Tyrannical Spaces: young people, bullying and urban neighbourhoods

We consider the street experiences of a group of urban children living in a large East Midlands town in the UK. Our attention focuses upon an issue that has seldom been examined, neighbourhood bullying. We highlight how some children, through their propinquity within neighbourhood spaces, clash and collide to such an extent that their experiences of a locality become severely blighted. For these unfortunate young people local environments are tyrannical spaces, defined in terms of 'no-go areas', danger and threat. These are not remarkable geographies, however, and we suggest that like many school environments, where bullying has increasingly been recognised and disclosed, within many localities there is a 'hidden' geography of fear waiting to be uncovered. The paper is organised into five parts: first, we briefly examine the concept of bullying, particularly in relation to young people in schools; secondly, we extend these ideas into a neighbourhood context drawing upon recent ideas of 'self', 'other' and microgeographies; thirdly, we outline the research project from which this article emerges; fourthly, we look at some empirical evidence from an urban case study that draws attention to the form and consequences of neighbourhood bullying; lastly, we discuss the relevance of these findings to future policy and practice, particularly in relation to the management of neighbourhood spaces. We propose that systematically applied local strategies to tackle bullying within neighbourhoods are needed, particularly those which engage young people and adults together through a whole community approach.     

Neighbourhood - Open Space Relationships in Metropolitan Planning: A look across four scales of concern

New Urbanism and other metropolitan planning strategies may discount the importance of neighbourhood - open space relationships when dealing with some types of open spaces, particularly in city centre and urban fringe areas. In this paper I review a series of studies I have carried out over the past decade looking at people's perceptions and uses of urban open space. This research examined neighbourhood - open space relationships in the metropolitan area of Chicago, Illinois, USA at four scales of concern: quasi-public space within an immediate neighbourhood; a public park that spans different neighbourhoods; regional greenways; and a metropolitan bioreserve. In all of this work, my findings show how adjacent neighbourhoods are critical to the success of these open spaces, regardless of their scale. Lessons are drawn from each scale for how neighbourhood - open space relationships might be improved.     

Neighbourhood - Open Space Relationships in Metropolitan Planning: a look across four scales of concern

New Urbanism and other metropolitan planning strategies may discount the importance of neighbourhood - open space relationships when dealing with some types of open spaces, particularly in city centre and urban fringe areas. In this paper I review a series of studies I have carried out over the past decade looking at people's perceptions and uses of urban open space. This research examined neighbourhood - open space relationships in the metropolitan area of Chicago, Illinois, USA at four scales of concern: quasi-public space within an immediate neighbourhood; a public park that spans different neighbourhoods; regional greenways; and a metropolitan bioreserve. In all of this work, my findings show how adjacent neighbourhoods are critical to the success of these open spaces, regardless of their scale. Lessons are drawn from each scale for how neighbourhood - open space relationships might be improved.     

Positive perceptions of green and open space as predictors of neighbourhood quality of life: implications for urban planning across the city region

The provision of green and open space in the face of wider development pressure is a key urban challenge. Despite this, few studies have critically investigated the quality of life implications of such provision. This paper focuses on perceptions of built environment factors and their influence on neighbourhood quality of life. Data are drawn from a household survey questionnaire completed by 483 residents living in three neighbourhoods in Dublin, Ireland – an inner city neighbourhood, a suburb and a peri-urban settlement. Positive perceptions of green and open space were identified as important predictors of high levels of neighbourhood satisfaction, surpassed only by dwelling characteristics. This suggests that development strategies which fail to provide for properly planned green and open spaces may be detrimental to neighbourhood quality of life. Furthermore, the results suggest a need for design solutions which consider neighbourhood typology in achieving improved neighbourhood quality of life.     

Cost-efficiency of rainwater harvesting strategies in dense Mediterranean neighbourhoods

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) presents many benefits for urban sustainability and it is emerging as a key strategy in order to cope with water scarcity in cities. However, there is still a lack of knowledge regarding the most adequate scale in financial terms for RWH infrastructures particularly in dense areas. The aim of this research is to answer this question by analysing the cost-efficiency of several RWH strategies in urban environments. The research is based on a case study consisting of a neighbourhood of dense social housing (600 inhabitants/ha) with multi-storey buildings. The neighbourhood is located in the city of Granollers (Spain), which has a Mediterranean climate (average rainfall 650 mm/year). Four strategies are defined according to the spatial scale of implementation and the moment of RWH infrastructure construction (building/neighbourhood scale and retrofit action vs. new construction). Two scenarios of water prices have been considered (current water prices and future increased water prices under the EU Water Framework Directive). In order to evaluate the cost-efficiency of these strategies, the necessary rainwater conveyance, storage and distribution systems have been designed and assessed in economic terms through the Net Present Value within a Life Cycle Costing approach. The pipe water price that makes RWH cost-efficient for each strategy has been obtained, ranging from 1.86 to 6.42€/m³. The results indicate that RWH strategies in dense urban areas under Mediterranean conditions appear to be economically advantageous only if carried out at the appropriate scale in order to enable economies of scale, and considering the expected evolution of water prices. However, not all strategies are considered cost-efficient. Thus, it is necessary to choose the appropriate scale for rainwater infrastructures in order to make them economically feasible.     

