Urbanized Page #7

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wasn't the normative position,

but more where people were walking,

which were those desire lines,

which cut their way

through the settlement.

Your communities, you empower them.

It's not imposition,

but it's engagement.

It's what we call

negotiated development.

It's not top down, it's bottom up.

The community said they wanted

safe pedestrian routes.

What makes spaces unsafe,

in Kayelitsha or anywhere at night,

is when there's not good lighting,

and where the surface isn't smooth

and easy to walk on.

You can easily trip

or someone can easily hide.

The idea is that you have really

good lighting in space.

At night, when they go on,

there's this cover

that makes the space safer.

Another idea of this linkage,

in this route,

was every 500 meters you would have

a lookout point, or lookout tower.

Part of the whole strategy plan

was to create a series

of these active boxes,

specifically along the pedestrian

walkway, to provide places of safety.

So if for instance you're walking along

that pedestrian route

and you feel unsafe for any reason,

you can always see

where the next active box is

and you know that you can go there

and be safe.

They're designed in such a way

to provide

an identity and also to provide

a vertical element that one could see

as one was walking along.

We've used red in this case so they're

very clearly visible during the day,

and then they're down lit at nighttime,

so they're light boxes at night.

They're occupied 24/7

so there's always a caretaker,

somebody always involved.

And they form little points where

you can also have economic activity

and just coming together of community.

What's also very lacking in the area is

a place for children to play,

so that was another aspect that we

worked in the urban design.

Because people are moving through it,

it's constantly observed,

so it's fairly safe.

With all this upgrading,

people now have pride in it

and they want to be part of it.

The murder rate has come down

by approximately 40%

since VPUU started in this area.

It's like a sun lighting

in a dark place.

And even though

there's still a lot of things

VPUU needs to put in Khayelitsha,

the stride that they've taken gives

the Khayelitsha people a hope of life.

Parents now are starting

to see that their kids

are safer now because there's a place

for them where they come and play.

The kids are playing

and the kids are safe.

When you have extreme conditions

like that,

the answer's not for government

to sort of float in

and to say what the solution is

and to, in a way,

impose it on people.

But that paradoxically even though

the needs are obvious,

it then becomes even more important

to systematically involve people

who live these realities

in trying to figure out what's

the most strategic way to respond.

In New Orleans, the devastation

was so widespread.

It was a tragic horror.

And the problem

with the Lower 9th Ward is,

there was no recovery plan.

It's like a bunch of architects

from the West Coast

coming in

and doing all these buildings.

To do something like that

without a plan,

without a landscape plan,

without a landscape architect,

is just against every

simple little rule.

It's something where architects

had a lot of fun,

at some great expense.

I mean I'm thrilled

that they're doing it,

because the notoriety

for the city has been fantastic,

and the movie star lives

like a block away from me.

I can't remember his name.

Whatever his name is.

- Brad Pitt?

- Brad Pitt!

My wife saw Brad Pitt this morning!

What Mr. Pitt and his foundation

is doing is wonderful,

and now, everyone wants to go

to the Lower 9th Ward.

And the minute they get there,

they go,

"Oh my gosh, what is this?"

I mean it looks like you're

in California somewhere,

by the beach, in Malibu.

That's what it looks like to me.

It looks like my best friend's

mother's beach house.

Just because the architects are

so divinely wonderful,

isn't going to make a place wonderful.

In New Orleans people talk

about planning fatigue.

After Katrina, lots of people went

to lots of community meetings

and put lots of stickers

on lots of maps.

Oftentimes they didn't really see any

noticeable change. So I thought, well,

what if local residents

had better tools

to shape the future businesses

in their neighborhood and beyond?

And so I thought, well there are

a lot of vacant storefronts,

where better to ask for civic input

than on the very space that

we are trying to improve.

I put grids of stickers on neglected

buildings around the city,

and a little sharpie pen,

for people who are walking by

to write what they wish was there.

They're made of vinyl,

so they're very sticky

but future business owners can remove

them without damaging property.

I've been blown away by

the range of responses.

It leads to bigger questions,

like what if residents

had better tools

to shape and develop

their neighborhoods.

We're the ones who know what business

we need, what things need fixing.

It's like a love child of urban

planning and street art.

There are so many things, living

in the same neighborhood,

that we could actually share

with each other

that would help us understand

what's going on.

You know, share local information.

Now it's kind of funny that it's easier

to reach out to the entire world,

than it is to reach out

to your neighborhood.

If you look at the messages

in public space,

you might think all we care about are

sexy beers and fruity shampoos

and the latest Hollywood movies, right?

And you think, does that really

reflect what's important to us?

I think we really need to consider

whether our public spaces

can be better designed

so they are not necessarily

going to the highest bidder,

instead they're reflecting what's

important to our neighborhoods

and to our personal well being.

Cities and their form will always

be the terrain of struggle

as different interests contest

for power, for position,

and influence

in the shaping of the city.

Democracy itself is always showing

the sort of strains

and stresses from time to time.

And in a way the city is an expression

of that, in many ways, in microcosm.

Some of those societies which are now

being torn by inner strife

and tensions,

and ambitions, and repressions.

It is the public spaces which

become the symbols.

There's an optimism about cities

in this century.

There's a sense we're creating

something that is truly global.

And we're creating networks of people,

not experts,

people of all strata of society

who are involved in the building

of something special.

I'm city obsessed.

I always been city obsessed,

grew up in New York,

so who would not be.

But this is the century

for city lovers.

This is where it happens.

The challenge in the future will be how

do you manage demography.

I think in the physical part

of the city

will not be able to determine

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