Abstract. Many East German cities face long-term shrinking
processes, which contribute to declining city centers. This is particularly
noticeable in small and medium-sized cities with low human and financial
resources. A funding program that helps to regenerate inner cities is the
regional city competition „Ab in die Mitte! Die City-Offensive Sachsen“
(AMS) in Saxony, organized as a public-private partnership. This study aims
to (1) research AMS concerning its factors of success and obstacles, (2)
analyze its role for small and medium-sized cities and, (3) give
recommendations to improve AMS. The low-threshold of participation mainly
encourages small and medium-sized cities to take part. AMS strengthens
exchange and knowledge transfer and promotes endogenous planning strategies.
The city competition offers low funding possibilities; therefore, it can
only serve as an incentive system. AMS should improve transparency within
the evaluation process and, realign its concept to future urban development
strategies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.