Just Finished Reading: Ground Control – Fear and Happiness in the Twenty-First Century City by Anna Minton (FP: 2009)

For most of the history of the modern city it has been public space owned and managed by the public using public money for the public good. But as we edge ever deeper into the 21st century something is happening – something hardly talked about, something hidden behind management speak, legal jargon and political sleight of hand: the privatisation of public space. Little by little, from shopping centres to whole neighbourhoods property developers are being sold parts of the city on 99 year leases (or longer) and are taking control of security – with CCTV and private guards – waste disposal and cleaning as well as monitoring who enters their space and what they do there. For safety and security – to say nothing of ‘enhancing the shopping experience’ the companies move on the homeless, licence street entertainers, prevent to distribution of political or other ‘questionable’ literature and break up any gathering of youths or other less than desirables. In other words they suck the life out of public spaces then try to import life-like activities (controlled of course) to bring it back.

This, argues the author, is what has been happening across the country – beginning in London naturally – at an increased pace since the 1980’s with only a short pause from the credit crunch after the 2008 banking crisis. Alongside the growing number of gated communities (not just for the rich apparently) and the wholesale destruction of perfectly fine older properties in areas of low land value this has been a silent and largely unremarked programme started by the Tories and carried on by New Labour in the names of increased property values – an end in itself apparently – and, more nebulous and much more insidious – supposed safety and security typified by the ‘secure by design’ building ideology. Imported almost wholesale and quite often word for word from American projects in the 80’s such safety procedures have seemingly increased the fear of crime and, by extension, the levels of anxiety in the very people they were supposed to make feel secure. There are no limits, it appears, to the need for increased security. No matter who deep you dig the moats or how high you build the walls they are not deep enough or high enough to guarantee a good night’s sleep.

Personally I haven’t noticed (or to be honest given a thought to) the private nature of shopping malls and such. I have been to at least one of the mega-malls mentioned here – The Metro Centre, the second largest shopping centre in the UK with 370 shops over 190,000m2, but honestly hadn’t noticed either the camera’s nor the private security. Likewise I don’t think I’ve ever seen a gated community nor, as far as I know, am unaware of anyone that lives in one. I have seen wholesale destruction of old housing though and the misery that causes especially to the elderly and close-knit larger families. The book is full of examples of this sort of urbanisation but is most definitely not a piece of mere academic study. Sprinkled with interviews with those living in or with this new style of living as well with planners, designers, architects and even a few politicians willing to talk about it this book is a fascinating insight into a largely behind the scenes activity driven by an ideology alien to British and European ideas of the city and city life. Eye-opening if rather depressing and a must read for anyone interested in modern urban planning.

That was the last of my City books (for now). Coming soon – How our technology affects who we are.