Written by: Shriya Malhotra
By Leroy W. Demery Jr.
It seems Chinese cities really are cycling backwards. And the negative pattern is not unfamiliar in other booming economies and cities of Asia. The above photograph of the city of Shenzhen in the 1980s shows open space, a visible and relatively unpolluted sky, with low density. Meanwhile, the city is now known more as being China’s first and most successful ‘Special Economic Zone’ made up mostly of all of glass and skyscrapers (and a city that is also well known for its pollution). Below is a photograph of the city now, linked from an article describing the city’s soaring emissions and associated risks to population health.
Photo by Sun Yuchen.
Written by: Shriya Malhotra
At the recent Delai Sam in Moscow, I attended a presentation and workshop about DIY street planning by Vladmir Zlokazov, an architect and urbanist from Ekaterinburg. He is the author of livestreets.ru and one of his projects has been to create a list of improvements to the plans for a project on Shirokorechenskaya street in Ekaterinburg. He shared his alternative plans using social media, and they are now being taken into consideration by municipal authorities.
Image by Vladmir Zlakazov from www.livestreets.ru
Zlakazov’s project was a response to the plans for a borough in Academichesky being promoted by developers. The initial constructed blocks demonstrated that many designed elements, despite being portrayed at innovative and at the forefront of planning and architecture, were in fact “outdated and dysfunctional.” Zlokazov analyzed Shirokorechenskaya street and gave a series of suggestions on how to make plans for this street more functional. All project materials are available for download on the Ekaterinburg City Hall website and here.
The workshop highlighted mobility priorities of a livable city – focusing first on pedestrians, then cyclists, then public transport and finally cars. It seems that many cities have this pattern going the wrong way and subvert the requirements of cyclists and pedestrians in stead of supporting them (New Delhi and Moscow, for instance).
Zlakazov demonstrated the importance of above ground crosswalks (side note: this raised my interest in how Moscow’s planning subverts street life underground in its ‘perikhods’ which ultimately compromise the evolution or existence of street life) and led an analysis of proposed plans for a major street in Moscow. The experience highlighted that basic ‘user’ insights from city residents inform the best planning decisions. Engaging citizens to participate in planning processes (and making inclusive planing decisions to prioritize people, and not just car drivers, for instance) seems the most obvious and best way forward for our cities.
Written by: Shriya Malhotra
With the coming of spring, people across the city of Moscow have been working to improve their city and neighborhoods. The concept of a subbotnik, which is the Russian word for Saturday, is part of a tradition of volunteer community service.
Subbotniks are organized to clear garbage off the streets, clearing parks of weeds, planting gardens, repainting crumbling infrastructure, fixing public amenities, collecting recyclable material etc. Community driven efforts to beautify the city. They continue in countries like Russia and in Belarus 
to this day, although now (as with the example of Delai Sam) it is more DIY than state sanctioned. Like the day of action as part of Delai Sam 
, on April 21st (although incidentally, the Saturday/Subbotnik was the day before earth day and Lenin’s birthday) .
The first subbotnik was organized by Bolshevik party members on April 12, 1919. An all-Russia subbotnik was held on May 1, 1920; over 425,000 people in Moscow participated, including Vladmir Ilyich Lenin, to clear away building rubble on the territory of the Kremlin.
In the 1950s, subbotniks were promoted across the Eastern Bloc countries and in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). In Czechoslovakia, a similar kind of work was known as Akce Z.
Self initiated community restoration projects continued following the fall of the USSR and the crisis experienced in the 1990s, when neighborhood and urban maintenance was left to the community. In Moscow, self management committees often took up the responsibility. This tradition is a valuable legacy for neighborhoods and communities to engage with and improve their urban environments. A pattern worth noting, and hopefully one that persists across eastern Europe – and beyond.
Written by: Shriya Malhotra
In Russian, Delai Sam means ‘Do It Yourself.’ Delai Sam is a series of activities organized every 6 months, which began in 2010 as part of the Global Day of Action against climate change, held in Moscow, Russia. A group of activists, artists, architects and environmentalists proposed an alternative vision for their city – Moscow 2020 – and pledged to organize activities every 6 months to achieve it.
Delai Sam is another example of an emerging DIY culture in the city and a pattern of urban activism being seen in several others across the world. For instance, on September 16, 2011, Moscow celebrated its first Park(ing) Day. These events demonstrates a tactical approach to urbanism, activating citizens to take charge of their urban environments and create better cities.
From April 14-22, there will be an informal conference, Delai Sammit, and a weeklong series of events and activities. The conference will share urban initiatives featuring activists from Moscow, Helsinki, Kolomna, St. Petersburg, and Ekaterinburg. It will feature presentations by Gorozhanka Fyodor, who founded a project to address the widespread problem of leaking roofs in St. Petersburg, Zalivaet, and Vladimir Zlokazov, urbanist and author of Live Streets.
From workshops on guerilla gardening to park clean ups, outdoor movie screenings in a mobile theater – it will bring together and inspire the creative urban re-planning imaginations of active citizens across the city.
