scholarly journals Transformative Urban Railway: Ankara Commuter Line and Lost Landscape

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Funda Bas Butuner ◽  
Ela Alanyalı Aral ◽  
Selin Çavdar
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Urban System ◽  
Rural Landscape ◽  
Green Water ◽  
Remarkable Case ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
University Department ◽  
Technical University ◽  
The City

Transformative Urban Railway: Ankara Commuter Line and Lost LandscapeFunda Baş Bütüner¹, Ela Alanyalı Aral¹, Selin Çavdar² ¹Middle East Technical University. Department of Architecture. Ankara. Dumlupınar Bulvarı no:1 06800 Ankara Turkey  ² Middle East Technical University. Department of City and Regional Planning. Ankara. Dumlupınar Bulvarı no:1 06800 Ankara Turkey  E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Keywords (3-5): urban railway, urban landscape, Ankara, commuter line, landscape infrastructure Conference topics and scale: Urban green space   Being major transportation infrastructure of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the impacts of railways on cities have highly directed urban discourses; deforming material edge of cities, encouraging urban extension, formation of new territories, and speeding up  urban development. However, in recent decades, with newly emerging discussions on landscape infrastructure, a new idea for a more integrated infrastructure and urban system has started to be formulated. Railway strips, occurring as terrains where solid-void morphology of cities becomes illegible, emerge as generators in the formation of new urban green network. Within this framework, Ankara commuter line that mark outs a route approximately 37 kilometers in length in the city, is a remarkable case for a motivating discussion on railway and landscape confrontation. Penetrating the city in east-west direction, the commuter line integrated with a rural landscape –covering vegetable gardens and creeks- that was serving as a recreational field for citizens until 1950s. However, the transformative nature of the railway, encouraged the development of new urban lands, industrial areas and neighborhoods along its route, and erased the characteristic landscape along the railway.  The continuous landscape integrated with green, water and railway infrastructure became fragmented covering only some splits of green and water. In this respect, this study dwells on the lost landscape of the commuter line by mapping the fragmented continuity of the railway, green and water infrastructure from 1950’s until today to show the limited, but potential interaction of these three systems in the current urban fabric.    References Allen, S. (1999). Infrastructural Urbanism, in Allen, S. (ed.) Points and Lines: Diagrams and Projects for The City (Princeton Architectural Press, New York) 40-89. Bertolini, L., Spit, T. (1998). Cities on Rails (Routledge, London). Hung, Y. (2013). Landscape Infrastructure: Systems of Contingency, Flexibility, and Adaptability, in Hung, Y., Aquino, G., Waldheim, C., Czerniak, J., Geuze, A.,  Robinson, A., Skjonsberg, M. (ed.) Landscape Infrastructure (Birkhauser, Basel) 14-19. Tatom, J. (2006).  Urban Highways and the Reluctant Urban Realm. C. Waldheim (Ed.). The Landscape Urbanism Reader (Princeton Architectural Press, New York) 179-196. Waldheim, C. (2016). Landscape as Urbanism: A General Theory (Princeton University Press). 

Introduction

Dying City ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Tochterman
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
National Economy ◽  
Public Services ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Equal Access ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The City

In July 1975, with the threat of bankruptcy looming, the New York Times asked eighteen “urban experts,” mostly prominent economists, social scientists, and theorists, “What should be done to solve New York City’s dilemma?”1 Since 1969 the city had lost nearly 500,000 jobs, and twice as many middle-class taxpayers had left New York in the decade prior. The city’s woes were indicative of broader trends, as the national economy foundered as a result of geopolitical conflict with countries in Southeast and Middle East Asia, deindustrialization, and the fitful transition to a postindustrial order at home. In this context, New York’s generous social democracy, structured around inclusive unionized public employment and equal access to public services, struggled to survive. In the spring of 1975, as Saigon fell, New York effectively defaulted on its debts, unable to pay its bills and with nary a willing lender....

Hospitals: N.Y. Appellate Court Denies Move to Privatize Public Hospital

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-203
Author(s):  
Robert Chatham
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Public Health System ◽  
Municipal Hospital ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Benefit ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Benefit Corporation ◽  
The City

The Court of Appeals of New York held, in Council of the City of New York u. Giuliani, slip op. 02634, 1999 WL 179257 (N.Y. Mar. 30, 1999), that New York City may not privatize a public city hospital without state statutory authorization. The court found invalid a sublease of a municipal hospital operated by a public benefit corporation to a private, for-profit entity. The court reasoned that the controlling statute prescribed the operation of a municipal hospital as a government function that must be fulfilled by the public benefit corporation as long as it exists, and nothing short of legislative action could put an end to the corporation's existence.In 1969, the New York State legislature enacted the Health and Hospitals Corporation Act (HHCA), establishing the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) as an attempt to improve the New York City public health system. Thirty years later, on a renewed perception that the public health system was once again lacking, the city administration approved a sublease of Coney Island Hospital from HHC to PHS New York, Inc. (PHS), a private, for-profit entity.

