Gender in Public Space

Having a healthy balance of access to private and public space is also important to consider if one wants a built environment to achieve and support social justice. Historically men, have dominated public spaces but there are areas where processes like gender mainstreaming are attempting to make experiencing public space more a more equitable experience. Gender mainstreaming entails making rules and regulations with gender equality in mind. In Foran’s piece the example of Vienna, Austria is offered as an example of this mainstreaming at work. This idea has permeated the city all the way down to the city planning to ensure equality for everyone.There are several tactics that can be employed in this process that allow everyone to be equal in terms of access, safety, and comfort level in public space. Adding additional lighting for traveling when it’s dark, widening sidewalks to make it easier to avoid the street, and adding ramps for strollers make moving through public space safer for women and children.

This is a process that is more prevalent in Europe than in the United States. Just as in Foran's example in Austria, this link gives specific examples of processes in that are employed in Sweden with the purpose of making the space equally as useful to women as it is for men. The video allows the viewer to really see this concept in action through the animations. The focus in the film lies in the services that are provided to the public. Equity of services are just as important as equity in the physical built environment.

http://youtu.be/udSjBbGwJEg

Increase in Urban Green Space

 I stumbled upon this article earlier today and thought it tied in directly to what we talked about in class and what was on our final exam. The article is about this urban green space advocacy group in Australia whose name is 202020 Vision. The group believes that Australian cities need more plants and trees. Whether its for looks, or to help with our health and productivity. Nevertheless, trees and plants are overlooked when plans are drawn up. Their goal is increase urban green space in Australia by a significant amount of 20 % in 2020.

I don't know if there are groups like this in the United States because I haven't checked, but there should be. An organization like this could be extremely beneficial to the people in urban cities and environments. Like 202020 visions, i wouldn't just place parks all over the place, just little patches of green spaces here and there that allow people to get a little escape. A place to allow them to express themselves in a way that they simply cannot in the city (even though the green space is in the city). I like the ideas of adding more trees and plants to the urban environment and I think it would positively affect the environment and those people who live there. It would result in new ways that people view and react to the urban environment, but that is just my opinion.


Link to article: http://www.afr.com/p/growing_seeds_of_urban_change_team_ID1j9de5BpzcxMp9BWanDN

Open Space in the Palestinian Refugee Camps

During our class, we discussed the New York Times’ article about a Palestinian refugee camp and how Palestinian refugees are reshaping their camps. I have read the article several times in order to understand what the journalist intended to introduce. I agree that certain spaces in the Palestinian refugee camps are “gendered spaces,” where these spaces are dominated by men.

However, what I found was that the journalist unsuccessfully introduced the concept of “open space” in the Palestinian refugee camps. The political and socio-cultural context that contributed to make Palestinian refugee camps as “open space” and at the same time “closed and suffocated spaces” remained unexplained by the journalist. What I argue here is that there is no “public space” and no “private space” in the Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank. My argument is based on the historical background of establishing Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syrian and Lebanon. The refugee camps were established after the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) in 1948, by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). The UNRWA rented small pieces of lands in different spaces and established the refugee camps. Therefore, the land where the refugee camps are now located is privately owned by other people, mainly they are from villages next to the refugee camps, or by residents of cities in the Palestinian territories, in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. This forms that houses of Palestinian refugees in their refugee camps are not their own, and the whole refugee camps are not public. Similarly, refugee camps cannot be private spaces. Meanwhile, the owners of these lands do not intervene in regulating the camps or collecting the rents from Palestinian refugees, since the UNRWA is the main responsible for Palestinian refugees.

Ironically, these pieces of lands were rented for 99 years, since there was no political solution in the horizon after the War of 1948. Refugee camps began as tents, where each family received a tent from the UNRWA. Hence, one may argue that the tents formed a private space for families to live in, and to meet their essential needs. These tents were “open” and could have never been a “private” or privately owned property. Bathrooms were also “public,” because the sewage systems, electricity, and water were provided to the camps in the 1970s. In the 1960s, the tents were replaced by small rooms by the UNRWA, and each family received a room instead of the tents. After the increase in the number of population, people expanded the rooms, and added more floors, and since the space of the camp is limited with one or two square kilometer, the expansion was vertical, not horizontal. For example, the Balata Refugee Camp is one of the largest refugee camp in population and the smallest in space in the West Bank. Recent statistics revealed that more than 30,000 people are living on an area of one square kilometer. Therefore, the space can never be a “private.” People cannot have their own privacy within one square kilometer, with more than 30,000 people sharing the same space/place. That is what I introduce it as “open” space, but “suffocated space” at the same time, because there is no sunshine, no light, no fresh air, electricity cut, water shortage, and overcrowded spaces/places.

