Tower blocks and Caribbean sun

I'm in Barbados, where the most pressing planning problem facing me is the cracked pavement in front of the appartment where I am staying (see picture).

However, I came across this excellent article by former colleague Scott Sayare on the demolition of an estate in the Paris suburbs (that caused quite a stir while I was in Paris) which merits sharing. I hadn't realised it was built according to Le Corbusier philosophy. Interesting that the great man's projects only seem to work in middle class neighbourhoods where people have jobs and cars to drive to ammenities (and elsewhere) and where on-site services are maintained.

These words are especially memorable: "Governments have been razing and rebuilding in this neighborhood for 25 years, hopeful that new architecture and new theories about how best to house the poor will solve the problems here. Residents and local officials, though, have few expectations that new walls and fresh pavement, whatever their configuration, can drive a deeper renewal.

“They’re not building shopping centers, they’re not creating jobs for young people,” said Soraya, 42, who was raised in Balzac and now lives nearby, requesting that her last name be withheld for fear of retribution by local thugs. “This will solve none of our problems.”

Balzac will be the fifth tower she has seen fall."

City Limits

So there's a zillion things I would have liked to blog about in these past dissertation-filled months. Localism, National Trust vs Government, National Planning Framework etc. But I'm demob happy having just handed in three months of intensive work, and the item on top of my in-tray is..... Latin American megacities being a drag on economic growth.

Inspired by this article in The Economist, I was intrigued to see that despite the eulogies of Andrew Marr, Edward Glaeser etc (both of whom include Latin American cities in their analysis), the mega-city may not be the panacea for sustainable and innovative living after all.

The Economist story is focussed on Latin America, but probably familiar to the good people of many a developing country metropolis: Lagos, New Delhi etc. Basically infrastructure, and particularly transport infrastructure, has failed to keep up with population growth and the daily struggle to keep up is grinding the population (and economic growth) down.

However, the article is still upbeat about the potential of cities (source of productivity gains). If only the planners did a better job....

After a recent trip to Rio, where the journey to the conference centre could take between 30 minutes and 4 hours, I have to agree.