Being There

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?