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The Trope of the Organic City

Discourses of Decay and Rebirth in Downtown Seattle

George Mason University

Across the nation, the desire to reverse histories of urban decline has led city officials to plow public subsidies into big-ticket, privately controlled downtown redevelopment projects. But what determines the scope of public involvement in downtown redevelopment? Drawing on a larger study of Seattle development politics, this article argues that impersonal economic pressures alone do not determine the scope of public subsidies to downtown developers and retailers. Instead, the discursive context surrounding the decision to subsidize downtown redevelopment is equally as important. In Seattle, a coalition of retailers and city officials framed the debate over publicly subsidized downtown redevelopment within the confines of an organic trope, where the issue of subsidies was cast as a decision between the "life" and "death" of downtown. This article assesses the political implications of the organic city trope and offers recommendations on how the language of the "living city" can be rearticulated to help create and preserve urban civic space.

Key Words: urban revitalization • public/private partnerships • urban decline • urban politics • political discourse • urban discourse • organic metaphors

Space and Culture, Vol. 6, No. 4, 429-448 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1206331203253204


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