Therefore, providing this historical background about the architecture of the camp, and why the refugee camps look like this today were absent from the New York Times’ article. It is not about Palestinian refugees wanted to shape their refugee camps to show their sufferings and to express the refugee camps as “temporary spaces.” It is the space that was given to Palestinian refugees to temporarily stay in it, shaped the refugee camps. In addition, the Israeli state by refusing to implement the UN Resolution 194 about the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homelands, the hegemonic status-quo, and other factors played a major in prolonging the suffering of Palestinian refugees.

A commentary of black "geography of fear"

This article is a few months old but given the recent verdict in the Ferguson, MO and the general current discourse surrounding police brutality (toward African Americans), I feel like this commentary is still very applicable. Over the course of this class, we talked about spaces of fear as perceived by men and women. Though touched upon in some readings, the notion of highly racialized fear was not discussed with as much depth. This article notes, “Black men know that at any moment, they can be framed, arrested, hurt, or killed.” Particularly, this author’s black boyfriend worked as a taxi driver and was berated with many insults by customers: “Don't you speak English, motherf----r?", "I'll beat the shit out of you, n-----r", "Go back to your country, we don't want you here.” This made the man fear going into public, particularly the “mainstream” setting of the city (i.e. areas that project white culture) or areas with heavy police presence. In this sense, fear may not merely relate to specific physical violence or sexual aggression as our readings have discussed, but to general violence in “discourse.”

Furthermore, this author talks about how this working knowledge of black male vulnerability can, by extension, induce fear in females. We mustn't assume that separate genders hold priorities that solely reflect their personal markers. People have friends, partners, family who often bridge different gaps of race, gender, and creed and thusly may still hold ideologies related to these separate typologies in high order. In this way, the violence against “Michael Brown, a young Black man, is also violence against women.” Women must be passive, complicit subjects in negotiating the reality that is black vulnerability. As the author says, “We resist the urge to call or text them every few hours to see if they are okay, and blow up their phones and Facebook inbox when they don't respond. We study every line in their face so that we'll never forget them. We go to bed with the dread that they are never safe.” Such a perspective shows that fear may not always be concentrated to “personal” violence. Rather, the connections we build with other companions may in fact posit their vulnerabilities as our quasi-vulnerabilities.

References:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eternity-e-martis/what-the-michael-brown-ca_b_5748760.html

The Wynwood Walls

I found a very interesting project that ties into the graffiti documentary that we watched last Thursday in class. The Wynwood Walls project is a graffiti and street art initiative intended to revamp the warehouse district of Wynwood in Miami, Florida. Since its inception in 2009, over 50 street artists from 16 countries have rendered their work on warehouse buildings located in Wynwood. The project is part of the Miami Art Basel that showcases the world’s premier modern and contemporary works each year. The artwork created in Wynwood has been featured in the New York Times, BBC News, Vanity Fair, and Forbes.

It is interesting to note that the project developed in a neighborhood that was in drastic need of revitalization. Before the Wynwood Walls project was initiated, the area was nothing more than abandoned warehouses left to decay. Would this project have had the same results if the area were home to many thriving businesses?

Here is a link to the website:

http://thewynwoodwalls.com/

Organic agriculture and resistance

Since our last reading revolved around resistance, I found an interesting article that can help us understand how people employ tactics in order to survive and resist in their daily lives.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/12/palestine-gaza-reconstruction--siege-new-technology.html#

There is this engineer in Gaza who used "organic architecture" to help rebuild houses that have been destroyed in the war over the summer.  Due to the shortages of building materials, the architect had to employ what is available around him in order to help reconstructed Gaza, thus, in a way, he implicitly resisted the hegemonic system of the Israeli borders that control what and how much of these construction materials will go through. After all the "need is the mother of invention". After reading Hamdan-Saliba and Fenster's articles, as well as Young's article, I started realizing that some of the actions we take in our daily lives is in fact resistance, even though we are unaware of it. As long as there is this defiance to a hegemonic culture, the act or tactic can be considered resistance. So I strongly believe that this architect is resisting. This is just an idea that I am putting out there...
Also I think the concept of organic agriculture is probably aimed at social spatial and environmental justice. I don't know much about it, but I can see it being employed to help societies living in spaces use them in an efficient way, without having to relocate people, or destroying the environment.

