The City Problem

After working two diverging internships, I have a firm grasp on what I want to achieve. Being able to understand the issues is the start. The city problem.

‘The infrastructural problems of today are not todays leaders’ problem. They are a miscalculation of yesterday.’

Infrastructure is something you can see.

Roads, public transport, waste management.

Forgotten cogs that make the city function, only noticed when they’re out of kilter.

The population, usually, has little influence on the placement of infrastructure.

They have as much power as does anyone deciding what family they are born into.

In that respect, infrastructure follows the people.

Or does it?

London is an incredible example of shoving population into a small area.

Making space urbanised by nature of the masses that reside within the acreage.

There are some incredibly designed spaces in London which capture the imagination.

One is Canary Wharf. The New York likeness is uncanny.

It’s a great place to feel part of progress.

Moving West, you have Boxpark Shoreditch.

A two-story mixed-use space which encompasses born restaurants and shopping.

They have added one in Croydon with one in Wembley opening soon.

Further West, you have Camden Town. It’s an expression of social values and is an example of mixed-use space developed from years of establishment.

A lot of people don’t like Camden, I think it hits you with the European essence of urban space. Its holistic design is perfect, the individualised bits perhaps not.

Next is Southbank. A place where the river meets human interaction. Commercialised and socially liberal. It’s an example of public-private partnerships working in sync.

I could go on but I think you get my point.

London city provides excellence. It shows off the uniqueness of design while in-keeping with heritage.

It has an incredibly poignant problem.

I’ve been fascinated by those who believe that the present can be changed in a matter of moments. Revisionism (the act of trying to rewrite the past) is equally as obscene.

If you have any aspirations of change, it must only be for decades into the future.

Nothing happens overnight. Especially now with the state of the world population.

I think planning for 30 years into the future, at least, provides leverage to take educated punts at the necessities.

The short-termism of people and their demands for policies, when it comes to infrastructure, confounds me.

Let’s roll back the year to 1988.

Britain is experiencing the midst of deindustrialisation and privatisation.

London is closing its shipping docks and the East End starts massive renovation.

The workers of the East End are displaced. Displaced to South East London. They can’t afford the North, nor the West. And the closest was the South East. Although many already lived in this area, more moved.

Conspiracy theorists might say that it’s the reason there is no infrastructure in the South East compared to the rest of London.

I would strongly disagree.

If you look at the politics of the time, there were certainly defined inequalities but I do truly believe that if there was any concern to build more tunnels between North and South, it wouldn’t been too late.

The Blackwall Tunnel (the bane of my existence) came being in many years before. Which doesn’t explain why there’s no infrastructure to support masses of population nowadays.

I believe that, even if anyone wanted to, they would have to be building the tunnels and bridges during the 1990s to have any chance of keeping up to demand now.

Where would the money come from? I don’t think it was plausible and the effects of deindustrialisation not appropriately managed.

There is no reason blaming Sadiq Khan for today’s transport problems, because a lot of the projects running through now are ones he inherited.

There’s no reason to blame Theresa May for traffic issues in London or anyone else in the country.

I think the effects of what happen in the 1980s were incredibly unprecedented.

As London continues to fill its borders, it will become clearer the room for development and the space for newcomers with little capital to spare.

The regions in the NE, S and far West may see more development.

It’s hard to say where will gain the most, but perhaps in 30 years time we’ll see significant development infrastructure for them.

Crossrail is an excellent addition, it may be arriving a year later but it’s really nothing on the scale.

London has an incredibly intricate network of infrastructure and that’s what fascinates me about cities like Fort Worth in the USA.

Huge expanses of space waiting to be filled.

These smaller population cities have a chance to impact the lives of 30 years into the future.

And that’s why I’d be so excited to join that community.

But we’ll see how possible that is.

The city problem