Final blog

My blog on urban lifestyles covered a number of topic that would be present in a day to day urban community. They range from sports, fast food, street vendors, prostitution, municipal waste and garbage disposal, industrialization and immigration, homelessness, apartment complexes and ghettos and slums. All the factors cover negative and positive elements affecting urban lifestyles and which are responsible for the way of life found in cities.

I commented on Kevin Ousman, Urbanosity blog called sweep them under the rug. It was definitely linked to my blog as we had the same views on homelessness within Trinidad and Tobago. We both wrote about seeing homeless people in the major cities being looked down upon like a piece of garbage on the ground.  Just like that garbage, the general view is that this is a private company's job to deal with and not a social issue that needs to be address by the government and non government agencies.  This shouldn't be the case.  A solution to this problem developed by the government is to provide low income housing which Nirvana Hanooman wrote about, in her blog Public housing - a chance for all.  She discussed how public housing should be a short term plan because it isn't the most ideal place to live and raise a family. Its designed for the low wage income people and excludes them from other areas in the city.  In my blog I suggested that these housing projects are normally located in degraded areas which aren't the most suitable living areas.  They are normally congested and in remote areas that would be greatly affected by natural disasters.  Although its better than being homeless it normally leads to an unsanitary and unhealthy lifestyle and helps to promote crime and violence in a society.  

I also commented on Alyssa Black's blog called Urban Places - place of recreation. In her blog she talks about the need for green spaces within urban communities, such as parks and savanna's. I agree that with the rise of sky scrappers and apartment complexes there is a need for green areas so people could feel like they are getting away from the concrete jungle.

Overall, urbanization comes as a result of population growth and industrialization.  People move into the cities because they expect to have a better life since there are more opportunities in the city than in their home environments.  The problems arise because it is usually poorer, unskilled laborers arriving in the cities.  When they arrive they contribute to the overcrowding and popularity of low income housing, crime and even homelessness.  Meanwhile, the more wealthy and educated live in suburban areas and travel into the central business district with the use of personal automobiles.  Those caught in the middle do the same using public transport.  

Sports provides a means and ways for those unskilled or uneducated youth to make their way out of urban areas by earning a means of income.  However, sports such as football and cricket require large spaces which are not found in abundance in urban areas.  More urban sports such as basketball are not given enough attention and as a result that method of escape tends to be cut off.  

As populations increase within cities, there is an increase in urbanization and urban lifestyle.  The result is a self-propagating cycle as the demand for more space and economic opportunities creates clustering and over-lapping of urban structures and cultures, which in turn create more demand for space and opportunities.  These have some positive aspects, such as industrialization and economic growth, but also have negative impacts including stresses on the natural environment as well as the issues observed.

Industrialization and Immigration

The photos shown in this post is of the Carib and Stag beer company in Trinidad and Tobago. I took them from inside a bus while traveling from Port Of Spain to St. Augustine. The first is of the distillery and the second one is of a storage area across the road where they store empty beer cases. I chose to take these photos because alcohol is an important product in urban settings and has become and important part of urban lifestyles. Also companies of that magnitude generate a large work force of skilled and unskilled laborers of which a huge part of the unskilled laborers are immigrants from a different country.

Immigration, Urbanization, and Industrialization are directly related. Immigration causes urbanization, which causes industrialization, but industrialization also causes immigration and urbanization. These three things work in a cycle. The ever increasing number of factories created an intense need for labor, convincing people in rural areas to move to the city. City growth is mainly driven by economic development and is characterized by a shift away from a predominantly agrarian-oriented economy to one that is dominated by the industrial and service sector in terms of the country's GDP and workforce. Fundamental changes in the socio-economic environment of human activities as urbanization involves new forms of employment, economic activity and lifestyle have been observed. Thus, industrialization in the developing world is directly correlated with urbanization.

