The new economy of the inner city: restructuring, regeneration and dislocation in twenty-first-century metropolis

352 Pages·2010·7.041 MB·English

by  Hutton, Thomas A

The New Economy of the
Inner City
Following the restructuring process which swept away the traditional manufacturing
economy of the inner city 25 years ago, new industries are transforming these former
postindustrial landscapes. These creative, technology-intensive industries include
Internet services, computer graphics and imaging, and video game production, and
are integral to the production of the ‘new inner city’ of the twenty-first century. The
development dynamics of these new sectors are volatile in comparison with those of
the classic ‘industrial city’. But these new industries highlight the unique role of
the inner city in facilitating creative processes, innovation, and social change. Further,
they reflect the intensity of interaction between the ‘global’ and the ‘local’ in the
metropolis, and represent key agencies of urban place-making and re-imaging.
This book addresses the critical intersections between process and place that under-
pin the formation of creative enterprises in the inner city’s new industrial districts. It
contains intensive case studies of industrial restructuring within exemplary sites in
prominent world cities such as London, Singapore, San Francisco, and Vancouver. The
studies demonstrate the global reach of development and innovation across these
cities and sites, marked by clustering, rapid firm turnover, and interdependency
between production and consumption activity. The evocative case studies, brought to
life by interviews, sequential mapping exercises, media narratives, and photography,
also disclose the importance of local factors (including urban scale, built form,
property markets, and policy) that shape both the specific industrial structures and
socioeconomic impacts.
The New Economy of the Inner City places inner city new industry formation within
the development history of the city, and underscores its role in larger processes of
urban transformation. The findings inform a critique and synthesis of urban theory
which frame the evolving conditions of the twenty-first-century metropolis. This
book would be useful to researchers and students of Geography, Urban Studies,
Economics, and Planning.
Thomas A. Hutton is Professor of Urban Studies and City Planning in the Centre for
Human Settlements, School of Community and Regional Planning, University of
British Columbia, Canada. Professor Hutton’s research interests include new industry
formation in the inner city and the role of service industries in urban transformation
within the Asia-Pacific.
Routledge Studies in Economic Geography
The Routledge Studies in Economic Geography series provides a broadly based
platform for innovative scholarship of the highest quality in economic geography.
Rather than emphasizing any particular sub-field of economic geography, we seek
to publish work across the breadth of the field and from a variety of theoretical
and methodological perspectives.
Published:
Economic Geography
Past, present and future
Edited by Sharmistha Bagchi-Sen and Helen Lawton Smith
Remaking Regional Economies
Firm strategies, labor markets and new uneven development
Susan Christopherson and Jennifer Clark
The New Economy of the Inner City
Restructuring, regeneration and dislocation in the twenty-first-century
metropolis
Thomas A. Hutton
The New Economy of the
Inner City
Restructuring, regeneration and
dislocation in the twenty-first-century
metropolis
Thomas A. Hutton
For Lesley and Siena
First published 2008
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library,2008.
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© 2008 Thomas A. Hutton
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Hutton, T. A. (Thomas A.)
The new economy of the inner city : restructuring, regeneration, and
dislocation in the 21st century metropolis / By Thomas A. Hutton.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Inner cities—Economic aspects—Case studies. 2. Industrial
organization—Case studies. 3. High technology industries—Case
studies. 4. Urban renewal— Case studies. 5. Urban economics—
Case studies. I. Title.
HT156.H88 2008
307.76—dc22
2007029758
ISBN 0-203-93365-6 Mastere-bookISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–77134–X (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–93365–6 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–77134–4 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–93365–7 (ebk)
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xvi
1 The reassertion of production in the inner city 1
2 Process: geographies of production in the central city 20
3 Place: the revival of inner city industrial districts 40
4 Restructuring narratives in the global metropolis:
from postindustrial to ‘new industrial’ in London 69
5 London’s inner city in the New Economy 102
6 Inscriptions of restructuring in the developmental
state: Telok Ayer, Singapore 142
7 The New Economy and its dislocations in San
Francisco’s South of Market Area 178
8 New industry formation and the transformation of
Vancouver’s metropolitan core 222
9 The New Economy of the inner city: an essay in
theoretical synthesis 271
vi Contents
Appendix A: Research model and methodology 294
Appendix B: Site selection and fieldwork schedule 300
Notes 303
References 315
Index 327
Figures
2.1 Factors shaping the production economy of the ‘new inner city’ 36
3.1 Oltrarno Artisanal District, Santo Spirito, Florence 43
3.2 Lithographer, via de’ Velluti, Oltrarno Artisanal District: Florence 44
3.3 Artisan and apprentice, Piazza della Passera, Oltrarno 45
3.4 New landscapes of production and consumption, Hanoi 48
3.5 The South Melbourne graphic design agglomeration, 1981 55
3.6 Graphic design clusters in Melbourne’s inner city and inner