Geographies of Resistance

                It’s so hard to envision a world in which you don’t have choice but to carry out your existence in a space of exclusion. Many people groups around the world live their day to day lives living in exclusionary spaces. In Lorraine Young’s piece about street children in Uganda she explores how homeless children who attempt to exist in the public spaces of urban areas are often marginalized and dismissed in spaces that serve the “public” that they should be a part of. To resist this type pf discrimination these children are forced to live in fringe areas that most people deem dangerous. These places really aren’t fit for living but there is little choice in the matter.

                This type discrimination/resistance doesn’t only exist in destitute areas and nations. Here in the United States there are people groups who find themselves marginalized to the point where they’re excluded from public spaces. How our public space is organized is not always inclusive of everyone. Trans/gender fluid individuals often have a difficult time being comfortable being themselves in a public space. In the link below Adrian Adams explains how public space can exclude many people in the transgender community. Even small things like bathroom signs and pronoun usage can create exclusion in public space.

Video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5iFVKhL_tU

St. Louis and the geography of fear

This article examines a very obvious situation that has been taking place for the past four months. The approach taken is needed and due to the publication date of the article the stance can be looked upon differently. The geography of fear is clearly cut through mass media's polarizing stances. However, the other obvious matter of fact is that police brutality is common in America; and is not particularly race related. We have all heard of cases in the suburbs involving police brutality, even in white dominated exurbs. Although the circumstances may be different, similar cases of civilian interactions with law enforcement come off as undetermined; but there is always some sort of causation.
The article examines both sides of the story and makes a few rash statements that can be assessed as fear of others. White fear of minorities is obvious in cases like Ferguson, but the fact that it is exaggerated throughout the media brings in the opinions of millions that are not completely justified. The trial for Darren Wilson's indiction is a decision based off an autopsy and the approach he took in the midst of a situation.
The fear that is seen throughout the St. Louis area is warranted through mass media and the attention that it is continually given. At one point in the article, a protester (white or black, it shouldn't matter) examined most white people's fear of the situation and quotes a white civilian from the area. "You might get killed or looted," opposing the thought of joining the protests. While the quote comes off as rash, this boils down to the attention that the situation was given and the unapproachable stigma that came along. One of my best friends studies at St. Louis University, when the upset protesters occupied their campus, he went and gave a listen to what was supposed to be a well-conducted discussion. All he could take from it was incoherent anger, and I know this is a second hand account but my friend truly wanted to hear something more than just a mass publicity stunt.
The approach that the black community took was assuming the innocence of Darren Wilson, while protesting angrily because they doubted his reason to shoot and kill a local man. If there was a well-voiced opinion in the mass of the situation that was willing to give any credit to the opposite possibility, then there would be something more to discuss.
For example, the young people who protest a possible unjust death have every right to, but when I walk past your protest on the night of Darren Wilson walking free, I expect to hear more than just mindless chants. I experienced a crowd of rowdy individuals next to the Civil War Memorial at the front of College Green yelling "Fuck this shit." You truly feel that is necessary to be voiced? I don't like to rant because there is something more behind the situation than just anger and that is the lack of a relationship between black and white. But whether you're black or white, approaching the situation just to be heard is no way to go about something if you are truly trying to gain something.
However, this shouldn't be a discussion based off inappropriate actions against. It is a sad reality that America lacks fundamental values of respect towards another race which ultimately undermines us completely. The understanding of racial fear is obvious but can never overcome due to the approaches we take. Yes, it is wrong that white people don't feel safe just because they are around a black community, but it is also wrong that the black community feels the need to terrorize an area as an attempt to get a point across.
Oppression of minorities remains a reality through many different devices, subconscious and conscious; but America is slowly coinciding with in itself as our population grows in diversity. Situations like Ferguson are set backs because they draw too much attention away from what else is going on in the world that should be more worrisome than an internal war that pulls masses of people apart from each other. To be a strong nation, whether we are well on our feet or not, we have to be for one another. It is always easier said than done, but a terrible display of functionality has been displayed for the past four months. The article gives both sides opinion and it is hard to not come off with blatant remarks regarding racism but the only reason why the article exists is because the issue is racial. There is no way to leave off this subject quietly because I have delved into an opinionated voice, but I do understand that this situation is like the ending of a bad argument, it will come back even worse the next time something else arrives.
Greater issues will affect our world and I hope we can trust one another when times get tough. Mistreatment of others will always be commonplace, no race included. White's are always going to be at the forefront as the face of mistreatment because of western expansion and the hardships that came with our history as a nation/hemisphere. There is a way to get past this and that is the realization that we all come from different circumstances, but these circumstances do not pre-destine our life. There is always going to be the argument between genetics and circumstance but we cannot dwell on an issue pertaining to a dead end debate. The genetic argument does not display "racial" genes and I want to make that clear, just as circumstance does not include a racial sense. There are daft individuals throughout the world and we cannot continually go back to the issue of race every time a certain person is affected by another certain person. It clearly defines the attitudes of the masses and it frustrates because there is no end in sight. All we can do is hope for a greater issue that brings us together, as common people, people that you have no need to hesitate towards, whether it's a minor thing or a life-death situation.

