Formal and Meaningless" or "Impactful": Citizen Participation in the Downtown Urban Revitalization Plan"

Cudemus-Brunoli, Ryan Michael

Student Work

Formal and Meaningless" or "Impactful": Citizen Participation in the Downtown Urban Revitalization Plan"

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Worcester's Downtown Urban Revitalization Plan (URP) is an urban renewal plan established under Massachusetts General Law (M.G.L.) and executed by the Worcester Redevelopment Authority (WRA). With the renewal plan, the WRA is granted powers of eminent domain by M.G.L. but also is required to show citizens meaningfully participated in its planning process. In this report I sought to define meaningful citizen participation and evaluate the WRA's methods for involving citizens. Using four definitions that I synthesized, I found none of the WRA's methods to be meaningful, and I therefore found the WRA's entire process to not be meaningful. I also power differences in how interviewees perceived the processes and how they defined meaningful participation.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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