A New York Times op-ed by Lisa Pryor:
… urban villages, once diverse melting pots, became shiny, wealthy and inward-looking. The big ideas became small and hard and sparkling as diamonds.
This is how it is playing out here in Sydney. In every direction the city center is ringed by desirable neighborhoods with exorbitant housing prices, where residents can dine, work and shop without ever traveling far from home.
It is a beautiful life, and effective at reducing car travel. But there is a darker side to it. The urban village ethos has encouraged prosperous neighborhoods to turn inward and even take pride in not connecting with fellow citizens in the suburban areas beyond.
The language we still hold on to about the inner city disguises the changes that have taken place. We still invoke the social justice battles of urban neighborhoods of the past — community, environment, heritage, people power — in an endless war to fight for even greater advantages for ourselves. …
The language — against developers, in favor of public assets — served as a linguistic sleight of hand that disguised the fact that an influential, overwhelmingly city-based and white cultural elite was mounting a fight against sharing resources with a less privileged part of the Sydney area. …
In Western Sydney more than anywhere, our future nation is being formed. The streets are not built for street life, but there is life, in spite of the streets. Thousands of years of culture are being woven into something loose we call Australian. And it is passing by those who refuse to venture beyond the inner city.
The challenge for our city and many like it is to think beyond the urban villages. The passion for well-designed communities needs to be directed outward instead of inward, geographically and in spirit. We need to let go of some of our resources; we need to learn to share. And if we are going to fight for our perfect little villages, the most honorable fight is the one to retain and expand public housing, to keep what little diversity we have left.
Culture is more than expensive and refined tastes in wine and food. I don’t want to live in the kind of city where we endeavor to know our grains and our meat, but not our fellow citizens.
The Sydney-Parramatta dynamic is very similar to the Vancouver-Surrey dynamic. Working in Surrey daily for the last 9 months has given me a different perspective on how Vancouver and the metro region is evolving.
Wake up Bob Surrey Centre is a disaster. Weak, egos lacking design talent, contribited to buildings that have no relation to one another. If we keep accepting this kind of stuff Metro will soon acquire a reputation! I could go on . . .
I’m pretty sure Bob didn’t say anything about accepting Surrey, simply said he has more perspective … ie he knows it better and understands it better, I don’t read any acceptance in his comment, tacit or otherwise.
It is easy to become cynical when PT whines about “Our precious urban lives” then miraculously deletes an illustrated link showing how other cities commit to the enjoyment of the urban life: no words just the joy!
http://www.theyorkshirelad.ca/Urban%20places/City%20places.html
I acknowledge north Court house Square has just been rescued but it took a long time.
As for the inaccessible elevated mass of concrete and sloping glass south of VAG it
is, well, much over rated. I have never been able to understand the unctious praise directed towards that mass of incoherence: check out the Howe and Nelson sides!
I well remember when Dave Barrett’s NDP sancitmoniously declared no tower on that site. He must have had skin in the game!
So I expect an over sealous gaulitier to zapp this too and that is why Vancouver will remain, well, just another North American conurbation. If PT wants constant happy happy expect the truth to intervene occasionally!
I appreciate the author’s perspective on not relying heavily on divisive language –urban /inner city /downtown vs. suburban planning/life.
For existing suburbs, the challenge is for those who choose to live in less accessible areas, is when/if their neighbourhood changes due to infill /greater densification for new residential blgs. or even rentals. These changes, can become a vocal NYBISM matter –in spite of municipality’s efforts to improve liveability in suburbs. Traffic calming in the suburbs is another potential hot button. In Calgary, it is the suburban areas that find it far more difficult to swallow /accept the idea of rentals/secondary suites and traffic calming in various residential areas.
There’s a finite amount of Pre-WWII streetcar suburbs in each of these cities that have become prized for their human scale and walkability and thus highly contested.
Until there are better retrofits and infill of suburban “town centres” these areas will continue to be the contemporary unraveling points for immigrant groups due to their low property prices brought on by building type and scale and lack of transport options, but will more than make up for in cultural diversity, energy and sense of place.
Onehundred thousand or so refugees would liven up these neighbourhoods.