Article here: http://qz.com/284383/i-am-darren-wilson-st-louis-and-the-geography-of-fear/

Homes, homeless and public spaces

The past few weeks we talked about public spaces, creating them, using them and their importance among other interesting concepts. Though, most importantly we talked about how they have become increasingly privatized and brought under control. Mitchel’s article “The end of public space” showed us that public space is a space for exclusion, especially when it comes to the homeless as they basically are marginalized, hidden or sent away to wherever we cannot see them. Mitchel particularly affirms that people who have the right to be in public space are in their majority people with power.

For that matter, I was glad that Taylor brought us this issue of homeless in conjunction with public space by explaining what occurs in Hawaii. I believe I have something similar to share with two Ted Talks I came across recently. I really thought they are worth sharing because they involve a few concepts we read at the beginning of the semester and recent concepts altogether, such as creating homes and giving them identity, the need for public spaces and issues of homelessness.

I highly recommend starting with Iwan Baan Ted Talk. Is absolutely interesting!

Source: http://www.ted.com/talks/iwan_baan_ingenious_homes_in_unexpected_places

A few things we can observe in this Ted Talk is how public spaces are absolutely important and how a determined group of people, community, society will create their own when these aren’t available. These same communities or groups of people will ensure that they are maintained as spaces that are public, for everyone to use. It also evidences issues of adaptation and how human beings adapt to their circumstances. I thought this idea was interesting when it comes to the idea of homeless and homelessness and why neither of these is seen as a problem for people that live the transient lifestyle. They have adapted to their lifestyle and what for many of us might seem as a deviant behavior, for them is ordinary. Finally, in this Ted Talk, we can see the concept of identity and normality and how it plays a significant role in the “home making” or in the aspirations of people within a specific society. This can be specifically seen in the example of Caracas and the Tower of David.

On the other hand, the second Ted Talk is in contrast to the first. I am sure many of you will recognize Amanda Burden; she collaborated in building the High Line in New York. I believe we have seen her already in a video presented in class. I really like her presentation because of how she emphasized the importance of public spaces. Something she says reminded me of Mitchel’s article again. Mitchel proposes that spaces should be representations of space and spaces for representation at the same time. In this Ted Talk Amanda Burden affirms “Public spaces should not be taken for granted. Public spaces always need vigilant champions, not only to claim them at the outset for public use, but to design them for people that use them, and then, to maintain them to ensure that they are for everyone, that they are not violated, invaded, abandoned or ignored”.

Source:http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_burden_how_public_spaces_make_cities_work
She reinforces the idea that public spaces need some control. She does not specify what type of control exactly, but she sustains that they need to be maintained. I believe she refers to a passive control more than an active, but throughout her Ted Talk we can definitely recognize how these spaces are creating behaviors and citizens and how important public spaces are. She says public spaces have power, not because of who is using them, but because of how they make citizens feel within a city.

