Imagining the City - Urbanity, City Life, Urban (public) Space, Colin Alexander de Freitas

Hello. 

At daybreak the city swells.
People leave home, half awake, through folding bus doors
routine takes over.

Not that the city is predictable;
my city is changing with each turn that I make.
But as the day progresses, it is always most alive;
there is the most movement
In the simplest sense, I think that to move is to be alive.

Then, as darkness falls, the lights flicker and fade as chaos is resumed.
During the daytime, we are a part of the city
However, at night, we own the city.

Last night (Sunday) just before 11pm I set out by a bicycle with 16 speeds. Not deliberately to explore, more to deplete my batteries so that I might be able to sleep some. The gale-force weekend had covered Tamaki Drive with sand and debris which flicked onto my behind and made its way into the nozzle of my drink. The cars approaching me quickly from behind in the dark were not the only hazard, but I had to swerve to avoid rockfall from the cliffs above, and seaweed, at least 100 meters further inland than seaweed is ever supposed to lay.

The Hertzian spaces of the city can be switched on and off. And I would say that to some extent the city has had the ability to switch itself on and off since the introduction of the electric light bulb. But at night my city does not stop glowing. In fact, in last night's rain the lights of the port were as bright as I have ever seen them; reflecting and intensifying from every single drop.

Isn't it funny
How the city can seem at it's most alive at night; when everyone is away, at home.
As I rounded the corner at Kelly Tarltons the final stretch, the light was almost blinding.

In some cases it is surely true; that the city truly wakes at night, as people flock to its bars and clubs in search of companionship. However, it seems that Auckland is still sleepy at night, especially on a Sunday.

But last night as I pedaled my aching legs home, the glow of those lights, the brightness due to rain that I don't think I have appreciated before reminded me of the freedom that is to move freely through my streets as everything else is still.

New post over here that in some ways resembles something that could have been posted here.
Just an attempt to break the dry spell of posts here.

I had no idea that Richard Sennett and Saskia Sassen (two authors that I am drawing quite heavily on for my work) are married to each other. I mean (can I use an internet term that I have never ever used before just to express my surprise), wtf!?

Is academia just a little incestuous?

There is something about bikes that just captivates me. I can't sit still at my desk without the thought of taking off for a spin around the block entering my head. I feel freedom on my bike. The ability to navigate effortlessly through lines of cars. To skip from sidewalk to road and back again. Obey both pedestrian crossings, and traffic signals. Romantic, I know - but true.

Living in a new house means that I get to discover new routes home. And just ride around for that matter. Which roads are potholed. Which are deadly steep without brakes. New lines. New traffic light signals to memorise.

Reading Format Magazine when I can across this interview with cyclist, artist, designer, Caleb Kozlowski. Just wanted to share two of his answers to an interview.

Format: You’ve worked in Los Angeles, Montreal, Seattle, and you currently reside in San Francisco. Why do you travel so much and how does it affect your work?

Caleb: I fundamentally believe that place is really important. Where you are influences every aspect of your life, whether you notice or not. And everywhere is really different. Not just physically, but in ways of thinking too. If you grow up in the suburbs, eating at chain restaurants and watching MTV, you can easily get a sense that everywhere is kinda the same. The Internet helps, but just because Google can’t find it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. You don’t realize until you get around a bit all the different perspectives that are out there, the things that make a person from Montreal, from Montreal or a person from San Francisco, from San Francisco. As you travel, a little bit sticks to you from every place you live. Being in a place, and I’m really talking cities here, means stuff is going on all around you all the time and you are exposed to things you don’t seek out. That’s the big difference between living in a big city and checking stuff out online. A huge part of my design process is assimilating things that I’ve been exposed too, that I was never looking for. I am not pure. I’ve learned to appreciate things that I hated. My perspective shifts all the time and really that’s my strength. I get a lot of inspiration from embracing and learning to appreciate new things.

