Urbanized
Gary Hustwit
Swiss Dots/Plexifilm
I lived in Seattle for 21 years and I watched a city transform from a small city feel with affordable housing, distinct neighborhoods, artists communities to a corporate metropolis. I also lived in a smaller city, Mount Vernon, Washington, and I saw the scars left behind when farmlands were turned into shopping malls and mega stores (mainly Burlington). I have witnessed city planners ignore poverty, the local economy (independent businesses) in favor of corporate interests that only offer minimum wage jobs while creating traffic jams. I have also witnessed small towns revamp themselves into tourist-friendly destinations and create zoning laws and regulations to keep corporate interests outside of its boundaries (Coupeville and La Conner in Washington State).
After all of my experiences watching cities grow and not always in the healthiest ways, I became interested in city planners and urban redevelopment. And so I was pleased to find Gary Hustwit's documentary Urbanized at my public library. As the narrators of the documentary suggests, city planning involves city planners, architects, engineers, activists, politicians, private citizens and developers who either work against each other or work together. And we see this idea demonstrated with the various segments featured in the documentary. We also learn about the Modernist Movement and how that affected urban development, population migration from rural areas to cities (over 50% in recent decades), and the mobility of private vehicles (cars) and how that has played a detrimental impact on cities (highways cutting through neighborhoods and increased vehicle traffic).
Hustwit reveals both the downside and upside of city dwelling from slums in South American cities, South Africa and India to private citizens transforming into civic leaders such as one man in economic decimated Detroit starting community gardens in his neighborhood so that his neighbors don't have to choose between buying food or medicine. Another neighborhood activist in New Orleans hung stickers on windows of Hurricane Katrina damaged buildings (Ninth Ward) for people in her community to leave comments and interact with each other. She suggests that we have more contact with the world than our next door neighbors.
In Stuttgart, Germany two thirds of the city's inhabitants protested against Stuttgart Project 21 an extremely destructive project to bring in high speed trains to the ancient city, while ripping down old growth trees from a well-loved city park, demolishing a historic train station and giving a corporate face lift to the city. Since the people protesting didn't get involved in the city planning process soon enough (such as 5 years prior when the deal was already solidified), the project went through against the citizen's wishes. And I warn you that this footage of the film is painful to watch.
On the other hand, we also see the revamping of a section of Cape Town, South Africa that lowered the crime rate by 40% and made the area liveable, safe, and walkable, while allowing the locals to open businesses for the locals. We see an old rail line transformed into a city park that spans three New York City neighborhoods, and we see the mayor of Bogota, Enrique Penacosa create a pedestrian and bicycle-friendly city by demoting the status of cars and putting people first. "Again, this is democracy in action."
And we don't want to leave out the most bicycle-friendly city in the world, Copenhagen out of the picture either. While I don't know the name of the interviewee for this segment in the documentary (no subtitle of his name), he reveals the layout of the city streets which sandwich the bike lane in between the sidewalk and parked cars, rather than parked cars and car traffic so that bicyclists feel safer. Copenhagen city government had been promoting bicycles for 30 to 40 years in the past 10 years, 37% of the citizens commute to work by bicycle.
I could go on about the topics in documentary, but I would rather you watch it. And better yet, I would like to see an increase in neighbors getting together with creative solutions for their communities and get involved with city planning. After all, you wouldn't let strangers come into your house and rearrange your furniture or change your lifestyle so protect your community too, by getting involved and letting others know what you value.
Movie Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHWwxBEfikw