In the past, we have both enjoyed leisurely boat rides along the coasts of our beautiful Caribbean homelands Nevis (Sybastain) and Dominica (Christal). However, we have never had the pleasure of being transported to and from work in the relaxed environment of an efficient water taxi. For this reason, Christal was most surprised when she took an adventurous ride from Port of Spain to San Fernando at 3:00pm 3:00 pm one afternoon. She realized that she may have been among very few passengers who saw this ride as an adventure. Many of the passengers, dressed in suits and ties were obviously part of Port of Spain's transient population leaving the city after a day of work.
In an earlier post we stated that the transient population of Port of Spain was approximately 350,000. The transient population of a city refers to the portion of it people that exists temporarily in the urban center for business, employment, consumption or simply in transition to somewhere else. A small percentage of the labour force in Port of Spain utilises the water taxis to travel between the city of San Fernando and the capital. These taxis transport approximately 1500 persons on a daily basis (Trinidad and Tobago Water Taxi 2015).
This formal establishment serves as an alternative to the public bus route or main road which are usually very congested at peak hours (Shah 2014). Leaving San Fernando as early at 5:30 am 5:30 amon mornings (Trinidad and Tobago Water Taxi 2015); the water taxis enable employees from the south of the island to be punctual for work in the capital.
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| After Disembarking the Water Taxi, Many Persons Walk to Library Corner, San Fernando to Catch Taxis to Other Southern Districts (Photo Taken By Khellon Hodge on Behalf of Christal Benjamin, February 20, 214.* |
In January 2014, transport minister, Stephen Cadiz stated that development plans were in place to expand the Port of Spain Water Taxi Service to Chaguanas and Point Fortin (Trinidad Express 2014). We believe that a significant percentage of the the capital's labour force reside in the urban centers of Chaguanas and Port of Spain. Moreover, an increase in the ease and availability of transportation may lead to an increase in the volume of persons who leave these areas to seek work in the city.
This week our focus on the water taxi allowed us to come to two important conclusions. Firstly, as was stated by our Geography lecturer Dr. Priya Kissoon, Port of Spain does not exist on "the head of a pin". Rather, it is an open system where there is a continuous inflow and outflow of energy, ideas and people. It is a city within a system of cities like San Fernando and Chaguanas.
Furthermore, rather than reflecting a concentric model of development as posited by Burgess (1925); Port of Spain has the characteristics of a post industrial city. Consistent with the Keno Capitalist framework of post-modernism;a great proportion of the labour force which drives the activities of the urban center is drawn from outside of the city (Dear and Flusty 1998).
References:
· Trinidad and Tobago Water Taxi. 2015.
“Sailing Schedule.” Accessed February 23, 2015. http://www.tntisland.com/watertaxis.html
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Shah, Raffique. 2014. “Traffic
Constipation.” Trinidad Express, November 8. Accessed February 23, 2015. http://www.trinidadexpress.com/commentaries/Traffic-constipation-282039331.html
·
Trinidadian Express. 2014. “Point Fortin,
Waterloo to Get Water Taxi.” Trinidad Express, January 31. Accessed February
23, 2015. http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Point-Fortin-Waterloo-to-get-water-taxi-terminals-243015281.html
·
Dear, M. and Flusty, S. 1998. “Association
of American Geographer: Post Modernism” Contact 1 (88): 50 – 72)
* Khellon Hodge has sole rights to the photo taken by him.
*Theo Jones has sole rights to the photo taken by him.
* Khellon Hodge has sole rights to the photo taken by him.
*Theo Jones has sole rights to the photo taken by him.
Nice post! Can you please tell us what "keno capitalism" is? Also, your readers may be more familiar with the concentric zone model by Burgess, rather than Sjoberg's ancient city model, so perhaps you can change your reference to Burgess?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, question and suggestion Human Geography. Keno Capitalism is a term used by Dear and Flusty (1998) to describe the post modern urban structure. In this model urbanisation is depicted as a seemingly random process where the development and non development of land parcels within the urban center appear to be disjointed and unrelated. For example, in the model a theme park and a street warfare area may be found on different land parcels, separated by an empty lot of land. There seems to be no relationship between these two land uses.This can be seen at this link:
ReplyDeletehttp://anniekoh.tumblr.com/post/78797637264/keno-capitalism-diagram-from-michael-dear-and
One major factor which influences such structure is the process of globalisation which is facilitated by the advancement in technology. The advent of the internet and other technologies have resulted in a state of disorganised capitalism where production can take place in almost any area as opposed to in specific areas as seen in traditional concentric models like that of Burgess (1925) . In this model there was a strategic,central (radial) node; the Central Business District in which and around which significant production took place and settlements developed. The Keno Capitalism model is quite different to such models.