Downtown Development

This course will take a brief look back at the first major period of federal intervention in cities between the 1930s and the 1960s to see what lessons are relevant to today's efforts to revitalize downtowns.  The course will provide an overview of the changing role of downtowns, how and why they have evolved, diversified and been redeveloped and how they are repositioning themselves in a new regional and global context.  There will be a focus particularly on the role of business improvement districts in the United States, Canada and a few international cities, how they relate to municipal government and redevelopment efforts, the types of services they provide, and the possibility that their roles could be transformed and expanded in a renewed federal era.