Fifty years ago, on April 19^th 1962 residents of LeBreton Flats were notified of the looming expropriation of their mixed working-class neighbourhood. Modernist planners had labelled the area undesirable “slum” and demanded the demolition of the central-city neighbourhoods, making it easier – if not necessary – to run high-speed roadways, high-rises, and office superblocks through the working-class district. Railways defined the district – and their very presence commanded planners to desire their imminent removal. Postwar urban renewal, stunted by an appeal to functionalist and technocratic visions, was rolled out just as the most stunning of all social, technical, and political projects: the railway, were declining and disappearing, as architecture, and as public place.

Claude Monet: Gare Saint-Lazare: Arrival of a Train, 1877 (c.f. NYRB)

In an evocative celebration of the railway in the NYRB (December 2010, January, 2011), Tony Judt proclaims that: “the railway stands for modernity”. It was nothing more, commands his prose, than a “conquest” of space, beyond any other technical innovation, completely altering the physical environment, cultural landscapes, the socio-environment, and the concept of time. In laying the foundations for industrial modernity, railways cut swaths through the historic and geometric patterns, on a scale never seen before. In this socio-technical recalibration of geographies “railways demanded – and were accorded – powers over men and nature alike: rights of way, of property, of possession, and of destruction”. Opposition was fruitless. Towns and villages that struggled against the grain — and dared to oppose “a line, a bridge, or station”– were left behind as “expenditure, travelers, goods, and markets all bypassed them and went elsewhere”. But here might be his best geographic line, akin to Zola’s evocation of the power of railways in “La Bête Humaine”: “railway tracks reinvented the landscape. They cut through hills, they burrowed under roads and canals, they were carried across valleys, towns, estuaries.” Such prose demands pause on the reader, and evoke through vivid imagery the massive scope and scale of the endeavour: imagine the radically altered environment. He pushes our senses even further (in an Benjaminian embrace) into feeling the textured grain of this calamitous transformation: “(I)ron girders, wooden trestles, brick-clad bridges, stone-buttressed earthworks, or impacted moss; importing or removing these materials could utterly transform town and country alike”, and in the process overcoming “obstacles like forests, boulders, crops, and cows”. But it was not only about the conquest of space, Judt observes, but also about the inexorable “reorganization of time”. The timetable shifted everyday life from being space bound, to being time bound: “nationally and internationally agreed time zones, factory time clocks; the ubiquity of the wristwatch; time schedules…; school timetables” simply followed.

The majestic rococo, neo-Gothic and Beaux Arts stations transformed lived urban spaces and how people interacted in the urban environment – radically. Railway stations, no less, “wrought a revolution in the social organization of public space”. These new meeting places were not beyond the practical: “patrons and clients were not supposed to just buy a ticket and go: they were meant to linger and imagine and dream.” As an urban geographer, I am taken by Judt’s evocation of public space, his romantic recall of railway stations as modern, and their moribund decline. As he pointedly notes, railways once “the major facilitator of urbanization, it fell victim to it”. The fate of individual stations fell to what Judt calls the “antihistoricist fashion” of 1955-1975 that saw the destruction of the public halls and architectural treasures of train stations (most famously Penn Station in NYC where Jane Jacobs cut her activist teeth).

Ottawa’s downtown train station did not escape this fate as part of Jacques Gréber’s 1950 design for Canada’s postwar capital. The French architect and planner evoked a visceral disdain for level crossings — which he lamented impeded the smooth flow of traffic — and the dust and noise which accompanied them on their journey. In his modern vision, railways would be removed from the city center, and moved to the periphery with empty rail lands replaced white lines of expressways.

A new “modern” railway station would be erected at the edge of the urban core in Ottawa’s east end. Designed by John B. Parkin Associates in 1966, the central feature of the International-Style-infused station is a reinforced concrete ramp that twists up from the underground passages, letting outbound passengers slowly soak in their departure, and inbound passengers slowly glimpse the steel and glass of the minimalist design. Just like the Beaux Arts educated, modernist sympathizer Gréber, the station contains contradictions. The concrete ramp is an ode to the great railway stations which were “designed to serve as dramatic entrances portals to modern cities”, even as it’s construction precipitated the decline of old urban spaces.

 

SOURCE: PANDA ASSOCIATES PHOTOGRAPHY

Sadly, this new meeting place is now mostly unused as time-pressed passengers prefer the motorized escalators over the melodic ramp, hurried on their way to the awaiting taxi stands outside, ready to whisked away along Gréber’s parkways and expressways. In their flight from the isolated station they are robbed from experiencing a grand entrance to the city’s vibrant urban fabric, a regrettable practice akin to the tragic destruction of majestic public places that Judt justifiably laments.