Immigration causes an influx of people into a given cities or cities, as the  immigrants generally look towards cities because of jobs. Most of the times immigrants are very poor, and very desperate for work, so  they would relocate to an area with lots of job opportunities, and they would take whatever jobs they could find in order to feed themselves and there families. often times the people hiring them would pay t very little to them  because they know there situation and would take advantage of it which does not help them at all. Urbanization exists because of the increasing population, and migration of people into urban areas, which in turn leads to the success of  industrialization. Immigration is responsible for diversity in ethnicity,for new ideas, inventions, and innovations because it promotes the influx of skilled and unskilled people from all walks of life. With more people comes there is a demand for new thing and larger quantities of needed goods to make day to day life easier which increases the need for industrialization. They grow because of each other, because they all benefit from one another. A major industry created in the Caribbean and a portion being placed in Trinidad and Tobago is the University of the West Indies. It generates a considerable amount of revenue each year from countries and people all over the world and it integrates many different cultures through migration for educational purposes. Through an abundance of natural gas Trinidad is a targeted place to place a large factory due to low energy cost thus it surely attracts its fair share of immigrants each year.

public transport

This picture was taken at the bus and maxi station in Port Of Spain Trinidad and Tobago around 4 o'clock pm on a Friday afternoon, just before most people get off work and would be rushing to go home. I've been at this central terminal a number of times unfortunately during rush hour and even though they have a better system than most country i have been in, the system still is flawed and leads to confusion and madness. This is definitely an urban lifestyle as you wouldn't or would rarely see that in a rural setting.

With an increase in population growth and an increase in the number of businesses establishment in Port Of Spain Trinidad and Tobago, there is a definite increase in the influx of people in and out of the city daily. Therefore whether we're talking about passengers or goods, the transport sector is still experiencing strong growth each year. Moreover, transport is 98% dependent on oil which Trinidad and Tobago has an abundance in, which should in turn make public transport cheaper and more reliable. However public transport is affordable but still not yet reliable. 

Historically, movements within cities tended to be restricted to walking, which made medium and long distance urban linkages rather inefficient and time-consuming. At the other end of the spectrum, the dispersed urban forms of Trinidad and Tobago, which were built recently, encourages automobile dependency and are linked with high levels of mobility. The major cities are also port cities with maritime accessibility playing an enduring role not only for the economic vitality but also in the urban spatial structure with the port district being an important node.

The more radical the changes in transport technology have been, the more the alterations on the urban form. Among the most fundamental changes in the urban form is the emergence of new clusters expressing new urban activities and new relationships between elements of the urban system. In the city of Port Of Spain, the central business district, is still the primary destination of commuters and serviced by public transportation,and  has not been changed by new manufacturing, retailing and management practices as yet, but most industries are located in more rural area, while commercial zones and most social businesses are still in or around the cities. 

Although transportation systems and travel patterns have changed considerably over time, one enduring feature remains that most people travel between 30-40 minutes in one direction. Globally, people are spending about an hours and a half per day commuting, wherever this takes place in a low or a high mobility setting. Different transport technologies, however, are associated with different travel speeds and capacity. As a result, cities that rely primarily on non-motorized transport tend to be different than auto-dependent cities. Transport technology thus plays a very important role in defining urban form and the spatial pattern of various activities. Still, the evolution of the urban form is path dependent, implying that the current spatial structure is obviously the outcome of past developments, but that those developments were strongly related to local conditions involving to the setting, physical constraints and investments in infrastructures and modes.

