Metropolitics

Aéroports de Paris: A Strategic Lever for the French State?

Nathalie Roseau & translated by Oliver Waine — 2021-01-26T06:00:00Z

Following growing controversy surrounding the French government's plans to privatize the Aéroports de Paris (ADP) group, Nathalie Roseau looks back at the history of this organization and questions the wisdom of such a reform.
On April 11, 2019, France's lower house of parliament, the Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly) approved a law known as PACTE (Plan d'Action pour la Croissance et la Transformation des Entreprises – Action Plan for Growth and Transformation of Enterprises), paving

- Debates / climate change, Greater Paris, airport, sustainable development, Île-de-France, ADP, France, globalization, Paris region, Paris, transport, transport policy, environment, environmental protection, economic development, territorial development, privatization

Institutional Readings on Zoning

Jamaal Green — 2020-11-20T06:00:00Z

A new edited volume on zoning approaches the subject as a tool of planning, part of a network of institutions and practices that shape US cities.
Zoning is, arguably, the central problematic in US urban planning. If one examines almost any question regarding the physical development of our city regions, zoning often pops up as a major villain. From debates over gentrification to the potential of a Green New Deal, zoning is characterized as a major barrier towards progress, however one may

- Reviews / zoning, urban planning, comprehensive planning, racism, economic development

Post–Amazon HQ2 Incentive Reform: We can have good deals—but not without transparency and meaningful public participation

Mary Donegan — 2019-05-21T05:00:00Z

What does the collapse of New York City's Amazon HQ2 deal mean for the future of economic development incentive policy?
Amazon's February 2019 decision to pull out of a plan to locate a headquarters in western Queens in New York City sparked a flurry of analysis from journalists. Did Amazon's decision signal a retrenchment from skyrocketing economic development incentive deals? Or was it a blip, reflecting Amazon's flatfooted public outreach, New York's poorly-structured incentive programming

- Debates / Queens, New York, economic development, economic development incentives, request for proposal, Amazon, United States, state, jobs, employment, tech economy

Bargain hunting in the “small-commodity city” of Yiwu, China

Alison Hulme — 2015-11-10T06:00:00Z

China's rise in the global economy has been largely based on the manufacturing of both cheap and expensive goods. Focusing on the growth of “function spaces” of mass production in Yiwu, Alison Hulme explores this “other” city and its challenge to the rise of the spectacular “image spaces” provided by established world cities.
Approximately three hours by train inland from Shanghai lies the “small-commodity city” of Yiwu—a promised land for the international wholesale buyer of low-end

- Essays / consumption, urban economy, China, new town, industry, economic development, global supply chain, function spaces, image spaces, manufacturing, specialization, commodity city

Territorial Equality in France: A Historical Perspective

Matthew Wendeln — 2014-06-04T04:50:00Z

Once the basis of French regional planning, the goal of national balance has made a comeback in France under the banner of “territorial equality”. The postwar experience suggests that redistributive regional policies can promote growth in a period of economic turbulence.
Over the past two decades, the twin goals of competition and competitiveness have gained increasing sway in French urban and regional policies (Baudelle and Montabone 2008, p. 3). Following the Left's national victory in

- Essays / France, urban planning, decentralization, territorial development, metropolis, socio-spatial inequalities, regional planning, territorial equality, economic development, metropolitan areas, region