Exploring the perceived impacts of a public high school closure for urban liveability in a Canadian midsized city

ABSTRACT

Public schools are more than educational institutions; they are essential to creating liveable neighbourhoods. Despite their importance, public schools are being permanently closed across North America, and particularly in the Canadian province of Ontario. In 2015, one of Ontario's public school boards made the decision to permanently close the province's oldest public high school, located in the urban core of the historic midsized city of Kingston. While the school is not scheduled to close until late 2019, the established fate of this prominent public asset has important consequences for the liveability of Kingston's urban core. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to document residents’ perceived impacts of the decision to close to Kingston Collegiate Vocational Institute (KCVI) on liveability in the school's catchment area. We observed widespread dissatisfaction with the decision to close KCVI (85%), with large proportions of respondents (above 40%) anticipating KCVI's closure to negatively impact neighbourhood liveability in various ways in the future. Approximately one-quarter of respondents indicated that they have considered moving as a result of the decision, and among these, concerns about negative impacts to household-level well-being were particularly acute. Given the socio-demographic profile of respondents who have considered moving, these findings suggest that the closure of KCVI could have a destabilising effect on the neighbourhoods within the KCVI catchment area by driving families out of the city's urban core. Our findings suggest that policies to address concerns of under-enrolment are short-sighted and undermine efforts of other sectors to promote liveable communities.     

Stability of self-reported favourite places and place attachment over a 10-month period

We investigated the reliability and stability of favourite place selections and evaluations of place attachment over a 10-month period. A simple random sample of 1273 respondents representative of the population of the two largest cities in Finland completed a mailed questionnaire. Reliability data was obtained in a second questionnaire (N = 427). We obtained five main favourite place types which were extensively managed natural settings (mainly urban woodlands), urban green spaces (mostly parks), waterside environments, exercise and activity/hobby areas, and indoor and outdoor urban areas. Sixty-four percent of the respondents in the second survey selected the same main favourite place type as 10 months earlier, which is more than what might be expected by chance. Extensively managed natural settings (mainly urban woodlands) and waterside environments were reselected most often. Indoor and outdoor urban favourite places had the lowest stability. We found evidence of people being more consistent in their attachment to natural favourite places than to urban favourite places. The findings lend further credence and credibility to earlier results concerning self-regulation and restorative experiences in favourite places.     

Commerce and cruises: a comparative study of Jamaican waterfront transformations

Caribbean urban waterfronts have been extensively modified in recent decades to encourage business (especially through the development of new commercial districts) and tourism (particularly in the form of cruise shipping). This paper draws on three case studies from Jamaica to explore the processes through which waterfronts have been redeveloped and the ways in which these spaces are used. The transformation and ongoing management of these waterfronts involve the negotiation of a complex set of power relationships between stakeholders operating at a variety of scales, including national governments, the private sector, Jamaican citizens and tourists. The position of waterfronts at the junction of the “urban” and the “natural” environments provides a fruitful nexus for examining the intricacies of society–nature relationships, and illustrates the ways in which ideas of modernity, development, identity and exclusion are incorporated into the local environment.     

Public parks as an element of urban planning: a missing piece in Accra's growth and development

Public parks are important to urban environments, residents, and visitors. Among other functions, they provide environmental services, such as air and water purification, and they increase both recreational opportunities and the attractiveness of the urban environment. Because of their importance, urban parks serve as public spaces that provide visitors and urban residents with rights to the city. This paper identifies the dearth of urban public parks in Accra-Tema city-region as worrying. The Accra Plan 1958 underscored the significance of green spaces and designated the coastal strip for parks development but the areas have been lost to various urban uses. We argue that the continual neglect of public parks within urban planning and community development schemes in the Accra-Tema city-region is a major concern because it is depriving the citizens a right to the city and its public spaces. A number of factors have worked adversely against the provision of public parks and green spaces in the city-region. These include development pressures, undue political interference, a complex land delivery system, and ad hoc planning. The paper concludes by offering policy suggestions as to how to resolve the dearth of parks and green spaces in the city-region.     

