Reflection

REFLECTION

Before viewing my other colleagues post it became clear to me that urban housing in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad was linked in place and space with both economic and social dynamics of the city.  Firstly, we will consider the history and architecture of housing in Port-of-Spain.  It is the uniqueness of each period in history and home design which help us move from colonial period of very English type plantation homes, to government low and high rises towards today’s very contemporary dwellings. Housing and its type of architecture also helps us to understand why the processes of neglect or decay, gentrification and revivalism are occuring.

 http://urbanarchitecture-pos.blogspot.com/

Today’s very diverse urban structure has lead to definite spatial locations of specific economic and social practices.  For example the spatial distinction of the East from the West, with the West boasting of wealth and economic growth and revitalization projects, the emergency of new housing types and other modern amenities.  The East on the other hand seems to be on its way down, stuck in place, a dismal place where no one wants to enter.  Those who reside here are stuck in time and space.  A place of  great historical significance, whose ambitions have been hidden behind economic and social trama.  Today, the social dynamics, as expressed by Gideon Sjoberg (1960), in his pre-industrial model, is true in the city of Port-of-Spain. For greater detail follow the link provided:

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/business-magazine/_Fight_for_work__shows_unemployment_problem_-134371123.html

http://spatialdynamicsofanurbanenvironment.blogspot.com/

Government hosing initiatives of both low and high rise apartments are seen as a double-edge sword.  It’s use to accommodated large numbers of low income individual has gained it merit. Yet, on the other hand it, has been associated with congestion, crime and gang related violence.  The emergency of this subculture seeks to perpetuate poverty.  Also, with increased urbanization especially in the developing world, this problem will be further exasperated.  It, is clear that urban spaces are dynamic and a neighborhoods place in an urban space is important in surviving modern processes. In order for residential neighborhoods within  urban spaces to survive, this disorganized phase, they will not only need economic strength but governmental backing and social capital in order to survive.

http://urbancongestion.blogspot.com/

Under-utilised Spaces

Under-utilised Spaces

The above photograph is a picture of an abandoned house in the neighborhood of St. Clair.  On closer inspection the place appears to be vandalized and a location for unwanted waste. 

Empty Lots, overgrown grass and trees, areas for dumping refuse and vandalism are common when places are left abandoned.  In Port-of-Spain, empty lots are a common feature.  Empty lots can be seen everywhere.  The picture above shows an abandoned house nestled in the business district of St.Clair.  It can be conclude that this negative phenomenon is not immune to any particular community.  Both West and East Port-of-Spain have many of these “Under-utilized spaces”.  It has been estimated that Port-of-Spain has over “400 under-utilised spaces”, which comprise mainly of abandoned lots, dilapidated buildings and homes.  (Dickson 2012)

It is clear that empty spaces need to be turned into spaces of opportunity.   With the ever increasing retail prices of city land, wasting space is not an option.  The government therefore needs to tackle this increasing problem of empty space.  In many developed countries governments have programs that give home owners options, for example to rent, sell or refurbish the units.  For instance the “City of York” , is an empty property loan, “Empty Property Loan”, provided by the government of  England. (Local Government Association n.d., 6)  See the following link to get further information on the “City of York” loan.     www.york.gov.uk/housing/private_housing/Empty_properties/

Similar, to England the island of Trinidad needs to revitalize abandoned spaces.  Spaces can be used for parking to help curb the parking problem, for vending, recreation spaces  or even housing.  For Trinidad legislation is the way forward, we must legislate in order to amerliorate.

Biblography

Dickson, Dixie- Ann. "Broken Port-of-Spain." Guardian Media. 06 14, 2012. http://www.guardian.co.tt (accessed 05 06, 2014).

Local Government Association. Council Action to tackle empty homes. Google.tt. London.(accessed 05 06, 2014).

Voluntary Segregation

After the colonial period, the city of Port-of-Spain continued to exhibited high levels of segregation.  The colonials and ex-enslaved continued to reside in separate niches.

In the twentieth century, like most of the contemporary world the processes of exclusion and segregation continue to strive. The processes of exclusion and segregation have been further bolstered in Port-of-Spain, with the advent of globalization. This can be seen in the trend towards gated communities by the urban elites and middle class.  These compounds represent a particular type of lifestyle, an elite identity a part of social different ion. (Erten 2013)  “Gated communities have become global commodities and cultural icons, which are readily consumed by the urban elite world-wide”  (Genis 2007)

Gated communities emerged in the US in the 1980’s, in an attempt to house the growing urban population.  By the twentieth century, these neighborhoods became popular as a contributor to inequality and differentiation.  This type of New Urbanism is underpinned by socio-economic polarization of a particular group. (Hall 2012):

The growing trend locally:

•           Elite communities, lifestyle of prestige and exclusion
•           Increased numbers cropping up in the inner city and outskirts
•           Attracts young professionals
•           Self- Contained
•           Increased security (guards, security intercoms and high walls)

Today, gated communities can be equated to designer labels.  Very costly and are increasing in popularity as time space compression speeds up the circulation of knowledge and trends.  [(Murray 2006) (Hall 2012)]   One can expected to see more and more communities like these in Trinidad as more individual seek this type of “voluntary segregation”.

