read this article this morning from an older issue of the New York Times entitled, A Plan to Spur Growth Away From Haiti’s Capital . This article talks about a plan that was unveiled a few months ago that will rebuild Haiti by decentralizing its urban core through land use practices designed to create smaller urban and rural cores.
Based upon my American planning knowledge, the first thing I thought was how backwards does this sound? Decentralizing the city? American cities are on a rapid decline; populations in the city are decreasing while suburban populations are increasing. In Haiti, the expected growth for Port-au-Prince is targeted to hit 6,000,000 in the next 15 years. The population is expected to double from its 3,000,000 inhabitants now.
Upon further investigation, this plan is in fact very fitting giving the condition of the country and the surrounding environmental concerns:
Prepared by a group of urban planners from the Haitian government agency responsible for the country’s development, the plan is built around a bold central idea: to redistribute large parts of the population of Port-au-Prince to smaller Haitian cities, many of them at a safe distance from areas most vulnerable to natural disaster. In the process the plan would completely transform Haiti from a country dominated by a single metropolis to what the planners call a network of smaller urban “growth poles.”
As part of this plan come an array of new zoning and land-use regulations that will transform the capitol and the country, plans for a light rail system, a waterfront park in Port-au-Prince, and smaller public spaces throughout the region.
As with most plans, these ideas are great but the crucial component will be finding funding and political support in a country that is still on its knees six months later.
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