Bordeaux: urban renovation,conservation and rehabilitation

Over the past thirty years Bordeaux's politicians and planners have played critical roles in both changing and conserving the inner environments of one of France's most attractive provincial cities. A succession of urban policies has been implemented to attempt to halt depopulation, economic decline and environmental degradation in the inner city. These policies reflect changing emphasis in national planning for urban areas and have ranged from slum clearance and total renovation in the Mériadeck district, to a recent more socially aware set of approaches that attempt to rehabilitate inner‐city housing and promote neighbourhood well‐being in the district of Saint Michel. Investment in architectural conservation continues apace and both private and public capital is being directed to improving housing stock in the inner city. Attempts to revitalise economic activities have achieved modest success but more socially orientated policies prove difficult to implement.     

Environmental justice meets the right to stay put: mobilising against environmental racism,gentrification, and xenophobia in Chicago's Little Village

After decades of fighting for clean air and green space in the face of environmental racism and urban disinvestment, Chicago's Latinx Little Village neighbourhood has begun to see environmental improvements take place. Activists are wary of the potential for gentrification in the wake of clean up, and are advocating for the right to stay put in the community they have worked so hard to improve. These ongoing contestations have recently intersected with accelerating racialized state violence as renewed anti-immigrant and white supremacist rhetoric, policies, and actions have targeted Latinx communities. In this paper we ask, how do struggles against environmental racism, gentrification, and xenophobia interlock, and how does the framework of environmental justice serve to enable activism across all three sites? For racialized minority communities, repeated experiences of forced migration and displacement often mean that an anti-displacement ethos is particularly well-articulated and grounded in collective historical memory. Drawing on an extensive analysis of media materials complemented by archival research, fieldwork, and interviews with community organisers, this paper argues that tight linkages between environmental justice and anti-displacement principles inform community responses to multiple forms of structural racialized violence.     

Sustainability versus liveability: an investigation of neighbourhood satisfaction

Recent years have witnessed an increasing emphasis placed on planning systems in most advanced capitalist societies to develop a more sustainable urban development pattern, resulting in policies to increase residential densities. Although belief in the virtues of the compact city approach is now widespread among the policy community, questions remain relating to the ‘sustainability versus liveability’ implications of compact city environments. In this regard, while the public may support sustainability principles, there is a perception that high-density development poses too great a cost on individuals' quality of life. Combining both quantitative and qualitative research data, this paper evaluates the relationship between high-density living and neighbourhood satisfaction within the central city. Findings suggest that, in many instances, it is not high density per se that is the source of dissatisfaction for respondents, but rather other related factors such as environmental quality, noise, lack of community involvement, traffic and lack of services and facilities.     

The home from attic to cellar

This study is based on 96 in-depth interviews with the inhabitants of rural and urban environments in France. It aims at ascertaining the importance of attics and cellars as hidden spaces of the home and to describe the uses and experiences they elicit. The thematic analysis shows that hidden spaces are never disconnected from the daily lived-in interior spaces of the home, which is thus experienced as a whole. Beyond the negatively connoted emotions associated with these places, attics and cellars are shelters allowing appropriation, accumulation and security, and signify time. They provide space for the experience of secrecy, considered as the basis for the assertion of self identity.     

The theory of neighbourhood decline due to pariah land uses: Regaining control of the downward cycle

Abstract

Some neighbourhood environments have become dumping grounds for locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) that middle-class Americans do not want near their homes. LULUs may combine with other pariah land uses to collectively undermine the quality of the local environment, reduce investment, government services, the proportion of middle-income people and associated businesses. As important neighbourhood attributes are lost, illegal activities, derelict structures, trash-strewn lots and the concentration of poor and unhealthy people may increase. This paper describes the theory behind the impact of pariah land uses through examples of the downward spiral experienced by Camden, New Jersey and the south Bronx, New York. It then documents the experience of one community, Elizabethport, New Jersey, in reversing that downward spiral. Success in Elizabethport came from the synergistic activities of local, state and federal governments, community groups, and not-for-profit organizations as they struggled to regain control through local environmental management, rebuilding, and reducing crime. Social capital was also strengthened by using a local community health concern—that of childhood asthma. Efforts to reverse the downward spiral of urban decay from pariah land uses should be multi-faceted, spurred by local efforts that address local concerns.     