Bibliography

Erten, Erdem. "Global Image Hegemony:Istanbul's Gated Communities as the New International Journal of Architectural Reasearch." Archnet-IJAR, Vol.7(2), 2013: 251.

Genis, Serife. "Producing Elite Localities: The rise of Gated Communties in Istanbul." Urban Studies: Sage , 2007: 771.

Hall, Tim and Heat Barrett. Urban Geography. London andNew York: Routledge, 2012.

Laventille, East Port-Spain

Laventille is one of the oldest residential communities in East Port-of-Spain. It is located at the rim of the city on the foothills of the Northern Range.  This unplanned development is a mixture of ad hoc houses and government low income high rises.  Like most of East Port-of-Spain, Laventille is deeply embedded in the cultural history of Trinidad. (Steel pan, calypso, and carnival)  Today, however the community echoes a different tune, the famous Caribbean writer and poet Derek Walcott described the community in his poem, “The middle passage never guessed its end” as: (Baldeosingh 2008)

“This is the height of poverty,

for the desperate and black....Derek Walcott.

Revitalizing Laventille

According to the Major of Port-of-Spain Louis Lee Sing, change is on the way.  The Inter-America Development Bank (IDB) in partnership with the government of Trinidad and Tobago are embarking on a plan under the “Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative”, to redevelop Laventille.  Redevelopment is usually seen as the removal of blight, be it social, economic of physical deficices whilst achieving a new image for the community.  The plan is to turn the residences of East Port-of-Spain into business, in an attempt to eradicate intergenerational poverty and crime. (Guardian Media 2012)  The hope is to reconnect East Port-of –Spain with the city.

Revitalizing poverty stricken communities by creating economic opportunity and fighting poverty have become common government initiatives in both the developed world and developing world.  Governments and scholars alike believe that the war must be fought, through the use of a “place based strategy”.  (Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative- The White House n.d.)   The United States President,  Barack Obama, July 18, 2007, declared:

“If poverty is a disease that infects an entire community in the form of unemployment and violence; failing schools and broken homes, then we can’t just treat those symptoms in isolation. We have to heal that entire community” - Barack Obama (Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative- The White House n.d.)

Another key factor that is common in most of these communities are strong community bonds and high levels of social capital.  Some academics are of the view that these bonds can be capitalized with the injection of increased resources and help to counter debilitating trends.  

Biblography

Baldeosingh, Kevin. "Laventille then is now." 08 08, 2008. www.newsday.co.tt (accessed 04 06, 2014).

Guardian Media. "East P.O.S: Decaying." Guardian Media Limited. 11 04, 2012. http://www.guardian.co.tt (accessed 04 05, 2014).

Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative- The White House. Report, Washington: White House.

North-East Port-of-Spain:  Belmont or “Freetown”

Belmont’s housing developments are deeply entwined within Port-of-Spain’s history.  Belmont was Port-of-Spain’s first suburb.   After emancipation settlement began in two forms.

(1)    1840-50’s – Africans rescued by the British from illegal slaving ships.  The chief of the Rada community bought land within Belmont and today, his descendants still reside on the land he purchased.

(2)    1840-90’s – Formally enslaved Africans seeking employment

Initially, shacks and settlements sprang up haphazardly. Today, the area is still characterized by narrow roads, lanes and crisscrossed curving roads. By 1970 Belmont was developed as a poor and working class community.[ (Dickman 1992) (Polese 1992)].  The area became known as “the Black St.Clair” as many persons of the black professional’s class resided there (Trinidad and Tobago Finder n.d.).  These professional were victims of racial residential segregation.  Nevertheless, with them came the introduction of large homes in Belmont.   Today, many of the gingerbread homes have been converted into concrete homes or business. Yet, some housing have remained in the hands of family. The area is currently a lower to middle class residential neighborhood.

The community is approximately a five minute walk from all of Port-of-Spain’s services and the urban experience.  Yet, from looking at the picture one might conclude that the area is serene.  Cars parked idly at the side of the road, lots of greenery, a man walking to the neighborhood parlor in the most nonchalant manner, with a gas tank on his head.  Definitely, the atmosphere is not representative of the usually urban hectic lifestyle.