The amount of urban land allocated to transportation is often correlated with the level of mobility. In the pre-automobile era, about 10% of the urban land was devoted to transportation which was simply roads for a dominantly pedestrian traffic. As the mobility of people and freight increased, a growing share of urban areas was allocated to transport and the infrastructures supporting it. Large variations in the spatial imprint of urban transportation are observed between different cities as well as between different parts of a city, such as between central and peripheral areas.This could be seen from west Trinidad to east and from central to south. The major components of the spatial imprint of urban transportation are, Pedestrian areas, which  Refer to the amount of space devoted to walking. This space is often shared with roads as sidewalks may use between 10% and 20% of a road's right of way. In central areas, pedestrian areas tend to use a greater share of the right of way and in some instances whole areas are reserved for pedestrians. However, in a motorized context, most pedestrian areas are for servicing people's access to transport modes such as parked automobiles, Roads and parking areas, which Refer to the amount of space devoted to road transportation, which has two states of activity; moving or parked. In a motorized city, on average 30% of the surface is devoted to roads while another 20% is required for off-street parking. This implies for each car about 2 off-street and 2 on-street parking spaces. 

Transit systems, such as buses share road space with automobiles, which often impairs their respective efficiency. Attempts to mitigate congestion have resulted in the creation of a bus route through the center of the area reserved to buses on a permanent basis. Transport terminals, which refer to the amount of space devoted to terminal facilities such as ports, airports, transit stations,and distribution centers. Globalization has increased the mobility of people and freight, both in relative and absolute terms, and consequently the amount of urban space required to support those activities. Many major terminals are located in the peripheral areas of cities, which are the only locations where sufficient amounts of land are available.

The spatial importance of each transport mode varies according to a number of factors, density being the most important. If density is considered as a gradient, rings of mobility represent variations in the spatial importance of each mode at providing urban mobility. Further, each transport mode has unique performance and space consumption characteristics. The most relevant example is the automobile. It requires space to move around but it also spends 98% of its existence stationary in a parking space. Consequently, a significant amount of urban space must be allocated to accommodate the automobile, especially when it does not move and is thus economically and socially useless. In large urban agglomerations close to all the available street parking space in areas of average density and above is occupied throughout the day. At an aggregate level, measures reveal a significant spatial imprint of road transportation among developed countries. 

Ghettos and slums

Photos of Lavantille Trinidad and Tobago an area know for its narrow streets and houses stocked on top of each other heading down the mountain side, high crime and violence and its high level of people living in poverty. As a non national student that was one of the first place i was told about when i arrived in Trinidad and Tobago and was firmly warned not to go into the area. After being here for almost two years i made some friends who are from the area and they don't seem so bad matter of fact they seemed nothing like the people that where described to me.

More than one billion people nowadays live as slum-dwellers in informal settlements characterized by vulnerability and poverty. Rural-to-urban migration, together with the natural population growth of cities, constitutes an urbanization trend that has since accelerated its pace. The 'normal' situation in slums can, in several ways, be classified as a 'crisis', and violence levels often contribute to situations akin to 'armed conflict'. Cities are sites of great progress and prosperity in many areas, bringing wealth and opportunities to many of their citizens. However, they are also home to less advantaged groups, whose lives are characterized by poverty and a near absence of opportunity for improvement.

Their vulnerability is generally greater, as they are more exposed to and affected by natural disasters and forms of urban violence than the more affluent sections of the cities. Moreover, these vulnerabilities are chronic and increasingly severe. The opportunities and progress that cities provide act as a magnet for many who aspire to reap the benefits. Millions of people are drawn by the prospect of a better life, in which they can share in the opportunities that the city offers.

Economic prospects are the most important factor underlying urban influx. In many cases the rural-to-urban flow is stimulated by the dire situation in rural areas, where poverty and lock of progress drive people out of their habitat. As it is often the younger people who look for new opportunities, these push-and-pull trends in many cases create a vicious circle that leads to even greater rural deprivation. At the same time many city dwellers, in their struggle to seize urban opportunities, become and remain trapped in a vicious circle of poverty and vulnerability, and their deprivation can in fact be worse than in rural areas.