Written by: Shriya Malhotra
This is not a place you’ll find on any map of the city. Tucked away amidst the chaos of central New Delhi is a place that holds unimaginable talent and increasingly rare artistic traditions. Since the 1970s, the tinsel slum known as Kathputli colony has been home to India’s magicians, acrobats, and puppeteers. With rising property prices in the area, the Delhi government has sold the Kathputli land to developers. Relocation plans are in the works and the slum is to be cleared for redevelopment. Their story reflects patterns of urban development like land privatization and redevelopment which we see in cities worldwide. In the face of modernization and urban development, the artists and performers of Kathputli risk losing their homes and slowly, their livelihoods. Decreasing demands for their practiced crafts in a city developing at unparalleled speeds are real forces shaping their urban future.
Tomorrow We Disappear is a beautiful documentary film currently in production, which uses amazing visual and indepth storytelling to document the realities and struggles faced in this artist’s colony – “a culture born out of folk art and molded by poverty.” It explores tensions and dreams in the lives of colony residents as they struggle with authorities against relocation while continuing to make their art and live their dreams. The filmmakers seek to capture a turning point in the lives of these artists in the context of the city’s development, to thoughtfully and respectfully preserve their story.
Kathputli is unique in many ways, the pattern being documented is unfortunately not a new one in cities – of people who live in the depths of poverty, with little public support, often illegally and facing a constant threat of eviction – yet pursuing their dream of opportunity in the city. The story of the colony highlights grave inequality experienced in Indian cities, and the human pursuit of survival and dreams. It also demonstrates in some ways the universal struggle faced by of artists who live in cities. And at a basic level, it reflects the personal concept of what a ‘home’ means to people and how difficult it can be to relocate, resettle, recreate and replace.
The pattern of displacement and redevelopment in cities tends to affect marginalized and minority urban communities. And in the last several years, hundreds of slum clusters in Delhi have been demolished. Thousands of people have been resettled, typically to smaller peri-urban areas. Although Kathputli is part of a new urban rehabilitation scheme, the pattern is a familiar one: of migrants who come to cities seeking a better future; who bear the brunt of modernization are compromised at the hand of urbanization and economic growth. Their struggle also represents the pattern of housing redevelopment and neighborhood change as part of a gentrification process where community rights are often subverted.
Written by: Shriya Malhotra
Berlin feels like a city operating at a humane pace, partly because of its bicycling culture, which is a great model for other cities. Walking the city comes as a surprise to people, given how convenient (and awesome) it is to cycle. Cycling here is not about fighting traffic or searching for bicycle paths – the city has truly adapted itself for cyclists. And with a population of several million, Berlin’s cycle-friendliness is a huge success. Although modal share in Amsterdam and Copenhagen may be higher, their overall city populations are much smaller. And everyone (or almost everyone – it certainly feels like everyone) in Berlin cycles – old, young, across all demographics.
Cycles are accessorized to be functional, with attachments at the front and back to carry things / people. I’ve seen baby carriers and dog pods. Even when its cold – it seems like businesses and the community / city have collaborated to facilitate this culture.
The city has a bicycle share program ‘Call a Bike’ (with solar powered kiosks), and many small businesses run on renting out bicycles to visitors.
Public transport and infrastructure is geared for people to take their bikes onto the bus, trams, in the subway – the city accommodates cycles and cyclists everywhere. Bicycle paths are wide and safe, and car drivers really pay attention to cyclists.
The key is involving businesses to promote sustainable lifestyles, and make it easy, affordable, safe and convenient for people to use cycling as an option in the city. The positive effects on public health and quality of life are immense – Berlin is quiet, so much so that you can hear birds chirping (and hear no cars!). There is no visible air pollution and people are actively moving about, which is always good.
On March 24-25 2012, Berlin will be hosting VELOBerlin: “All you need is … a BICYCLE!” A public exhibition in its second year, it revolves around cycles as the new urban mobility and travel mode. If you are lucky enough to be in the city, definitely do not miss it!
Written by: Aurash Khawarzad
Written by: Shriya Malhotra
Historically, graffiti, or most kinds of gritty street art, has been an unwelcome sight in communities, but that is starting to change. At this point, as we wrote about in a recent post on Miami, communities are actually inviting street artists to come and brand/revitalize their area. Russian street art has also been evolving in a similar trajectory as street art in the US. In 2007, in a residential neighborhood near Babushkinskaya metro station in Moscow, street artists from Russia and Holland created murals on the sides of buildings as part of a public art move which was sponsored by an apartment complex. (This map marks exactly where to find the graffiti).
Photograph in Babushkinskaya by Nicholas van Beek, 2012
The Russian city of Perm has also been funding a lot public art, including street art. To attract visitors and investment to this post-Soviet city of 1,000,000 people, located 900 miles east of Moscow, they have been inviting international graffiti artists to create public pieces.
While sanctioned street art can be an effective tool for revitalization, it is important that it reflects the community and isn’t just a blank canvas for internationally reputed artists. Ultimately, urban revitalization and public art should be shaped by people that belong to the community it is being created in – serving as a canvas and a space for dialogue to re-imagine and re-choreograph their cities.
Written by: Aurash Khawarzad
The animation above demonstrates the urban form, to scale, of 23 public spaces that were occupied as part of the Occupy movement in 2011. These sites are normally tight, linear, civic spaces that are publicly, or privately owned.