Today, Belmont is viewed in a negative light.  Crime and gang violence have surface, which is common in very high density low income communities. Muhammad Muwakil, an upcoming Trinidadian poet expressed the change in Belmont, with his poem, “4 am in Belmont”. (Muller 2013-14)

“Reel at images of over-educated cocaine dealers under streetlamps,

and the sound of gunshots that usher souls away from the realm of men”

“Buy a dream from a crack head and stitch it to the fabric of your being,

to begin to understand the meaning of mayhem”. (Muhammad Muwaki)l

                                                                                                   (Muller 2013-14)

Bibliography

Muller, Nazma. Muhammad Muwakil: A world to change. 2013-14. http://caribbean-beat.com/issue-117 (accessed 04 06, 2014).

Polese, Mario and Sylvain Mendard. "Is down town on the way down?" Montreal: Montreal Interuniversity Group, 1992. 12.

Trinidad and Tobago Finder. Google.tt. www.tntfinder.com (accessed 04 06, 2014).

Residential Differentiation

 Residential differentiation in Port-of-Spain can be observed quite easily.  As with most countries the poor reside to the east and the rich to the west.  The photo above was taken off Lady Chancellor Hill, the houses viewed in these neighborhoods are usually large, modern and are very costly thus only the rich are able to purchase said residences. The occupants are usually White (French creole our local term), foreigners and a few Indians, quite a contrast to the Negro dominated neighborhoods of Belmont and the Inner city.  Hence housing in Port-of-Spain has long been associated with specific ethnic and economic groups clustering together over time. This has decreased the chances of racial change in that area.  Massey and Denton have conined the term “hyper segregation” in an attempt to explain the clustering of particular groups.

The arena of residential segration and its measurability has been debated widely.  Some researchers are of the view that the spatial outcomes of either "unevenness", "exposure", "clustering" or "centralization" have created “segregation". (Massey 2006) Urban spatial structure is multidimensional. [(Timms 1987),(Massey 2006)]The process of residential process stems from numerous process.  It can be viewed as an interplay between many economic and social processes.

In previous post it is clear that some of our Port-of-Spain’s housing inequalities have been inherited from our colonial past which has encouraged differentiation.  Today however, privatization, rental housing and less public investment in urban housing has also helped to increased differentiation.  Port-of-Spain similar to the American cities , spoken of by White 1988, in his book  the “American Neighborhoods and Residential Differentiation”  the characteristics of poverty, income, education and ethnicity have contribute to a high concentration of certain groups in certain geographical niches.  Thus like all cities Port-of-Spain exhibits some degree residential differentiation.

Bibliography

Massey, Douglas S., Nancy A. Denton. "Google Scholar." The Dimensions of Residential Segregation, 2006: 281-315

 White, Michael J.. American neighborhoods and residential differentiation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation for the National Committee for Research on the 1980 Census, 1987.

How we house our urban Homeless

Homelessness and housing for the socially displaced is one of the major urban problems that continue to plague the world.  The legal definition and perceptions of homelessness differs worldwide.  In Trinidad for instance the general view of the homeless are individuals who have no place to live and no permanent job.

The centre for the socially displaced –Riverside Car park

Similar to the definition of homelessness the sources of homelessness are varied and many.  Some people are of the view that individuals are responsible for their personal success and failures. If this were true we should find the same type of and proportion of homeless in cities worldwide. This is not the case.

Dr. L Trevor conducted a study in an attempt to understand the islands homeless population in Trinidad and Tobago.  In his study he found that many homeless persons did not choose to become homeless.  He found that 40%, had nowhere to reside, 25% lost their caregiver, due to death, 21% had drug and alcohol issues,  and the remaining 14% live in hospitals/ prison/ or unemployed. (Grant 2008). The fore mentioned study indicates that homelessness in Trinidad is not merely due to a housing shortage but a myriad of issues.

The above photo which shows the use of a car park to house the homeless is a clear indication that the homeless are not only victims of poverty but also victims’ of inadequate social development.  The remedy of housing the homeless in a car park is mostly cosmetic and pays very little attention to the people plight of the homeless. Similar to many countries, the islands must first confront our structural, social, political and cultural issues regarding the homeless and housing the homeless.  

The director of statistics of the Central Statistical Office (CSO) revealed at a press conference held by  the Ministry of Planning and the Economy revealed that Port-of-Spain’s homeless population has grown ” by 13.4 per cent between the 2000-2011”. He also revealed that the “major of growth is concentrated in Port-of-Spain”. The 2011 census showed that there was approximately, 307 street-dwellers in Port-of –Spain, and 93 per cent are males. (These statistics exclude persons who live in shelters) (Kowlessar 2012)

The burden of change cannot be placed on the government; homelessness must be tackled at the individual level. It is clear that there is a need for a change in our perception of the homeless and how we treat our homeless and the methods used to house them. 

Bibliography

"CatholicNews::Viewpoint."CatholicNews:Viewpoint.http://www.catholicnews.tt.net/archives/08/08/03/viewpoint.htm (accessed April 8, 2014).

Kowlessar, Geisha. "Guardian Media." Guardian Media Ltd. 06 19, 2012. https://guardian.co.tt (accessed 02 27, 2014).