#urban renewal
HACKING THE CITY: A NEW MODEL FOR URBAN RENEWAL
On a sunny morning in March, Marcus Westbury brandished his iPad as if it were a window into another world. The screen depicted the street we were standing on in downtown Newcastle, Australia, circa 2008. Decades of suburban flight, a devastating 1989 earthquake, and the implosion of the city’s steel mills had left the center a ghost town. More than a hundred empty storefronts lined the commercial strip. The neoclassical post office and the Victoria—Australia’s second-oldest theater—both sat vacant. The street could have doubled as a set for The Walking Dead.
Now the sidewalks were bustling. The windows of the David Jones department store, another recent casualty, were filled with sculptors, milliners, jewelers, and stonemasons publicly plying their trades. Families sipped flat whites and leisurely ate breakfast at outdoor cafés. Compared to the desolate scenes of just a few years ago, the transformation was startling, especially considering it all stemmed from a bit of legal sleight-of-hand.
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Portra400 | To Kwa Wan, on Neighbourhood | Jun 2019
I was told and fascinated by the idea that having auto repairing shops nearby is indeed a way to keep the neighbourhood safe. These keepers know each others well by sharing assets including technical knowledge, specialist resources and component parts. And by placing a vehicle that belongs to someone else at their shopfronts all the time, people are alerted to strangers and happenings in the surrounding that create perfect surveillance network among them throughout the street and community.
- WWH
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Absolutely stunning building along Pollokshaw Road, just tucked along an eerily quiet road. I mean, the whole area is not pleasant even walking during the daytime. The local govt can only hope to regenerate the neighborhood via new developments.
