Editing Urban Renewal Era (section)

== Legacy ==

The urban renewal era left Philadelphia transformed—for better and worse. Society Hill demonstrated that historic neighborhoods could be revitalized. Penn's Landing, though never achieving its planned potential, claimed the Delaware waterfront for public use. The food distribution center functioned efficiently for decades. But renewal also destroyed neighborhoods, displaced communities, and left scars that remain visible. The highways that cut through the city separated neighborhoods and degraded environments along their routes. Public housing projects that concentrated poverty contributed to social problems that would persist for generations.<ref name="mohl"/>

Urban renewal's legacy extends beyond physical changes to shifts in how Americans think about cities and planning. The renewal era's failures contributed to skepticism about top-down planning, government-led redevelopment, and expert authority. Jane Jacobs' critique of renewal thinking, articulated in "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" (1961), drew partly on Philadelphia examples. Community organizing to stop unwanted projects, as in the Cross-town Expressway fight, established models for neighborhood activism. The urban renewal era taught hard lessons about the limits of planning and the importance of community voice—lessons still being applied and debated in Philadelphia today.<ref name="teaford"/>