Urban Spaces : Change and process

"Laventille and Beetham" Trinidad and Tobago's Carceral Neighborhoods

Is it Lost or Forgotten ?

Beetham Gardens with the high wall.

House on hill of San Juan/Laventille.

Laventille and Beetham Gardens

Laventille and Beetham are the poor communities (slums) of Port of Spain’s hinterland. Their growth can be attributed to wide spread squatting, increases in population, the rural-urban drift and illegal immigrants migrating close to these areas seeking jobs and homes. Laventille is the result of urban sprawl on the hills surrounding Port of Spain, it is considered an eye sore to many citizens; for others, and it is home. The problems affecting Laventille and Beetham occur from criminal activities, poor housing, ridiculous town planning and poor social services (water, sewage treatment, health and solid waste removal).

Beetham was formerly called"Rat town", because of the ugly state of poverty and poor housing in the early 1900 to 1990. In 2008, the Trinidad and Tobago government built a four foot (1.2m) high wall around the Beetham Gardens. They claimed that it was built to protect the Beetham’s residents from traffic and traffic noise of the highway. However, many saw this as a way of attempting to contain the people and the criminal activities within the community.

Random lot Beetham

Beetham wall

Warnings

Before I came to the University, I heard horrific stories about Laventille and the Beetham. On arriving, I also heard warnings from local authorities’, government officials and locals who lived in and near the neighborhood. Primarily, these stories and warnings were in reference to murders, drugs trafficking and the crime situations. In 2011, a state of emergency was placed on Trinidad and Laventille and the Beetham were two of the primary areas which were targeted by the authorities in their attempts curve crime. Based on this it is reasonable to define both Laventille and Beetham Gardens as Carceral urban areas.

What is a Carceral urbanism?

Carceral comes from a Latin word cancer meaning prison; it is used in the case of city to imply where a city’s physical boundaries are used to control urban spaces. In these 'public' spaces, the loitering is discouraged and barricades of various forms can prevent people from entering or pass through. (Hall and Barrett 2011)

Beetham on the way to Port of Spain

Beetham Crix "lol'

Carceral urbanism

There are two types of Carceral urbanism: gated communities or new-urbanism; and slums/ghettos. Carceral urbanism in poor communities often results from people taking the law into their hands and protecting their own through types of community justice. The gangs which exist in both communities engage in fierce gang wars, over territory, drugs, money; often, many residents become prisoners in their homes. Unfortunately, gang posts, road blocks, continuous police presence and daily surveillances by military helicopters have become an everyday occurrence. Hall and Barrett, argue that public gatherings and the traversing of strangers or rival gangs to the areas should be discouraged. They suggest that barricades of various forms may prevent people from entering or leaving and thereby achieve some degree of stability

How to reduce Carceral urbanism.

Provide housing for those who are easily affected by poverty.
Removals of all walls and reduce check stops. An example of a removal of a wall in history (The Berlin wall
Create parks with the idle lands to reduces the squatting
Provide basic services to the neighborhoods.
Provide community development
Increase police presents

The negative and positive news from various News stations and papers in Trinidad and Tobago.

Negative

Positives

Conclusion

The problem of city slums and their carceral urbanism is not to be blamed only on the government as the citizens play an integral role in determining issues of governance. Civil society should seek ways to engage the government on discussions about improving the quality of life for its populace in general. In the future, I would like to see both communities have their perception of slums changed to good communities and become a growing urban center of culture and art.

1 comment:

Unknown13 April 2013 at 18:50
Interesting that you pointed out that the two types of 'Carcereal Landscapes' are rich, exclusive and revered gated communities and marginalized, crime and poverty ridden ones...seemingly opposite ends of the spectrum but not so different? I like this mode of analysis :)

Saturday, 13 April 2013