Invisible Cities

What was it that the Decentrists desired when they dreamed of the city as a garden? What did Le Cor­busier see when he ima­gined the towers of the Radial City, ges­tic­u­lat­ing like giant fin­gers in some obscure salute? Did any­one think to ask people how they wanted to live? Did any­one look around, to see the value of the city as a social and eco­nomic envir­on­ment? The fail­ures of the Robert Taylor homes in Chicago and Clichy-Sous-Bois in Paris are resound­ing examples of the gen­eral fail­ure of the social hous­ing pro­jects of the 20th cen­tury to adequately address the hous­ing needs of cit­izens of the city. The plan­ners tried to build uto­pia, but for­got to account for the nature of people.

We may be poised to make the same mis­take.  Regent Park in Toronto is being torn down, as are thou­sands of other aging or unser­vice­able social hous­ing com­plexes. They will be replaced with con­domin­i­ums. A massive relo­ca­tion is under way, with social hous­ing mega-blocks swapped for social and eco­nomic “diver­si­fic­a­tion.” We are con­duct­ing a large, liv­ing social exper­i­ment played out on real human beings.

In the inner-city hous­ing pro­ject of Toronto’s Regent Park, Kendell and Mikey, like their sur­round­ings are in the pro­cess of trans­form­a­tion; the envir­on­ment and social pres­sure tempt­ing them to make poor choices, their moth­ers and ment­ors root­ing for them to suc­ceed. Turn­ing his cam­era on the often ignored inner city, Academy-award nom­in­ated dir­ector Hubert Davis sens­it­ively depicts the dis­con­nec­tion of urban poverty and race from the mainstream.

Have we learned from our exper­i­ence, or are we build­ing for another fail­ure?  Is the redevel­op­ment of the mega-projects just?

  • madeleine
    cities are not built with bulldozers. community needs to be supported. it's not something that can be mandated.
  • support of community takes more than paternalistic and moralized pre-conceptions of need and simplistic assumptions about the lives of poor people.

    justice and equality is something you can support by building right. building an environment that supports healthy cities requires respect and understanding. the money and the manpower is the easy part.
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