In the interests of the common good

When in need of the higher moral ground, or a superiority judgement, you just can't beat invoking 'The Common Good'.  The 'Common Good' is without doubt a good thing.  But are we as planners uniquely privilged to act in its interest, let alone credibly understand what the Common Good is?  Do our cities and towns abound with evidence of 'Common Good' planning?

The Common Good is a profoundly philosophical challenge and dilemma.  To have a proper understanding of the common good, its probably best to start with Plato and work your way up through Marx and Lefebvre.  Issues of equality are matters of government policy not philosophy or law.  There is a profound difference between invoking a policy (i.e. give us 10% of your houses because we don't build any) to claiming you act in the common good.  Those in Council's have a  very limited mandate (local Councillors) or no mandate (officers and administrators) to act in the public good, other than the fact that the government pays them (they are therefore more responsible to government (and their pay cheque) than the common good).  No less, the consultant is responsible to their client and (potential) next pay cheque.

David Harvey in his brilliant and provocative book 'Rebel Cities' addresses the concept of an Urban Commons in some detail.

"... Much of the corruption that attaches to urban politics relates to how public investments are allocated to produce something that looks like a common but which promotes gains in private asset values for privileged property owners.  The distinction betweeen urban public goods and urban commons is both fluid and dangerously porous.  How often are developmental projects subsidized by the state in the name of the common interest when the true beneficiaries are a few landholders, financiers, and developers?"

The point is that no decision is completely a-political.  Planning is highly political.  Developers arn't always the bad guys just as planners arn't always the good guy.  There is no reason a Common Good can't be economic just much as environmental or cultural.

The Common Good is a catch-phrase just like Sustainable Development that is utilised to give an impression of superiority.  By saying you act in the Common Good doesn't mean you do, and chances are you don't!

More Portoghesi images. If only post-modern archiecture had followed this path...

Paolo Portoghesi's wonderful interior of the Moschea Mosque, Rome

A rush and a push and the land we stand on is ours

Our view of the city can often become sanitized. A vision of cappuccino culture servicing the needs of a consumer society that engages easily between homesome suburb and edgy/artistic city streets. However, sometimes we are reminded that the city is also a formation of taught tension and uneasy alliances that on occasion breaks down in a very dramatic way. And it does explode ... very frequently. The recent unrest in Istanbul and subsequently cities throughout cities reminds that in reality cities are a very uneasy peace. It is interesting that we have seen this explode in London and Istanbul in the last 3 three years - two world cities growing in the face of recession, and feeding off immigrants from former empires. In recent days Detroit has basically gone bust - harking back to New York's flirtation with the financial abyss 40 years ago. These cycles are shocking but at the same time so predictable. So it is only right to quote The Smiths from Strangeways here we come, which echoed the Clash's London Calling from 8 years earlier and in turn to evoke Henri Lefebvre's The Urban Revolution. This incredible essay by David Harvey 'The Right to the city' provides a persuasive thesis that the urbanisation process from Haussman's Paris to Bloomberg's New York are inextricably linked to economic and political power. Istanbul's summer reminds that sometimes the fight for the city, and public space is violent and instantaneous. Because, lest we get too comfortable, we need to be reminded at all times that smart cities are not about technology, but about equality, access to opportunity rather than opportunism. A smart city is a place of enabling networks and transparency.

Under-Urbanized

This little two-worder really struck me when I read it recently. It's a wonderful phrase to ensapsulate analysis of urban neighbourhoods. Rather than concentrating on measures such as density, it frees us to think in terms of qualities good neighbourhoods have: the services, social services, employers, attractions/ entertainments, spaces, architecture, street life, education, residential availability (tenure and typologies), cross-sections of society, retailers etc. Pretty soon we come to realize that most urban neighbourhoods are under-urbanized. It is this lack of diversity that affects good neighbourhoods, rather than a magical plot ratio, or even a 'cafe-culture'. The really interesting thing is that is takes a huge number of people, interests, developers and businesses to fill so many gaps. The great thing is that with all these gaps in under-urbanized urban areas, there are multiple opportunities for multiple organisations. The challenge is to create the framework in terms of governance, culture and legally to enable change. This is the true meaning of the smart city, or the entrepreneurial city..... I suggest;-) This post is inspired by an interview with Arturo Mier y Terán, an architect and urban planner in Mexico City, from "Handmade Urbanism: From community initiatives to participatory models" by Rosa and Weiland.

'Future Traditional'. Really like this design for the Ideal Homes Show by the Prince's Foundation. The design is a collaboration between Douglas Ardern, Jamie Wallace and Ruaridh Inverarity, features a pronounced double-gabled front and was inspired by traditional vernacular buildings. The design is winner of competition to respond to an architectural design brief reflecting the Foundation's ethos of sustainability, practicality, durability, beauty and comfort in modern living. http://www.princes-foundation.org/content/unveiling-princes-house-ideal-home-show-2013

The Gathering - what about diversity, multi-culturalism & pluralism?

"The Gathering" is a marketing campaign aimed at the "Irish Diaspora", and is Failte Ireland's (the Irish Tourist Board's) major initiative for 2013 (http://www.thegatheringireland.com/). Most countries engage in marketing campaigns to promote tourism. This is different in the sense that it seeks to connect Irish communities to a world wide network of Irish descent. So they're spending an awful lot of public money on marketing at home and abroad on this concept. Google images of'The Gathering' and see what you get. Try and get past the bad Arann jumpers and you get a clear message - You're welcome if you're white. It plays to an false-nostalgia image of 1950s Ireland best associated with small-town minds, catholicism, ethnic and cultural homogeneity. You're welcome if you're middle to old aged, got spending money (while at the same time a generation emigrates on the back of the same government's austerity to become the new diaspora!). "The Gathering" is symtomatic of a national blind-spot to the country Ireland has become.. It ignores the large Brazilian, Polish, Pakistani, Chinese and other populations that are now Irish; also the multi-national workforces companies like Facebook and Google who need access to 20+ different languages to be found in a place like Dublin. Who Will Remember Us? Memorialising the Multicultural City is an inciteful chapter by Katrina Goldstone On Ethnic Legagy in Dublin's Future, New Visions for Ireland's Capital City (Ed. Lorcan Sirr). She carefully documents how the Jewish community (Ireland's longest established racialised minority) came to, and played a highly visible and important role in Dublin in C19 and C20. She makes the point that this ethnic group has been largely whitewashed from our history, and our view of what Irishness is. She qutoes Iain Sinclair ... "We excavate the history we need, bend the past to colize the present". "The Gathering" marketing team need to have a good look at their own age and cultural profile. Are they in touch with Ireland as it is now, or as it was then. The Irish diaspora isn't just about Boston or Sydney any more. Its a global network that extends to Shanghai, Buenos Aires, Gdansk and Karachi. It is really important to get the message across home and abroad that Ireland is (or can be) a pluralist, diverve country. Failte Ireland has a lot of good & smart people; its time for "the gathering" to reflect this.