URBS 240 FINAL

Where did suburbia come from?
What is a suburb?
Who invented suburbia and why?
How did 19th century paris and london solve the same problem differently?
England 17% urban 1800, 72% urban 1890
Suburb as greenfield site, “unconstrained by previous building”
london, a primate city?
John gwynn’s 1766 propposal

Bourgeoisy lived in the middle and poorer people lived on outskirts
Bourgeoisie was merchant banker, etc (not industrial)- not highest class- highest class have urban home but live in country
Bourgeouis are trying to copy life of upper class, inconvenienced by crowd of center
Decentralized movements of bourgeoisie moving- no planner involved

Bourgeois utopia
Suburban ‘revolution’
Beginning of home and work being separated
‘Mercantile city’ vs city of the industrial revolution
“Mixed uses”
“Crowding seemed to work”

Aka edge city
All elements of cities move to the edge and there is no need to go to the center anymore

urban renewal but: merchants at core, mixed neighbourhoods, limit size of city
Bourgeois space in already developed area- more along lines of hausmann

Social mixing: “this intercourse stimulates their industry, imporves their morals by example”
Green belt

Men worked, women trapped in suburbs without car- socially isolating
Suburban home as consumption place
Working mothers?
Suburban homes are isolated from jobs/services/community
‘One environment that unites housing, services, and jobs could resolve many difficulties’
Cuban solution: law saying men had to do equal share of housework/childcare
HOMES proposal
Private housing, garden +
Solutions:

1. Men and women share housework/childcare equally
Interesting because gov could never force this
Can't really do this through planned community- opinion

2. Men and women in paid labour force equally
Jobs in community and more traditional segregated jobs would not be segregated
Opinion- how could you make this happen realistically?

3. ‘Eliminates residential segregation by class, race and age’
4. Eliminate government programs that reinforce old model
5. Minimise unpaid domestic labour
So domestic labour would be externalised and paid

6. Maximise choices for recreation and sociability
Communal gardens, playgrounds

Radburn
Change gendered division of labour
Renite home and work
Public, private and shared spaces
Redesign suburban block
Share daycare, cooking, transport, appliances, recreation, food coop
Change zoning
Co-housing
Utopian?-Yes but it's thought out

White collar office workers
Streetcars and subways
Rail lines focused on CBD: department stores, skyscrapers
Covenants: no subdivision, no multifamily dwellings, minimum house value, no commercial or industrial, no blacks or jews

1880s transcontinental railroad
CBD
Decentralised housing developments along electric railways
City of single-family homes
Suburban lifestyle marketed throughout US- hollywood
LA never had an industrial zone
CBD undermined in 1920s, shift from rail to cars
Grid of 1920s urban blvd, overlaid with 1940s freeway grid
Grid not focused on downtown, but moving people around everywhere

Like today, down payment and 30 years
Opened housing to a lot of people

Gov subsidised building of massive network of highways

After ww2, retail follows residential
Back-office functions followed residential (female labour)
Educated, near where they live, lots of clerical work
Retail, office, wholesaling, deindustrialisation
Cbd: civic, entertainment, higher order

Eyes on the street
Sidewalk ballet
Whats wrong with modernist planning?
Decentrists
City beautiful
Is crime caused by urban planning/ design?

Ideological, dogmatic
No connection with how people actually live

Hegemony
So many people tell the same story it starts to sound like the truth

Ignored the way people actually lived
Destroyed neighbourhoods, produced a bleak city
The needs of cars are seen as more important and understood more easily than the needs of the city- they think solving traffic will solve all else
Redlining

Group influenced by howard
Turn houses away from streets
Frequent streets are wasteful
Superblocks
Regional planning
Self-contained units

Columbian exposition chicago, 1893
Imitation renaissance style
Assemblage of rich and monumental capture imagination of planners and public

Centre monumental: “the important point was that the monuments had been sorted out from the rest of the city, and assembled into the grandest effect thought possible, the whole being treated as a complete unit, in a separate and well-defined way

There are bad people everywhere, and the cause of crime is beyond this book
Her point is that her neighbourhood can deal with crime- her street is better handled to deal with crime than modernist housing project

Criticism
Sidewall ballet (complex order) vs death to the street
“What baudelaire called the family of eyes”
This is not a community- Jacob’s neighbourhood doesn’t have a strong community sense
A women’s view of the city
Critical of Jacob’s nostalgia
“There is no ‘Washington’ in Jacob’s bomber”