Cycling Superhighway

The Swedish traffic authority has announced plans for a cycling superhighway that reflects the rise in cycling in southern Sweden. For example in Lund (a small university town) 60% of residents bike or takes public transport to go about their daily tasks. Success of cycling modes of transport in Malmö is also a success where it has increased 30% each year for the last four years.

Build it and they will come?

One-Way Street?

This recent article in the National Post provides a good primer on recent conversions in smaller cities from one-way streets to two-way streets in order to enhance the vibrancy of downtown streets. As the article notes:.

“Two years ago, city crews went to St. Paul Street — the one-way spine of downtown St. Catharines, Ont. — took down the “no entry” signs, painted new lines and opened up the street to two-way traffic. According to planners, it would slow cars down, make the downtown more pedestrian friendly and spur retail development….”

Such initiatives provide empirical evidence of how the reversal of postwar planning policies – which prioritized traffic movement – can lead to more vibrant and urbane city spaces. It is a fascinating trend which other smaller and medium sized cities such as Peterborough should be keen to examine.

Of course, as the case of New York’s Times Sq. shows, the redesign of city spaces is also being implemented in larger cities. A recent report commissioned by Toronto Councillor Peter Milczyn (as reported in the Toronto Star) suggest a host of policy tools which could lead to more habitable and vibrant streets. Among other measures, the report suggests more mixed-use development, pedestrian -only streets, and reclaiming “underutilized” spaces such as alleys. The report, Balanced and Bolder, can be read here.

Public, Space, Protest and Media

I generally do not use this space to repost existing material, but the image of a former Police Captain being arrested in NYC during the protests against increasing US inequality is both iconic and powerful. More telling is the explanation from photographer Devi Danzig:

“Retired Philadelphia Police Captain, Ray Lewis, being arrested on November 17th, 2011 at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York City.Emotionally intense images of retired Philadelphia police captain Ray Lewis – who has joined the #OccupyWallStreet protests – being arrested by the NYPD. Captain Lewis has been outspoken against the NYPD’s wrongful use of violence against peaceful protesters. From what I have seen, Ray Lewis’ conduct defines honor, bravery, and dignity. There is a media blackout on images of his participation in the protest, and on his arrest: It’s proved impossible for me to get this shot of former Philadelphia Police Cpt. Ray Lewis being arrested, published anywhere. I was adamantly rebuffed by the Philadelphia Inquirer, NYT, local NY papers, and Newsweek, before even looking at the photograph. One of the only published photos of this paradoxical and intense event is located here at the NYC Observer”

Why worry about the Richest 1%? (Part I)

A key point of reference in the “Occupy Movement” has been the 2008-2009 credit crisis and subsequent bank bailout, which, critics argue had filled the pockets of wealthy Wall Street bankers, lawyers, hedge fund managers and other financial workers. In Canada, the narrative is one of banking stability, and envy of the world – as our finance minister never fails to mention. Yet, the roots of this global protest is about the rise in inequality over the past decades.

The figures are quite shocking. Between 1980 and 2005 the earnings of Canada’s bottom income group fell by 20.6 per cent. Top incomes rose by 16.4 per cent with Canada’s richest 1%1 took almost a third (32%) of all growth in incomes from 1997 to 2007 (in the fastest growing decade in this generation). Income has become virtually stagnant for all but the top 5%. The rising income of the top 1% applies in annual terms as well. In 2010, the top 1% took 10.5% of total income while the rest of the top 5% took 12.0%. Overall, the top 10% of households (income over $148,241) got just under one-third of the income (32.9%). “Think that’s normal?”, Armine Yalnizyan asks. No, as she adds, “the last time the economy grew so fast was in the 1950s and 60s, when the richest 1% of Canadians took only 8% of all income growth.”

The picture of rising inequality is even more dramatic when wealth is considered with 58% of wealth in the hands of the top 10%. In fact, the 1% richest hold 22% of mutual fund assets, 27% of stocks and bonds, 9% of RRSP’s, a slightly larger 3.8% of Cana¬dian households controlled $1.78 trillion dollars of financial wealth, or 67% of the total. Shares for the top 10% are similar: almost 80% of shares and bonds; 70% of mutual funds; half of RRSPs.