Fear of Crime Application

I discovered an interesting mobile app that relates to the in-class activity we did on geographies of fear. The Fear of Crime Application was designed to capture areas where fear of being victimized is experienced. The app is devised as a survey that collects data by sending pings at different times and locations throughout the day. The user is asked to rank his/her fear of being victimized at the specific location they are at when the ping is received. Users are also able to report fear of victimization without being prompted by a ping. For example, if a user happens to be travelling through an area where he/she feels unsafe, the user is able to record the incident through the mobile app.

Employing a survey based collection method on a mobile device allows GPS and time stamp data to be collection simultaneously with the fear of being victimized. This method makes it easy for researches to compare fear of victimization across time and space. Because the app also asks participants to respond to a few demographic questions upon download, researchers are able to compare fear of victimization with age and gender as well.  

Here is a link to the website:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/jdibrief/analysis/Mapping-fear-of-crime-dynamically-on-everyday-transport

"Homelessness" in Hawaii

http://www.civilbeat.com/topics/hawaii-homelessness/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/04/hawaii-one-way-flights-homeless_n_6101274.html
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/10/13/homeless-in-hawaiinewlegislation.html
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/11/03/3587685/hawaii-homeless-120-tickets/


Although we have finished our discussion of home and homelessness, this current event seems to tie that into our discussion of public space very well. In order to save time I will summarize the situation so you don't have to read all the articles I linked to above:

As you may know, Hawaii's economy is heavily based on tourism and people coming to see the beautiful scenery the islands have to offer. What you might not know is that Hawaii has a large homeless population. On Oahu there are more than 4,700 homeless and at least 2,200 on neighboring islands and most advocates believe that this number is under-reported. Although the homeless population is very large, a good portion of these people are homeless by choice.

In September the city of Honolulu introduced three bills that made it a misdemeanor to sit or lie on sidewalks in the tourist district of Waikiki, it also outlawed public urination/defecation island-wide. Many believe this is unconstitutional due to the "law of the splintered paddle" that was introduced to the Hawaii state constitution in 1797 stating "Let every elderly person, woman and child lie by the roadside in safety."

Hawaii's Institute for Human Services (IHS) has developed a $1.3 million plan to fight homelessness, part of this plan includes outreach to connect homeless individuals with shelter, employment and medical services but the plan also includes flying at least 120 homeless people back to the continental U.S.

Those who rely on the tourism based economy feel strongly about removing the homeless from the area, a member of the local business community says “We want to make sure that homeless people understand we’re not going to let them take over Waikiki’s public spaces.” Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell says, "It's time to declare a war on homelessness, we cannot let homelessness ruin our economy and take over our city."

This article was presented by my classmates in an Intercultural Communications class and it was discussed in the context of capitalism. After our discussions of home and homelessness and reading Mitchell's article I had a different perspective than many of my classmates. They were shocked by Hawaii's reaction and one individual said something like this would never/had never happened in America. However, I see striking similarities between this and the situation in Skid Row, Los Angeles (which my classmates did not know about). Some of them thought the proposed plan was a good idea. They cited that the homeless people need to be contributing to society if they are capable of working, they presumably would like a roof over their head, and that Hawaii's economy would not suffer.

I was personally upset by the plan that IHS proposed as well as the sit-lie law which makes it impossible to be homeless without breaking the law. Incarcerating homeless people, moving them away from tourist destinations, and giving them one-way tickets to the continental U.S. does not solve the problem. Furthermore, those homeless people who have chosen to live transient lifestyles certainly don't view their existence as a "problem" that needs fixing.

Individuals are being forced out of Honolulu's "public space" and being told that they don't have a right to be there while the visiting tourists are given priority. The public space is being sanitized of homeless people in order to maintain the ideal Hawaii that tourists envision. The Hawaii people envision does not consist of homeless people occupying the streets so the local governments will take every action necessary to keep the idea of Hawaii alive. It's unfortunate that when many people go on vacation they want to "experience another culture" and see what it's like, yet they remain in touristy areas where people perform in order to create their culture for visitors. Nobody wants to visit a Hawaii and spend money when the harsh reality is in their face and it isn't what they imagined.

