The Luxury City vs. the Middle Class
The sustainable city of the future will rest on the revival of traditional institutions that have faded in many of today’s cities.
Popularity: 10% [?]
urbanism.org
Urban news [almost] daily.Archive for Gentrification
University Development in Boston
Harvard’s massive expansion into Allston has had to be slowed down, in part because of the slowing economy. Many in the neighborhood worry that means they’ll be left with a barren landscape for way too long, instead of the mixed use development Harvard has promised. Meanwhile, in another part of the neighborhood, Boston College is battling some of its neighbors over plans to expand on the former Archdiocese Headquarters Campus.
Popularity: 30% [?]
Are poor, ‘ethnic’ areas cages?
Josefina, the Italian grandmother who lives next door to my house in Toronto, says she will never leave the neighbourhood, even though she can afford a house somewhere else.
It’s the excellent cuts from Vince the butcher, the suitably pious service at St. Anthony’s and the neighbours who understand her rural dialect. Her sons have all moved out to live among the big houses of the outer suburbs, but she’s staying.
Ana, the Portuguese girl who serves me coffee down the street, would very much like to get out of the ‘hood, which seems restrictive and limiting to her. But her stonemason dad doesn’t get much work, and her mom doesn’t speak English, so they’re stuck.
Popularity: 14% [?]
Degentrifying Condos
Like many other artists inhabiting the cluster of old brick warehouses in Fort Point, Andrew Woodward had cast a wary eye toward the wave of development sweeping the neighborhood near the Boston waterfront. But rather than getting priced out, Woodward is moving into a 92-unit converted warehouse topped by a gleaming glass-and-steel canopy. Woodward and his wife, a furniture maker, were able to purchase one of three affordable live/work spaces at FP3—which opened last summer with penthouse units starting at $1.8 million and studios at $350,000—thanks to a program aimed at keeping artists in Boston. With its concierge and swanky lobby, the condo building is a far cry from their old digs. “We used to have to share a sink on the floor,” he says.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Take Back the Land
On October 23, 2006 a group of homeless people and local activists took over a vacant lot on the corner of 62nd Street and NW 17th Avenue, jointly owned by the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County, and erected tents. We planted a sign exclaiming the emphasis and name of the movement: Take Back the Land.
Popularity: 18% [?]
New York Should End Its Obsession With Manhattan
Despite Mayor Bloomberg’s celebration of “the luxury city,” there’s still a middle class in New York, although not in the zip codes close to hizzoner’s townhouse. These middle-class enclaves are as diverse as the city. Some are heavily ethnic, others packed with arty types, many of them more like suburbia than traditionally urban.
Popularity: 8% [?]
In the Chinese city. Perspectives on the transmutations of an Empire
So much has been said and written about contemporary China. A fifth of humanity lives within its boundaries, the country is undergoing extraordinarily fast mutations, its cities dwarf whatever idea Europeans might have of a metropolis and its economy is increasingly linked to ours. Yet, i doubt there are many people out there who could honestly pretend they understand or ‘know’ the ‘Middle Kingdom.’ In fact, the splendor and history of imperial China is probably clearer in most minds than the country as it is nowadays.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Finding Treasures in a City’s Disappearing Past
The destruction of this 800-year-old city usually proceeds as follows: the Chinese character for “demolish” mysteriously appears on the front of an old building, the residents wage a fruitless battle to save their homes, and quicker than you can say “Celebrate the New Beijing,” a wrecking crew arrives, often accompanied by the police, to pulverize the brick-and-timber structure.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Town to ban smoking on revitalized shopping street
After spending $1.4-million to revitalize a popular downtown shopping street, the town of Truro, N.S., discovered it may have been too successful: Loiterers began hanging around for hours, smoking and shouting curses, as they and their dogs intimidated would-be customers.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Cuba and the Invasion of the Big-Box Stores
President-elect Barack Obama is reportedly considering a new American relationship with Cuba. That’s long-overdue good news. But the new administration should consider this cautionary note: “An invasion of one Madonna is equal to ten Marine divisions,” according to Miguel Coyula, a noted city planner in Havana.
Popularity: 13% [?]