Not same polarisation and diversity in her neighbourhood
Could it exist? Opinion- yes, but some social problems could not be solved

Other voices may have suffered more and had less power should have also been heard

Celebration of the street in art and popular culture
Complexity to the natural world that human interactions have ignored

Death of the street: rally cry of le corbusier
Jane jacob celebrates it instead

Jacobs participating in fighting the expressway was a turning point
Moses saw NYC as a transportation problem

Critique of jacobs?
Gentrification
She celebrates gentrification
Eyes on the street
Is this always a good thing?
Kinder, gentler form of social control

Advocates social mixing
New urbanism
Should have zoning on building types, not usage
In the us they have made the ‘bad’ easy and the ‘good’ difficult
Need 20-30 variances to achieve what everyone likes- like sonoma
They are now turning more suburban streets into mini highways

Too car centric
Everything is too separated, and you need a car to move between zones
Neighbourhoods segregated by income
Wants emphasis on horizontal infrastructure rather than vertical

Smaller, low speed roads instead of highways
Likes idea of a ‘village green’
Mix classes
Opinion- against idea of private/ public partnership
Don't like idea of getting private sector to create low-income housing which should be gov’s responsibility
Create parallel codes and give incentive to developers to pick it (for low-income)

All the ingredients of the omelette without making it
Zoning separates all elements of cities- they are never combined
⅓ of parking will never be used on any other day
mcMansion, a pretty good deal: high quality private life, low quality public space

Discipline building types, not uses
Write new parallel codes, carrots
Charge public realm (not private realm, not density)

Housing is fine, he doesn't want denser
Opinion: this isn’t always the case, focus on transit oriented, mix use high rise and that works well - market decides

Or neoliberalism 1.0
Shift in hegemony from robert moses to jane jacobs
Shift from fordism to post-fordism
Neoliberalism

Fordism- the state takes responsibility for social reproduction
Post-fordism is suburbanisation, building highways, making cars

Post ww2 fordism
Mass production + mass consumption
Bundle of products and technologies-Automobiles, internal-combustion engine, petroleum, suburban homes, highways
State guarantees social reproduction

In full force by 1980s
Ideology: free market
Policies
Privatisation
Deregulation
Reduce gov spending on social reproduction

Around 1995
A certain kind of re-investment
Shift in urban governance
‘Good business climate’
Instead of divestment it's a different kind of investment

Cities compete in 4 economic areas
Production
Consumption
Redistribution
Global city

Punitive design
Polarisation of cities
Death of public space
privatisation , policing, design
“We live in ‘fortress cities’ brutally divided between ‘fortified cells’ of affluent society and ‘places of terror’ where the police battle the criminalised poor”
Remaking downtown LA, Bunker Hill
Sadistic street environments
Panopticon malls-Malls with huge walls
Residential rooftops are painted with street numbers, making the aerial view of the city into a huge police grid
Haussmannization of LA: helicopters and surveillance cameras
Panopticon prison
Foucault eye of power
‘All that is then needed is to put an overseer in the tower and place in each of the cells a lunatic, a patient, a worker, a convict, a worker ir a school boy”

Architecture as a way of segregation, hostility towards the poor
Benches that homeless can’t sleep on, sprinklers going off at night

Malls with huge walls
Want to express the idea there's a lot of security even if there isn't really

Looks more protected than it is
Central watchtower, cells on edges- very efficient
Blinds on watchtowers so they don’t know if guard is watching
Tool for social control

Informal rules enforced by police
What is broken window thesis
Opinion- they sound very reasonable
Opinion- don't trust police to use judgement to enforce informal rules
Stop and frisk, profiling, zero tolerance
Neighbourhood downward spiral, urban decay
Subway graffiti
‘The shift of police from order-maintenance to law-enforcement’

If there is a broken window that is not repaired, then another will be broken and so on
If it is repaired then no others will be broken

Relates to policing
Should oppress little crimes so they don't become big crimes

Use informal methods in good old days but it has shifted to enforce written laws
Opinion: in ideal world they are for order maintenance, but have to be careful who has that power

Rio UPP experiment 2008-2017
Lead up to olympics
Did ‘proximity policing’ work? It depends who you talk to and neighbourhood
Opinion: better than it would be- gangs

