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< BACK Concrete and Clay Reworking Nature in New York City Matthew Gandy Interview with the AuthorOf all the great cities out there, why did you choose New York City? What made it stand out?I first visited New York in the spring of 1990. I was immediately transfixed by the magical quality of the city. It was clear to me that the city had, during the twentieth century, come to symbolize modernity itself as the archetypal modern metropolis with its unique combination of nature, modernity and urban design. The city is an intellectual key capable of unlocking wider questions and themes concerning the development of cities and successive legacies of urban planning. My extended stay at Columbia University in 1995 was the first real opportunity to carry out substantial research for the book. The seven years spent writing the book has served to challenge my own preconceptions about cities and urban planning. What lessons do you hope city planners can take from your study? I see the following lessons for city planners:
How about ordinary citizens? Citizens need confidence in their role and democratic right to participate in the shaping of urban space. Urban life needs to celebrate and nurture the public realm. The best aspects of urban design represent a manifestation of democratic urbanism. The declining role of technical elites has opened up the possibilities for a more engaged and involved citizenry in urban policy making. But this may be undermined by political apathy and public cynicism towards governmental institutions. Looking back, should things have been done differently in New York City? Historically, ethnic minorities have been under-represented in city government. Political and economic elites have consistently held far too much power in relation to ordinary citizens. Toxic facilities and land uses have been consistently concentrated in marginal or minority-dominated areas of the city. A number of major infrastructure projects, such as the Cross Bronx Expressway, are now widely thought to have been destructive to viable neighborhoods. Regional rail and port infrastructure have been neglected with deleterious consequences for the viability of the region as a manufacturing center with decent wages for blue collar workers. There’s been no obvious alternative to the giant Fresh Kills landfill after the legislative success of neighboring municipalities in preventing waste exports from the city. There exists a current danger of corporate, non-democratic takeover of water supply, waste disposal, and other environmental services. The privatization dynamic must be watched very carefully. Post September 11, how do you see the urban nature of New York City changing, if at all? The city has faced immense challenges in the past: fire, disease, riots, economic calamity. New York City will survive the trauma of September 11th. The environmental impact of September 11th may involve the following:
But it seems that New York City is actually less jingoistic than middle America with evidence of peace campaigns and calls for military restraint. Perhaps the invincible sense of the physical city is now open to question; the vulnerability of urban space has been emphasized. Some people have suggested re-building, while others favor turning the site into a park. What are your thoughts on the future of the World Trade Center site? I would favor a memorial park reflecting the full social and cultural diversity of the city: a defiant gesture against ethnic and religious bigotry. I fear a capital-led development will be imposed which owes more to real estate speculation than any real attempt to engage with the needs and concerns of the whole city. About Matthew Gandy Born in North London in 1965, Matthew Gandy earned his B.A. in Geography from Cambridge University in 1988. He went on to earn his PhD from the London School of Economics in 1992. Gandy’s first academic appointment was at the University of Sussex, where he taught from 1992 to 1997. Since then, he has been a lecturer in the Department of Geography at University College in London. In 1995, Gandy was a visiting scholar in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. This scholarship was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, based in the United Kingdom. Another visiting scholar position followed in 2002 in the Department of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Gandy’s writings on cultural, environmental and urban issues have been published widely in a number of international journals, including Antipode, Ecumene, and Society and Space. His research interests range from the history of urban design and public health to the cultural depiction of nature and landscape in art and cinema. Gandy has just begun a three-year project that will involve research into the cultural history of water and urban landscape in Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris, and Lagos, Nigeria. |
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