The Effect of the Political Situation in the City of Jerusalem on the Rights of the Jerusalem Women

1970 ◽  
pp. 36-47
Author(s):  
Fadwa Al-Labadi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Sexual Life ◽  
Family Status ◽  
Colonial Legacy ◽  
Legal Principle ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City ◽  
Legislative Processes

The concept of citizenship was introduced to the Arab and Islamic region duringthe colonial period. The law of citizenship, like all other laws and regulations inthe Middle East, was influenced by the colonial legacy that impacted the tribal and paternalistic systems in all aspects of life. In addition to the colonial legacy, most constitutions in the Middle East draw on the Islamic shari’a (law) as a major source of legislation, which in turn enhances the paternalistic system in the social sector in all its dimensions, as manifested in many individual laws and the legislative processes with respect to family status issues. Family is considered the nucleus of society in most Middle Eastern countries, and this is specifically reflected in the personal status codes. In the name of this legal principle, women’s submission is being entrenched, along with censorship over her body, control of her reproductive role, sexual life, and fertility.

Book Reviews

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-246
Author(s):  
Kariane Westrheim ◽  
Michael Gunter ◽  
Yener Koc ◽  
Yavuz Aykan ◽  
Diane E. King ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Kurdish Conflict

Adem Uzun, “Living Freedom”: The Evolution of the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey and the Efforts to Resolve it. Berghof Transitions Series No. 11. Berlin: Berghof Foundation, 2014. 48 pp., (ISBN: 978-3-941514-16-4).Ebru Sönmez, Idris-i Bidlisi: Ottoman Kurdistan and Islamic Legitimacy, Libra Kitap, Istanbul, 2012, 190 pp., (ISBN: 978-605-4326-56-3). Sabri Ateş, The Ottoman–Iranian Borderlands: Making a Boundary, 1843-1914, New York; Cambridge University Press, 2013. 366., (ISBN: 978-1107033658).  Choman Hardi, Gendered Experiences of Genocide: Anfal Survivors in Kurdistan-Iraq. Farnham, Surrey and Burlington Vermont: Ashgate, 2011, xii + 217 pp., (ISBN: 978-0-7546-7715-4).Harriet Allsopp, The Kurds of Syria: Political Parties and Identity in the Middle East, London and New York, I.B. Tauris, 2014, 299 pp., (ISBN: 978-1780765631).Khanna Omarkhali (ed.), Religious Minorities in Kurdistan: Beyond the Mainstream [Studies in Oriental Religions, Volume 68], Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2014, xxxviii + 423 pp., (ISBN: 978-3-447-10125-7).Anna Grabole-Çeliker, Kurdish Life in Contemporary Turkey: Migration, Gender and Ethnic Identity, London: I.B. Taurus, 2013, 299 pp., (ISBN: 978-1780760926).  

Review: Islam and politics in Iranian Kurdistan at a time of revolution: the life of Ahmad Moftizadeh

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-87
Author(s):  
Martin Van Bruinessen
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Political Order ◽  
The Other ◽  
Islam And Politics ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Revolutionary Regime

Ali Ezzatyar, The Last Mufti of Iranian Kurdistan: Ethnic and Religious Implications in the Greater Middle East. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. xv + 246 pp., (ISBN 978-1-137-56525-9 hardback).For a brief period in 1979, when the Kurds had begun confronting Iran’s new Islamic revolutionary regime and were voicing demands for autonomy and cultural rights, Ahmad Moftizadeh was one of the most powerful men in Iranian Kurdistan. He was the only Kurdish leader who shared the new regime’s conviction that a just social and political order could be established on the basis of Islamic principles. The other Kurdish movements were firmly secular, even though many of their supporters were personally pious Muslims.

Bringing the Real World of Science to Children: A Partnership of the American Museum of Natural History and the City University of New York

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony G Picciano ◽  
Robert V. Steiner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Development Program ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Museum ◽  
The World ◽  
The City

Every child has a right to an education. In the United States, the issue is not necessarily about access to a school but access to a quality education. With strict compulsory education laws, more than 50 million students enrolled in primary and secondary schools, and billions of dollars spent annually on public and private education, American children surely have access to buildings and classrooms. However, because of a complex and competitive system of shared policymaking among national, state, and local governments, not all schools are created equal nor are equal education opportunities available for the poor, minorities, and underprivileged. One manifestation of this inequity is the lack of qualified teachers in many urban and rural schools to teach certain subjects such as science, mathematics, and technology. The purpose of this article is to describe a partnership model between two major institutions (The American Museum of Natural History and The City University of New York) and the program designed to improve the way teachers are trained and children are taught and introduced to the world of science. These two institutions have partnered on various projects over the years to expand educational opportunity especially in the teaching of science. One of the more successful projects is Seminars on Science (SoS), an online teacher education and professional development program, that connects teachers across the United States and around the world to cutting-edge research and provides them with powerful classroom resources. This article provides the institutional perspectives, the challenges and the strategies that fostered this partnership.

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