The Real Experience of the City

Picture voices

This entry is focused on experiencing urban life.

The emotional relationships between people and place are an important dimension of everyday life especially when experiencing the city (Hall and Barrett 2012, 235) but there is often ambiguity with how cities are sold and how it is actually experienced with relation to social hierarchy.

             Persons of high economic status have the economic and social power to modify any experience of places because they can afford the amenities to do so.
             However imagine the impression of these places on a refugee that has just fled their home in search of a better life in Trinidad. Fundamentally, people move in the expectation of achieving a superior living environment. Refugees may be attracted to the picturesque representations and illustrations of the city but would they have the same opportunities when citizens of lower classes themselves are often ignored? Would they be allowed the right to housing, experience welcoming communities and have access to governmental assistance?
             What about the poor, are they accepted into the wider community, are they treated with a sense of equality by the government and given the same opportunities or are they constantly marginalised due to their status and the area in which they reside?
              Yet these people survive, day by day, existing on whatever resources they have and ‘sweet nothings’ from the government and governmental agencies.

 

               In order to understand the truth of the city we need to acknowledge the ‘reality’ of the city as a concrete construction (thing) and as an abstract representation (idea), and examine how each influences the form of the other. For the great majority of the global urban population, the idea of a virtual city collides with the reality of everyday life (Pacione 2005, 28).

The following are photos of the unheard voices of persons living in sprawls and what is never seen in advertisements; they are the epitome of paradigms of ambiguity of place and space.

Expectation - a mental image of something expected, often compared to its reality (Oxford University Press 2013).

Reality – something that has real existence and must be dealt with in real life (Oxford University Press 2013).

 

Scenic Guest Houses

Reality Picture - Taken in Maraval (All are not allowed)

Accommodating Groceries

Reality Picture - Taken in Malabar (Grocery closed at 4pm)

Eradicating Poverty

Reality Picture - Taken in San Fernando (Poverty is not easily eradicated)

 

Job opportunities

 Reality Picture - Taken in Carapo (Closed and degraded factories and warehouses - a regular sight)

Corner stalls

 Reality Picture - Taken in Carapo (Typical fruit stand with few fruits)

Communities

 Reality Picture - Taken in La Horquetta (Welcoming community?)

Government homes

Reality Picture - Taken in Malabar (Imcompleted government houses)

Are your perceptions of the environment distorted?

Are the rhythms of reality, portrayed by many websites and brochures, truly reflected?

Everyday life centre around city aspects such as areas with attractive views and opportunities,

But are they for everyone – the upper class, middle class and persons stricken by poverty?

Ambidextrous governments masking tourist experiences using one hand to improve well-known areas that are customarily visited,

While the other hand is dipping into the funds that should be used to encourage sustainable occurrences.

Is this what Edward Relph (1976) meant when he said that landscapes should not be upgraded/globalised due to the deep emotional relationships between people and place?

I think not, yes we should not alter our landscapes but we should preserve it with pride and not let it erode or degrade.

 

However, as of recent time, places are continuously being created with social class in mind,

So who is really going the ‘experiencing the city’ you ask? Neither the refugee nor the poor child!

All these contradictory tendencies blur my judgement no more,

With the reality of poverty and marginalisation clearer in my thoughts than ever before.

To hell with these lies, and fictitious anecdotes of opportunity within the city!

These beliefs are the reason why sprawl exist, often increasing unsustainable activity.

Governments should not hide what the island is plagued by; fixing these problems should be of first priority.

Until a state of equilibrium is reached between all of the citizens, including you and me.

 

 

Now do not think the entire country is this way, many areas outside of the CBD a quite like the pictures of expectation, however I would not be misled anymore, I now know the difference in experiences of the city with relation to social hierarchy.




References

Hall, T. and H. Barrett. 2012. Urban Geography. 4th ed. London/ New York: Routledge.
 

Oxford University Press. 2013. "Definition of expectation in Oxford Dictionaries (British & World .   .                English)." Oxford Dictionaries Online. Accessed March 28, 2013. .                                  . .  .              http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/expectation


Oxford University Press. 2013. "Definition of expectation in Oxford Dictionaries (British & World.                 English)." Oxford Dictionaries Online. Accessed March 28, 2013. .                http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/reality
 

Pacione, Michael. 2005. Urban geography: A Global Perspective. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.