Within most cities, the image of progression is offset by the presence of growth of areas with a high concentration of poverty and destitution.  The rural-to-urban migration is largely made up of people with low education and limited financial means. They therefore usually have no other option than to live in informal settlements, characterized by a lack of basic infrastructure and absence of services.  These areas are the locus for concentrated poverty and corresponding vulnerability and their inhabitants are exposed to multiple hazards and violence. A generally applied label is 'slum', particularly when referring to the destitute face of these areas.  The presence and rapid growth of slums underlines that they cannot be considered an unfortunate by-product of urbanization that will disappear as cities develop and the incomes of their inhabitants improve. Instead, it needs to be addressed as a development issue.

The United Nations defines a slum household as a group of individuals living under the same roof in an urban area who lack one or more of the following conditions: durable housing, sufficient living area, access to improved water and to sanitation, and secure tenure. The classification of an urban flood can vary widely: a few inches of water may be considered a nuisance in a developing country (even though it may have an impact on socio-economic activities) but a disaster in a developed country – hence the notion of ‘hazardous area’ has multiple interpretations. Yet it is clear that slum-dwellers make up the poorer parts of cities, where their vulnerabilities and capacities are exposed to disaster risk both more frequently and to a greater degree of intensity, and where they experience more violence and insecurity than in the cities’ more affluent parts.
The slum areas also perform important functions for cities and, moreover, for the economic progress and social stability of countries. They provide accommodation for low-cost labor – economic development and slum growth are mutually reinforcing. Furthermore, the make-up of slums, often reflecting the ethnic, religious, and/or cultural background of their inhabitants, provides a network that can in normal circumstances, as well as in times of crisis, absorb migrant influx and mass movements of displaced people, for whom the city functions as a safe haven. It is argued, however, that rather than poverty breeding violence, violence promotes poverty by driving out capital and hampering investment and economic growth. Inequality, as perceived in the poorer communities, is cited as a more important underlying cause than poverty for the crime and violence that people experience. This inequality is manifest in unequal access to education, health care, and employment opportunities and in the limited or absent infrastructure compared to other, more affluent, parts of the city. However, although violence is not an exclusive feature of cities, the scale and severity are usually greater in urban areas. Much violence (be it, for example, intra-family, street robbery, or territorial-based gang wars) results in homicide, and data suggest that this correlates among other things with rapid rates of urbanization.

In many cities, urban crime is predominantly committed by young men – if not poverty driven, their involvement in crime is certainly a means of obtaining status and prestige.
Since the age brackets for young people (0-19 years) are disproportionately large in slum areas compared to non-slum areas, the many young slum-dwellers make ideal recruits for street gangs.
In this respect, media coverage of crime, particularly by the 'tabloids' and sensational press, reinforces distrust and contributes to increased fear and a feeling of insecurity among the general public Cultural and social values also play a role in the prevalence of violence: social networks can be powerful informal control mechanisms, with their normative structures tempering the perception of inequality.

The interwoven-ness of poverty, marginalization, and violence in the poor and neglected sections of the city fosters urban segregation ('fractured cities') and contributes to the emergence of 'no-go' areas, characterized by an 'unrule of law'. In contested areas where police and special police forces try to restore law and order, violence may involve political assassinations and can in fact turn into guerrilla and paramilitary conflict, in particular as a spill-over of economic and institutional crime when politicians resort to violence to pursue economic gains.

The security of people in slums is affected by violence as well as disaster risk, both which hamper socio-economic development and consequently obstruct people's ability to strengthen their resilience.
People need access to five vital resources for sustainable living. These resources, usually termed 'capital', together constitute their livelihood. 'Human capital' can be labor, skills, or knowledge; 'natural capital' consists of land, water, forests, and so forth; 'physical capital' can be food stocks, livestock, equipment, and the like; 'financial capital' is money (savings, loans, credit); and finally 'social capital' concerns the quality of relations between people (help from neighbors, religious organizations, NGOs, political parties, etc on the basis of common rules, norms and sanctions).

Homelessness: can't i have the basic needs of life

This is a picture of a homeless man i see everyday by U.W.I never knew where he slept until one night walking home late and i say him under this tent by a bus stop in the St.Augustine Trinidad and Tobago.

