Author Archives: Katherine B.

How is change manage in the city? Who manages that change? Do people have a right to the city?

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The city as we know it has gone through a lot of changes from industrialization to Modernization. Change is inevitable and it happens everyday in ways we might not even realize sometimes. However even though short the history of the city has shown that change in cities is unstoppable and sometimes not at the hands of the people. Change is a scary thing we might not all deal with or want to deal with but are forced into it, like the people from the “My brooklyn” movie. Even though they did not want to and wanted to save the fulton mall, most store owners had to move and leave their business because the area was going through process of gentrification.  I believe people do get a say in the change of the city , however they aren’t always as strong to make the changes happen. As an example in such a big and modern city New York, it is mainly managed by corrupt bureaucrats and politicians, whose main interest is money or to protect the privileged ones forgetting about the low/working class. It seems quite unfair because as the people who live in the city and help grow the city we should have a say or right in it, and even though the democratic system claims to be one of the people we can all agree that’s not always the case. My brooklyn is an example on how the people can get put down easily and lose all their properties and culture because of  gentrification. However in the film “Citizen Jane:Battle for the city” we can see how when people get together and fight for what the think is right they can make change happen or in this case stop it from happening in a way that the people were the only ones to lose. It should be remembered that a city wouldn’t grow without the people living in it, so as the creators and residents they should be taken more into consideration when change happens, because most of the time they just end up being the collateral damage and seen as a minority.