Linguistic Underpinnings

1. Socialize healthcare in a city. Show the US it can be done! Start small and grow out… cities with shrinking populations might give this a shot. (eh hem… Pittsburgh!)

2.  Be the first city to build a Vertical Garden!

3. Be the first to place oxygen-rich plants in public schools (like Kamal Meattle did in Delhi buildings) and study the affects.

4. Build fountains that serve as sources for drinking water. Serbia did it… we can do it too! It creates an instant social space and sense of security and well being in the community.

5. Legalize street vending or make it easier to get a vending liscense. This easy entry into business will make room for small time entripenuers to get their foot in the door. It can also add free security to city streets, act as quick solution to workers on lunch break looking for a meal or a coffee, and add extra flavor to other wise monotone sections of cityscape.

6. Be the first city to paint all the rooftops white! Save on energy and become a green tourism location!

7. Make more streets walking streets. It’s something that is so rare in the US, as most cities are tripping over themselves to clear the way for cars. Imagine the downtown of any US cities with more open air restaurants and a safe place to walk and relax? Imagine Times Square without cars! Put the walking streets right in there with the public drinking fountains.

8. Include safe bike lanes in city planning. As cities in the US fret over obesity related health issues and pollution from cars, issues with congestion and traffic, “ye olde bicycle” remains a viable solution all around. Bikes put more eyes on the streets (safer streets) takes cars off the road, provide a means of free transport and exercise, and hey-–it’s fun!

9.  Add Green roofs to any building!

10.  Encourage dynamic educational and artistic programming in communities of all sizes.

At first the mere delineation of public and private space in Mumbai seems a joke:
Laundry is drying on the divide of the street median, children are using the restroom wherever they choose, and every surface in most every time of day is an appropriate place to nap.

With so many activities that seem to only take place indoors in most western culture taking place outdoors, it is surprising to note that care-taking of public space fluctuates greatly. While some vendors on the street may clean and sweep near their “shop” regularly, others leave everything to the wind and rain, with wrappers piled left and right, mud all across the sidewalk, and concrete rubble piled along side of daily activities.

The city street itself seems a constant churning of physical forms, people, fruit, dogs, dust, rain and even the cobble stones themselves, flip out of order regularly only to be nudged back into place by the bare hands of some sari-dressed day laborer. The order is hard to describe though it does seem there is some logic to it, though the sense and purpose are more nested in immediate pragmatic needs than in the actualization of some method of work and living that will ever make things easier. Even in social settings, planning is unheard of and it seems even rude to ask for a plan. If a plan is set forth it usually changes completely with meetings happening instantly or not at all.

Here and there beautiful things happen though—out walking one evening I passed one of the multi-trunk trees here (the name of which is still unknown to me) and for whatever reason the tree had been fitted with boards between the trunks to create a sort of public bench. Small tin images and decorations were also pressed between trunks giving the tree a very welcoming presence, as though it were a lone wolf-tree park that admitted just two persons at a time.

Certainly, I am still new to the city and perhaps my way of looking for signs of how space is used here are not yet fitted correctly to the culture. At best, my indications so far are that though chaotic, the streets have an accessibility to all classes that western streets do not. This is an interesting place for urban planners, artists, and social scientists of all sorts to begin from as they query the best methods for engaging, serving, and housing Mumbai’s growing population.

A recent visit to Pukar  sat me down in front of a small but extremely helpful set of publications from the 2007 Urban Age India Conference that yielded the following helpful stats. in getting an over view of Mumbai:

In Mumbai 6.5 million live in slums. With a population of 13,662,885 that means close to half of the population occupies slum dwellings.

The city is home to over 300,000 street vendors- just a few thousand of whom are licensed.

Dharavi, the city’s largest slum has populations that range up to 80,000 per km squared. 50% of the city lives in unauthorized housing that likely has unreliable sources of electricity and water.  Much of the occupied land is owned by the government, though surprisingly the slum of Dharavi has organized itself to the point of having representatives in government.

When it comes to travel and transport within the city:

3-13% of households have cars (an interesting fact when you come to learn how much money is being spent to make auto travel most convenient).

40-50% of travel takes place on two-wheelers

40-50% takes place on bikes.

The city relies mostly on walking, cycling, and IPT ( Intermediate Public Transport) to get around. The buses seem only half safe- not so much stopping at various streets but slowing down so that passengers hop off when they need to.

For those living in slums 50-75% of travel is walking or cycling.

About a month ago I found out I received the Fulbright grant I applied for. I will be moving to work in Mumbai, India a little less than two months from now. The last few months have been loaded with work, but I am re-committing to my blog activities as my reading is once again on the up and up.

On that note, I’ve been reading today about Mumbai’s efforts to reshape its city center under a plan called Vision 2020. The debate as to whether this effort is going to help or hurt Mumbai is raging and there is no doubt that the heart of the city will be changed forever. The link below details the dramatic affects the planning will have on India’s street hawkers; members of the city’s alternative economy who are experiencing misrepresentation and issues with rights to the city as street codes are changed.

Mumbai 2020: Dream or nightmare?

by Sumit Bhattacharya in Mumbai

The walled city of Kowloon existed as an island of dense population and lawlessness in the heart of Hong Kong.

Evacuated and demolished in the early 90s, the city grew almost organically in the era between the 1890s and the 1940s. Square buildings folded up into one another as thousands of modifications were made, virtually none by architects or engineers, until hundreds of square meters were simply a kind of patchwork monolith. Corridors ran through the monolith, some of those being former streets (at the ground level, and often clogged up with trash), and some of those running through upper floors, practically between buildings. The streets were illuminated by fluorescent lights, as sunlight was rare except for the rooftops.

The city was described as a hotbed of criminal activities, the daily lives of its dwellers were largely organized by the residents themselves, rather than by the Triad. Being a lawless land, the city was notorious for its excess of brothels casinos, opium dens, and cocaine parlours, with food courts serving dog meat and secret factories. The Kowloon Walled City was also infamous for its high number of unsanitary dentist clinics, since this was where unlicensed dentists could operate without prosecution.

Despite it’s rough reputation most residents were not involved in any crime and lived peacefully within its walls. Many charities and religious groups are said to have helped to improve the lives of residents. Schools and other welfare were introduced to the district and numerous small factories and businesses thrived inside the Walled City. Other reports say that given the population density, crime was unusually low, but then this maybe a result of there being no central place to report crime to or a lax definition of what constitutes crime.

An expensive book titled City of Darkness documents life in Kowloon. Kowloon has also been featured in several films, the most familiar of which maybe Bloodsport.

Few other brief clips of the city seem available. More information is available through Blog Like You Give a Damn.