Urban Planning or Urban Suffocation?

“Dull, inert cities, it is true, do contain the seeds of their own destruction and little else. But lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own regeneration, with energy enough to carry over for problems and needs outside themselves.” 

- Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together” – the Beatles, I am the Walrus

(i)                  Stacked one on top the other, side to side like sardines in a tin…like all the same colour crayon crammed into a tiny box…I am no longer my own, not a unique entity but an unidentifiable apartment number submerged in a sea of anonymity. The entire street feels like a house of mirrors, never ending reflections of the same structures, the same colours, the same shapes, the same functions… Everywhere I look, concrete ‘others’ jeering at me; mocking me as I stand firm, strong…yet intimidated. The fumes and sounds from the street creep in through my windows, sneak through the cracks in my walls. There is no silence, there is no peace, and there is no escape. There is nowhere to walk, nowhere to play, nowhere for the slightest expression of individuality. Everywhere I look, I see another version of myself. I’m so close to everything around me, no room to breathe, no room to move, my concrete exterior trapping me in. I am overpopulated, people moving like cockroaches, or ants ambling over, under, in between each other: a fight for space, a struggle for a voice, a clash for some form of personal identity. Everyone wants equality, planning, order..well here it is! Look around you, homogeneity and rationality in all its brilliance. This city, so diverse, so multi-dimensional, so chaotic and haphazard and exciting…yet all the same…boring and ordered and uniformed…

This is a photo of a portion of the residential compounds on Nelson Street in Port of Spain (I would have liked to get a picture of the entire set of apartment buildings but due to the reputation of the area, coming out of the car alone with a camera in hand, taking pictures of people’s homes would not have been a good idea).  This type of inner city housing development in Port of Spain is known as the “Plannings” which were conducted as a result of the Colonial Government’s Slum Clearance Act of 1944. Blocks of identical apartments were built along Duncan, Nelson and George Streets in an attempt to improve poor housing and overcrowded conditions during the early to mid 20^th century. (showed below in the highlighted boxes)

(ii)                Driving through Nelson Street was particularly intimidating as this area is well known for civil disturbances, crimes and many fiery protests. I managed to however get a picture of the most striking feature on that stretch of road, a completely uniformed line of apartment buildings. It was quite an amazing sight that took me back to Chapter 6 in the textbook Urban Geography by Hall and Barrett: Planning, Regeneration and Urban Policy, in particular Jane Jacobs’ idea of urban planning.

In the chapter, two ideas of city planning were outlined, ‘The Garden City’ by Ebenezer Howard and ‘the City of Towers' or 'Radiant City' by Le Corbusier both of which took a top-down approach to urban planning, seeking to apply their theories of ‘the good city’ to solve problems associated with urbanization. Hall and Barrett describe ‘urban planning’ as a “rational, modern and technical response to the unruly city, seeking to impose order…” which were applied through specific plans and idealistic frameworks.

‘The Garden City’ by Ebenezer Howard 

'Radiant City' by Le Corbusier

Jane Jacobs on the other hand was not fond of formal urban planning as often times it sought to homogenize entire cities into a “cookie cut” and neatly trimmed version of itself. Whereas the theories mentioned previously were described as being top-down, Jacobs’ point of view stemmed “from the bottom, from the street”. She advocated four main principles for what she considered ‘good neighbourhoods’

•           Mixed uses
•           Mixed blocks with buildings of different age and condition
•          Conventional streets with  short blocks and many corners
•           Dense concentration of people

The main idea that stands out to be in her writings is the idea that cities were encouraged to hold a variety of people, a lively and diverse community. In this way, ‘the good city’ she suggests as opposed to that put forward by Howard and Corbusier are in direct contrast with one another.

What exactly is an ideal city? The one displayed in my picture of Nelson Street? Or the one Jane Jacobs imagines? Is it stacked apartments neatly in a row, all positioned in a straight line, no breaks, no pauses, just order and a rational use of space?...what means more to city planners? In my opinion our cities should contain diverse populations, foster community spirit, aid in communication, play, interaction, INTEGRATION…people are not the problem, people don’t have to be a problem that urbanization inevitably gives birth to…Jacobs gives the idea that people create and foster the continued growth of cities, not the other way around. It is the people that make the cities, so why is there this constant need to control, to restrict, to order, to predict? Jacobs gives the impressions that chaos is good, it is NATURAL…cities are living, breathing organisms, capable of wonderful things…why cage its spirit…

 (iii)        This is a link to a case study of Port of Spain, outlining its evolution and history as an urban system:                          http://www.scribd.com/doc/19552480/Port-of-Spain-Case-Study

This is another link to the website for the East Port of Spain Development Complany Ltd. which outlines the latest plans for development and urban planning of Port of Spain.  http://eposdctt.com/

These are a number of short videos explaining the various aspects of Urban Planning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKOB-d3uds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmzNa648_P

And last but not least, a little information about Jane Jacobs: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXeEMD6U0NY

The Rise of Cultural Industries..A Curse or A Blessing

"The innovative cities of the coming age will develop a creative union of technology, arts and civics."

