Thomas Sigler
Department of Geography
Pennsylvania State University

This paper examines the dominant policy discourse of urban revitalization in the United States as it increasingly intersects with global processes and power structures. Though scholars have long attributed urban growth to larger, global processes, I argue that the impact of internationally mediated social, economic, and cultural flows is on the rise in the urban U.S. As a case study, I draw a critical lens to Las Vegas’ City Center, an $8.6 billion mixed-use megaproject that continues to be built in the wake of a global economic crisis. City Center is currently the largest privately funded development in the U.S. and implicates a variety of contemporary processes. I conclude that the project follows the orthodoxy of past revitalization initiatives, but with dramatically
up-scaled capital outlays and global influence.