Solarpunk Urbanism

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A community to discuss solarpunk and other new and alternative urbanisms that seek to break away from our currently ecologically destructive urbanisms.

Henri Lefebvre, The Right to the City — In brief, the right to the city is the right to the production of a city. The labor of a worker is the source of most of the value of a commodity that is expropriated by the owner. The worker, therefore, has a right to benefit from that value denied to them. In the same way, the urban citizen produces and reproduces the city through their own daily actions. However, the the city is expropriated from the urbanite by the rich and the state. The right to the city is therefore the right to appropriate the city by and for those who make and remake it.

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When urban renewal goes wrong: Inside a dead mall frozen in 1990. (aus.social)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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When urban renewal goes wrong: Inside a dead mall frozen in 1990.

Very interesting short film by Bright Sun Films. Along with the usual urban exploration bits, he gives a good history of how and why it failed.

The shopping centre was supposed to revitalise downtown Hamilton, Ontario.

But within six years, it had just a 40% occupancy rate.

A decade after opening, it sold for only CAN$3.6 million — just 5% of what it originally cost to build.

https://youtu.be/NV_c_c_RZdE?si=4fNO5BJAoWzcx_bw

#urbanism #UrbanPlanning #Canada #Ontario @urbanism #UrbanRenewal #malls #DeadMalls #UrbEx #UrbanExplaration

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago

Buffalo NY did this too. Paved over Shelton Square, "the Times Square of Buffalo" to build a mall that basically immediately emptied out and became a dead mall and then for like the last 20 years it has been a data center with a food court. The Main Place "Mall"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Incredible thans for sharing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

@ajsadauskas @urbanism Could make for an incredible skatepark.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Check out Abandoned

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

@jadero Thanks, but don't want to spend money on that for now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Don't blame you! I never noticed it was a paid product. I guess I must have seen it on some channel we had when we still had cable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Vice had series called Abandoned that followed a skateboarder as he explored abandoned places, including malls.

I don't know how it holds up, but I really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. As I recall, the skateboarding was pretty far down the list of why they were doing it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

That was a good show! Yeah, I didn't care about the skateboarding but he interviewed a lot of fascinating people and explored some wild places.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

@ajsadauskas @urbanism I lived in Hamilton at that time. That mall really wasn't on anyone's radar for shopping mostly because of parking issues and the hassle of downtown traffic. We had several other malls in the city with acres of free parking to choose from.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Damn I grew up in Hamilton. Spent a lot of time at and around that mall.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

@ajsadauskas @urbanism this was great. Thanks for sharing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

This was amazing! Also check out Retail Archaeology on YT.