Grist's Sarah Goodyear takes a look at a Superbowl TV commercial's focus on Detroit, and how selling a city can either work or fail.
Reviewing the response from a variety of commentators and news outlets, Grist examines ways that marketing efforts can bring unintended consequences to cities.
"[W]hen governments and the private sector scramble to market urban areas, both can trample on the cities they are touting -- in effect killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
You can see it in Manhattan, which has been relentlessly promoted as a product for years by government and by privately owned media, from Seinfeld to Sex and the City to Gossip Girl. Sadly, what we have in Manhattan today is a Disneyfied city core that has lost much of its local flavor, as small retailers, artists, and working-class people are forced out by rents that only multinational corporations and the super-rich can afford.
You can also see the pattern in Istanbul, which recently finished up a year as the official "European capital of culture," spending $3 billion and welcoming 8 million tourists."
FULL STORY: How do you sell a city without selling out?
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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research