Ute Lehrer

Reurbanization in Toronto: Condominium boom and social housing revitalization

Abstract Over the past few years, a condominium boom has transformed the City of Toronto: developers have bought up land in industrial and residential areas and built high-rise condominium towers that left their imprint on the urban landscape. This new interest for the inner city was sparked by a combination of legal and political shifts that had the intent to redirect growth to already built-up areas, and to change preferences for housing and planning practices that allowed intensification (as well as gentrification) of neighborhoods. In our contribution we will discuss two examples: the condominium boom driven by developers, and the redevelopment of the largest inner city social housing complex in Canada. Both of them, as we argue, are fostered by a market-based approach to re-urbanization. We will pay particular attention to the role that the social construction of a particular urban lifestyle has in the appropriation of spaces for reurbanization.

Urban Policy Responses to Foreign In-Migration: The Case of Frankfurt-am-Main

Abstract The impacts of immigration are primarily local; yet, local policy responses to immigration from abroad are still a rarity in the United States, and for that matter, in other countries. An exception is Frankfurt-on-the-Main, a major whose population is of foreign brith. The citys response to the presence of an immigrant population is recounted, to offer insights for American cities with similar proportions of immigrants although in a different cultural and legal context. In Frankfurt, the 1989 municipal election victory by a Social Democrat-Green coalition led to the creation of a Department of Multicultural Affairs (AMKA). This paper tells the story of the Department and its major achievements through 1993. The concluding analysis examines elements in Frankfurts experience with immigration policy that may have relevance for American planners.

Migration, Lokalität und Zivilgesellschaft: Immigrationspolitik in Los Angeles

Diskussionen uber Einwanderungspolitik werden meistens auf der nationalen und internationalen Ebene gefuhrt. Doch Migranten und Migrantinnen kommen an spezifische Orte und tragen durch ihre Alltagspraxen zur Transformation von Kultur und Identitat der urbanen Regionen bei. Stadte, wie etwa Los Angeles, Berlin, Frankfurt und Toronto verzeichnen dabei einen uberproportionalen Zuwachs von Auslandern und Auslanderinnen. Es stellt sich daher die Frage, wie Stadte auf diese massive Zuwanderung reagieren. Braucht es eine lokale Immigrationspolitik, eine Politik, die sich mit den Bedurfnissen der Immigranten und Immigratinnen in konstruktiver Weise auseinandersetzt? Und wenn ja, welchem Modell soll diese Politik folgen? Dem Modell von Los Angeles, in dem der „lokale Staat“ den Hauptteil der Betreuung und der Interessensvertretung von Zugewanderten an gemeinschaftliche Organisationen abtritt und in dem der Zivilgesellschaft eine relativ bedeutende Rolle zukommt, oder dem Modell von Frankfurt am Main, das mit dem Amt fur Multikulturelle Angelegenheiten eine offizielle Position zu Auslanderfragen bezieht und eine aktive Zuwandererpolitik betreibt? Die Starke von Los Angeles liegt in den sogenannten community-based organizations. Daruber soll in diesem Beitrag berichtet werden.