A new book by a team of urbanists from the London School of Economics examines how seven older industrial cities in Europe have worked to reinvent themselves. Here’s one recent summary (h/t: Karen King).
The cities – Sheffield and Belfast in the U.K., Bremen and Leipzig in Germany, Turin in Italy, Bilbao in Spain, and Saint-Etienne in France – were all industrial behemoths of the 19th century… Each of the seven subject cities used differing combinations of strong local leaders, businesses, universities and community groups, to invest in downtown neighborhoods and housing and reposition their towns for the high-tech age. Saint-Etienne’s derelict former arms factory became home to a cluster of clever new engineering companies. An advanced technology park with 6,000 new jobs helped recast Bremen as a hub for science. Crucially, the cities developed local initiatives to raise workers skills and provide access to new jobs. Mass transit systems got an upgrade, too. Saint-Etienne, for instance, laid on a new downtown tram line for locals. Officials also polished their cities’ cultural and public spaces. Local government funding in Bilbao, for one, helped transform a derelict patch of riverside into a cultural landmark, with the voluptuous-looking Guggenheim Museum at its center. The returns have been eye-catching. Unemployment dropped in all but one of the towns between 1990 and 2005. After dropping since the 1970s, the populations of five of the cities began recovering between 2000 and 2005.
