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| Detail of the Urban village concept |
Infrastructure Construction
Urban core: $175 million to create infrastructure for downtown including potable water, electrical, streets, sewers. All the streets would need to be broken. These includes the cost of making potable water from polluted well water.
Urban corridor only: $27 million
Urban village: $3.7 million
Duany promised that very detailed accounting was created in conjunction with the plans for the Ministry of Finance. Those slides were too small for us to actually see for ourselves. Later in the presentation he stated his belief that he does not think even an American city can repair its infrastructure all at once like he has in the urban core plan.
He emphasized that the infrastructure plan would be expensive but can be done.
Duany paraphrase: You cannot reconstruct unless it is seismically sound. Seismic is expensive. This project requires the amortization by the middle class and above. The reconstruction of downtown must attract the middle-class and above, including the diaspora. The diaspora require security, parking, and a predictable environment in which to invest. Security, etc requires management. Management has been planned at the level of the urban village. Urban village has a secure parking lot in the middle of each block.
Duany described the strategy of the urban village concept as, "This is not a secession from a society, it is a smaller society."
This particular statement is a thinly veiled criticism of the middle class and upper classes: They have seceded from the rest of society. Duany also said that there is a need to work collectively which is against the anarchist nature of Haitians and Haitian history.
On roundabouts: Haitian drivers could figure it out just fine. Americans are hopeless in this regard.
During hurricanes, the first floor of civic buildings need to be shelters for the public. Therefore, Duany designed civic buildings with parking on the ground level. This space would be opened to the public without damage. Also in an ideal world there would be public bathrooms and public health clinics available on this floor.
Duany openly questioned how the government is going to reserve sites for the expansion of schools, concert halls, and museums. These would opposite the Presidential Palace to emphasize the importance for the advancement of education and culture.
Commercial
Duany described the Haitian people, "One of the nice things about Haitians is that they are capitalists."
Weirdest moment: During the transportation network presentation the presenter claimed all the audience needs to know about roads could be learned by watching the Kevin Costner movie, “Build It and They Will Come.” I think he meant "Field of Dreams," but the reference was still patronizing and silly.
Fast Company's take: Fast Company and I are the only ones who have published our thoughts on this meeting to date. They didn't write anything at all about the transportation plan, so they probably tuned out the same time I did!
UPDATE 02/17/11: Duany reputedly believes in a cross-section of a population to be involved in charettes. I guess he didn't mean Port-au-Prince.
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| The presentation by Andres Duany |
UPDATE 02/17/11: Duany reputedly believes in a cross-section of a population to be involved in charettes. I guess he didn't mean Port-au-Prince.
The Haitians are all capitalists??? Duany doesn't understand what capitalism is, despite the fact that the word suggests it. To be a capitalist, you have to be capitalist. Haitians are not capitalists. They are poor. And poor people are not capitalists.
ReplyDeleteThe plan, as reported, seems to be in two parts. The first is: fix the infrastructure. Duh. The second is, turn over the centre of the city to the rich and upper middle class, in what sounds essentially like gated communities.
The financing plans assume that public infrastructure needs to be amortised by the upper and middle classes, and therefore need to be amortised by them. He doesn't seem to have heard of "taxes" for "pubic good", the way that well-run countries ensure that everyone has access to the same level of public amenities. Duany's background is a service-provider to private sector developers, and as such he is biased in this regard. He is, in fact, turning the centre of the capital into a private developer's dreamland: yuppy gated communities for the rich. This is not how the capital of Haiti needs to operate. It has a function, and its function is not to be Seaside or Constitution (upper middle class fantasy villages, designed by Duany.)
Bad economics. Anti-poor planning.
ERRATA: First para should read: "The Haitians are all capitalists??? Duany doesn't understand what capitalism is, despite the fact that the word suggests it. To be a capitalist, you have to have capital. Haitians are do not have capital. They are poor."
ReplyDeleteI wished his design would better incorporate mitigation techniques to deal with the real hazards of the area. His previous designs for coastal cities in the US completely ignored this - I am glad to see he briefly mentions it now even if technically it is a little weak. I agree you have to look at the whole picture - housing, infrastructure and economics.
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