Urban Politics and the Community...

This picture shows the roof of a house in Laventille.

    I took this picture while touring the streets of Laventille for the first time with my boyfriend. It was hard at first due to the stigma that Laventille has attached to it's name, but after the first corner I began to realize it was just like any other community. Full of life. People liming, children playing... During the day it seemed nothing like the place portrayed in the media and through the politics of this country. I was shocked when I first saw this house. It was hard for me to grasp how someone could not have used nails in their roof but rather have stones to keep it attached to the ceiling. Why would someone choose to cover their house in rocks? It did not make sense. 
     After a while it occurred to me that there could be multiple reasons as to why this was so. Maybe the ceiling was too weak, or maybe it was a last resort. Why was it that a building so close to the capital city, looked so dilapidated.
    Tim Hall and Heather Barrett put forward the question, "Is urban political power located mainly in the hands of the elite or is it distributed among a wider constellation of groups?" This picture showed an example of what many would describe as political power being located within the hands of the elite. Port-of-Spain's governance can been seen as moving further towards a form of entrepreneurialism. According to Tim Hall and Heather Barrett, entrepreneurialism entails the process by which urban governments become more concerned with 'inviting' investments and creating jobs as well as increasing economic growth. While there is a decrease in the local government as the provider of social welfare and other services. This form of governance can lead to the a reduction in funding for housing and social development and an increase in the building of skyscrapers. It can thereby be assumed that the house shown can be a result of lack of funding for social welfare and therefore many people suffer as a result. 
    Why is it that that resources can be allocated to one sector in a city and not to another? Is this new form of governance good for the citizens of the urban city or would it create greater inequalities?

Think about it....
 Chantel