Gentrification is NOT urban renewal which is not Haussmannization
Urban renewal gives way to gentrification often
Social transformation of human landscape
Chicago school zonal model
Capital is going outwards, central areas are devalued, but there is a existing use value
Neil smith vs David Ley Debate

Neil smith: irish or scottish, but focused on NYC, coined rent-gap, see-saw movement of capital
Says: no it is a story of capital moving back in city not people
Not cultural, or consumption- about rent-gap, investment opportunity
Flows into under capitalised spaces

David Ley: Canadian
Gentrification is about desire of middle class to move into inner city neighbourhood
Consumption side argument- its a demand
They become cynical of suburban products→ want to consume authenticity
Real neighbourhood, real houses

Opinion: it is both

Does not believe the market is creating gentrification
Who is at fault?
Opinion: Capital
Who is at fault?
Who are the victims?
Political economy explanation

Artists? Pawns not responsible
Owners of buildings?
May see opportunity to make money, but they end up being moved out too

Patrician elite, david rockefeller-“A long term project of the patrician elite”
New york times

Politicians: “to praise the spread of loft living as a result of spontaneous market forces is to accept the real estate developers’ view of the world and to ignore the state’s and the banks’ complicity in the construction of this world”

Structural change
De-industrialisation and movements of capital in and out

Artists?

1st wave of gentrifier are loudest about gentrification
Older/low income generations don't have voices
Owner and workers of industry are displaced
Turn over of owners of loft buildings
Original gentrifiers have pushed out small manufacturers, distributors, jobbers, and wholesale and retail sales operations- older generations are real victims

Deindustrialisation
Movement of capital

Role of the state
Looking the other way or changing laws to allow this to happen
Zoning
Building codes
Rent control
Tax code- Tax rebate for making lofts

Role of banks-Won't lend to that neighbourhood- don't want to invest if they don't know what going to happen

Developers

Solution: multifamily housing connected to housing, densify suburbs- but these communities don't want it
Social mixing is just one way→ only rich into poor
Opinion: Have mixed feelings about it
Diversity is good, but also not for forced integration
Supposed advantages of social mixing
Never uses word ‘gentrification’, but urban renaissance or revitalisation or regeneration
Neighbourhood effects
Social mixing doesn't happen
Advanatges to social segregation
Underlying ideologies contain grains of truth
Opinion: basic argument is solid

Defending the neighbourhood: ‘middle-class people are stronger advocates for public resources’
Money-go around: ‘mixed neighbourhoods are able to support a stronger local economy’
Networks and contacts: “it often brings people into contact with those outside their normal circle, broadening horizons and raising expectations and can link people into informal networks through which work is more easily found”

“the idea that social disadvantage is exacerbated by spatial concentration of disadvantaged population”

Supportive networks
‘It destroys one kind of social capital for another’
Churches, service orgs, schools and institutions
Can’t be supported if population is too diluted

Chicago school advocated for separation, which supported red-lining urban renewal
Modernist planning created tower-in-the park public housing
Jane jacobs criticised modernist planning, celebrated the traditional street
Gentrification replaced urban renewal as a real estate and segragtion strategy
Gentrification requires a lot of ideological work and a hegemonic struggle, like urban renewal

Don't think all are gentrified
Why Vidigal?
The view- beach
Near wealthy neighbourhood
Hostels, barsestaurants, events, new residents
In south america, its state led gentrification
Favela gentrification in 2-3 select favelas

Casa geracao: fashion design school
Nos de MOrro:Theater group

Importance of history
Removal attempt in 1977/78
Resisted, artists connected stood up for vidigal

New entrepreneurs:
Property owner
Long term connected resident
Foreigner
Married to foreigner
Someone speaks english/spanish outside lower middle-class entrepreneur
Trained at Nos do Morro

Who is left out:
Old school commerce
Renters
The displaced
Teens
Identity, culture
Individualism vs mutirao
Artist led gentrification

Often can't sell because of squatters rights and developers wont buy without clear land ownership

Don't want to eliminate people choice with automobiles, but put in perspective instead

Before 1945: contractors put up 5 or less houses, 1959- 22, today 150
What's wrong with suburbs
New urbanist principles
Peter calthorpes, TOD
TND: traditional neighbourhood development

