A Look at the Urban: The Perspectives of Young Geographers

    

Figure 1: Showing the port of Port of Spain.(Photo taken by Sybastian Manners, April 9, 2015)

     The "city is a place where the diffused rays of many separate beams of life fall into focus" (Mumford 1938, 3). It is the role of urban the urban geographer to critically observe and examine the city. He or she, with analytical lens, can elucidate the 'beams of life' which have given rise to the people, processes, patterns and structures which can be found in a given city. This is exactly what was done by the budding geographers of the course, GEOG 2016: An Intro to Urban Geography. Moreover, in this post we seek to critically examine the thematic and ideological relationship between our blog and the blogs of three of our colleagues. These blogs are “Urban Landscape” Trinidad by Kisha Bisson and Rachel Cardogan which can be viewed at http://urbanlandscapetrinidad.blogspot.com/p/group.html, “Urban Buildings in Trinidad” by T'marah Forbes and Ariel Mahabirsingh which could be viewed at http://buildingsoftrinidad.blogspot.com/ and “Urban Life” by Shivanie Mahase and Amy Toyer.

Figure 2: Showing Independence Square North.(Photo taken by Sybastian Manners, April 9, 2015)

     The purpose of the Urban Landscape Trinidad blog was to examine the spaces, form and function of the city of San Fernando, the second largest city in Trinidad. We found this blog to be very insightful as these two authors presented information on the rich history of San Fernando. One post which we particularly enjoyed reading was the post entitled, "Transportation in San Fernando" (http://urbanlandscapetrinidad.blogspot.com/2015_04_01_archive.html). In this post the authors looked at how transportation had evolved from the use of trains in the 1960s, to the use of the modern water taxi. In our post entitled " A Unique Route to Port of Spain...Signs of A System and A Post Industrial City (http://triniurbanemploymentdynamics.blogspot.com/2015_02_01_archive.html) we also discussed the water taxi. Like our colleauges, we posited that this modern form of transportion serve as an alternative transportation route and connects the city of San Fernando to Port of Spain. 

     While the authors of the Urban Landscape Trinidad blog presented interesting historical facts on the transportation industry; ideas on the temporaland spatial factors which gave rise to the change in transportation in this city was not discussed. Some questions which we asked ourselves were, "did these changes in San Fernando occur in tandem with different economic eras such as the colonial era, industrial or post-industrial era? Is it possible that changes in city space facilitated these developments? In an earlier post entitled "Changes in San Fernando Urban Lanscape,( http://urbanlandscapetrinidad.blogspot.com/2015/04/changes-in-san-fernando-urban-landscape.html)  our colleagues did mention that paved roads have led to greater effeciency in transportation. Accordingly, we believe that this infrastructural development would have taken place at a specific point (or at specific points) in time and it may have facilitated the evolution in transportation forms.

Figure 3: Showing Buildings in West Port of Spain (Photo taken by Sybastian Manners, April 9, 2015)

     Secondly, the “Urban Buildings in Trinidad” blog looks at the variation in buildings in type and functionality existing in the urban space and their relationship to the globalization process. What could also be deduced from this blog was the evolution of building design and function in the urban space in relation to the stages of development. The general function of the urban structures altered as the nature of the economy evolved. This goes hand in hand with the transition from the agrarian to manufacturing then service type employment that transpired in Port of Spain that we discussed in our blog entry titled “The Evolution of Employment in Port of Spain”. The brief history the authors described on the structures gave us some insight on the composition and inspiration of city form in the pre-modern stages. This allowed us to compare and contrast the urban space that existed then with the modern and most modern elements of city that exist today. We observed a shift in the expression of urban design from displaying history and reflecting a colonial to a design which lacked expression and void of culture. This is evident when comparing the structures captured by Ariel in the Lion House blog entry to the structures captured in the creative Centre post blog entry.
     The authors captured some of the best architecture Trinidad has to offer and they expressed some very interesting perspectives on the buildings located in the urban area however the correlation to globalization that was highlighted in the introduction was somewhat vague in some of the blog entries. We suggest that the authors include the comparison between pre-modern, modern and postmodern elements of urban structures as one of the main objectives in their blog as this would help readers in their conceptualization in urban development.

     Finally, in looking at the “Urban Life” blog developed by Shivanie and Amy, they highlighted some of the aspects of the urban area either directly or indirectly related to one being employed in the urban area. The “Where We Pumpin' Tonight?” entry reflected aspects of the Port of Spain night life that the urban employed rely on for that release at the end of the day or working week after being marked by the clock for productivity and efficiency in their daily cooperate tasks. They also highlighted some of the issues that arise from heavy traffic in urban areas and even went on to offer suggestion as to how traffic could be reduced from a personal standpoint, ultimately decreasing the amount of congestion in the City and related issues. These we discussed in our “Social Polarisation In the Use of Public Space by The Urban Employed” blog entry where we highlighted the dynamics of being employed in the cooperate urban center, the restrictions that may arise in really experiencing space and finally how these employees sort to adapt or cope with this postmodern reality.

     This blog spot as the name suggest really gave a snapshot into what the urban life is like currently however, some investigation could be launched into what the urban life entailed in the past. This would further compound the importance of the city in the readers mind relation to the country on a whole and the progression of economies in terms of development.

    In conclusion, the geography of urban areas could be viewed as the synergy of separated and complex aspects of the wider society which reflect past and present values and realities of that population. This could be deduced from the location and function of buildings, the composition of the urban population both permanent and transient and how this population utilizes the urban space in their individual interest. The temporal and special changes of cities in a system of cities is a major concern in modern development. This is important in the analysis of city form and function today and also assist in mapping the way forward to more livable and people oriented urban spaces through planning and policy.

  

Reference

Mumford, Lewis. 1938. The Culture of Cities. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. Accessed       March 28, 2015.