The effect of organizational capacity on urban redevelopment outcomes : the case of the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles and the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza

Abstract

(cont.) This thesis seeks to answer the following questions: * What organizational features (i.e. types of leadership, structure, etc.) are significant in executing successful urban redevelopment projects? * To what extent does organizational capacity make certain projects successful? Primary research question: What aspects of organizational capacity contribute to the positive or negative outcomes of urban redevelopment projects and in what way? Organizational capacity is defined as how well an agency organizes its human, social, financial, and technical resources. These questions are answered through an in-depth case study of the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles (CRA) with respect to its redevelopment of the Crenshaw Center, a regional shopping center built in the late 1940s, into the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, a mail completed in 1988. The mall is once again the target of new, extensive redevelpment plans. Research was conducted through theoretical and archival research, supplemented by interviews with those involved with the development and execution of the project, as well site observation. What emerges from the fieldwork and empirical research is a strategic understanding of organizational capacity that is useful in diagnosing key features of an organization that pursues urban redevelopment, and in suggesting areas for strengthening the organization's capacity. The key features of organizational capacity for CRA are cultivating internal leadership, concretely defining mission and central tasks, negotiating power-balanced relationships, and managing their network of actors.