The Decline of the Industrial City: The Limits of Neoliberal Urban Regeneration

The current crisis of capitalist economy has raised significant doubts regarding the mechanisms of urban development of the last decades. In contrast to the regeneration of cities such as New York, Manchester, Amsterdam or London in recent decades, the decline of some Western cities has never been reversed by neoliberal policies: their trajectory of decline, beginning in the 1950s if not earlier, continues, unabated, to this day. These cities, and particularly Detroit, Newark, Buffalo and Baltimore, were mostly industrial powerhouses which began their decline with the dissipation of industry. They never succeeded in reinventing their role in society and, in effect, never benefited from the economic upturn of the 1990s, did not experience the practices of urban regeneration revolving around the creative industries, gentrification and city branding, and did not become playgrounds for a new class of white collar workers. This paper studies the condition of Newark, a city in continuous decline.