In this paper we ask how a shrinking city responds when faced with a\udperforated urban fabric. Drawing on Manchester’s response to its perforated eastern\udflank - and informed by a parallel study of Leipzig - we use the city’s current\udapproach to critique urban regeneration policy in England. Urban renaissance holds\udout the promise of delivering more sustainable - that is more compact, more inclusive\udand more equitable - cities. However, the Manchester study demonstrated that the\udattempt to stem population loss from the city is at best fragile, despite a raft of\udpolicies now in place to support urban renaissance in England. It is argued here that\udManchester like Leipzig is likely to face an ongoing battle to attract residents back\udfrom their suburban hinterlands. This is especially true of the family market that we\udidentify as being an important element for long-term sustainable population growth in\udboth cities. We use the case of New East Manchester to consider how discourses\udlinked to urban renaissance – particularly those that link urbanism with greater\uddensities - rule out some of the options available to Leipzig, namely, managing the\udlong-term perforation of the city. We demonstrate that while Manchester is inevitably\udcommitted to the urban renaissance agenda, in practice New East Manchester\uddemonstrates a far more pragmatic – but equally unavoidable – approach. This we\udattribute to the gap between renaissance and regeneration described by Amin et al\ud(2000) who define the former as urbanism for the middle class and the latter as\udurbanism for the working class. While this opportunistic approach may ultimately\udsucceed in producing development on the ground, it will not address the\udfundamental, and chronic, problem; the combination of push and pull that sees\udfamilies relocating to suburban areas. Thus, if existing communities in East\udManchester are to have their area buoyed up – or sustained - by incomers, and\udespecially families, with greater levels of social capital and higher incomes urban\udpolicy in England will have to be challenged.
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