ThE RISE of CITIES DImITRIoS RouSSopouloS ThE RISE of CITIES Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Other Cities Montreal • New York • London Copyright ©2017 BLACK ROSE BOOKS Ann Marie Utratel’s “Common Spaces for Exchange: Cities in Transition and Citizen Struggles” originally published at www.commonstransition.ordg under the Peer Production license. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system—without written permission from the publisher, or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, Access Copyright, with the exception of brief passages quoted by a reviewer in a newspaper or magazine. Black Rose Books No. SS383 Roussopoulos, Dimitrios I., 1936-, author The rise of cities : Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver and other cities / Dimitrios Roussopoulos. Includes bibliographical references. Issued in print and electronic formats. ISBN 978-1-55164-335-9 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-55164-334-2 (softcover) ISBN: 978-1-55164-615-2 (eBook) 1. Cities and towns--Canada. 2. Municipal government--Canada. 3. Urban policy--Canada. 4. Sociology, Urban--Canada. I. Title. HT127.R68 2017 307.760971 C2016-904806-3 C.P. 35788 Succ. Léo Pariseau Montreal, QC H2X 0A4 CANADA www.blackrosebooks.com ORDERING INFORMATION: NORTH AMERICA & INTERNATIONAL UK & EUROPE University of Toronto Press Central Books 5201 Dufferin Street Freshwater Road Toronto, ON Dagenham RM8 1RX M3H 5T8 ENGLAND CANADA +BB (>)@> EC@C EE>> ?(E>>) CDC-FC@A (Toll Free) [email protected] [email protected] Black Rose Books is the publishing project of Cercle Noir et Rouge Table of Contents From the Rise of Cities to the Right to the City – By way of an introduction Dimitri Roussopoulos Montréal Shawn Katz and Dimitri Roussopoulos Toronto Bill Freeman Vancouver Patrick J. Smith Other Cities: Social Movements and Barcelona, Madrid Ann Marie Utratel Biographical Notes on Contributors Bibliography from the Rise of Cities to the Right to the City Dimitrios Roussopoulos Introduction With the rise of cities, a major power shift is occurring this century across the planet in both economic and political terms. Many cities have suddenly become actors on both national and international levels. How has this come about? Some facts. According to the United Nations’ 2014 revised World Urbanization Prospects (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs), for the first time ever, over half of today’s increasingly global and interconnected world population, a totally of 54%, lives in urban areas. This follows on from the historic turning point in human civilisation, in 2007-2008, when it was announced that, for the first time, the majority of humanity lived in cities. The coming decades, the report goes on, will bring further profound changes to the size and spatial distribution of the world’s population. The con- tinuing urbanisation and growth of the world’s population is projec ted to add 2.5 billion people to the urban population by 2050, with nearly 90% of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa. At the same time, the percentage of the population living in urban areas is expected to increase, reaching 66% by 2050, whilst the global figures for rural population are soon expected to peak and gradually decline. What we are experiencing, in other words, is a titanic shift in the history of humanity. This development and its consequences will have a profound impact on all aspects of our civilisation and will determine the future of the entire planet and its ecosystems. Today, the most urbanised regions include North America (82% living in urban areas in 2014), Latin America and the Caribbean (80%), and Europe (73%). In contrast, Africa and Asia remain on the whole mostly rural. All regions are expected to urbanise much further over the coming decades but Africa and Asia are urbanising faster than the other regions with 56% and 64%, respectively, of their populations projected to be urban by 2050. Just three countries—India, China and Nigeria—are expected to ac- count for 37% of the total projected growth between 2014 and 2050. Close to half of the world’s urban dwellers reside in relatively small settlements of less than 500 000 inhabitants, while around one in eight live in one of the world’s 28 megacities—a megacity being a city with more than 10 million inhabitants. By 2030, 8 the world is projected to have 41 megacities. Can one imagine that Tokyo, which is now, at 28 million, the world’s largest city, and Delhi, with 25 million, are expected to be 37 million and 36 million respectively by 2030? Also notable is the fact that today’s largest cities are concentrated in the Global South. These realities are key to the strate- gic considerations of social movements across the world. urbanisation At least on the face of things, the process of urbanisation has been associated with many important economic and social transformations which have brought greater ge- ographic mobility, lower human fertility, longer