This news solidified the end of public space for certain in my mind. The beaches and streets of Honolulu are in no way public space open to any and everyone. The local government, business owners and tourists have made it very clear who is supposed to be in the space and what type of actions and occupation are allowed in the space. Everyone is working to maintain the space in the way that tourists expect it to be; in a way that benefits privileged, wealthy tourists regardless of the fact that others are excluded from the public space. 

Hunter Hills manager suggests Flemington officials are anti-Latino; mayor calls it 'wild allegation'

This is an on-going problem that persists throughout my town. While my township and borough are considered to be a part of the vast New York Metro, the area I call home is not as diverse as the many other communities closer to NYC or Philadelphia. Due to the lack of diversity, the issue of white superiority and the discrimination of housing and space around town is clearly visible. The North side of my town is home to most of the diverse communities, along with a few other pockets. These apartment complexes are downtrodden and usually filled over capacity, which has brought on anger from the proprietors of the real estate, who are the ones that claim that the Borough and surrounding Township of Raritan are "anti-latino." This article is intriguing because it deals with an arrogant white community who suspects anyone "of different means or backgrounds" to be of danger; stemming back to a 2009 article in our local paper, "The Hunterdon County Democrat," of blatant discrimination and bashing of our latino community and their citizenship. Under The Fair Housing Act, the proprietors must lease an apartment without any discrimination of the person or persons. Yet the Mayor, who is actually not well-liked throughout the borough for various reasons, is demanding to deem the area "in need of redevelopment." In her mind, she believes redevelopment is to rid of what she feels is undesirable. However, with the newly implemented COAH or the New Jersey Council Of Affordable Housing, affordable housing is coming into different areas of my community, bringing on more obvious misunderstanding and discrimination. People believe that affordable housing will increase an already rising minority community. What they do not understand is that just because someone applies for affordable housing, does not mean they are dangerous, nor minority. The constant discrimination is a growing trend that persist as it is a growing trend across the nation, primarily in the largest metropolis of the United States

Article here:  http://www.nj.com/hunterdon-county-democrat/index.ssf/2014/03/hunter_hills_manager_suggests.html
As well as: http://www.nj.gov/dca/services/lps/hss/

Urban Night-Life Space: Masculinity & Heteronormativity Landscape

The topics that we discussed in class in this last two weeks (Urban structure & design, Using public space) remind me an article that I read few weeks ago about pleasure and leisure in the nocturnal city (Hubbard, 2012). I think it is interesting to share it here and maybe some of us have read this article as well. Hubbard (2012) stresses the importance of the city center as the principal focus of urban night-life in which is associated with bright lights, so-called the nocturnal city. The production of light represents a “comprehensive claim to power” (p. 121), which means the ownership and control of a city by the authorities/governments and entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs are keen to take advantage to provide attractions to people, by build and open hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars, night clubs, theaters, cinemas, and so on. Therefore, Hubbard (2012) examines the illumination of the city goes conjointly with the invention of enormous number of new leisure opportunities and spaces that eventually providing attractions of night-life. Paris, for instance, well-known as La Ville Lumière or the City of Light, provides number of technological and cultural innovations (e.g. payement café, cinema, revue bar) which are tied into rituals of night-walking, windows shopping, and consumption. Or in Berlin and New York where electric lightings implicate in the making of a variety new leisure spaces and produced an ‘aesthetic of astonishment’ where the pedestrians literally intoxicated and controlled of seeing and being seen.

