Abstract
“The tragedy of the commons” illuminates the tension between two opposing forces that are at work in urban society and space during contemporary urban regeneration: mobility and growth on the level of individuals as they maximize their abilities on the one hand, and the decline and deterioration of cities on the other hand. Based on a data-driven analysis of the spatial and economic changes occurring in Bat Yam, a suburban city in Israel’s Tel Aviv metropolitan area, as well as on a qualitative study (n = 25) with professionals, this chapter proposes conceiving of the work of professionals leading urban regeneration as a ceaseless effort to balance the commons, but with no sufficient tools or backing. In their eyes, the city had no other economic way out when it commenced the regeneration process more than a decade ago, although it now appears that the apartment owners, the developers, and the political leadership are leading the city into a situation of over-planning and a state of uncertainty. The research contributes mainly to the understanding of the impact of market forces on disadvantaged towns, which are liable to collapse beneath the burden of the need to provide services and overloaded infrastructure as the population density increases.