DETROIT: EXEMPLAR OF URBAN RENEWAL?

I was very surprised, or rather gobsmacked, to hear Centre for Cities chief executive Alexandra Jones cite Detroit as an exemplar of urban renewal on BBC Radio 4's today programme this morning. "The Lost City of Detroit" is identified probably more than other western metropolis with the phenomenon of urban abandonment and mass dereliction.

The policy of "grassing over" such abandoned areas, referred to by Ms Jones as an example of successful urban renewal, is one which most contemporary regeneration practitioners would not advocate for UK towns and cities. Although the disastrous "Pathfinder Programme" of New Labour, now abandoned by the Coalition, did indeed demolish and grass over parts of some older urban areas in the Midlands and north of England by way of following the model used by some US states.

So whilst the Centre for Cities does produce some very useful information on the state of UK urban areas, I would seriously question whether it lives up to the self-proclaimed title of "non-partisan.....policy research unit". Instead, the organisation seems to be engaged in re-packaging - perhaps grassing over - discredited programmes strongly associated with the previous government.