Homelessness is a growing problem in Trinidad and Tobago especially in the Capital city of Port Of Spain. One way the country and most countries try and deal with homelessness is by providing poor housing zones, but people who are homeless or living in poor housing are constantly threatened by illnesses and have a much lower life expectancy than other portions of the population. A large number of these people are migrants who come to the city with the promise of higher living standards because city residents have greater access to health care, more employment and opportunity and access to more social and cultural events or at least that's what they think or the image that were planted in there minds.

Of course there are advantages to city life, however, widespread poverty casts a shadow over the urban future, and as I have been writing vast number of people in urban areas are threatened by homelessness, health hazards and violence among other things. These things may affect the poorer portion of the urban population directly, but their indirect effects are felt by the whole society.

Homeless people are at risk from pollution and other health hazards, more so from pollution from cars, the burning of fossil fuels and industry which cause illnesses such as respiratory infections and lead poisoning.Crime and violence are other, specifically urban, problems that they face each day, this because of there constant exposure to the outside elements of the city and there survival needs. Urban violence has been growing rapidly also and homelessness is also a result of it. Poverty and social disintegration are cited as the causes of urban crime and violence.

These are not problems that must exist simply because cities exist. They are often the results of poor income distribution and bad policy and poor housing shouldn't be placed in areas of degraded land which are areas of higher health risk and devastation in case of natural disasters. Government and non governmental organization should create better policies and find more suitable areas for the more needy which in turn would reduce crime and health issues.

Apartment complexes

The three pictures above show two different types of residences in Trinidad.  The first shows the exterior of a modern apartment building found in Trinidad, including the security fence and bars on the windows.  The second shows the interior and how the rooms are divided.  The third is the historic Boissiere house in Port of Spain.

It can be said that all the Caribbean the Caribbean territories have a particular look to them.  For Trinidad, with its Oil and industry economy and its unique geography set away from most hurricane paths, the skyline and buildings hold in them the look of a nation with the money to build and without the fear to stop them.  But do these modern architectural styles match the lifestyles of the people living in them?

For starters, let us discuss the matter of exteriors.  Port of Spain at night has the majestic look of a postmodern metropolis, with tall gleaming structures in the economic center and the glittering lights of the residential areas climbing the hills up toward the sky.  Its an image that doesn't exactly scream Caribbean, and like most urban settings the image changes depending on distance.  The city appears as a marvel of modernism, at least when viewed from the Lavantille road look out; that is to say, when the view doesn't include Lavantille itself.  Viewed in its totality, one sees a battle between nature and industry, and between the modern city and the old-fashioned island.  Trinidad’s history with architecture is as eclectic and tumultuous as the nation’s people.  Consider Boissiere house with its Italian design, English materials, and subtle Asian accents, for instance.  Moreover, consider the way the historic house was designed to take advantage of both light and movement of air.  The pagoda style roofs and stained glass on the sunnier sides of the house turn direct sunlight into aesthetically charming shade, while the tall windows and doors, as well as the amount of them allow for ample airflow.  Here is a structure and style that speak directly to life in the Caribbean.

Compare that with the style of apartments currently being built, as in the picture above.  No specialized architecture to take advantage of the natural environment.  No specialized windows, in fact there are hardly any windows at all.  These apartments are merely large storage containers for human resources.  The intention has shifted from providing comfortable spaces for families to maximizing space for housing an increasing workforce.

The interiors tell a similar story.  When one mentions an apartment some might expect a full suite including kitchen, living room, and dining rooms.  In fact, what is often the case is that the apartments being offered are in fact single occupancy rooms, with other amenities such as kitchens, dining and living rooms being shared between the occupants.  These apartments are not designed to house families and people moving from family settings to these sparse conditions are faced with no choice if they want to take advantage of the employment opportunities available in urban areas.