![]() To understand “informal urbanism,” we have to talk about the origins of urban planning and “urbanism.” You can look at ancient Rome and find early signs of city planning. Douglas says this is the ideal of how informal urbanism is supposed to work - the community identifies a problem, makes an intervention, and the problem is solved. The source of the leak was eventually found and repaired, and the DIY bridge was taken out of commission. Photo by Jason Eppink (CC BY 2.0)Īfter the story got out about the scum river bridge, it caught some media attention, and a local councilman actually wrote a letter thanking the people behind the tiny bridge for their good citizenship. They called it the Astoria Scum River Bridge. So a handful of people living in the neighborhood close by built a small bridge out of reclaimed wood and shipping pallets so pedestrians could walk over this slimy substance. When it froze, the scum trail became dangerous and slippery, and when it was warm out, the trail was gross and slimy. ![]() In 2010, the bridge started to leak and crack, dropping “scum” on the people walking underneath its archway. But like all infrastructure, over the decades, it’s become worn down. The bridge itself is an enormous feat of engineering, and it promises to keep standing long after humans have disappeared from New York. Hell Gate Bridge in Queens, New York is a textbook case of a municipal failure that led to a DIY intervention. ![]() Here’s a classic example of informal urbanism at work. Douglas is the author of The Help-Yourself City and he spoke with Roman Mars about the concept of informal urbanism. This ranges from hastily painted bike lanes, to do-it-yourself park benches in under-served communities. Or it can be a tiny thing, like a homemade road sign that helps drivers avoid a pothole.īut there are lots of actions that skirt the boundary between “formal” and “informal.” In the last decade, there’s been a rise in tactical urbanism and guerilla urbanism, where regular people make interventions in their communities. It can be a whole community, like a favela in Brazil. It applies to everything created outside the legal city planning and development processes.
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