Social Exclusion and the Future of Cities

In both Britain and the United States, people have been moving awayfrom the inner cities to suburban developments, often leaving behindconcentrations of poverty and decaying neighbourhoods. Anne Power’spaper focuses on the British situation. As Britain comes to terms with theimplications of urban renaissance, a new way must be found of lookingat regeneration based on rebuilding urban neighbourhoods. The keypoints for the future are: limiting suburban land supply and creatinghigher density in depleted urban neighbourhoods; equalising theincentives to recycle old buildings and used land rather than greenfieldsites; improving public transport; managing neighbourhoods toencourage a social mix; and protecting green spaces. William JuliusWilson, looking at the American situation, addresses the rediscovery of“metropolitan solutions” as answers to the common problems ofAmerica’s cities and suburbs. This rediscovery reflects the recognitionthat metropolitan areas constitute the real competitive units in the neweconomy and that competitiveness requires a healthy urban core; thegrowing awareness that complex issues such as pollution and trafficcongestion cross boundaries and are immune to localised fixes; and theco-existence of persistent joblessness in the central cities and labourshortages in the suburbs.[...]