A prerequisite for allocation of urban planning funding. also applicable to the Socially Integrative City programme. is well-founded identification of geographical units as programme districts, according to ARGEBAU (Planning Panel of the Housing Committee) guidelines. (1) : "Determining the limits of the district is the task of borough and town councils. Before they can do that they need a detailed picture of the envisioned improvements in the entire municipality. They must analyse all major aspects of life. Assisted areas must prove that their deficits place them distinctly below average." ARGEBAU recommends that "district selection is to follow transparent local government procedures and be decided by the appropriate representative body."
The states of the former East Germany represent almost a fifth of the districts surveyed (see Table 2). Over half (52%) of the programme districts are in large towns (2) with over 100,000 inhabitants, 21% are in cities with populations over 500,000. Thus the Socially Integrative City programme does not target only city districts, as has been assumed. Almost a third of all areas nationwide are in municipalities with fewer than 50,000 residents. In the former East Germany, this is true of over half.
Table 2: Distribution of Programme Districts by Municipality Size. Second survey (Difu 2002) |
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|
Municipality size |
Former West Germany |
Former East Germany |
Total |
|||
districts |
% |
districts |
% |
districts |
% |
|
|
< 20,000 |
14 |
7.7 |
5 |
12.2 |
19 |
8.6 |
|
20 – < 50,000 |
36 |
19.9 |
16 |
39.0 |
52 |
23.4 |
|
50 – < 100,000 |
30 |
16.6 |
6 |
14.6 |
36 |
16.2 |
100 – < 200,000 |
35 |
19.3 |
9 |
22.0 |
44 |
19.8 |
200 – < 500,000 |
20 |
11.0 |
4 |
9.8 |
24 |
10.8 |
500 – < 1,000,000 |
23 |
12.7 |
1 |
2.4 |
24 |
10.8 |
|
> 1,000,000 |
23 |
12.7 |
– |
– |
23 |
10.4 |
Total |
181 |
100.0 |
41 |
100.0 |
222 |
100.0 |
|
German Institute of Urban Affairs; |
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(1) On the following ARGEBAU-Leitfaden (german) see Appendix 9 ARGEBAU Guidelines, 4.2, Paragraph 2.
(2) In some cases, statements about the towns include multiple responses because several of them represent more than one programme district.
In fact, Berlin has 14, Bremen 11 and Hamburg 4.
Translated from: Soziale Stadt - Strategien für die Soziale Stadt, Erfahrungen und Perspektiven – Umsetzung des Bund-Länder-Programms „Stadtteile mit besonderem Entwicklungsbedarf – die soziale Stadt", Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik 2003