–Sir Peter Hall, renowned geographer and authority on the economic, demographic, cultural and management issues facing cities

(i) Behold the tinted blue dimensions of Trinidad and Tobago’s National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), in all its architectural magnificence. At the forefront, her pixilated iris scans the outside world, as if picking and choosing who is worthy to enter and who shall remain as mere reflections in her wandering eye. For me, the opaque shield of glass towering high over me, makes me feel excluded. I can’t see them but they can see me….So I use it as a mirror to fix my hair. Her steel skeleton, by force, shelters me from the sun while at the same time casting large, ominous shadows…cold and unloving. Oh, how I’d love to see what lies behind her dense and unwavering gaze. How I long to wear fancy clothes, put on high heels, do my hair up ‘beauty queen’ style and see what wonders wait behind those solid glass doors. Will I walk into a wonderland of music, posh company, little things to eat on little tooth-picks, smiles and warm faces…cultured folk? Or, will I trip on my heels, the air condition making me wish I had walked with a shawl of some sought. Will I meet an overwhelming sea of things I don’t understand, people I can’t talk to, and food I can’t afford? The dark abyss, the bright and glorious portal from whence came ‘the creative class’?
For those who are absolutely confused after reading my unnecessarily cryptic and longwinded breakdown of the photograph I took this week, firstly, thank you for staying. Right, next I hope to discuss based on this picture and my analysis the theme ‘City Economies: The Rise of Cultural Industries’

(ii) In my last post about urban form and post colonial cities, I quoted from the book Urban Geography by Hall and Barrett. I will be using this book mostly, for my academic references for the duration of my ‘Facets of Urban Life’ blog, so bear with me.

City economies are discussed in chapter 4 of their book, and the section I want to relate back to the photograph deals with the emergence of ‘new’ sectors of the modern urban economies, specifically Creative Industries, also known as Cultural Industries.

According to Hubbard (2006), ‘the post industrial economy has been described as ‘dematerialized’ or ‘weightless’, where knowledge and creativity are the raw materials of economic prosperity’. Now, for those wondering exactly what I mean by terms such as ‘creativity’ and ‘creative industry’ used in the context of The Urban, I’m referring generally to the industries such as media, design, fashion, music, film production etc. that have been growing in popularity in some of the world’s major urban centres.

In terms of Trinidad: features such as NAPA (north and south Trinidad), the Naparima Bowl in south Trinidad and the Little Carib Theatre and Queen’s Hall in Port of Spain are symbols of theatre and orchestral activity. Mas Camps such as Hearts, Island People, Mac Farlenes, and Tribe alongside the fashion houses of Meiling (Meiling Inc.) and Claudia Pegus (Claudia Pegus Designs Limited) stand testament of our growing fashion design industry. Skinner Park in San Fernando and the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port of Spain both act as major cultural hubs during our Carnival season, which is coincidentally this week. Lastly, Exodus pan yard in Tunapuna and Trinidad All Stars pan yard in Port of Spain are just two of the many that scatter our twin island, reminding us of where the cultural industry in Trindad and Tobago began in the first place.

Referring back to the text, Hall and Barrett talk, from a urban geographical point of view, about the origins of the cultural spaces within cities. There is speculation that development of a creative sector originated from the regeneration of de-industrialized inner cities, however to generalize this statement would be risky as each city has its own story to tell. In light of this, Hubbard (2006) notes that there is little research at the moment on how creativity is produced and how it is practiced. However, whether it be creative individuals taking advantage of empty properties at low rents, urban regeneration programs run by governments or simply a gradual change in the priority of a country at large in terms of where future economies lie, the one thing that is certain is that more and more creativity is becoming an essential and viable aspect of urban economies.

On a final note in terms of the academic side of creative industries, I want circle back around to the idea in my initial analysis of the photograph that I was being excluded from what perks NAPA had to offer. The text mentions that some critics of the overly optimistic view of creative industries point out that in catering to the needs of the ‘well-off creative class’ they may ignore those of disadvantaged groups who may not get a chance to experience the benefits of this type of economic growth. A practical example in my opinion was NAPA itself, which I have only been to twice (one of which only happened because was a free show!). In the cultural sense, some critics are even arguing that certain cultures may be marginalized in the drive to foster the creative sector, leaving those not falling within those boundaries at the wayside. What can we say about this…

(iii) Some things you can take a look at:

• are the creative industries actually the destructive industries? http://thirdsectorexpert.blogspot.com/2011/07/are-creative-industries-actually.html
• David Throsby talks about 'Valuation and the Cultural Sector' at Culture and the Economy (this is a bit long, but interesting) //www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnsZ3_bulqI

Urban Form: A Sea of Chaos, a Mosiac of our Imagination...

