Economic Revitalization and Place Management for Urban Commercial Areas

Dear Colleagues,

Urban Science Guest Editor, Dr. Robert Stokes, is inviting submissions for the Special Issue “Economic Revitalization and Place Management for Urban Commercial Areas”, which seeks new research into urban commercial district management, governance, and planning. Historically, successful urban commercial areas have been seen as important symbols of urban vibrancy. Conversely, vacant, denuded commercial spaces have become symbols of declining, disorderly places. Over the past half century, urban commercial areas have undergone a great transition. With competition from suburban malls and shopping centers, they have, since the 1990s, sought new forms of place management models and governance, such as business improvement districts. They have also become more connected, financially and operationally, to broader urban tourism development strategies. Urban commercial districts have faced great challenges to their viability over the past year due to economic losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is especially the case in central business districts, where retail, food, drink and entertainment establishments such as live theater and cinema have gone virtually dark due to pandemic control shutdowns. In the US, this has been exacerbated by social unrest over racial injustice, which has led to violent confrontations, shop looting, and damage to public and private property within commercial areas. From a longer-term view, the pressures on so-called “bricks and mortar” retail have come from intense market competition by online, home-delivery-based retailers, competition that has only grown more intense over the past year. This Special Edition will draw on research that looks at the issue of urban commercial revitalization more broadly, as well as detailing the public policies, plans, and private efforts to rebuild these areas post-pandemic. Articles are sought that examine the various issues facing urban commercial areas and the public policy responses to these issues. These might include but are not limited to work that addresses the following questions in part, or in combination:

• What has been the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on urban commercial districts?
• What set of national, state/provincial, and/or local public policies and/or governance arrangements have emerged to address these issues?
• What have been the early impacts of COVID-19 on the viability of locally owned small businesses versus chain establishments?
• How have reductions in urban office occupancy impacted commercial district viability?
• How have reductions in public transit use impacted commercial district planning?
• How have business district management organizations (BIDs) responded to the pandemic?
• What role does or has zoning played in commercial viability in places, and how might this change in the future?
• What role do arts organizations have in the future in partnering with urban commercial spaces to activate and enliven public spaces in commercial districts?
• Have new types of growth machines or urban development regimes emerged to deal with the greater magnitude of the problems facing urban commercial districts?
• How do public safety organizations plan on addressing the need for effective, but also equitable and accountable policing and crime prevention services in commercial areas? Additionally, what is the future role of public safety governance partner organizations in creating safe, vibrant, and equitable commercial spaces?

Contributions are encouraged across academic disciplines, research methodologies, and geographic scales, including economic trend analysis; case or comparative studies of specific cities or commercial districts/neighborhoods; evaluations of policy interventions through a political, economic, social equity or built environment impact lens; structured, or systematic social observations of the built environment, etc. 

Dr. Robert Stokes
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Urban Science is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• economic revitalization
• place governance models
• place promotion
• commercial crime prevention
• urban regimes and growth machines
• place making
• cultural development
• urban futures