Through the provision of lights in the streets and leisure spaces in the city, people are keen to have a night-walking, that associated with the emergence of a new urban ‘type’ – the flâneur. The flâneur literally means ‘walk around.’ It has a real historical context where wealthy member of the bourgeois class wandered in the city in search of distraction. Despite of the history and literal meaning of the flâneur, feminist scholars point out that the flâneur refers to a “subjective gaze that was profoundly male” (Hubbard, 2012, p. 124). In addition, Wolff (1985) states that “the non-existence of the flâneuse (feminine form of flâneur in French), as another urban type, symbolizes women’s restricted participation in public spaces as well as the gender bias in some of the classical literature on modern cities” (Hubbard, 2012, p. 125). Therefore, it depicts that men have freedom to wander the city at night and the flâneur becomes a manifestation of male privilege. In addition, the idea that the modern city provides a sexual opportunities for men where they could pursue different pleasures in different leisure spaces show that the night-life spaces perform a strong masculinity and are constituted for heterosexual people. Meah et al. (2008) argue that "spaces of evening leisure, where young women and men were allowed to mix freely, were particularly important for naturalizing the ideologies, identities, and practices through which people entered heterosexual relationship" (Hubbard, 2012, p. 130). The city at night itself could thus take on the appearance of a marriage market. There are lots of cinemas, malls, art centers, restaurants, bars, cafes, night clubs that are designed and play role as spaces in order to catch the eye of potential date, dating, and the performance of coupledom. Certainly, urban night-life spaces are constituted for the masculine landscape where men and their power govern the spaces and apply the heteronormativity.

In the modern cities, the visibility of women in night-life spaces has increased. An increasing number of young, single, and waged women begin to experience rhythms of time and labour which have much in common with working men, and lead them to expect similar access to spaces of leisure. Yet, the search of leisure do not lead them to the traditional haunts of working men – pubs and clubs – but rather an emergent range of commercialized recreational – dance halls, theaters, cinemas, tea shops, department stores and restaurants – which appear to offer more respectable pleasure. Even though the increasing number of women’s engagement in night-life spaces indicates the emancipation of women to be in public life at night, women are still disadvantaged and do not have their freedom. Hubbard (2012) argues that the anxiety about the presence of women within the expressive commercial cultures of night-life given the persistence of the cult of domesticity and the promotion of chastity and decorum as feminine traits. This anxiety affirms the idea that women do not belong to the night-life city and remains a persistent myth that even make women to be more controlled by masculine roles and place constraints on women’s participation in the night-time city. In addition, the myth makes women feel anxiety and fear that lead women to be extra careful when working or walking back home at night, women are even advised to dress properly to avoid unwanted attention from men and to prevent sexual harassment and violence. It is even worse where there is lack of lights. Women could have a feeling of vulnerability because they need to limit their access to and control of spaces at night-time, i.e. women feel unsafe walking after dark, they should change the routes taken or search for accompany to walk with, walking in group, carrying a personal attack alarm, avoiding interactions with strangers, take taxi rather than on foot, and know how to do self-defense. Women need to modify their habits or behaviors, even the way of dressing in order to avoid troubles with men. In this regard, it is highly important to adopt gender mainstreaming in urban planning. Women-Work-City project in Vienna, Austria as explained by Foran (2013) is a great example how the urban planners design the city to make life easier and safer for women.

References

Foran, C. (2013, September 16). How to design a city for women. The Atlantic Cities.

Hubbard, P. (2012). On the town: Pleasure and leisure in the nocturnal city. In Cities and sexualities (pp. 119-147). New York: Routledge.

Stephen Colbert on Homelessness and Public Space

This is mainly a follow up to Maria’s post on the restrictions of the homeless in Fort Lauderdale. Below is a video from the Colbert Report on Comedy Central where he addresses the issue. Just watching this clip is very interesting in comparison to our readings. Stephen Colbert brings up a lot of the issues that came out of Mitchell’s article “The End of Public Space?: People’s Park, Definitions of the Public, and Democracy” (1995). In one part of the video Colbert brings up the issue of the public/private divide that Mitchell discusses. To paraphrase, Colbert says that the homeless should enjoy their meals in the privacy of wherever they live. This speaks to what Mitchell discusses in that homeless people make the private public. Without their own private space, they are forced into the public and this is unacceptable to the dominant group in power.  The clip goes on to show parts on news reports. One report that is show discusses how the mayor of Fort Lauderdale is “looking out for everyone” but then specifies this by saying taxpayers and tourists. This is defining the public as a specific acceptable group of people just as Mitchell describes. The mayor is again in the video, this time perpetuating stereotypes of the homeless as dirty and a danger to public health. Because of this, I agree with what Maria said in that the law may be short lived. To criminalize what many see as a kind act is ridiculous and this type of discrimination will only lead to more lawsuits against Fort Lauderdale.