General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[mastermind]

What's the basic reason in a sentence or two?

Generally, it's because they're pushed by economic interests and there is often failure to properly integrate into the social fabric of the neighbourhoods - or even create one. This recent push in cities to create urban villages is often done by developers and city planners meaning so much of it is purely economically oriented. This creates very fake neighbourhoods. The intent might be good - a push for sustainability, mixed used zoning, pedestrian friendly, good transit, a variety of shops, services, entertainment - but often falls short because it's so planned and there is no authenticity and natural evolution of the area. It just ends up being more gentrification which alienates many people and that is not necessarily stable.

It takes more than some trendy, upscale restaurants to make an urban village a success. For good examples of how you can have an urban village be successful, there are places like Freetown Christiania in Copenhagen, Canal Street (Manchester) in England, Holzmarkt in Berlin. Christiania and Holzmarkt are particularly interesting because they started out very grassroots (Christiania was originally an anarchist commune). These areas were organically developed by those who live and work in the area, meaning they evolved to suit their needs. It wasn't some planners and developers directing things that created these vibrant areas in these cities, although they have unfortunately crept into these neighbourhoods over time.

Interesting, thanks.  Makes sense to me.

Following that logic, an urban village could have success if it were actually the people there that wanted it and pushed for it.  Most people don't want change though so the chances of a neighbourhood fighting to change themselves into something else seems pretty unlikely.