Urban regeneration and democratization of information access: CitiStat experience in Baltimore

This article explores the potential of a GIS-based approach to city management - Baltimore's CitiStat e-government program - for meeting the goals of sustainable urban regeneration. The argument advocated here builds on the widely held recognition that the application of ICTs in general can lead to both new forms of inclusion and exclusion of citizens. Therefore attending to the 'digital divide' is a relevant issue because cities are complex environments where outcomes of interventions are uncertain and widening participative arenas to different actors can increase the possibilities to regenerate declining urban areas in a more democratic way.