, high local unemployment, fragmented families, political disenfranchisement, crime, and a desolate cityscape, known as greyfield or urban prairie. Since the 1970s and 1980s, urban decay has been associated with Western cities, especially in North America and parts of Europe. Since then, major structural changes in global economies, transportation, and government policy created the economic and then the social conditions resulting in urban decay.
Edward Ludwig "Ed" Glaeser is an American economist and Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He was educated at The Collegiate School in New York City before obtaining his B.A. in economics from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago. Glaeser joined the faculty of Harvard in 1992, where he is currently the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor at the Department of Economics. He previously served as the Director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. He is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and a contributing editor of City Journal. He was also an editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Glaeser's connections with both Chicago and Harvard make him a linkage between the Chicago School and the Cambridge School of Economics. Glaeser and John A. List were mentioned as reasons why the AEA committee began to award the Clark Medal annually in 2009.
Infill is the urban planning term for the rededication of land in an urban environment, usually open-space, to new construction. Infill also applies within an urban polity to construction on any undeveloped land that is not on the urban margin. The slightly broader term "land-recycling" is sometimes used instead. Infill has been promoted as an economical use of existing infrastructure and a remedy for urban sprawl. Its detractors view it as overloading urban services, including increased traffic congestion and pollution, and decreasing urban green-space.
Mixed-use development or often simply Live-work space is a type of urban development strategy for living spaces (housing) that blends residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment uses, where those functions are physically and functionally integrated, and that provides pedestrian connections. Mixed-use development can take the form of a single building, a city block, or entire neighbourhoods. The term may also be used more specifically to refer to a mixed-use real estate development project—a building, complex of buildings, or district of a town or city that is developed for mixed-use by a private developer, (quasi-) governmental agency, or a combination thereof.
The Chicago Freedom Movement, also known as the Chicago open housing movement, was led by Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel and Al Raby. The movement included a large rally, marches, and demands to the City of Chicago. These specific demands covered a wide range of areas besides open housing, and included quality education, transportation and job access, income and employment, health, wealth generation, crime and the criminal justice system, community development, tenants rights, and quality of life. The Chicago Freedom Movement was the most ambitious civil rights campaign in the North of the United States, lasted from mid-1965 to August, 1966, and is largely credited with inspiring the 1968 Fair Housing Act.
This article has been written in 2007 with partial updates since then, including most recently concerning access in 2012. Please feel free to update it further. The Spanish article includes some more up-to-date information.
The EcoDensity Initiative was officially launched in 2006 in the City of Vancouver in conjunction with the World Urban Forum. It was an unprecedented planning effort and a response to deconcentration of urban land use due to urban sprawl. The Initiative used density, design and land use as catalysts towards livability, affordability and environmental sustainability. The Program aimed to reduce car reliance, deliver more efficient urban land use, improve green energy systems and build a resilient and adaptable community. In high-density urban areas, utilizing the existing infrastructure and transit and community amenities tends to lead towards a more sustainable and livable state. Accordingly, EcoDensity was designed to strategically enhance densification with the primary aim of efficiently structured neighbourhoods, denser urban-patterns and increased affordable housing.
Housing, or more generally living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings collectively, for the purpose of sheltering people — the planning or provision delivered by an authority, with related meanings. The social issue is of ensuring that members of society have a home in which to live, whether this is a house, or some other kind of dwelling, lodging, or shelter. Many governments have one or more housing authorities, sometimes also called a housing ministry, or housing department.
Habitat International Coalition (HIC) is an independent, nonprofit alliance with hundreds of organizations and individuals, which has been working in housing and human settlements for more than 30 years. The Coalition comprises social movements, community-based organizations, support groups and academics. The strength of the Coalition is based on its worldwide membership and on the fact that it brings together a range of civil society groups. Dedicated to advocacy and support for the poor, solidarity networking, popular mobilization, debate and analysis, HIC works to unite civil society in a shared commitment to ensuring sustainable habitat and a livable planet for all. Its work focuses on defending and implementing the human rights linked to housing and habitat; i.e., land, housing, clean water, sanitation, a healthy environment, access to public goods and services (e.g., health, education, transport and recreation; access to livelihood and social protection, pluralism and the preservation of social, natural, historic and cultural patrimony.
The compact city or city of short distances is an urban planning and urban design concept, which promotes relatively high residential density with mixed land uses. It is based on an efficient public transport system and has an urban layout which – according to its advocates – encourages walking and cycling, low energy consumption and reduced pollution. A large resident population provides opportunities for social interaction as well as a feeling of safety in numbers and 'eyes on the street'. It is also arguably a more sustainable urban settlement type than urban sprawl because it is less dependent on the car, requiring less infrastructure provision.
Prosperidad is a neighborhood of Madrid belonging to the district of Chamartin, located in the northeast of the city, adjacent to the district of Salamanca. Its boundaries are: to the west the street Principe de Vergara, south: the Calle Maria de Molina and Avenida de America, east: the M-30 and north: the street Lopez de Hoyos Padre Claret street and avenue Ramon y Cajal. 1
Complete communities is an urban and rural planning concept that aims to meet the basic needs of all residents in a community, regardless of income, culture, or political ideologies through integrated land use planning, transportation planning, and community design. While the concept is used by many communities as part of their community plan, each plan interprets what complete community means in their own way. The idea of the complete community has roots in early planning theory, beginning with The Garden City Movement, and is a component of contemporary planning methods including Smart Growth.
