In 2001, the city of Porto hosted the European Capital of Culture event. ‘Porto 2001’ was a year-long programme of arts, cultural events and urban regeneration activities. The purpose of this article is to discuss the city centre regeneration operation conducted in conjunction with the European Capital of Culture initiative in Porto. My objective is to extract a set of lessons learned that can be useful to other cities pursuing the same designation and strategy. The key finding is that despite rich and well-participated cultural events, too much emphasis was put on attracting public investment to regenerate the public space, replacing infrastructures, and modernizing cultural facilities. This was done at the expense of institutional capacity building and boosting civic creativity.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine public market functions in three different continents (Europe, North America and Asia) and to identify a set of planning implications for their use in contexts of urban regeneration.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a comparative analysis of four downtown market functions based on the LABiMAAM framework: [L]ocation; [A]ccessibility; [B]uilding; [i]nternal structure; [M]ain trading area; [A]menities and services; [A]nimation program; and [M]anagement structure.
Findings
The lessons learned suggest that centrally located public markets possess: social functions aimed at guaranteeing food security, urban development goals that prevent the leap-frog suburbanization of the territory, walkability goals that reduce automobile dependence and welfare goals that support disenfranchised, usually minority, populations.
Research limitations/implications
Positive and dire implications are identified. The former are structured in terms of these five categories, namely, social, financial, macro-spatial, environmental and public space; while the latter tend to result mostly from the abandonment of the public good orientation associated with having a public market function in a central location.
Originality/value
This study results from the realization of increasing developmental pressures and widespread tendencies to multiply specialized retail offers in both traditional, and especially, innovative commercial formats. The findings comprise the identification of public policies aimed at augmenting the relevance of commercial urbanism and urban regeneration strategies.
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