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Martin Laplante

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Sat, 12 Nov 2005

Paris riots and urban planning

5 comments

Comments...

David Wilson wrote

what are you saying here exactly Martin? is this mere bourgeois hand wringing? (I don't know, I am asking the question) because if the object of urban planning is simply to manipulate densities in the name of better controlling the population, reducing the possibility of riot and such like, then it is treating the symptom not the root. it appears to me that these young Paris muslims are rioting because they have lots of testosterone and no jobs and not much chance of getting one, while opportunity to breed is not so limited. what can urban planning do about this? and this is not a rhetorical question either - I think there may very well be architectural and meta-architectural strategies to ameliorate social conditions - our own Douglas Cardinal has opinions on this I believe, as Moshe Safdie before him.

Martin Laplante wrote

The great boulevards of Paris were erected by the original urban planner Baron Haussmann, to allow military intervention in case of an uprising. You can put cannons on the traffic circles and get a clear shot anywhere. Since then urban planning has been used mostly to keep poor people out of sight and out of richer neighbourhoods. Architectural factors play a role - for instance residential buildings over 4 storeys breed alienation. But where you allow poor people to live affects their educational and job opportunities, and labels them for life. Segregation by income is immoral but also economically inefficient.

Rob Labossiere wrote

social interventions require no planning...
...just human decency and the power to apply it (not to say that those two things can actually go together)...

David Wilson wrote

http://www.gwynnedyer.net/articles/Gwynne%20Dyer%20article_%20%20Not%20the%20Paris%20Intifada.txt

kyza wrote

David Wilsoon
social experementjust human decency and the power to apply it (not to say that those two things can actually go together).

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