Making power visible: Business improvement districts and creative placemaking in Washington, DC

Susanna F. Schaller, Aaron Howe, Coy McKinney and Sarah Shoenfeld
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Susanna F. Schaller: The City College of New York, CUNY, USA
Aaron Howe: American University, USA
Coy McKinney: SW DC Action, USA
Sarah Shoenfeld: Prologue DC, USA

Urban Studies, 2024, vol. 61, issue 14, 2835-2853

Abstract: Business improvement districts represent a privatising urban governance instrument that visibly transforms urban landscapes. In the United States, the racialised impacts of business improvement districts require examination. Through a discussion of Washington, DC, a city profoundly injured by racist planning histories, we illustrate how business improvement districts, as part of a broader entrepreneurial regime, have driven gentrification citywide since the late 1990s. Focusing on the intersection of redevelopment and ‘creative placemaking’, we make visible the contradictions embedded in this business improvement district urbanism, which has harnessed the work of a network of actors to revalorise urban space while erasing working class places and in DC, its Black cultural, political and economic space.

Keywords: business improvement districts; gentrification; placemaking; private urban governance; redevelopment; 商业改进区; 绅士化; 地方创生; ç§ äººåŸŽå¸‚æ²»ç †; é‡ å»º (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:61:y:2024:i:14:p:2835-2853

DOI: 10.1177/00420980231174991

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