America's waterfront revival: port authorities and urban redevelopment

摘要

In the post-industrial age of the late twentieth century, American civic leaders often turned to their cities' inception points, the central waterfronts, for a means to revitalize the urban core. After the Second World War, new shipping and freight-handling technologies, the globalization of trade and capital, deindustrialization and environmental concerns hastened the movement of traditional port activities such as shipbuilding, cargo operations and warehousing to large downstream, greenfield sites. Port authorities tried in vain to revive traditional functions, while public officials and developers eyed the underused and decaying port as potential sites for redevelopment. Multi-use complexes of retail, office, entertainment, residential and park activities now occupy the waterfronts of many American coastal and river cities as well as of cities around the world.