There is a line in "Crazy Stone": "The city is the mother, and we live in her womb." ”
Since the first city in human history, the Catalan Mound, appeared on the Anatolian plateau, the mainstream of human civilization has gradually shifted from nomadism to agriculture in the nourishment of river valleys. The Mesopotamian civilization as we know it gave birth to two famous city-states, Sumerian and Uruk.
However, it was not until the 19th century, with the rise of the Industrial Revolution and the colonial system, that the concept of the city was widely used as a "mass human gathering place".
After the February Revolution in France, Baron Haussmann, under the instruction of Napoleon III, carried out urban renovation of Paris at that time, which was full of sewage and disorder, and only then did it have the boulevards, underground works and park greening that were later imitated in European and American urban planning. In the process, slums were removed, homeless people were housed, and the working class was pushed out of the city, which is the gentrification of communities.
Who is rejecting us?
In fact, the lives of middle-class urban residents, including factories, crematoriums, and waste treatment plants, require these "unseemly" existences, and the modern city has become a hotbed of "Not In My Back Yard" (NIMBY):
Expanding into a bigger home? Yes, but don't occupy my garden;
Building taller apartments? Yes, but don't obscure my view;
Settling in a larger population? Yes, but don't let them into my house.
Millennials flock to cities, only to be trapped in a besieged city with high rents and low incomes. The "Yes In My Back Yard" movement has sparked. With declining fertility rates and increasing urban populations, it is no longer possible for baby boomers to replicate the lawns, gardens, and bungalows that were born in the midst of economic crisis.
The new population, which is calling for denser housing, is constantly being hit by old residents across the United States. "Reopening the Gates of the City" revolves around three cities in the United States, depicting the emergence, development and twists and turns of "can be in my backyard".
Reopening the City Gates: How Millennials Won Their Dream Homes
Author: Max Hollerland
Publisher: China Science and Technology Press
San Francisco
The first city is San Francisco.
Since the Spaniards set foot in the New World, gold panning, shipping, finance, technology ...... San Francisco, with its uninterrupted wave of opportunity since its founding, has attracted generations of young careerists.
But land is limited, and after baby boomers have lost most of their homes, millennials are left to crouch at cold feasts in search of leftovers. Even so, the bursting of the bubble narrowed the economic pie and San Francisco could no longer accommodate more diners, so it closed its doors to young people for the first time.
Boulder
Some people believe that plants and greenery are the blood vessels and nerves of the city, and parks are the lungs of the city, without which the city would become a gray hell.
But for another group of people, these green, useless things have brutally occupied the bedrooms and living rooms that should have belonged to them, leaving them with nowhere to go.
The second city is Boulder, Colorado. Contrary to global urbanization, Boulder, "caught between mountains and reality," did not welcome new residents from the start. If millennials born in large cities are accustomed to steel forests, the inhabitants of Boulder, blessed with natural resources, cannot tolerate the shadow of their blue skies. Here, the alien population was harshly rejected.
Austin
Anyone who has learned about the history of American cities will be familiar with "Prutti-Igger".
Built in St. Louis after World War II, this residential area symbolized a vision of people of different ethnicities living under one roof. At that time, apartheid had been abolished, but the barriers in the hearts of the inhabitants were difficult to break, so the bold New Deal gave birth to the "White Flight" phenomenon.
Historical contradictions have penetrated into the bone marrow, and there are still endless disputes. The third city is Austin, Texas. In this bizarre melting pot city, residents of different races and origins are never able to compromise with each other – who does the city belong to? Who has the right to speak for the city?
Who are we missing?
Sartre once wrote in his masterpiece "Disgusting": "I am between two cities, one city does not know me at all, and the other city no longer knows me." ”
The colonial writer Eduardo Galeano also wrote: "[The city] fantastically displays before the poor the wealth of the poor, such as cars, houses, and machines as mighty as God and the Devil, but refuses to offer them a permanent job and a plausible shelter." ”
Cities, in the bursting of bubbles and economic recession, have entered the drowning.
We can't look to the city for the riches of the past, nor can we look to it for the future. A city is born of change, and we in it constitute its collective memory. However, even memories of the same city can be overshadowed by the unevenness of time and era.
Therefore, when we walk out of the CBD, we look around at the cold concrete gardens and glass jungles around us, trying to get a glimpse of the urban past that the previous generation has built and missed from the repeated refraction of sunlight.
END
Edit | Gottindor
Typography | Gu Lijia
Audit|Yang Pu