“There is nothing wrong with change, if it is
in the right direction” – Winston Churchill
(i)
It
is said that change is the only constant. In our lives, in our homes, our
feelings, our opinions, our value systems all subject to that one thing we
fight so hard against: change. Everything is changing and that includes our
urban surroundings. Whether it is toward sustainable development, a new city
focus, involving gentrification processes or initiating new class regimes,
urban change is evident and incredibly forceful in its methods.
This
photograph was taken on the Eastern Main Road in Trinidad. This building is, or
rather was the ‘Presidente’ cinema in San Juan. I thought it was a fitting
representation of urban change as you can see it has been replaced, while
keeping its original face, by a car parts store. I found this a rather
interesting portrayal or urban change as it is something I’m sure we can all
relate to: old building being replaced by new ones, the constant life and death
cycle of stores. The urban landscape as we know it is fast pace, dog-eat-dog
and highly competitive. Who will stand and who will perish under the dynamic
supply-and-demand regime of our urban arenas? Businesses today have to play a
lifelong game of dodge-ball with a nation of entrepreneurs ready to pounce at
the slightest sign of weakness. Adapt or die…there is no other way.
(ii)
I mentioned two aspects of urban change above:
change toward sustainable development and change regarding gentrification
processes within cities. These two avenues for change can be seen as, in my
opinion, the most popular avenues of change seen in the post modern era of
urban geography. I planned to talk about sustainability in cities in my final
blog post, so for now I’ll speak briefly on gentrification (a concept I am
still a little blurry on), or at least what I perceive gentrification to be as
it manifests itself in Trinidad.
 |
| Gentrification: Out with the old, In with the new |
Gentrification is written about in Ch. 9: ‘Housing and
Residential Segregation’ in the book Urban
Geography by Hall and Barrett. I found this strange at first because I with
the definition I knew, the concept never really struck me as concerning
residential segregation. Nonetheless, here is a definition by Lees et al
(2008):
‘The transformation of a working-class or
vacant area of the central city into middle class residential and/or commercial
use’
The main idea of gentrification is the displacing of
traditional residential structures such as the idea of wealthier outer city
suburbs, with inner city regeneration and redevelopment of vacant properties
that once moved people outward. However, an increasing phenomenon is the move
back into city centres with the improvement of these once shunned areas.
The idea of gentrification as expressed by Hall and Barrett outlines the issues of the displacement of lower income groups that once flocked to the inner city lower income housing. A key motivator for gentrification to take place is the idea of the 'rent gap', that is, the difference between the rent obtained at present for a property and the potential future rent that could be obtained after renovation. Developers and planners realize that certain inner city properties are home to a creative class, a chic, bohemian-style sector of the population that above all can be marketed to the advantage of landlords....urban change for the better?? I wonder...
My photograph at the beginning of the entry doesn't portray the idea of
residential displacement, but rather the idea of a change in building usage and
at times land use entirely. Such transformation of land use was recognized in
another course work assignment I had for my Urban Geography course which
required us to survey a transect of Tunapuna, along the Eastern Main road. What
I noticed was the increasing tendency of multiple or mixed land uses in the
same compound, and an increasing density of commercial land use as the transect
moved further east.
 |
| My transect of a portion of the Eastern Main Road in Tunapuna. Trinidad |
This is the analysis I did on
the transect of Tunapuna:
It was not
a surprise that most of the land uses were commercial, since properties on the
main road are seen as prime real estate opportunities for businesses. This is due
to its ease of access and the steady flow of people in and around the area.
There is however, a growing trend of multiple use buildings, either a mixture
of commercial uses or commercial and residential uses. Some of the two storey
buildings often had residences on the upper floor and businesses on the lower
floor. It was noted that residential units were located to the back of the
building with businesses taking up the entire vertical front of the building.
This showed an ingenious use of space, which with growing urban populations is
becoming a rarity. The businesses involved in this form were small scale,
usually privately owned cafes, food outlets or clothes stores.
Overall in the commercial
activity along the Eastern Main Road shows heavy private sector activity. Many
private doctors’ offices were seen, including St. Augustine Private Hospital. A
number of privately owned hair and nail salons and barber shops were noted as
forming clusters within buildings of multiple commercial use. In fact, in many
of these buildings, similar companies seemed to flock together. Reasons for
this could be to facilitate joint entrepreneurial ventures, the efficient use
of similar resources or even to take advantage of the same pool of customers.
In the St. Augustine portion of the transect (before St. John road),
the trend of building usage leans toward professional commerce-type businesses,
with a generally high amount of insurance firms, banks, medical services and also
tend to have larger compound sizes. On the other hand east of St. John Road,
moving into the Tunapuna region the buildings are of a more entrepreneurial
nature, with a large amount of them used as retail clothes and shoes stores as
well as convenience or variety stores. The lots of land also become smaller and
more divided while the buildings grow increasingly upward in an attempt to find
space for expansion. Also, an increase in the number of businesses involved in
the informal sector was seen as the study moved toward the east, into Tunapuna.
According to Hall and Barrett
in their book Urban Geography, the
informal sector is described as being extremely diverse. Dicken (2004) notes
that the informal sector cannot be easily quantified or measured because it is
a “floating kaleidoscope phenomenon, continually changing in response to
shifting circumstances and opportunities”. The informal sector shows itself in
the Tunapuna/St. Augustine region in the form of fruit stalls, market vendors
and many roadside clothes and shoe vendors. In addition to this, and supporting
the idea that the informal sector has many faces is the presence of numerous
variety stores. In one instance an entire compound that used to belong to
Monarch Cinema has been converted into a huge galvanize and wooden structure,
crammed to the top with seemingly unrelated items. Also, in the market area,
many vendors sell quite a few unrelated items and can quickly offer customers
many choices. These vendors are on the streets all day, sometimes from early in
the morning till late at night, usually in small groups of relatives (children
and their parents) operating at a small scale. With reference to the text,
these are all characteristics of the informal sector outlined by Drakakis-Smith
(2000), a growing part of city economics.
For the most part, the structure
of this section of the Eastern Main Road shows three major trends in land use
and form. Firstly, there is a more integrated use of building space with a
given building or compound being used in a wider variety of ways than in the
past. Secondly, an increase in the proximity of like businesses is seen, as
more similar organizations flock together for various reasons such as
conserving resources or taking advantage of the same market of consumers. Lastly, a growing private sector and informal
sector is noticed as small scale entrepreneurial businesses are on the rise.
All these together increase the popularity of urban spaces, fuelling the never
ending fire of development that is urban growth.
Urban
change in the Global South and especially the Caribbean in my opinion takes a
different form from the urban change described previously in the form on
gentrification processes. I see urban change taking place rather in the commercial
sectors with the changes in types and orientation of land uses. With this
change from a human geography point of view, sees changes in attitudes,
relations between classes, the resolution or irritation of conflicts as new
people move in and out of the city. I see the city like a living, breathing
organism capable of change, dynamistic tendencies, death and rebirth of sectors,
rather than a rigid, physical and non-living structure removed from the human
potential for change. What does your city look like? How is your city changing?
And what are the consequences of this change?
(iii) A few links to look at:
