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Call for Papers: The Impact and Influence of Downtown Programs Worldwide
Submission deadline: 13th January 2025
Special Issue - Journal of Urban Regeneration & Renewal - The Impact and Influence of Downtown Programs Worldwide
Guest-Editor: Gary Ferguson, Community Revitalization & Rejuvenation Consultants (CRRC), USA
It has now been over 50 years since business improvement districts (BIDs) and business improvement areas (BIAs) emerged as tools to manage and revitalize downtowns/city centers and commercial districts. Emerging first in Canada and the United States, BIDs/BIAs are now featured in cities across the globe.
Prior to the creation of business improvement districts, downtowns and commercial districts were typically supported by voluntary membership organizations that collected dues from willing partners. In some instances, major corporations/businesses formed pay-to-play downtown or community organizations that focused on issues of interest to the supporting members.
The advent of BIDs ushered in a new dimension in central place management. Voluntary dues were replaced with mandatory assessments. Gone were the so-called free loaders, businesses or property owners who chose not to voluntarily support the local organization. BIDs tackled both the day-to-day issues of cleanliness, safety, and marketing as well as longer term concerns about economic growth and strategic development.
After fifty plus years of more formalized downtown/commercial district programs, what have we learned? Are downtown programs making a measurable difference? What has worked well and what remains challenging for practitioners? Has the assessment model offered by BIDs and BIAs been proven to materially improve downtown and commercial districts?
This special edition is intended to provide a global examination of these questions.
Aims and Scope
The aim of this Special Issue of Journal of Urban Regeneration & Renewal is to provide an examination of the efficacy of downtown/commercial district organizations, specifically to:
- To examine the business improvement district (BID/BIA) model of management and revitalization.
- To assess the ability of downtown/commercial district organizations to affect positive change and improve the health and well being of the districts they serve.
- To assess if downtown/commercial district organizations have added value to their districts over and above what may have occurred naturally in their absence.
- To posit and speculate on the future of downtown/commercial district organizations, given the challenges of the post-COVID marketplace and the trends that are now reshaping our urban places.
- To examine how the delivery of services by BIDs and BIAs differs from municipal service delivery.
- To assess the effectiveness of BIDs/BIAs and downtown/commercial district programs in meeting their goals and objectives as well as the being able to evolve over time to meet changing needs and situations.
- To examine the ability of downtown organizations to meet the goals and needs of various and sometimes very diverse stakeholders.
Submissions sought:
Both practice and research papers are invited that help to address one or more of the objective above and other key challenges facing regeneration professionals and policy makers. Practice articles can reflect on specific case examples over a period of time or examine how organizations deliver specific types of services. Research papers can examine sets of organizations, from across metropolitan areas or major cities, across States, Provinces, or other political territories, or a global comparison of programs in different global cities or continents. Research papers can also assess the BID/BIA service delivery capacity, examining goals, needs, success metrics, and/or equity.
The following types of articles will be considered for publication:
(i) Practice articles: Thought pieces, briefings, case studies and other contributions written by professionals working in regeneration and town and city management. Case studies should address the following questions: What has worked? Why has it worked? What lessons were learned? How could it be done elsewhere? Articles should be 2,000 — 5,000 words.
(ii) Research papers: Contributions which present new models, theories and empirical research in urban regeneration and renewal. Research papers can be around 6,000 words and must have clear implications for regeneration professionals.
The copy deadline for this special issue is 13th January 2025.
Further guidance on manuscript submission, including sample papers, can be found here .
Questions about this issue may be directed to the Guest Editor, Gary Ferguson as well as the Publisher, Julie Kerry
Manuscript submissions should be sent to Julie Kerry
About Journal of Urban Regeneration & Renewal
Journal of Urban Regeneration & Renewal is a leading international quarterly journal on regeneration and renewal in towns and cities. As a professional journal, it publishes authoritative articles, analysis, case studies, comment and reviews written by those involved in regeneration for those involved in regeneration. For further information on the journal please visit the journal’s home page here.