Conclusion

Over the past ten weeks, I have highlighted the ardent issues within the urban spaces of Trinidad and Tobago. Issues in every aspect of urban space such as social, political, economic and environmental factors were highlighted in order to raise the awareness level of my Urban Geography (GEOG 2007) class colleagues and the wider world by extension. These issues comprised of homelessness, overcrowded streets, crime, pollution (air and land), marginalization, inadequate affordable houses, dilapidated buildings, lack of sustainable modes of transport and architecture of fear.

Some of the issues highlighted in my blog were also mentioned in some of my colleagues’ blog such as Urban Environment in T&T (http://urbanenvirtt.blogspot.com/) by Avion Harvey, Cultural Influences on the City of Port of Spain (http://the-power-of-culture-in-pos.blogspot.com/) by Danielle Richards and The Dark Side of Urbanization (http://negativeurbanisation.blogspot.com/) by Khadija Stewart. Urban Environment in T&T blog highlighted inequality as one of the main reasons for the perpetuation of high crime levels in Laventille, Port of Spain. This was indicated in my blog’s subtitled ‘Urban Crime.’ On the other hand, Cultural Influences on the City of Port of Spain blog commented on the prevalence of homeless people in Port of Spain, which I also highlighted in my first posted picture blog, subtitled ‘Homelessness.’ The Dark Side of Urbanization blog specifically discussed the issue of overcrowding in Charlotte Street, Port of Spain which was one of those burning issues mentioned in my blog post subtitled ‘Overcrowded Streets.’ It was a bit surprising that my colleagues also highlighted similar issues to my blog’s postings.  This showed that these are some of the main issues affecting urban spaces in Port of Spain and other urban areas throughout Trinidad and Tobago.

The experience of doing this blog has aided my understanding of some of the issues that plague cities or urban spaces such as in Port of Spain and Scarborough, Trinidad and Tobago respectively. It is my hope that the issues highlighted in this blog would encourage someone to become proactive in developing feasible solutions to address the urban issues in Trinidad and Tobago.

Photo 10 shows a typical display of architecture of fear in Woodford Square, Port of Spain.

Architecture of Fear

The photo above shows the barricade of a small garden in Woodford Square, Port of Spain that is enchained by spike chains. It could be suggested that this was purposely done to prevent socially displaced persons from siting or even reclining at the garden’s barricade. The scenery could be simply classed as a fortress landscape since the spike chains are there for the purpose of security, protection and exclusion. Fortress landscapes are becoming more common in the Capital of Trinidad and Tobago as a response to the increasing deviant behaviours in the urban area. It is said that architecture, planning and urban design have a tradition of designing urban landscapes for the purpose of controlling bodies of people and fostering particular modes of behaviour and urban living, either explicitly in the form of orders and instructions inserted into the urban landscape or more subtly through the design of elements of it (Hall and Barrett 2012, 209). Although these types of architectural designs are useful for protection they could also facilitate inequality through exclusion. Many people may view such landscapes as being exclusive and locals could retaliate by protesting or even being rebellious through vandalism.  

Methods of demonstrating exclusion in cities can be detrimental to urban social life. For instance, unity is likely to be hampered within such context and discrimination becomes predominant which may possibly affect the social development of the lower classes. According to Hall and Barrett (2012), the implications of such actions are potentially dangerous for equality and conviviality of urban life.

Exclusiveness caused by fortress landscapes in Port of Spain may be a difficult issue to digest for many people, particularly the poor, homeless, and others. However, it should be noted that such landscapes can serve a very important purpose in terms of protection and maintenance of property. Therefore, it should be ensured that people are being excluded from certain areas only for the basis of protection and maintenance of property and not because of one’s ethnicity, race, gender, religion, financial status and other personal socioeconomic reasons.  

References

Hall, Tim, and Heather Barrett. 2012. Urban Geography 4^th edition. London and New York: Routledge.

Photo 9 shows a man riding a bicycle in Charlotte Street, Port of Spain.

 The Lack of Sustainable Modes of Transport

The photo shows an example of a mode of transport (cycling) in Charlotte Street, Port of Spain which is seriously neglected in the Capital. Public transportation such as buses may have reduced car usage in the city but they are also a contributing factor to unsustainability in the city as well. Port of Spain has a high usage of automobiles transport as a dominant means of mobility. Automobiles such as car and buses require massive consumption of fuel in order to sustain their use. It has been mentioned that strategies to improve public transport provision have often resulted in people switching, not from car travel to public transport, but from other sustainable transport modes such as cycling (Hall and Barrett 2012, 294). On the other hand, there seems to be a lack of initiative to implement sustainable forms of transportation in Port of Spain such as cycling. The governing bodies of Port of Spain have placed very little emphasis on cycling as a solution to many of the city’s problems. Cycling is not only a solution to traffic congestion, but it can be very helpful to minimize fuel consumption, pollution and even improve one’s physical health.

However, for cycling to become a practical solution to the problems listed earlier, there needs to be proper implementation of cycling routes in the city. This could only be achieved through a collaborative effort among the urban political bodies. First of all, the local community needs to lobby for such an implementation in order to attract the attention of the state and even the private sector. The private sector has much to gain by lobbing for such a mode of transport since businesses have endured high costs due to traffic congestion (Dekoster and Schollaert 1999, 20). The local state should make it a mandate to introduce proper cycling systems in Port of Spain in order to alleviate some of the problems caused by automobile usage.

References

Dekoster, J., and U. Schollaert.1999. Cycling: The Way Ahead for Towns and Cities. “Benefits for Companies.” Accessed April 15, 2013. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/archives/cycling/cycling_en.pdf.

Hall, Tim, and Heather Barrett. 2012. Urban Geography 4^th edition. London and New York: Routledge.