life expectancy and larger ageing pop- ulations. Cities have also been historical drivers of long-term development and poverty reduction. In both urban and rural areas, they concentrate regional economic activity, government, commerce and transportation, and provide crucial links with rural areas, between cities, and across borders. What’s more, urban living is often associated with higher levels of literacy and education, better health, greater access to social services, and enhanced opportunities for cultural and political participation. All these features are, however, very uneven in many cities, and the contrast between cities is startling. The rapid and unplanned growth of urbanisation threatens the natural environment in significant ways, especially when the necessary infrastructure is not developed or when policies are not implemented to ensure that possible benefits of the city are equitably distributed. Today, despite the comparative advantage of cities, urban areas exhibit greater inequality than rural areas, as well as generally greater disparities in com- parison to each other. Hundreds of millions of the world’s urban poor live in substan- dard conditions. In some cities, bureaucratic, unplanned or inadequately managed expansion leads to rapid urban sprawl, pollution, and environmental degradation, to- gether with anti-ecological production and consumption of material goods. The current dominant forms of urban life are also the source of a great deal of alienation and inequity of social relations among genders, ethnic groups, lifestyles, generations and classes. Patriarchy, racialism and many other social forms of exploitation are still at the very core of current forms of urbanisation. Urbanisation is inextricably connected to three dimensions required for a renewal of city life: namely ecological development that honestly faces life threatening prob- lems; equitable social development and economic development that prioritise human rights, civil liberties and social justice. As city-regions grow into metropolitan areas, they become increasingly important economic actors in their surrounding regions. Many of these city-regions play a de- termining role in so-called ‘national economies’. Currently, the top 100 cities in the world are responsible for 38% of the total gross domestic product (GDP) while the top 800 cities, where a fifth of the world’s population resides, account for 60% of global GDP. Jane Jacobs forecasted this development in her pioneering book, The Economy of Cities1. The urban Economy Authors of a report by the Global Agenda Council on Competitiveness, submitted to the World Economic Forum in August 2014, found that there are essentially six global DIMITRIOS ROUSSOPOULOS 9 trends—or, as the report calls them, ‘megatrends’—that are relevant to cities and their place in the world economy. These are: urbanisation, population increases and the sta- tus of the middle class; rising urban inequality; environmental problems; the rate of technological change; industrial development and prospects, including links with other urban economies; and, finally, what the report calls governance, or, more specifically, the role of citizens and the competence of the city’s administration. Unsurprisingly, the report is largely fixated on an ideology of economic competitiveness, not unlike many similar reports produced by the World Economic Forum, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Canada, meanwhile, also reflects the growing importance of urban economies. For example, we know that 80% of Canadians live in cities, a figure that is increasing. Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton account for more than 50% of the population and more than 50% of GDP. But the major problems these and other cities face are not being taken seriously by the power elite, with no change in sight. Meaningful considerations of these major problems are needed in the areas of public health, immigration, infrastructure, gainful employment, fair housing, public transit, the domination of the private automobile, green spaces, human rights and democratic citizen participation in civic life since they are largely off the current urban and social governance agenda in Canada. During national elections, these issues are rarely electoral campaigning talking points or up for serious debate. Nevertheless, more than one research report has concluded that the 21st century will not be dominated by the US or China, Brazil or India, but by the City, or at least by key global cities. In a world that increasingly appears ungovernable, cities—not na- tion-States—are the islands of governance on which the future world order rests. If this future is upon us now, the road ahead is full of very dangerous obstacles. The historical Roots of Cities Where did cities come from? A better understanding of the process that led to their formation and an examination of them in their earliest periods will provide insights into their achievements and failures.