First, you should observe the activities and needs of people who occupied these areas (or lived nearby) to recognize their requirements before making decision. Then, you make SWOT analysis (identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to define the activities that they are looking for. Finally, choose the open areas of which you create some small businesses around open places, which you already should revitalize.
See these references:
- Bengston, David N., Jennifer O. Fletcher, and Kristen C. Nelson. "Public policies for managing urban growth and protecting open space: policy instruments and lessons learned in the United States." Landscape and urban planning 69, no. 2-3 (2004): 271-286.
- Sampson, Robert J., and Stephen W. Raudenbush. "Systematic social observation of public spaces: A new look at disorder in urban neighborhoods." American journal of sociology 105, no. 3 (1999): 603-651.
When urban space has a lack of connectivity with the other city parts, the spatial segregation has taken place. Here, you will see some interesting references that explain what I have mentioned in details.
- Vaughan, Laura, David L. Chatford Clark, Ozlem Sahbaz, and Mordechai Haklay. "Space and exclusion: does urban morphology play a part in social deprivation?." Area 37, no. 4 (2005): 402-412.
- Vaughan, Laura. "The relationship between physical segregation and social marginalisation in the urban environment." World Architecture 185, no. 185 (2005): 88-96.
- Legeby, Ann. "Urban segregation and urban form: From residential segregation to segregation in public space." PhD diss., KTH, 2010.
- Legeby, Ann. "From housing segregation to integration in public space: A space syntax approach applied on the city of Södertälje." The Journal of Space Syntax 1, no. 1 (2010): 92-107.