Gentrification

Throughout the severe housing crisis, we face, which seems to have no end in sight, other problems associated with the spaces we use for living arise. When we talk about housing, we also talk about support networks, neighborhood, and community. The bonds that should naturally arise from proximity and coexistence are no longer created. The elderly do not have a support network, often being closed off in the solitude of their homes. Spaces for children, culture, and socialization are not prioritized over real estate speculation. All this is taken away from the population, destroying, or not giving the opportunity to build, community, solidarity, and security. Cultural and social spaces also suffer from the gentrification of cities, ending up unable to keep up with rent values and the consequent non-renewal of contracts. It is thanks to these spaces that meetings, conversations, and debates on different topics are possible. They welcome different […]

Without Community Spaces There Is No City: There Is Only Concrete

No passado dia 19 de novembro convidámos o António Góri (Habita! – Associação pelo direito à habitação e à cidade) para responder à primeira pergunta provocatória para combater o crescimento do neofascismo em Portugal. A moderação foi feita pela Leonor Duarte (Morar em Lisboa / Academia Cidadã). Ouve aqui, no Spotify ou na tua plataforma de podcasts. “Conversas #nuncamais” são a primeira de muitas atividades da “Campanha #nuncamais”, pensada para combater o crescimento da extrema-direita em Portugal. Na terceira terça-feira de cada mês, às 21h30, no Com Calma – Espaço Cultural (Benfica), lançaremos uma nova pergunta, baseada num preconceito, estereótipo ou bode expiatório veiculado pelos movimentos neofascistas. Junta-te a nós e vem refletir, discutir e encontrar estratégias para desmontar discursos discriminatórios, xenófobos e simplistas. Fascismo #nuncamais (25 de abril sempre)!Este é o mote da campanha da Academia Cidadã para valorizar e fortalecer a democracia, identificando, desconstruindo e eliminando práticas anti-democráticas. […]

A falta de habitação faz crescer a extrema-direita? PODCAST Conversas #nuncamais

Quando: 19 de novembro de 2019, às 21h30Onde: Com Calma – Espaço Cultural (R. República da Bolívia 5C, Benfica, 1500-475 Lisboa) Convidado: António Góri (Habita! – Associação pelo direito à habitação e à cidade)Moderação: Leonor Duarte (Morar em Lisboa / Academia Cidadã) Os preços da habitação não páram de crescer em Portugal e em toda a Europa. As casas já não são para habitar mas para realizar investimentos financeiros. Muitas pessoas não atribuem a responsabilidade da situação aos governos e aos grupos económicos. Perante a perda, a escassez e a impossibilidade de encontrar uma habitação a preço acessível viram-se contra grupos sociais minoritários que julgam privilegiados ou consideram que a crise é fruto da corrupção generalizada. A precariedade na habitação é uma bomba relógio que favorece os objectivos da extrema-direita: desacreditar o sistema democrático e colocar os pobres contra os pobres. A Iniciativa de Cidadania Europeia “Habitação para Toda a […]

A falta de habitação faz crescer a extrema direita? CONVERSAS #nuncamais

A Academia Cidadã e o movimento Morar em Lisboa apelam a todas as pessoas, organizações e colectivos em todo o país para apoiarem, subscreverem e promoverem esta Iniciativa. Além de se esperar que a Comissão Europeia integre as propostas enunciadas, depois do Parlamento Europeu apreciar a petição, esta iniciativa é um novo passo na articulação dos povos da Europa por habitação digna. As exigências hoje terão de ser promovidas em vários níveis da governação. Europa e governos nacionais têm responsabilidades partilhadas e determinantes na crise de habitação que afetam a população europeia. Participa! Assina aqui! Porquê uma petição europeia por habitação para toda a gente? Teoricamente, a política de habitação depende dos Estados membro da União Europeia. É por isso que grande parte das ações e da pressão social é dirigida, e bem, aos respetivos governos. No entanto, é preciso reconhecer que a União Europeia (UE) tem uma influência determinante […]

Participa: “Habitação para toda a gente” – Iniciativa de Cidadania Europeia

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Shortfilm In recent years, Lisbon has become one of the European Cities with the larger tourism growth. Each year, 6 million people come to visit the Portuguese capital: 200.000 tourists every day. Tourism brings opportunities in a city heavily hit by global crisis: about 15% of Portugal domestic product and 8% jobs in Portugal, nowadays are related with tourism. But in the meanwhile, the city is basically disappearing: over the last 30 years, Lisbon lost about 300.000 inhabitants, vacancy rate in the traditional centre is over 40%, about 5.000 buildings are disused, and today only 12.000 persons live in the city center. In April 2016, STADSLAB (Urban Design Laboratory of Tilburg University – Amsterdam) organized an international Masterclass on City Making & Tourism Gentrification for professionals and graduates: the urban intervention case-study was focused on Mouraria, one of the oldest Lisbon’s neighborhood. Originated as a 13th century Moorish neighborhood and […]