And also:

Format: Please explain your introduction to urban cycling and fixed gear culture.
Caleb: Bikes are everywhere here in SF. You can’t walk a block without tripping over a bike, or a track bike for that matter. Years ago when if first arrived in SF I saw this kid bombing Haight street, no brakes, into a four way stop, passing traffic and blowing the intersection right between cars that were going through at the same time. It didn’t seem reckless at all, it was totally measured. I was hooked at that moment. I knew I had to learn to ride like that. It was just the coolest shit. I got a ticket for doing that very thing about a month ago. Bittersweet.

Riding fixed is much more than a just a single speed bike. I’ll skip the technical explanation, but there’s a shift in the way you think when you ride fixed and brakeless through traffic. You stop thinking about stopping, because in reality stopping isn’t your best option. Hesitation will fuck you up, so you gotta check that shit at the door. It becomes more of a flow, like being in a boat on a fast river. You don’t stop, you navigate around and through things. You find the hole in traffic and you go for it before it closes. You have to commit to every move. Its not about being bad ass, it’s about a pure connection between you, the bike and the road. It’s beautiful. Tricks are just gravy.

I don't really know how I would explain why I felt the urge to post these here. But you know when you read something and it just touches you. Somehow the words are able to physically move something inside your stomach/heart/throat/whatever.

Some get it from reading the Bible, hearing from God. Others, from reading letters from loved ones. I get it when I turn the opening pages of The Catcher in the Rye. And I got it when I read the above. The importance of place, and the beauty of bikes perfectly summed up in an interview.


Who wants to ride now!
(You can read the full Format Mag piece here)

A quick mid-ride washroom stop allowed me to encounter this wonderful view. Two great icons of modernity.

Our great beacon reaches to the clouds (with flashing lights) for over a decade now to mark the place where one can head to gamble away their fortune. Embraced under the umbrella like protective arches of global sameness.

or something like that.
I'm really not sure what I found uncomfortable about this image. But definitely something.

Anonymous [comment on the previous post] said...

Your grotesque level of presumption about the children of South Auckland is abhorrently racist. How can you judge their ‘uncomfortable situations at home’ from your white, educated, middle-class vantage point?

Monday, August 13, 2007 12:39:00 PM

My [mid]lunchtime response:
You are right. Perhaps that was my mistake to make such a general statement. I simply meant to draw on one specific example of a boy (who is, in actual fact, 'white') that I have befriended from spending time in town who actually does do exactly that, leave home (Otara) and spend weekends on the streets 'hustling' (where he actually makes some good $$$). I should have made this more explicit.

Of course I did not at all intend to be racist. Nor did I was it my intention to speak for all the children in South Auckland. I don't think I even mentioned any specific ethnicity whatsoever.

My intentions in the post were simply to highlight (yes, from my white, educated, middle-class vantage point of which I cannot ever break free from) the way in which I have observed Aotea Square as a place that is quite open to participation from many different social groups of varying economic/cultural status etc.

Is that cool? I don't think I've ever been so strongly accused of racism before :-)
Would you care to respond?

C. Alex de Freitas

[EDIT] Anonymous replies:

Anonymous said...
Indeed I would care to respond. There are a lot of negative stereotypes and connotations associated with South Auckland. I believe strongly that you are contributing to this. There are dysfunctional children from all spaces and places within the Auckland Region-not just South Auckland. However, rightly so, you are seeking redemption for your recent comment. For that, I thank you and bid you farewell but I would like to leave you with one piece of advice. DON'T GENERALISE, my friend.

and me finally:

Ok, so I've edited the original post and removed South Auckland from the text. Now instead of speaking of my real experiences it can be interpreted as being purely hypothetical. Hopefully this clears me of my abhorrently racist comments.anonymous might be a geographer, given the use of the terms 'space' and 'place' in the same sentance :-)Is there any chance of you (anonymous) revealing yourself?I didnt so much aim to seek redemption as I did point out the inflamatory nature of the comments that followed to my peers :-) I feel like a politian. I will definately have to watch my words more carefully. Haha, you so don't wanna go anywhere near my other blog if you can pick flaws in this writingAlex

Greetings Imagining the City.
Apologies for the absence. I should have been away busy with essays, but instead I have been busy riding my bike aimlessly around for fun. Which, yes, is a waste of time but perfectly sets me up for what I am about to say. I will try my best not to whine. But It may just end up seeming that way.

