American cities have struggled to maintain the centrality of their downtown areas. As retail and office uses have continued to move into suburban areas and outlying regions, many local governments- especially of smaller and mid-size cities -have all but given up on the prospect of replacing the...

The paper presents a theoretical model that seeks to answer the question of why former squatter settlements tend to upgrade/redevelop at a slower pace than otherwise similar settlements originating in the formal sector. We argue that squatter settlers' initial strategy to access urban land...

The current urban planning model for Spanish cities does not meet the criteria for successful urban sustainability, in fact quite the opposite, it follows the disperse city model introduced twenty years ago by the boom in the construction industry and improved communication infrastructures. In...