The Scourge of Urban Renewal

Urban Renewal is a "free lunch" program for the wealthy, a program unencumbered by any social or community or human values, an engine of destruction for neighborhoods, small businesses, charities and other projects. Its only goal is to wipe out affordable commercial and residential space, driving up land prices through government intervention, and dislocating the 'underclasses', at public expense, to the enrichment of powerful developers and their business partners.

Urban Renewal can be stopped.
It was stopped once, in Eugene, Oregon, in 2007. Defunded, it wasn't used for 15 years, and then only sparingly.
The story of stopping "Urban Renwal" in Eugene can be found here.
If it is stopped enough, perhaps it can be transformed, and given values. In defeating it, we can replace the impoverished "urban vision" of Urban Renewal promoters with something truly good.

See Urbanology