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Making power visible: Business improvement districts and creative placemaking in Washington, DC

Author

Listed:
  • Susanna F. Schaller

    (The City College of New York, CUNY, USA)

  • Aaron Howe

    (American University, USA)

  • Coy McKinney

    (SW DC Action, USA)

  • Sarah Shoenfeld

    (Prologue DC, USA)

Abstract

Business improvement districts represent a privatising urban governance instrument that visibly transforms urban landscapes. In the United States, the racialised impacts of business improvement districts require examination. Through a discussion of Washington, DC, a city profoundly injured by racist planning histories, we illustrate how business improvement districts, as part of a broader entrepreneurial regime, have driven gentrification citywide since the late 1990s. Focusing on the intersection of redevelopment and ‘creative placemaking’, we make visible the contradictions embedded in this business improvement district urbanism, which has harnessed the work of a network of actors to revalorise urban space while erasing working class places and in DC, its Black cultural, political and economic space.

Suggested Citation

  • Susanna F. Schaller & Aaron Howe & Coy McKinney & Sarah Shoenfeld, 2024. "Making power visible: Business improvement districts and creative placemaking in Washington, DC," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(14), pages 2835-2853, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:61:y:2024:i:14:p:2835-2853
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980231174991
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lorlene Hoyt, 2005. "Planning Through Compulsory Commercial Clubs: Business Improvement Districts," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 24-27, December.
    2. Vanberg, Viktor J., 2016. "Competitive federalism, government's dual role and the power to tax," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(4), pages 825-845, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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