Local Planning and Economic Restructuring: A Synthetic Interpretation of Urban Redevelopment

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of commercial land redevelopment in the Phoenix Metropolitan area during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Using four specific cases, I show how local landscape change is connected to the broader forces of urban restructuring. In addition, I discuss important differences between the city-building process in a central core and a suburban process within this structural context. The local deviations from the structural context are explained vis-à-vis the Phoenix regional economy, conservative political culture, and relative youth on the American urban frontier.