Speaker
Description
During the COVID-19 pandemic, small towns have complained less about massive problems of sudden inner-city desolation. On the one hand, this was due to the fact that the inner cities and location-based retail had already experienced severe problems in previous years due to the growth in online retail, and on the other hand, the short (communication) distances proved to be very helpful. The German Ministry of Housing, urban development and and building launched in 2022 the so called “Future-proof city centers and centers” funding program in which 218 municipalities are participating to date. 61 of them are small towns between 5,000 and 20,000 inhabitants. It is worth taking a look at the measures for inner city stabilization, reactivation and upgrading with regard to the selected instruments, tools, concepts and forms of cooperation - also in comparison to the approach in large cities. There are both differences and similarities in terms of strategies and measures to make inner cities more mixed-use, climate-friendly, attractive and resilient. Based on evaluations from the accompanying research for this funding program, the presentation aims to provide insights into the current inner city development of small cities. Findings from the quantitative (indicator evaluation) and qualitative evaluation can be presented and discussed in an overview and comparison as well as in a strikingly illustrative way using individual case studies.
| Keywords | small towns; inner-city centres; case studies; |
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