The City Beautiful Movement

You mentioned the City Beautiful Movement several times in class and I didn't know what you were talking about so I read an article about it by Jon A. Peterson.
In this article, he argues that CBM was not only about classical Renaissance architecture or urban design. It wasn't merely a response to the ugly industrial city. It was "a complex cultural movement involving more that building arts and urban design". It introduced three concepts that are now essential to people who are trying to reconstruct it: municipal art, civic improvement and outdoor art. I think municipal art refers to art sponsored and set apart to be done by the city. One example would be the Trinity church project in NY. Civic engagement is community action or citizens action to alleviate a social concern...in this case how the city looked. Outdoor art is the same thing that we know of today as public art. The city beautiful movement he claims is the origin of public art.

Megacities and social networking sites

So I was looking at videos about megacities and new york city. Underneath a video in one of the comments was the following:

Top-Notch112 wrote: MEGACITIES: NEW YORK PART 3 OF 3 A Megacity is usually defined as a recognized metropolitan area with a total population in excess of 10 million people. Some definitions also set a minimum level for population density (at least 2,000 persons/square km). A megacity can be a single metropolitan area or two or more metropolitan areas that converge upon one another. The term metacity is also sometimes used to describe cities with more than 20 million people. In 1800 only 3% of the world's population lived in cities. By the 20th century's close, 47% did so. In 1950, there were 83 cities with populations exceeding one million; but by 2007, this had risen to 468 agglomerations of more than one million. If the trend continues, the world's urban population will double every 38 years, say researchers. The UN forecasts that today's urban population of 3.2 billion will rise to nearly 5 billion by 2030, when three out of five people will live in cities. The increase will be most dramatic in the poorest and least-urbanised continents, Asia and Africa. Surveys and projections indicate that all urban growth over the next 25 years will be in developing countries. One billion people, one-sixth of the world's population, now live in shanty towns, which are seen as "breeding grounds" for social problems such as crime, drug addiction, alcoholism, poverty and unemployment. In many poor countries overpopulated slums exhibit high rates of disease due to unsanitary conditions, malnutrition, and lack of basic health care. By 2030, over 2 billion people in the world will be living in slums. Already over 90% of the urban population of Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda, three of the world's most rural countries, live in slums. In 2000, there were 18 megacities -Cut off

I thought his impassioned video comment about megacities and slums could be an urban artifact because it is about urban geography topics and two because blogging and social networking sites should be a sign of urbanization. The fact that we can sit at our computers and rant for long periods of time on a certain topic and be connected to the global community is amazing.
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A unique African City

In class we discussed the 6 types of african cities.
The indigenous (native) cities
• The Islamic city
• The colonial (administrative) city
• The “European” city
• The dual city
• The hybrid city
South Africa doesn't fit into any of these categories but it starts its own category: the apartheid city. In G Saff's article from International Journal of Urban and Regional Research called The Changing Face of the South African City: From Urban Apartheid to the Deracialization of Space. He talks about how South Africa's urban space and land use was based on racial segregation and apartheid. He says that although the city is changing the basic legacy of apartheid still remains. Although, spatial changes are being made to de-segregate there are still problems with the urban poor. And the urban poor traditionally seem to be black. He differentiates between the urbanization of the blacks and the urbanization that is going on throughout the city.

Shadow Cities

I picked up this book after hearing about it in class. Aside from it being an amazing book with incredible stories. It is about the creation of slums, life in slums and how he thinks they are the cities of tommorow. In class, we talked about how less developed countries are plagued by massive slums. We talked about political instability, and the rising expectation of social change. The above video I found after searching for the book and I thought I might share it.

Informal economies

Something I have noticed in New York City is that we have alot of thriving informal economies. The one that is most prolific in New York City seems to be that of sex work. Before Craigslist shut down its adult ads sextion, New York City was the leading city in posting and answering those ads.It's crazy. A friend of mine posted an S/M ad and received 206 replies in one hour. Something I have observed myself is the Christopher Street Pier being used as a trans-gendered prostitution track. The traffic that goes through there is amazing. How does this tie back to urban concepts? These are the people we aim to kick out when we launch initiatives and revitalization efforts. Christopher Street Pier is a gentrified neighborhood where you can only find people of color or different sexual orientations after 9pm. This used to the pinnacle of the gay community now reduced to lofts and people walking their dogs.

How public is public space?

Public space is supposed to be accessible and open for all people. It contains parks and public libraries etc. The spaces in New York that are public space are problematic. Either they are closed off and barricaded for fear of terrorism or other problems exist. For example: New York University rents out Washington Square Park every year for graduation. During the week of graduation, the park is closed off to basically anyone who cannot produce an NYU identification card. Also, I was thrown out Washington Square Park twice. Once, because Will Smith rented the park to film a movie. Second, because our event "Rock da mic" supposedly violated the noise ordinance. The parks in New York also close at weird times. For the city that never sleeps, you have to leave Christopher Street Pier by midnight unless you would like a police escort. How public is public space if I can't rap on the mic,and can't walk through the park at any time?

Union Station

The Union Station redevelopment comprises of the historic station and the land immediately north of the station to Wewatta Street, as well as along the 17th Street Promenade and the Light Rail station next to the CML tracks. It is an example of urban infill. Urban infill is the usage of land that currently was not in use. Union Station is currently being expanded.