Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
slum areas are also being implemented in Rio de Janeiro where the first stage in
rehabilitation has been to send in tactical police squads to root out the local gangs,
to essentially pacify areas that were controlled by the drug cartels that degraded the
life of residents. Once this was achieved, regular policing was followed by the ad-
dition of many social services. These examples show how far more urban centres
in middle income and less developed countries could apply similar initiatives to
improve the quality of urban life for their poorest residents.
3.5.3
Promoting Diversity for Just Cities
Fainstein's third category of policies to create more justice in the city is that of
Diversity. She notes that policies designed to create a more just redistribution in
this component in the name of fairness are often more difficult to defend, a problem
that is exacerbated by the fact that there are two main senses in which diversity
is normally used in the context of urban planning. One relates to land uses, the
other meaning applies to different social groups, whether based on class, ethnicity,
interests or culture. Although most people will agree that social diversity adds to
the variety of life in cities, by adding vibrancy, new experiences and ways of doing
things, there is often incompatibility between the different social groups or even
users of land uses in cities which can lead to tension. Fainstein described six types
of policies that illustrate how greater fairness can be achieved in the name of diver-
sity. Again the ideas are re-organized and extended from her original discussion to
clarify the issues involved.
3531
Mixed Land Uses
In the past 20 years the promotion of mixed land uses in cities has been encour-
aged, especially by smart growth ideas, as a general planning principle, in order
to get away from the single use functionality that dominates most western cities
under planning regulations developed since the early 1900s. A century ago there
was a logical and pro-health reason for these regulations, given the noxious, pol-
luting nature of many industries, the noise and lack of space in commercial areas,
and the desire to create peaceful residential areas. Therefore, the obvious solution
was to separate such incompatible and unhealthy uses into distinct areas. Most now
believe this land use segregation has gone too far, creating sprawling residential-
only and income-band suburbs. It has led to the loss of the excitement and stimula-
tion of street life in urban areas, especially in many post World War II suburbs and
the 'dead' downtowns of many office and commercial centres at night, the type of
situation so roundly condemned by Jane Jacobs (1961). Yet one must accept that
many people—especially those with young families—still prefer the peace, space
and greenery of exclusively residential areas, unlike the high density, diversified
inner city areas full of different uses producing the street life so favoured by Jacobs.