“This City now doth, like a garment wear

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie

Open unto the feils, and unto the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.”

William Wordsworth in his 1802 sonnet, “Composed upon the Westminster Bridge” wrote these words, echoing what he saw when he looked upon London and the River Thames. Can the same be said about our city of Port of Spain?

(i)                  This is a picture taken from the “Look Out” on the Lady Young Road in Trinidad. This main reason I chose it out of the many I had taken along that road is because at first glance it looks like a sea of continuous houses, but if you take a closer look, the picture offers so much dimension and detail, I simply could not use another to represent the theme “City Form and Our Perception…”

Looking at the overflowing mass of buildings, crammed together I feel like there is no space to breathe, no space to walk. From this angle, I imagine people squeezing themselves through the cracks and crannies of the city, tip-toeing around the corners of buildings, stifled by the shear amount of concrete, car fumes and humidity. Is this what Port of Spain is? Maybe not, this is all just an exaggerated analysis.

Taking a closer look I see, NAPA (the National Academy for the Performing Arts) in all its architectural glory: shiny, pleasant, modern, clean. Does this not give our city another dimension? Like a buoy floating in the sea of never-ending chaos and clutter. I feel proud of this.

If you look carefully, there’s the Queen’s Park Savannah to the right side of the picture, with little white tents peeking up amongst the green. The Savannah is known as one of the biggest parks in the Western Hemisphere and by the Guinness World Book of Records as the largest “Roundabout” in the world. Isn’t that exciting?

Cranes stand tall like giraffes grazing on the upper left hand corner of the picture, waiting for the next time they’ll be put to use, while ships wait off the coast. Oil tankers, barges, tugboats waiting to guide large ships into our Port, these together with our long-legged metal giraffes stand guard over the industrial and manufacturing sectors of Port of Spain.

In between the mass of concrete, smoke, strange noises and smells are all the characteristics of the living parts of the city. Green spaces allow our city to breathe; theatres allow her to sing so sweetly, tall buildings give her a modern and fashionable look while religious sites allow for her morals to be kept in check. What more could we want from a city, so grand, so overwhelming, so diverse...“all bright and glittering in the smokeless air”

(ii)         “The form or shape of a city is known as its “morphology” and can be seen as the tangible outcome of a complex mix of socio-economic forces and the ideas and intentions of individuals, acting both within and outside a city”

- Urban Geography by Hall and Barrett.

All these aspects I have described previously attempts to flesh out this very academic definition in a more figurative and reader friendly way. My first idea of discussion based on this picture was quite obvious, ‘Overcrowding, an Urban Phenomenon’. While this sounds pretty good, (and I’m thinking maybe I should have written about that instead), I thought to myself that it sounds a little too “duh…”and just a tad on the predictable side. So instead I took a second look and to my surprise, there was so much detail in the picture that I hadn't considered in the first place. So I decided to think about “Urban Form- post colonial cities” and what that really means.

According to Hall and Barrett, Port of Spain can be seen as being a post-colonial city, or a ‘Third World City’. In their analysis of these cities, they see two main characteristics emerging: a high-rise CDB district and factories, and the presence of large areas of low status squatter settlement housing on the edges of the city which higher status housing remaining at the core. (Pacione 2009). Outside the context of this photograph is the CBD district spoken about the Pacione, is located in Downtown Port of Spain, with boundaries of Park Street, Independence Square, Richmond and Duncan Streets. The Twin Towers, The mid and high rise buildings of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, the Nicholas Towers, and Capital Plaza (formally Crowne Point Plaza make up Port of Spain’s ‘skyline’, a distinguishing characteristic of every city. On the other hand, Port of Spain also stands true to the low status settlement on the outskirts of the city. These include Lavantille and Sealots, areas of unplanned and poorly facilitated housing development. Hall and Barrett talk about this structure stemming from stark inequalities in the cities of post colonial countries, often times still in dependent relations with major post-industrial economies. While I do not believe our situation of be as “cut and dry” as this, when looking at the “materiality” of our urban structure, a reflection of our colonial, dependent past is scene, and lends with it a sobering tongue to my previous childish fantasy images of Port of Spain.

(iii)               I feel like this song represents one of the many perceptions people hold of their city.

The City: by Ed Sheeran http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx2WLju6f34

Also I saw this picture, and thought that it represented what I imagined Port of Spain to be in the beginning of this blog entry...

Think about it…What will you make of your city? 

Until next week,

Hannah Sundari Sammy