Documentary + shortfilm + book: Masterclass Tourism & Gentrification

Pakhuis de Zwijger’s project New Europe – Cities in Transition was funded with the support of the European Union under the Programme “Europe for Citizens“, measure 2.2: “Network of Towns”. City Makers Summit © Michiel Landeweerd A total of 5 activities were carried out as part of New Europe – Cities in Transition under the Europe for Citizens programme. The Metropolitan Field Trip Lisbon that took place in Lisbon, Portugal on 12-15 March, 2015 The Metropolitan Field Trip London that took place in London, United Kingdom on 11-14 June, 2015 The Metropolitan Field Trip Berlin that ook place in Berlin, Germany on 8-11 October, 2015 The City Makers Summit that took place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on 27-30 May, 2016 The Metropolitan Field Trip Bucharest that took place in Bucharest, Romania on 6-9 June, 2016 All the activities that were realised with funding of the Europe for Citizens programme are listed and described […]

Europe for Citizens

The ideals to discuss and to create alternatives towards issues such as urban poverty; the urgency to have more democratic and participative urban planning projects, giving a fair response to the needs of the newcomers and war victims; the privatization or public spaces; and the negative effects of gentrification, were the central issues of this four-day meeting in Amsterdam, at the City Makers Summit, together with so many projects that make the difference everyday, on a local, regional, national and international level.   The citizens-politicians   The idea of city-making is a political movement. A movement that includes anyone willing to claim a city that promotes direct action with a stronger participative power, supporting visible changes on the urban and social programme. Claiming the right to public spaces ( or the heterotopian spaces that Lefebvre used to claim) as a “survival strategie”, we are also confronting all the social and […]

Because the city is for everyone to have it

When three years ago I visited Bucharest, I gained a not very favorable impression about the city. It seemed gray and the streets, the buildings, the people were also gray – as they beared upon themselves the burden of the totalitarian past, 70 years of Soviet dictatorship had not definitely stood back. Maybe that’s why the new visit I made to the city, in the past 9 to 12 June, has caused me much surprise. This was a field trip, within the project New Europe – Cities in Transition, in order to visit locally based projects that promote the city as an area of inclusion, sustainability and participation. We were welcomed by members of Zeppelin and, in addition to the Citizenship Academy, were present organizations from Berlin (Mörchenpaprk), London (Paddington Development Trust) and Amsterdam (Pakhuis of Zwijger). Three days have come to realize how Bucharest had radically changed over the […]

Winds of change in Bucharest

Between the 27th and the 30th of May 2016, the Pakhuis de Zwijger foundation, in the Netherlands, promoted the meeting of more than 600 activists, coming from the four corners of Europe. Because they are normally involved in democratization actions of the cities, as spaces of inclusion, prosperity and resilience, they are called as the “City Makers”. It was during the “City  Makers Summit” that they met, to talk about the main problems of their cities, and the practices that they have been developing, in order to solve them.     City Makers   Visit to the centre of Zaanstad, which was complete renovated in the last 5 years, looking to offer more inclusion, functionality and visual beauty. This Summit had two main goals. The first one was to provide field trips to participants to Dutch local based projects or initiatives, with actions developed in urban context, regarding the improvement of the […]

Let us make an Europe of Democracy

Synthesis by Igor Marko Photos @ Academia Cidadã and participants of the Master Class   The highly challenging urban regeneration case-study was focused on one of Lisbon’s oldest districts – Mouraria.   Lisbon Masterclass #1 – Exploring Mouraria – site analysis, observation and mapping   Paula Marques, councilwoman for Housing of the Municipality of Lisbon, during the Master Class’s opening   Mouraria originated as a 13th century Moorish neighbourhood and remained a marginal downtown area. Nowadays, parts of Mouraria are affected by tourism, others are still deprived with high levels of migrant population and social housing. Cheap property prices and proximity to other tourist destinations (Alfama, Castelo) raise realistic assumptions that Mouraria will face large influx of investment in real estate and tourism infrastructure, resulting in gentrification.   Field trip to historic centre of Lisbon, promoted by Lisbon Sustainable Tourism   Lisboa Masterclass # 2 – Methods and Processes – […]

Master Class “City Making and Tourism Gentrification”