anthropological urbanism

Disneyfication

I don’t think is a particulraily new concept, but interesting to see it framed via the NYC’s Highline project.

The High Line has become a tourist-clogged catwalk and a catalyst for some of the most rapid gentrification in the city’s history.

Jeremiah Moss of Vanishing New York in the New York Times.

The Highline project is something which seems so successful it also seems to win over the usual cynics so its interesting to have it challenged. I am sure there are plenty examples which can be seen in London as well, in similair kind of projects. Perhaps this is all best seen in the “Keep Hackney Crap” fiasco.

Gentrification might be making cities unliveable in the for the majority of people, look at Owen Hatherley’s comment piece in the Guardian this week on socially mixed communities. The article discusses Government plans to remove less affluent residents from what are seen as “better” areas, turning London into perhaps what many see as a very divided Paris. The article also threw up the Red Vienna period which I’d never come across before, interesting to learn that 60% of Vienna is still in some sort of social housing set up.