I love being out amongst my city. Frequently I will sit on the new and improved benches on Queen St, Pearl Milk Tea in hand, watching the goings on. I love nothing more that cruising through Aotea Square on my bike, that public place that is so often criticised for being a poor use of council land. Aotea Square for me is one of the most democratic public spaces in the city. Homeless people are asleep on the benches and Alcoholics and drug users hang out by the statue of the man shaking his fist:

(evidently it is Sir Dove Meyer-Robinson, a past Mayor of Auckland)

Where was I...oh yeah. Aotea Square houses the 'undesirables' giving them a place to socialise as well as being a place where the homeless are fed and helped out be various charitable organisations like the Salvation Army. At the same time, the Square has lately become home to other 'undesirable' people, like the emo kids, and the kids from [insert suburb here] who come to the city to be on the streets for the weekend to escape their uncomfortable situations at home. I often buy these guys a Burger King meal (if there is not a massive group of them, 'cause that gets expensive!).

In the past 10 years of my (arguably) grown up life, I have had the pleasure of watching our city change shape...seeing the influx of students from foreign lands begin to light up the streets at night. Seeing a street that was once deserted and closed for trading on Sundays become an almost 24 hour living organism - and I'm sure it will continue along this path.

I happened to be cycling down by one of our newer developments, the Britomart Precinct. Britomart has become one of my new favourite places to be. During the daytimes it has become a premier venue for Festivals (Malaysian, AK07 etc.) and goings on. Ample benches are around as well as fountains that come out of the ground. The volcanic cone looking skylights to the trains below also provide an interesting albeit impromptu piece of street furniture to relax on.

I always cycle here. But a recent evening trip down there to rest on the benches with a friend of mine was surprising. We were approached by a security guard who let us know that we were not wanted in the area on our bikes. We aren't allowed to cycle in the Britomart's public squares.

Now I was taken aback and was quick to point out that others were cycling through on their way to trains. Only one day before had I cycled through the square (as I quite regularly do) to catch a train to Papakura (another story). The security guard informed me that he had been called by SKY CITY as their security had seen me cycling on camera and wanted me out of the space).

This public space is lit up at night, and benches are provided on the edge of the relaxing water fountain that the City Council have allowed so that the square might "bristle with energy and people 24 hours a day".

I should point out that there was no one else around and by being there my friend and I were probably adding to the vibrancy of the area, creating a more safe and welcoming environment for others, rather than just having an empty square. We were pretty much sitting exactly as the people in the photo at the top, on the same rocks. Just without a chess board. that photo above was taken from the BlueWater Group's website. The private organisation that evidently own and operate the space.

This has been nothing more than a moan on my part. But I desperately see the need for public spaces that encourage people to use them. A vibrant city is one where people hang out outside, in doorways, promenades, squares and alleys. Safe places are also places with people in them. Britomart was until recently, one of my favourite places to just hang out and be proud of the spaces that our city has been providing. I guess I was just hopeful that it was possible for privately owned and operated spaces to be successful as public places. Perhaps not.

The viaduct basin area has already become the elite policed quasi-public district of the city. Then we have the Chancery and a host of other private utopias masquerading as a place for everybody.

I think we need to use the streets for the purpose they were originally designed for so long ago. As a meeting place, a place for communication, recreation and getting to where we want to go.
As for me, I'm gonna stick to hanging out on Queen Street. The new tiles and trees make for a slightly more pleaseant surrounding that before, and besides, they are nice and slippery for me to do skids on my bike.

