exchange 2: The Community's Role in complex urban development
Presenters: Sheela Patel (SPARC), India, and Andrea Titterington (Liverpool FC), UK
Place: AHI Conference Room, 38 Chauncy Street, Suite 600, Boston, MA 02111
Date: April 28, 2009
Printable flyer here.
The Community's Role in Complex Urban Redevelopment
Large-scale urban redevelopment of poorer areas often focuses on a trophy or destination project designed to change neighborhood economics and people’s perception of the area. These projects are usually anchored by a high-end use (condos, sports stadium, convention center) that attracts into the neighborhood those with capital and political influence, and whose visions differ from the residents'. Meanwhile, area residents are expected to provide input and then to endorse the resulting proposal. Therein lies the tension – how to incorporate the community into an effective process. How does conflict, compromise, or consensus emerge? Who should have a veto over the proposed redevelopment? Who should have a say? Where does economic improvement end and trophy building begin? In the world of real, how does redevelopment occur, and how should it occur? Two committed facilitators compared and contrasted their respective experiences with enthusiastic contributions by participants. |
Previous Exchanges: 1: Leading from the Pack: Peer-Group Networks as Change Agents 2: The Community's Role in Complex Urban Redevelopment 3: Lucky You: Dealing with Legacy Inventory 4: Local Autonomy vs. State Controls in Urban Planning |
Global South
Sheela Patel is the founding director of the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC), which she organized in Mumbai in 1984, and a co-founder of Slum Dwellers International (SDI), organized in 1996 and now encompassing national federations of savings cooperatives from 25 countries across the global south, from Argentina to Zimbabwe. In partnership with the National Slum Dwellers Federation, SPARC has developed over 35,000 homes in Mumbai alone. SDI emphasizes peer-to-peer learning through cross-national exchanges; bottom-up community involvement in slum upgrading and urban regeneration; and the core role of daily savings in creating and strengthening family and community networks.
Global North
Andrea Titterington, Regeneration Director, Liverpool Football Club (LFC), UK, is working in partnership with Liverpool City Council and the local community on the community-led Anfield Breckfield Regeneration Strategy, including the restoration of Stanley Park and the Isla Gladstone Conservatory, developed over an 8-0 year period based on LFC's new stadium as the catalyst. Over her nearly forty-year career in housing and regeneration in disadvantaged communities in the UK, US, Germany, and Tanzania, Andrea specializes in non-profit housing associations. She is an Academician of the Academy for Urbanism and a Design Review Panel Member of PlacesMatter!
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