Abstract
The urban renewal project in 1970s of the Borgia area, a problematic neighborhood in the core of the City of Sudbury, was an important factor in the breakdown of social cohesion. What occurred there was a form of spatial injustice and was reproduced amid large shifts in society in many inner-city neighborhoods. A mall replaced the neighborhood, which was torn down. The renewal plan did not provided for new residential accommodations in redeveloped area. Former residents were marginalized and mostly remained homeless. This massive architectural intervention was made under a typical modern urban renewal plan belonging to a discernible era of urban revitalization. One of the effects of these urban renewal plans, mostly conducted in 1950s - 1970s, is gentrification, and its attendant consequences such as spatial segregation, spatial injustice, and marginalization of deprived people. In deep interviews with former residents of Borgia neighborhood, we inquired about the main good thing about Borgia neighborhood that they had missed. The answers were analyzed, coded, and categorized applying grounded theory method. People stated that they had lost their childhood memories, and the connection to their neighbors and relatives. They felt lonely, evicted, and unsafe. People have a deep interconnection with their constructed environment, which is known as place attachment. Such dramatic changes have caused huge transformations in people’s lifestyles; they had lost their collective memories while suffering from a lack of sense of belonging to the place. Such interventions in Sudbury and, we surmise, in other similar cities have contributed to spatial injustice.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
GENTRIFICATION,INNER-CITY NEIGHBORHOODS REDEVELOPMENT,URBAN REVITALIZATION,SPATIA SEPARATION,SPATIAL INJUSTICE,PLACE ATTACHMENT
