URBAN PLANNING and CULTURAL IDENTITY the RTPI Library Series
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URBAN PLANNING AND CULTURAL IDENTITY The RTPI Library Series Editors: Cliff Hague, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland Tim Richardson, Sheffield University, UK Robert Upton, RTPI, London, UK Published in conjunction with The Royal Town Planning Institute, this series of leading-edge texts looks at all aspects of spatial planning theory and practice from a comparative and international perspective. Planning in Postmodern Times Philip Allmendinger, University of Aberdeen, Scotland The Making of the European Spatial Development Perspective No Masterplan Andreas Faludi and Bas Waterhout, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands Planning for Crime Prevention Richard Schneider, University of Florida, USA, and Ted Kitchen, Sheffield Hallam University, UK The Planning Polity Mark Tewdwr-Jones, The Bartlett, University College London Shadows of Power An Allegory of Prudence in Land-Use Planning Jean Hillier, Curtin University of Technology, Australia Urban Planning and Cultural Identity William J.V. Neill, Queen’s University, Belfast Forthcoming: Place Identity, Participation and Planning Edited by Cliff Hague and Paul Jenkins Public Values and Private Interests Heather Campbell and Robert Marshall Indicators for Urban and Regional Planning Cecilia Wong URBAN PLANNING AND CULTURAL IDENTITY WILLIAM J.V. NEILL First published 2004 by Routledge, 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge, 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. © 2004 William J.V. Neill All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Neill, William J.V. Urban planning and cultural identity / William J.V. Neill. p. cm. – (The RTPI library series; 6) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-19747-3 (hardcover: alk. paper) – ISBN 0-415-25915-0 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. City planning. 2. City planning–cross-cultural studies. I. Title. II. Series. HT166.N4218 2004 216–dc21 307.1Ј 2003008576 ISBN 0-203-40224-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-40879-9 (Adobe eReader Format) CONTENTS Preface vii Acknowledgements ix 01 Knowing your place: Urban planning and the spatiality of cultural identity 1 02 Planning memory and identity I: Acknowledging the past in the city of remorse 17 03 Memory and identity II: Erasing the past in the city of the victors 73 04 Place-making and the failure of multiculturalism in the African American city 111 05 Cosmopolis postponed: Planning and the management of cultural conflict in the British and/or Irish city of Belfast 157 06 Environmental citizenship as civic glue? 219 References 229 Index 253 PREFACE I would like to thank the many people who gave generously of their time in inter- view and who extended hospitality and advice, particularly in Berlin and Detroit. In Belfast, influences are harder to disentangle. In Berlin I am grateful in particular to Dr.-Ing. Günter Schlusche, Building Co-ordinator with the Foundation for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Dr Hanns-Uve Schwedler, Director of the European Academy of the Urban Environment, kindly facilitated the exploration of some of the identity and planning issues explored in this book at a joint sym- posia between the cities of Berlin and Belfast in February 1999 and December 2001. Funding assistance from the Anglo-German Foundation and Northern Ireland Community Relations Council is acknowledged, as is the help in so many ways of Jenny Johnson, also with the European Academy. The following individuals were interviewed in Berlin at various times since 1996: Christina Laduch, former Director of Planning for Berlin Mitte; Lea Rosh, leading campaigner for a Berlin Holocaust Memorial; Wilhelm V. Boddien, leading campaigner to rebuild the Berliner Schloss; Cornelius Hertling, Chair of the Berlin Chamber of Architects; Dipl.-Ing. Herbert Zimmermann, Berlin planner and former chair of the European Council of Town Planners; Detlef Will, former Building Director in Berlin Steglitz; Wolfgang Schäche, author on Third Reich architecture; Dipl.