The importance of the “not-so-cool” sectors: creative solutions to reconcile environmental and economic sustainability within a floodplain

Creative cities are generally considered as “cool” spaces which attract a particular “creative class” whose ability to innovate and transform – particularly in the media and cultural sectors – offers urban economies a competitive edge. This paper argues that, in the face of dangerous climate change, the creativity of the “not-so-cool” sectors needs to be acknowledged and valued. A case study of Salford in the north-west of England shows how political, technological and economic creativity has secured sustainable regeneration within a floodplain. It is argued that the concept of “creativity” in urban economic discourse needs to be widened to acknowledge the importance of the creativity of planners, civil engineers and builders in securing environmentally sustainable cities. Environmental sustainability, it suggests, not only underpins economic sustainability. Faced with dangerous climate change and society's need to respond, the skills and expertise can in themselves contribute to a city's competitiveness.     

The theory of neighbourhood decline due to pariah land uses: Regaining control of the downward cycle

Some neighbourhood environments have become dumping grounds for locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) that middle-class Americans do not want near their homes. LULUs may combine with other pariah land uses to collectively undermine the quality of the local environment, reduce investment, government services, the proportion of middle-income people and associated businesses. As important neighbourhood attributes are lost, illegal activities, derelict structures, trash-strewn lots and the concentration of poor and unhealthy people may increase. This paper describes the theory behind the impact of pariah land uses through examples of the downward spiral experienced by Camden, New Jersey and the south Bronx, New York. It then documents the experience of one community, Elizabethport, New Jersey, in reversing that downward spiral. Success in Elizabethport came from the synergistic activities of local, state and federal governments, community groups, and not-for-profit organizations as they struggled to regain control through local environmental management, rebuilding, and reducing crime. Social capital was also strengthened by using a local community health concern—that of childhood asthma. Efforts to reverse the downward spiral of urban decay from pariah land uses should be multi-faceted, spurred by local efforts that address local concerns.     

最小生态安全距离在“多规合一”中的地位与作用

"多规合一"是未来规划编制与管理城市的必然发展趋势。最小生态安全距离不仅是探索"多规合一"的重要技术工具,也是"多规合一"中空间管控的重要内容。最小生态安全距离以资源环境承载力为基础核心,是城市开发不能逾越的距离。划定最小生态安全距离是为了满足城市生态系统良性循环、生态系统服务功能正常运转以及环境容量不超载,城市间或城市功能单元间经济社会活动空间间隔的最小距离。利用最小生态安全距离划定出的基本规避空间,可以让环规、城规和土规实现统一的空间管控的最终目标。依靠最小生态安全距离,能够科学地划定城市布局,提升城镇化发展质量和空间管控质量,更好地实现城市规划的编制与管理。     

“Coal is in our food,coal is in our blood”: everyday environmental injustices of rural community gardening in Central Appalachia

ABSTRACT

Central Appalachia's historical dependence on natural resource extraction industries has contributed to a long history of under- and uneven development, including trends of persistent poverty, cycles of unemployment, weakened local governance, environmental degradation, and severe social inequalities relative to the rest of the nation. Though these trends have been well documented at structural and community-levels, scholarship is more limited in assessing how the conditions of natural resource dependency may shape the everyday experiences of those who live in such regions and how those everyday experiences may illuminate challenges for future development. Employing an embedded case study design, this study examines how everyday environmental injustices may be experienced via community gardening activities, a sustainable development-oriented activity celebrated in urban locations but largely unexplored in rural environments. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 43 gardening programme coordinators and participants, the findings demonstrate that everyday environmental injustices are experienced across four distinct, yet overlapping and mutually reinforcing, dimensions: natural, built, human health, and socioeconomic environments. These factors in turn constrain programme participation and beneficial programme outcomes, particularly for more disadvantaged households that are affected by chronic illness, geographic isolation, and environmental hazards. Although the interviewees viewed many of these challenges as further justification for pursuing grassroots initiatives like community gardening programmes, these constraints also interacted in a way that limited the success of these locally-oriented sustainable development efforts, particularly for individuals who are the most socially, economically, and environmentally marginalised.     

The importance of differentiating urban and rural phenomena in examining the unequal distribution of locally desirable land

Previous research addressing the unequal distribution of locally desirable land (LDL) has mainly ignored their associated environments (i.e., rural or urban). However, this study proposed a new framework that treats rural and urban regions separately. In rural areas, the LDLs included all public lands. In urbanized areas, the LDLs were defined as green open spaces. Potential inequities in the distribution of LDL were assessed with respect to socioeconomic characteristics of residents in the State of Georgia. Using US Census Bureau Data (2000), Census Block Groups (CBGs) adjacent to LDLs were compared to CBGs outside of LDLs on four socioeconomic variables (per capita income, occupation, education, and race) in urban, suburban and rural environments. Results showed that CBGs adjacent to LDLs were composed of statistically significant upper-class communities containing fewer blue-collar workers, more whites, and higher income and higher educated people in rural, suburban and urban areas.