Buying into Downtown Revival
The Centrality of Retail to Postwar Urban Renewal in American Cities
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9763798 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lizabeth Cohen (History Department of Harvard University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 611 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 82-95 |
| Publication date | 2007-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7162 • E-ISSN: 1552-3349 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0002716206298744 |
| OpenAlex | W2109033154 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 8 |
This article argues that the link between consumption and civic engagement has an important local, not just national, history and that retailers' involvement in the downtown urban renewal of American cities in the post-WWII era offers a particularly fruitful avenue of investigation. The article focuses on New Haven, Connecticut, and Boston, Massachusetts, where Edward J. Logue served as development chief from 1954 to 1967. His record over these fourteen years, when he was a national leader in federally funded urban renewal, offers a revealing case of how consumption and civic culture intersected at the local level. Although the power given to retailers varied starkly in the redevelopment of these two cities, in both cases department stores were deemed essential to the viability of the central business district. That priority ultimately limited the success of downtown revitalization, given the department store sector's growing suburban orientation and steady economic concentration from the 1960s on
Archaeology · Centrality · Consumption (sociology · Downtown · Haven · Political science · Power (physics · Redevelopment · Social science · Sociology · Financial Crisis of the 21st Century · History · Law · Public Administration · Urban Planning and Governance · Urbanization and City Planning
A ‘gray area’? Neighborhood decline and reclamation in 1950s and 1960s U.S. urban discourse and legislation
Heritage Tourism, Retail Revival and City Center Revitalization
A Study of the Role of Small Ethnic Retail Grocery Stores in Urban Renewal in a Social Housing Project, Toronto, Canada
Rethinking the Politics of Downtown Development
A case study of transforming Fresno’s Fulton Street from a pedestrian mall to a Complete Street
The Destructive Character”
Planning’s End? Urban Renewal in New Haven, the Yale School of Art and Architecture, and the Fall of the New Deal Spatial Order
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.39 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2025 (18) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |