Reimagining Union Station

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2014/09/12/reimagining-union-station-2/

Above is a link to an article I found really fascinating. It delves into a currently discussed plan to redesign and improve Washington DC’s union station. It specifically focuses on improving the commuters experience rather than the retail experience which dominates the station now. This retail focus makes it less convenient for the traveler and more attractive for tourists and shoppers, hence creating a stark inequality in comparison to other stations such as NYC’s grand central, which has an effective balance of both. It includes several diagrams that depict the plans for renovation making the article highly interactive while truly outlining the improvements the plan could offer. This actually is an issue that directly affects me, as I am a student in DC and utilize the amtrak that runs through Union Station to return home on holidays and breaks, which is perhaps why I found it so interesting. I think it also hits on some issues however that interest most of the class in regards to expanding the commuter base, opening up the city and its outer areas to more workers and industry, and making it a much more convenient means and “space” of public transport with a high level of focus on the experience and convenience it provides to the common public. It is a bit long, but I found it to be a really interesting read and something we could perhaps watch develop in the next few months as it is so current, however, any true work on this will come in the next five to ten years due to the expense and size of the renovation plan itself.

Seeking Spatial Justice, by M. Chellet

John Rawls

Week 2 Presentation

How would we build a Just city if we were given a chance to start from scratch… (even though Marx says it is “too late” to do so). Let’s follow three steps.

1. Define Justice

• John Rawl’s theory of « Justice as fairness » seems to be the most appropriate one for spatial purposes because it is the most universal and abstract theory and therefore, the most adaptable to a spatial prospective (even though it has been criticized for its lack of spatiality and historicity).
• This theory is based on 2 main principles :
• A fair repartition of the advantages and burdens of social cooperation.
• The maximin principle : every inequality must maximize the prospects of the least fortunate.

2. Apply it to space

• Nowadays, cities are thought mainly in terms of efficiency (quick transportation, efficient waste disposal…).
• In such conception the most efficient city reaches a state of “Pareto optimality”. It can be defined as the state where nothing can change without damaging the well-being of at least one member of the society. This can imply extremely important levels of inequalities. Moreover, nothing guarantees that the optimal well-being levels in the city will be intrinsically just…
• Here, Rawls may be very helpful. Rawls’ main idea is that a fair society has to make Justice (especially the maximin principle) prior to efficiency. Though a certain level of inequality will remain, it will be lower and « Just » if it corresponds to the maximin criteria.
• Such prospective is known as “territorial Justice”. David Harvey defines it as « a form of spatial organization which maximizes the prospects of the least fortunate region. ».

3. A proposition, the « Distributive center »

• To modelize the theoretical situation in which the construction of an Urban environment starts from scratch, we have to refer to the Rawlsian “veil of ignorance”. The partners placed in the position to choose a model of Urban development have general knowledge about cities but they ignore the position they will occupy in the city. Thus everyone has an interest in satisfying the maximin principle.
• Let’s consider as a basis the Center/Periphery dichotomy. Even though it seems very traditional it can foster a renewed conception of spatial Justice.
• In contemporary cities, the relation between the Center and the Periphery is conceived in an “Efficient model”. The center is a “predator”, it uses mercilessly space and considers the Periphery as a tool to produce wealth for its own. All the flows (capital, wealth, population) converge towards the center until it collapses by lack of resources. This is Lefebvre’s main explanation for economic crisis. In fact, according to him « Capitalism has survived by occupying space».
• A renewed prospective of the Center/Periphery dichotomy implies the conception of a “Just Model” where the center is “Distributive”. In this model inequalities between the center and the periphery persist but the flows (capital, wealth, population) go both ways. Thus satisfying the maximin principle.

Bibliography:

• BRET Bernard, « Interpréter les inégalités socio-spatiales à la lumière de la Théorie de la Justice de John Rawls », Annales de géographie, 2009/1 n° 665-666, p. 16-34.
• SOJA Edward, « Seeking Spatial Justice », University of Minnesota Press, 2010, p75-95
• RAWLS John, « A theory of Justice », Belknap Press, 1999, Part 1 « Theory ».
• HAMPTON Jean, « Political Philosophy », WestView Press, 1997, Chapter 4 « Distributive Justice »

Squatters move out of Venezuela’s ‘Tower of David’ super slum in Caracas

Thousands of squatters have started moving out of an abandoned skyscraper in Venezuela, dubbed the world’s tallest shanty-town.

Soldiers in Caracas have started moving out the more than 1,150 families living in the 45-storey ‘Tower of David’, which was taken over by squatters in the 1990s.

Originally intended to be a bank centre but left unfinished in 1994, the vast concrete skeleton was viewed by many Venezuelans as a focus for crime and symbol of property “invasions”. Police occasionally raided it, hunting kidnappers.

The squatters said the tower was a safe refuge from dangerous slums and something of a model community.

They built carefully divided apartments and established shops and services inside, bricking up holes to keep children safe.

The tower fascinated foreigners. An exhibition about it won a prize at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale, and it even showed up as a backdrop to an episode of US TV drama Homeland, as the place where on-the-run terrorist suspect Nicholas Brody was captured.

Mr Maduro said it was an error to let people live so long in such a precarious structure, where some people died falling off ledges. The state is studying various options for the tower.

“Some are proposing its demolition, others are proposing turning it into an economic centre, some are proposing building homes there,” Mr Maduro told reporters.

“We’re going to open a debate … If we demolish it, it’s to build something new for the local community.”

Mr Maduro’s minister for the transformation of Caracas, Ernesto Villegas, said he leaned towards demolition of the building because it was a monument to a “bourgeois” past before the 1999-2013 rule of socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

In a second day of frenetic activity at the tower, residents hauled down couches, beds and other belongings, and soldiers helped them load trucks heading to their new homes.

The squatters said they were leaving voluntarily after advance meetings and guarantees of new apartments.

Local media have speculated the tower could be sold to Chinese investors and turned into a bank centre.

There was no reference to such a plan, however, during this week’s visit to Caracas by Chinese president Xi Jinping.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-24/venezuela-caracas-super-slum-tower-of-david/5620814