Author: Shanahan, James L.

Publication Year: 1980

Media Type: Report

Summary:

Within half a decade, many northern urban communities have begun to take on new economic vigor. Local, private and public leaders have joined forces in revitalizing and improving sagging economies, downtown districts, and residential neighborhoods. By intervening in the community economic development process, public and private sectors are attempting to stimulate the creation of jobs in the near term with the hope that the better market conditions and improved livability will over the longer term attract or retain citizens and businesses.

Abstract:

Paper presented at Conference on the Economic Impact of the Arts, sponsored by Cornell University, Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, held in Ithaca, New York, May 27-28, 1981.

Within half a decade, many northern urban communities have begun to take on new economic vigor. Local, private and public leaders have joined forces in revitalizing and improving sagging economies, downtown districts, and residential neighborhoods. By intervening in the community economic development process, public and private sectors are attempting to stimulate the creation of jobs in the near term with the hope that the better market conditions and improved livability will over the longer term attract or retain citizens and businesses.

Increasingly, communities are using cultural and leisure resources to enhance the opportunities for growth and economic development as well as to improve the quality of community life. Parks, recreation programs, historic houses, libraries, athletics, the performing arts, art and history museums, urban architecture, public art, and a myriad of commercial amusements all form a fabric of experiences in play, personal development, and social interaction that help determine the non-economic quality of urban life. Each of the leisure and cultural elements represents a base of resources within the city, and, for citizens, each represents a set of amenities - opportunities and conveniences - that can affect their well-being. This paper provides a closer look at the rationales for using cultural resources in the revitalization of medium-sized northern cities and at the ways in which these resources are actually being used.

Too often these discussions proceed on two disjoined planes. One is rather general, with abstract references to rebuilding economic and population bases and improving quality of life. Second are specific references to place-specific strategies (where physical redevelopment and cultural development is undertaken in order to stimulate private investment in cities). Discussion can often slide swiftly and unpredictably back and forth between these two levels as if it were unnecessary to map carefully the pathway from theory to practice.

In what follows, the urban redevelopment process will be examined in terms of both economic development goals and tried strategies for rebuilding local economies and livable places. The discussion is divided into three parts. First is a general discussion of community economic development goals. Second is a focused examination of ways and conditions in which cultural and leisure resources - and the local arts sector in particular - can be involved in the development process. Finally, we will discuss the implementation and efficacy of such strategies. (p. 1-2)

[For a variant version of this paper see, Cultural and Economic Development: How
 They Come Together.]

CONTENTS
Part 1. Urban revitalization and cultural development.
Part 2. Cultural and leisure resources as development tools.
Part 3. Economic development impact.
Part 4. Place development strategies involving the arts: toward understanding the
           development process.

Conclusion.
Footnotes [bibliography].

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Creative Economies