-Ing. Bernhard Schneider, author on public space and museum architecture and consultant to various Berlin Ministries; Tom Bremen, architectural restorationist working on the Museum Insel; Andrea Gärtner, Culture Department of Prenzlauerberg; Karin Nottmeyer and Frau Paesler in the Senatsverwaltung für Bau- und Wohnungswe- sen und Verkehr; Philip Meuser with the Berlin Stadt Forum; Peter Martin, Director of Commercial Marketing with Partner für Berlin; Gunnar Pantel, Head of Planning with Rummelsburger Bucht, Berlin, and Wilhelm Schultz, Head of Regional Plan- ning, Land Brandenburg. For help with German sources I must acknowledge contributions from Sabine and Juliane Engelhardt, Sigrid Reiter whose memory endures, and Andrea Fiddy and Keith Johnston, especially for many enjoyable discussions around Savigny Platz. The translation services of Susanne were invaluable and her tolerance, for the most part, of my introspective musings when I was neglecting other things can probably not be repaid. In Detroit personal thanks for help and hospitality are due to former colleagues in the Michigan Department of Commerce, Office of Community viii Preface Development, Kathy and George Mechem and Tom Nicholas. The following indi- viduals were interviewed in the summers of 1999 and 2001: Revd Wendell Anthony, President Detroit Chapter NAACP; Gloria Robinson, Mayor’s Executive Office and former Planning Director, City of Detroit; Paul Bernard, Planning Direc- tor, City of Detroit; Paul Tait, Executive Director, Southeast Michigan Council of Governments; Ed Hustoles, former Director of Planning for SEMCOG; Eric Lupher and Paul Goode, Citizen’s Research Council of Michigan; Mary Kramer, Editor, Crain’s Detroit Business; David Blaszkiewicz, Detroit Renaissance Inc; David Newman, Chief of Staff to Michigan Representative, Samuel Buzz Thomas III; Pro- fessor Mary Andrews, Associate Dean, Human Ecology, Michigan State University; Professor Robin Boyle, Associate Dean, College of Urban Affairs, Wayne State University. In Belfast the influences on one’s understanding of how identity is embedded in place are too numerous to mention, let alone unravel. Emotional distance is more difficult when excavating through the sedimented memories of home where per- sonal remembrances like my sister Christine ‘going into town’ interweave with collective experiences and constructions of the past. My involvement with the Irish Branch (Northern Section) of the Royal Town Planning Institute has, over the years, provided a valuable window on the world of planning practice. Frequent intellectual sparring sessions with planning consultant Dr Patrick Braniff, Senior Research Fellow at Queen’s University, Belfast and, like myself ‘Belfast-born and bred’, has reassured me that empathy across difficult cultural divides is far from impossible and can be fostered by common roots in place. Thanks are due to the Institute of Governance, Public Policy and Social Research at Queen’s University, Belfast for granting me the breathing space of a Sabbatical Fellowship to complete this book and to Karen Agnew for producing the final manuscript with much care and good humour when mine was flagging. Two referees provided valuable feedback and for that I am also most grateful. The responsibility for making sense of it all remains, of course, mine. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would like to express his thanks to the following organizations and people for permission to use copyright material in this book. Figure 2.2 Partner für Berlin/FTB-Werbefotografie, Gesellschaft für Haupt- stadtmarketing; Figure 2.3 Fotobestand W. Schäche; Figure 2.4 Landesarchive, Berlin; Figure 2.10 Photo Landesarchive Berlin. Published with friendly permission of the Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, Berlin; Figures 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 Berlin Ministry for Urban Development (Land Berlin); Figure 3.6 Landesarchive, Berlin; Figure 4.4 Tony Spina, Chief Photographer, Detroit Free Press. Reprinted with the kind permission of Francesca Spina; Figure 4.3 South-east Michigan Council of Governments; Figure 5.5 Professor F.W. Boal; Figure 5.7 and Figure 5.10 Laganside Corporation, Belfast; Figures 5.8 and 5.9 courtesy of Tom Neill, Co-ordinator Shankill/Drogheda Schools Project. Permission to quote from the poems from Conacre and The coasters in Chapter 5 has been generously given by the Blackstaff Press Ltd, Belfast. For Susanne CHAPTER 1 KNOWING YOUR PLACE: URBAN PLANNING AND THE SPATIALITY OF CULTURAL IDENTITY There is within us only that dark divine animal engaged in a strange journey – that creature who, at midnight, knows its own ghostliness and senses its far road (Loren Eiseley, The Night Country, 1971: 54). As Americans say, if life serves you up a lemon, make lemonade. Whether being born into an Ulster Unionist identity position in Northern Ireland makes it justifiable to liken one to a bitter fruit of dubious value is a matter of real debate. It is one of a number of questions of identity and its relationship to spatial