DPZ: Duany, Palter-Zyberk
Villages separated by green belts
grid layouts

Means
Public reaction against suburbs
People already dont like suburbs

Critiques
Style over substance
Justifying sprawl
Limits of design for creating community

Single family home discriminates
Commuting
Mobility of non-drivers
Pollution
Loss of rural landscapes

Loss of civil life: diversity, public spaces
Have abandoned public spaces
neighbourhood have loss character

Centred public/civic space

Mixed household types, land uses
Build single family homes, town houses, multi fam together
Not everyone needs same type of houses

‘Cars should be kept in perspective’
Not getting rid of cars, but saying we can do better

Architecture: context and tradition
Opinion: doesnt like making imagined past with architecture

‘Streetcar suburb meets edge city’
Centred on transit station
Retail, services, civic, public near transit station
Urban TOD: main transit route, retail
Neighbourhood TOD: feeder route, retail
Radial streets

Compare TOD, pedestrian and new urbanism

Pedestrian pocket
Much smaller than a new town
¼ of a mile or 5 minute walk from transit station

Build public spaces and stores so people are walking around→ opens door for community- designing community

‘Many new light rail systems, built only to connect existing low-density development, are experiencing some resistance from people not wanting to leave their cars”

“Pedestrian pocket preserves land, energy and resources, reduces traffic, renders homes more affordable, allows children and the elderly more access to services and decreases community time for working people”
We've abandoned public spaces

Narrow street, good sidewalks, cars in perspective, porches, traditional architecture style, fences don't go to front, garage isn't dominant feature of house

Town centre: buses, walking, kiosks, everything is designed- not organic growth, built at once

People are talking to each other- walkway/porches are made so people will talk and run into each other to each other

Seaside florida

“Bois-franc has managed the tour de force of recreating a framework for living on a human scale that typifies communities possessed of a history and a soul”--> from an ad in newspaper
Marketing fake authenticity
Trying to recreate pre auto lifestyle, but really they are suburban communities that are not near urban/ cities, with no transit to connect to city

Was expo 67 worth it?
Yes, successful mega event in the sense that it did add transportation (metro)

1976 olympics were a disaster
ost industrial and post fordist city
Tourism and real estate instead
Promised benefits
Problems
Who benefits?

Direct jobs: construction, tourism, venues, informal sector
Informal sector didnt profit that much

Neoliberal, pro-capita;, trickle-down policy
Share of ticket sales, broadcasting rights, sponsorship agreements
Very small portion tho

Legacy: transportation infrastructure, environemtal, housing, tourism, urban upgrading
Image construction

Planning by state of emergency
Democracy goes out the window with the deadlines of building for the games

Jobs dont materialise

Accumulation by dispossession
Displacement of people for building venues, transport, etc

Public-private partnerships

White elephants
Will the buildings be used after?

IOC, FIFA- Broadcasting rights, sponsorship agreements

Consultants
In general olympics are a 1 time thing so they dont know how to do it and so need to hire consultants

Real estate interests

Athens 1896- 1st modern
Paris 1900, st louis 1904- world’s fairs
Rome 1960- pretext for urban upgrading
Mexico city 1968-Gangs, violent
Munich 1972- Israeli athletes attacked

Montreal 1976
Cost way too much
Stadium not completed until 80s
Stadium can not pay for itself- cant have events in winter
Retractable roof never worked

Los angeles 1984-Re-birth ofolympics
1st good after 3 fails

Neoliberal olympics
Barcelona 1992
Used olympics to re launch the city
Began gentrified and over touristy
Atlanta 1996

Athens 2004-Built way too much, Fail to re use after
Beijing 2008-Spent so much, Meant to be coming out for china

London 2012
Trend for mega events to go to developing world as 1st world cities are saying no because of negative examples in the past
But in london the population can help shape the outcome as the IOC cant have their agenda like in rio

Rio 2016
Lots of corruption, ambitious, displaced poor people
Political and economic crisis afterwards

What is accumulation by dispossession?
Accumulation that is outside the normal workings of capital
Eg colonisation
People are disposed of their homes- state is the one turning these favelas into capital

Time limit of events means any one can build and democracy is undermined

Capital accumulation at 4 scales
International capital- FIFA, IOC, sponsors
Brazilian multination construction companies
Local real estate markets
Favela as consumer and commodities