After the Riots: what makes a city? | | Independent Battle of Ideas Blogs

After the Riots: what makes a city? | | Independent Battle of Ideas Blogs

The riots affected many places that have been the focus for urban regeneration and neighbourhood renewal. It’s a bitter pill for those of us in the business to swallow, but our efforts may have contributed to the problem rather than helped create the solution. Despite all the ‘New Deals’, engaged stakeholders, and ‘empowered’ communities, a significant proportion of our communities were prepared to destroy and loot, expressing scant identity with their local places and with their neighbours. After decades when making relationships and building institutions has been at the core of urban policy, it was as if the rioters set out to underline the distance between themselves and both the authorities and the institutions of community life.