If this is not staggering enough, consider the wealth of the top 0.0002%. Canada’s 61 billionaires have a combined wealth is $162 billion which equals 6% of all personal net worth in Canada (which totalled some $2.8 trillion in 2010). In contrast, the bottom 17 millions Canadians owns about 3%. The math is staggering. Sixty-one billionaire own TWO TIMES the wealth of 17 million Canadians. It leads Jim Stanford to conclude that the average wealth of billionaires increased by just under $100 million each in the last year. In contrast, average household net financial wealth per capita in Canada grew by $524 in 2010. So while the average billionaire became $100 million richer in 2010, the average Canadian became $524 richer.”

Cycling and Planning in the Netherlands

The postwar urban planning agenda demanded the demolition and reconstruction of congested and crowded central neighbourhoods to create new, clean, functional cities for smooth moving traffic. In locations across the UK, the US, and Germany, and other continental European countries, high-rises, office superblocks, and high-speed roadways were constructed – often to the detriment of older central city districts. Decongesting cities and increasing circulation became a first order priority for planners, and central city buildings were demolished to make way for the ideal commodity vehicle of the 1950 and 1960 – the automobile. In countries with a rich cycling history such as the Netherlands (where cycles outnumbered cars 5 to 1 at the end of WWII) the impact was dramatic.

As the example of the Netherlands shows, the legacy of this car-oriented city can, as a result of public protest and action, be reversed. In fact, this can be as simple as a question of design using existing spaces in an intersection.

Transforming the unsafe, unsustainable city towards multi-functional streets and cities is possible. The liveability and safety of streets are being improved as a result. The following video shows these design ideas in practice.

Take it to the Streets: Public Space + Protest + Occupy Wall Street

I was recently rereading Marshall Berman’s seminal 1986 essay on conflict and community in public space “Take it to the streets”. As part of his larger endeavour to marry the emancipatory message of humanist Marxism with the libratory and creative potential of liberalism, Berman argued that liberalism’s division between the private person (egoistic individual) and public person (communal being), and the double-life between these poles, is essential to political emancipation. That separation allowed for the retreat to private life and simultaneously provided people the ability to gather together freely in a public place to create new forms of solidarity and community. It was here, in public space, Berman argues, that people could begin to heal their inner wounds and work out the society’s inner contradictions. For Berman, the “right to public space” a fundamental democratic right, and it is the litmus test is openness to the urban underclass, squatters, sleeper’s in subways, victims of violence, the displaced. It is from the “overflowing life” public life of the underclass that the creativity of American culture draws inspiration. In previous readings of his article, I have focused on this aspect of the “right to the city”, but in my recent rereading I was compelled by Berman’s focus on Cyndi Lauper’s 1984 hit, Girls Just Want to Have Fun. It struck a direct cord to the ongoing street theatrics of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Berman celebrates the fun, theatrical display, dance and transformation of street-life as having enourmous transformative capacity and as the very source of vibrant urban life. This coming together of public and private life, and the collective dream of what public space might be is, for Berman, poignantly displayed in the theatrical flamboyance of Girls Just Want to Have Fun. In Berman’s reading, Lauper breaks the suffocating warmth of her working-class house by assembling a racially diverse group of girls to go dancing in the streets of Brooklyn. It is from this song and dance – and “the banter, flirtation, dress, theatrical display, and stunning moves” – he argues, that the public character of fun comes to life. Moreover, by interacting with strangers, in public, individuals are forced to come to terms with reactions to their actions. As a result he argues, “they are not only transforming their lives, but also the life of the street itself, using structural openness to break down barriers of race and class and age and sex, to bring radically different kings of people together”. Open public space then provides the crucial democratic space of transformation. While this general message is significant, it is one particular scene in the video that drew my attention. The parade in a key sequence “descends into the underground” and emerges in the “neighbourhood of Wall Street” – by coincidence the very heart of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Given the suffering imposed by Wall Street on the majority of American society, Berman observation to the value of public and private transformation through collective action in public space rings true – its glory is we can pull together and compel people to see each other beyond glassed interaction. Berman’s essay reinforces how the reclamation of public space is being central to democratic life, and that one judgement of democratic society is our openness to such radical theatrical gatherings. It is an astute reminder that the creative potential of political liberalism is the ability to generate new social and economic formations from the creative spirit of public life. For urban geographer’s it is a reminder that cities should be grateful for these face-to-face interaction public spaces of every kind such as  “squares, parks, malls terminals, even highways – all filed up with people who were gathering, agitating, arguing, proclaiming, marching, stopping traffic, dancing, signing, waving flags, taking of their clothes or putting on strange new clothes, expressing themselves and making reasonable and outrageous demands on everyone else in flamboyant theatrical but intensely serious ways.”