Cities are in a constant change. Centuries ago, industry was the iron heart of the town, for the industrialists and for the workers. Residential districts aggregated around industrial areas. City dwellers were sedentary.
Since the 20. century there have been some variations in the usage of the city. In the 1950s suburbanization became a mass phenomenon. This kind of haphazard growth has lead to very sketchy environments: duplication of public services (elementray education, policing, fire fighting), low density and extended regions. Lack of planning is not the only reason of sprawl. Federal government subsidies embolden this kind of growth quite strongly.
Urban and suburban places develop because of capital investment, but capitalism causes also uneven development and since the capital has become more mobile, it is easier to invest and then disinvest in the different places.
Transportation plays also a big role in sprawl. A car gives certain freedom to its user. Freedom to drive any time any where and not to live by a bus schedule. Mass production of cars using gasoline has led to emission of carbon dioxide. This kind of pollution jeopardises earth (global warming) and earthlings ( diseases, like asthma). There are also other social problems related to sprawl: social isolation and obesity, because people are using a car even for a small distance instead of using their feet; erosion and flooding - the precipitation can not penetrate blacktopping and pavements easily and quickly enough; the demise of small farms; extinction of wildlife and unbalancing of nature - cities expand and invade in the wild life area.
Diversity of regions has led to a situation where there are simultaneously existing environments where duplication of public services is very common (haphazard growth) and environments where is quite common lack of education and healthcare facilities, jobs and necessary resources which are the basis of urban progress (overurbanization).
Overurbanization never happend to the advanced industrial societies, because urbanization took place over an extended period of time. So the agricultural areas remained relatively stable. Another important thing is that city development occured with a measured pace. The result is a ´balanced growth´, while the opposite of that - overurbanization refers to a ´primate city´.
There are power elites, like real estate elites and very often power means control over someone or something. In order to have a little bit of balance there is also ´citizen power´ and that means involvment, partnership and even control. According to Arnstein there is also ´non-participation´ and it is the lowest level of participation, where people are simply manipulated. The second level is ´tokenism´ where people are allowed to take part of information meetings. Citizen participation means active involvment in the town planning through discussions and that is necessary, because then both sides interests are represented and hopfully taken under consideration.
Since the 20. century there have been some variations in the usage of the city. In the 1950s suburbanization became a mass phenomenon. This kind of haphazard growth has lead to very sketchy environments: duplication of public services (elementray education, policing, fire fighting), low density and extended regions. Lack of planning is not the only reason of sprawl. Federal government subsidies embolden this kind of growth quite strongly.
Urban and suburban places develop because of capital investment, but capitalism causes also uneven development and since the capital has become more mobile, it is easier to invest and then disinvest in the different places.
Transportation plays also a big role in sprawl. A car gives certain freedom to its user. Freedom to drive any time any where and not to live by a bus schedule. Mass production of cars using gasoline has led to emission of carbon dioxide. This kind of pollution jeopardises earth (global warming) and earthlings ( diseases, like asthma). There are also other social problems related to sprawl: social isolation and obesity, because people are using a car even for a small distance instead of using their feet; erosion and flooding - the precipitation can not penetrate blacktopping and pavements easily and quickly enough; the demise of small farms; extinction of wildlife and unbalancing of nature - cities expand and invade in the wild life area.
Diversity of regions has led to a situation where there are simultaneously existing environments where duplication of public services is very common (haphazard growth) and environments where is quite common lack of education and healthcare facilities, jobs and necessary resources which are the basis of urban progress (overurbanization).
Overurbanization never happend to the advanced industrial societies, because urbanization took place over an extended period of time. So the agricultural areas remained relatively stable. Another important thing is that city development occured with a measured pace. The result is a ´balanced growth´, while the opposite of that - overurbanization refers to a ´primate city´.
There are power elites, like real estate elites and very often power means control over someone or something. In order to have a little bit of balance there is also ´citizen power´ and that means involvment, partnership and even control. According to Arnstein there is also ´non-participation´ and it is the lowest level of participation, where people are simply manipulated. The second level is ´tokenism´ where people are allowed to take part of information meetings. Citizen participation means active involvment in the town planning through discussions and that is necessary, because then both sides interests are represented and hopfully taken under consideration.
1 comment:
Great work.
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