Conclusion

Abstract

This is not just a book about New Bedford—instead, it is an effort to understand how a city manages change. Throughout the preceding chapters, I have begun to offer evidence about how that happened in one post-industrial port city in New England. Part of what I hoped to uncover was an answer to the question: Who manages change in cities anyhow? That responsibility rests with a lot of people and a lot of organizations, both public and private. For New Bedford, there were substantial efforts by city officials during the urban renewal era to de-densify the city. In my review of contemporary city action, there appears to have been some hybrid version of a smart-shrinkage and smart-growth policy in place to better promote the reuse of vacant land and to come to terms with ongoing depopulation, while also addressing the issues surrounding new population and development. Those policies were embedded within a broader government strategy to increase employment and drive growth. But, nevertheless, city planning activities did partially attempt to manage decline in certain areas.

Keywords

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