In-Between Infrastructure: Urban Connectivity in an Age of Vulnerability
A new publication, "In-Between Infrastructure: Urban Connectivity in an Age of Vulnerability", is out in the form of a free electronic book. The editors are from the urban studies department at York University. I would like to give a nod to University of Manitoba's head of City Planning, Richard Milgrom, whose chapter (Slow Growth versus the Sprawl Machine) starts on page 87. There Milgrom concisely explains the true state of the city. Milgrom writes, "one might be forgiven for thinking that Winnipeg is a rapidly growing city. But it is not, and it has not been for several decades".
Edit/ My question is how awareness can begin with the general populous that is only concerned with bare necessities. I brought up the "hierarchy of needs" when I had the opportunity to sit in at Tessa Vanderhart's Winnipeg Internet Pundits (I am far from a pundit) show about women blogging and the North End. It is evident there are tough critics and a great amount of Winnipeggers online concerned with these issues, but how do you reach out to those that are merely figuring out how to survive? Or if they're not concerned, why should they be? I think the answer lies in problems. When you have experienced a problem directly or know someone that has, there is all the more reason to seek a solution. Then we begin individually.
Thanks to @UrbanSherpa on twitter for the link. The book can be viewed or downloaded after the jump.
This book tells the story of Canada’s contemporary urbanization. Between the “glamour zones” of the “creative” inner (global) city economies on one end and the sprawling new regional economies on the other, we now have a new set of sociospatial arrangements that characterize the current period of urban expansion more than others. We call these in-between cities. These spaces now appear as the most dynamic and problematic forms of (sub)urbanization. They comprise the old post–World War II suburbs in particular but also the transitional zones between those suburbs and the exurban fringe. These remnant spaces of 20th century urbanization assemble a wild and often unexplainable mix of uses untypical for either the inner city or the classical suburb, they present landscapes of extreme spatial and social segregation. The book presents a focus on infrastructures in the in-between city and features original chapters by some of Canada’s leading urban thinkers as well as new voices in the debate.
If this pdf does not load, please visit the Praxis link above to download it.
