Contemporary Urban Environments Flashcards
Urban Policy 1997-2000s
Greenwich Millenium Village
- Area has focus on ‘village life in the city’, started in 2000s
- total of 1377 multi-bedroom houses, mean value of £523,596
- Key facilities: schools, grocery shops, GP surgeries, green spaces and parks
- well-connected through Jubilee line to large shopping centres (which ones?)
Urban policy 1997-2000s
Modern housing and environmental changes under Blair overview
NEW LABOUR- Blair’s commitment to a balance of market and public ownership and creation of wealth.
Decent Homes Program (DHS)
- gov initiative ot improve condition of social housing in UK
- criteria = must be in reasonable state of repair, thermal comfort, modern facilities and services, current statutory minimum standard for housing
Plymouth Development Corporation (PDC)
- project ran from 1993-1998 in Plymouth, Devon
- budget of $45m for 5-year lifetime
- claimed it had the potential to create >1300 new jobs, and attract private sector finance of £50m
Urban Policy 1997-2000
Impacts of Modern Housing and Environmental Changes Under Blair
SHOCKING FAILURE compared to what was predicted.
- National Audit reported that only built 11,900m^2 of commercial floor space and 99 homes
- only £8m of private finance (I) leveraged in/brought in
- 427 new jobs created
- CORRUPTION: John Collinson suspended in June 1995 from PAC bc spent £9000 of corporation’s money on private expenses during visits abroad
Urban Policy 1997-2000s
Blair’s New Deal for Communities overview
Took place between 1998-2009
- Targeted 39 communities w average of 10,000 residents (in most deprived areas)
- each received £50m over the 10 years
- First 17 = £774m over 10 years
- The next 22 in 1998 = £2b spent
- partnership approach taken
Urban Policy 1997-2000s
Successes + Failures of NDC
Successes:
- By 2006 crime in Newcastle fell by 21% bc £3.4m dedicated to crime
- 45% of residents in NDCs felt safer in communities by 2008
- 2000 new homes built in some NDC areas
- 10,000 adults participated in education and skill-development programs
Failures:
- only 2000 of the 10,000 who got the education acc got long-term stable employment by end of program
- unemployment still high in these areas only fell by around 1% between 2002 and ‘08 in Newcastle’s West Gate area
- 40% of small businesses supported by NDC grants struggled or closed w/in two years after funding finished
Global patterns of Urbanisation
Patterns are shifting towards NEEs and LICs
- by 2050, India will have increased its urban population by 416 million, China 255m and Nigeria 189m
- low fertility rates in European cities and in a few in Japan and S Korea = declining populations
- 2020 55% of total global population living in urban areas, incr by 20% from 1960, projected to be 60% in 2050
- N America = most urbanised w 82% living in urban areas in 2018
- Latin America and Caribbean = 81%, Europe = 74% and Oceania = 68%, Asia = 50%
Africa is still relatively rural w 43% in urban areas
Consequences of urbanisation
- shortage of housing in LIC because there are more people than houses, over 1 billion around the world live in slum conditions as a result, increased from 860m in 2013
- less jobs available
Background on two contrasting urban areas
Becontree: Dagenham…
- in borough of Dagenham and Barking
- 11 miles east of Central London
- was constructed between 1929 and 1935 and was the largest council estate in the world at the time
- > was built mainly to accomodate people from slums in the east end
- typically two floored terraced housing
- in the 1980s, the right-to-buy scheme led to 2/3 of housing becoming privately owned
Surbiton: RICH RISHI
How have two contrasting urban areas been successful/unsuccessful in creating social and economic wellbeing?
Becontree:
- 5% of the population can’t speak English
- 40% of people aren’t UK born, 30% asian 40% white
- the Ford car plant in Dagenham went into decline in 80s, and closed in 2000s unemp = 12% at time is now 7%
- 50% of children in Becontree currently live in poverty
How effective have these two urban areas been in preserving the environment?
London’s suburbs
social and economic impacts of suburbanisation
Detroit:
Key facts:
- America’s major industrial cities , in the 1900s African Americans and others moved here for work
- They were met with hostility and
Two contrasting urban areas: Mumbai and the character of the place
- Mumbai is India’s largest city =almost 27m as of now
- financial and commercial centre of Bollywood industry
- Originally, Mumbai was series of 7 islands separated by swamps, but by 1845 these had been filled in and Mumbai became one large island. Mumbai has natural deep-water harbour and has been the main port in the Arabian Sea since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