suburbs, 2001 56
3.7 Manhattan’s garment district, New York 58
3.8 Major service clusters in the polycentric global city 66
4.1 Greater London and the London Boroughs 71
4.2 ‘Heavy metal’: Lloyds Bank, City of London 72
4.3 ‘Manhattan on the Thames’: Canary Wharf, London Docklands 73
4.4 The corporate geography of a global financial centre: Canary
Wharf, London Docklands 83
4.5 The County of London: factories with over 100 workers in 1898 86
4.6 The County of London: factories with over 100 workers in 1955 87
4.7 Industrial areas within the Inner North-East London
Industrial District 88
4.8 East End tailoring, 1888 91
4.9 East End tailoring, 1955 92
4.10 Spatial representation of ‘Artists’ London’: artists and art zones 94
5.1 The ‘City Fringe’, selected local areas, and London’s traditional
inner city industrial districts 103
5.2 Hoxton and the Shoreditch Triangle, London Borough of Hackney 108
5.3 Garment production (coats and jackets), Shoreditch, 2006 109
5.4 The White Cube Gallery, Hoxton Square 110
5.5 The Power Station, Hoxton (‘space for cultural industries’) 111
5.6 Convivial consumption in the creative neighbourhood, Curtain
Road, Shoreditch 112
5.7 The London Bridge Tower 117
5.8 Bermondsey Street, London Borough of Southwark: structural
elements 118
viii List of figures
5.9 Bermondsey Street: location of selected firms and institutions 119
5.10 The Ticino Bakery, Bermondsey Street, Southwark 120
5.11 The Delfina Trust, Bermondsey Street 122
5.12 The Leathermarket, Bermondsey 123
5.13 Victorian warehouse residential conversion, Bermondsey Street 125
5.14 Specialized production zones and sites in Clerkenwell, London
Borough of Islington 129
5.15 Gazzano’s Italian Deli, Farringdon Road, Clerkenwell 130
5.16 The Clerkenwell Green Association, Clerkenwell Green 131
5.17 The Clerkenwell Workshops, Clerkenwell Close 132
5.18 Clerkenwell Workshops: ‘artisanal signage’, circa 2000 134
5.19 Clerkenwell Workshops ‘elite creatives’ signage, 2006 135
6.1 View of Telok Ayer (Chinatown) and the Singapore CBD,
circa 1980 154
6.2 Telok Ayer in its local and regional settings 155
6.3 Thian Hock Keng Temple, Telok Ayer, Chinatown 156
6.4 Three-storey shophouse and 5-foot walkway, Telok Ayer 157
6.5 Swee Kee Fish-Head Noodle House, Amoy Street, Telok Ayer 158
6.6 The New Economy comes to Telok Ayer: ‘2bSURE.com’,
Amoy Street, 2000 160
6.7 Telok Ayer as New Economy site, 2000 161
6.8 The ‘Creative Hub’, Far East Square, China Square Project 164
6.9 The crafted landscapes of the ‘Creative Hub’, Far East Square 165
6.10 ‘Entrepreneurial conservation’ in Boon Tat Street, Telok Ayer 167
6.11 Telok Ayer as cultural production site, 2003 168
6.12 Su Yeang Design, Amoy Street, Telok Ayer 171
6.13 Telok Ayer as ‘global village’: media, culture and amenity, 2006 174
6.14 BBC Global Channels, Club Street, Telok Ayer, 2006 175
7.1 Entrance to South Park, off Third Street, South of Market 180
7.2 Planning areas in the South of Market Area (SOMA),
San Francisco 190
7.3 Industrial districts and specializations, SOMA, Port Lands,
and NEMIZ 191
7.4 Industrial clusters, SOMA, Port Lands, South Bayshore,
and NEMIZ 193
7.5 Distribution of multimedia firms, San Francisco, circa 1997 194
7.6 New media services, SOMA, circa 1997 195
7.7 Current and proposed live-work sites, SOMA, circa 1997 198
7.8 Vestiges of the ‘old economy’ in SOMA, Brannan Street 200
7.9 Fabric clearance store, circa 2001, Third and Bryant Street
(now a digital art gallery) 201
7.10 Standard Sheet Metal, South Park (established 1942) 202
7.11 South Park as epicentre of SOMA’s New Economy, 2000 203
7.12 Ecco Restorante, South Park, at the height of the New
Economy, 2000 204
List of figures ix
7.13 South Park as metaphor for SOMA’s New Economy: from
‘textured place’ to ‘hard wired’, circa 2000 205
7.14 Enjoying the ‘buzz’: South Park at lunch, autumn 2000 206
7.15 South Park and the melt-down of 2001 208
7.16 The ‘Second Street Tech Corridor’, circa 2001, view south to
Pac Bell Park (now AT & T Park) 209
7.17 Directory of New Economy firms, (former) South End
Warehouse, 2001 210
7.18 Scenes of dereliction: rampant vacancies in South Park, 2003 211
7.19 South Park in recession: landscapes of live-works and
vacancy, 2003 212
8.1 Principal industrial clusters and employment centres in Metro
Vancouver 225
8.2 Zonal structure of Vancouver’s central area at mid-century 231
8.3 Vestiges of the industrial city: Opsal Steel site, Second Avenue,
Mount Pleasant Industrial District 232
8.4 Restructuring and redevelopment in Vancouver’s central
area, 1970s 234
8.5 Global processes in the reproduction of Vancouver’s central
area, 1980s 235
8.6 Consolidation of the Central Business District in the Central
Area Plan, 1991 238
8.7 Designation of new residential districts in the Central
Area Plan 239
8.8 Expressions of the ‘Living First’ planning model: residential
point towers, False Creek North 240
8.9 Completion of space, residential and non-residential categories,
for the downtown peninsula, City of Vancouver, 1981–2005 240
8.10 The space-economy of specialized production in Vancouver’s
metropolitan core, 2007 242
8.11 Distribution of office space in Vancouver’s downtown, 2006 244
8.12 Distribution of firms for selected industries, Vancouver’s
central area 245
8.13 Distribution of professional, scientific, and technical workers for
Vancouver’s metropolitan core, 2001 246
8.14 Distribution of artists’ studios and galleries, Strathcona and
Grandview–Woodland 247
8.15 Heritage landscapes of the Strathcona community and
artists cluster 248
8.16 Victory Square heritage area and creative industry site 249
8.17 Street front in the ‘interstitial zone’: West Hastings Street,
Victory Square 250
8.18 False Creek Flats ‘New Economy’ site, Vancouver
metropolitan core 256
8.19 Radical Entertainment, Terminal Avenue, False Creek Flats 256