Managing city centre change

There is a strong tradition of town and city centre management; a recognition that a strategic and coordinated approach is needed to respond to change. In this chapter, the focus is on how one form of city centre management, the Business Improvement District (BID) has become hegemonic globally, translating between different policy and political contexts to become the ‘preferred’ way to manage the complexities of private, public and community space and roles and to be an active player in managing change in the city centre. Our central thesis is that although the dominance of BIDs as a management tool is likely to remain in the short-term, there are emerging alternative, more recent formulations of ways in which change is being managed and there are positive signs of a return to stronger alignment of the local municipality and business in working together in the transformation of the city centre.