Any place that will try to boot you out for just being you, is not worthy of visiting. I hope that the BlueWater group have massive financial loss in their redevelopment of the historical buildings in the area and the Council is forced to take back the area into Public ownership. Maybe then, if not totally, we will be a little more free to be who we want to be in public without being policed.
I know that even in 'public' public space we are increasingly being policed (See City of Quartz by Mike Davis). But I still believe that there is hope. And I think that the hope is in numbers. Just like the Bikes for Ghana bike ride my Brother organized on the weekend. Groups of people, cyclists or otherwise, i think, are less intimidating (and more difficult to displace) than one or two boys with cool bikes in hoodies that you think will tag on you precious rocks if you don't quickly get them out.
Congratulations on spending billions on renovating a public space for the enjoyment of all, just to not let anybody in.

The moral of the story however, is that we have to reclaim the street people. No, not by critical mass, or by protest. Rather, by just being out there and using what we have. Of course the streets will become a problem and not worth council attention if we never use them. We drive home to our fortified suburban castle, close the electric garage without ever having stepped foot on the street outside to watch our TV'v about places where peopleare actually making use of their surroundings.

Just like raising the awareness of cycling by being out there on our bikes and owning our little share of the road, we have to get out there and enjoy the streets and parks that we have. Transform the spaces that we have into places that we want to be. That way we don't have to be waiting for anyone to do anything at all. Make the most of what you have.
Interesting journal article HERE by an architect on how britomart is a failure and the existing parks and open spaces that we have like Western Springs Park and Grey Lynn park can be transformed into places of elsewhereness, fantasy and fun through festivals like Pasifika etc.

I saw a poster, actually millions of them plastered all around uni for a forum on transport in Auckland which will highlight the need for new trains we purchase to be electric powered rather than diesel. This is all good, but the girl who is organising that seminar just happens to be a girl who purchased a scooter from me not so long ago. Now bear with me.

It just got me thinking about scooters and what we actually use them for. This is coming from me, a fanatic who has hardly shaken the obsession. It just seems to me that scooters in Auckland ( I can only speak for Auckland) are typically only used for trips that could be easily done by bike or public transport.

I mean, the scooter is still using fossil fuels. And two stroke engines are actually far more polluting than four stroke engines of a similar size. Because most scooters are 50cc and only being used in the central city, it poses the question to me, whether they are actually a good thing at all.

For example. People who scooter probably do so out of convenience - the parking is free. Probably as an alternative to driving. Not sure where I'm going here, but cycling or catching the bus seems to me a better alternative than scootering.

After all, a scooter is just a smaller version of a car anyways. Something that we will probably have to learn to live (a lot less) without in the not too distant future.

• Cars are not climate friendly, whether they use 50% gasoline, or 100%. Remember it takes much more energy in the first place to manufacture hundreds of battery cells and the additional componentry required for an electric/hybrid car

However with that said, I do acknowledge that we do need to shift our reliance from fossil fuels rather quickly - and Hybrid cars are definitely a step in the right direction. They will help with environmental awareness, and probably act as a catalyst for further change in peoples' lifestlyes.

The news item however, mentioned that parking will still cost Hybrid users, they will just receive a discounted rate! Well at least the council could consider making parking for Hybrids free - couldn't they? In a number of US cities, free parking schemes have either been tried and successful, or are still in place [1][2].

• Discounted parking for hybrid car users clearly favours a wealthy minority. Not many people that I know would be able to shell out $30,000 or more to get a Hybrid, even though most of them are probably just as concerned, if not more, about the environment. They may as well give better parking spaces to those of us in 'compact' less than 1.3litre cars rahter than the Holden's and Ford explorers (V8's) which im sure guzzle like three times as muchof the world's finite resources.

It was a nice though on the council's part though. Perhaps an incentive like discounted, free, or even just slightly improved and reliable public transport would be an idea that might benefit or be adopted by a larger number of people. I just really can't imagine that a couple more hybrid cars on Auckland's roads will help solve any problem at all. In fact, I'll bet that more hybrid cars simply adds the congestion, thus, the stress and general health of all Aucklanders.