Metropolitics

Swept Away: Public Work and the Politics of Employment in New York City's Parks

John Krinsky & Maud Simonet — 2017-09-06T04:36:46Z

Upwards of 4,000 unionized civil-service workers once cleaned and maintained New York City's parks. Today about 1,800 such workers share this task with volunteers, employees of nonprofit organizations on contract with the city, community-service sentencees, and former welfare recipients doing temporary parks work in hopes of obtaining permanent positions. John Krinsky and Maud Simonet trace the evolving political economy of parks work in New York, demonstrating its impact on workers. They also

- From the Field / parks, civil service, green spaces, employment, work, New York, sexual harassment, trade unions, community service, volunteers, workfare

Between Green Paris and Immigrant Paris: The Politics of the Jardins d'Éole

Maura McGee — 2017-03-21T06:00:00Z

As leaders in global cities reimagine and rebuild their metropolises as green capitals of the future, who has the right to the new sustainable city? In her review of Andrew Newman's Landscape of Discontent: Urban Sustainability in Immigrant Paris, Maura McGee comments on the contradictions of ecological urbanism in northeast Paris.
Global discourse on urban sustainability has sparked a green turn in urban policy, planning, and design. Local officials deploy environmental policies not just to

- Reviews / France, parks, Paris, green spaces, environmental justice, urban sustainability, ecological urbanism, Jardins d'Éole, Cour du Maroc, Mal-Logés, Bertrand Delanoë

The participatory production of temporary public spaces in times of crisis

2015-05-08T04:54:00Z

Are participatory measures a viable solution when it comes to developing urban spaces in times of crisis? According to the right-of-centre city council that came to power in Barcelona in 2011, the answer is “yes”, as reflected in the roll-out of its “empty spaces plan”, or “Pla Buits”, whereby the city subsidises associations and other groups in exchange for developing municipally approved activities on vacant urban lots, until such time as the coffers are replenished – and better uses found for

- From the Field / participation, public space, Spain, green spaces, Barcelona, urban agriculture, crisis, vacant lots, wasteland

Flowers under the flagstones

Cédric Ansart & Emmanuel Boutefeu & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-10-08T04:50:00Z

Cédric Ansart and Emmanuel Boutefeu explore new ways of enhancing city streets through the small-scale greening of footpaths and façades, and show how “asphalt flowers” can help to transform the way we share these spaces and blur the lines between the public and private domains.
---- Series: Nature in the City In recent years, flowers and climbing plants have been burgeoning along the footpaths and façades of city streets. This “greening” of urban thoroughfares is the result of operations

- From the Field / public space, environment, nature, urban ecology, green spaces, Lyon, Rennes

The desirable city or the sustainable city: what is the role of green spaces?

Jean-François Guet & translated by Birdwell Institute — 2011-11-02T06:00:00Z

While green spaces are in great demand among city-dwellers, their presence alone is not enough to make the city desirable and to generate well-being. Jean-François Guet believes they should serve a dual function – practical and symbolic – and be accessible to all. At a time when sustainable cities are of prime importance, dealing with nature in towns everywhere and for all has become an urgent need and calls for better management of the parks and gardens that make up the urban public space.

- Debates / public space, nature, well-being, urban ecology, green spaces