Urban Decay or the Uncanny Return of Dionysus

Written in the familiar genre of ruin poems, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’ (1818) is well-expressive of the poet’s profound hatred of tyranny. One of the distinctive features of the poem is the vividly visual images it provides of the ruined statue and the desert as the setting of the poem. Focusing on the images of the desert and ruins, and using the concept of urban decay and mytho-archetypal notions, this study attempts to show that the ruins of the poem anticipate the modern phenomenon of urban decay as the return of the repressed in city-forms. However, what the poem presents as destruction, death, ruins and decay is in fact the potential of bringing about spring and regeneration. Reading this poem in the light of the mentioned concepts provides the reader with an understanding of the function of the ruins in Shelley’s poems as an uncanny Dionysian defiance against both the tyranny of his age and the rationalism of the Enlightenment period.

DC hardcore, gentrification and punk urbanism

This article examines the narratives that enabled and legitimized the gentrification of several neighbourhoods of Washington DC during the 1980s. What links each of the neighbourhoods (Georgetown, Mt. Pleasant, Adams Morgan, sections of the U Street/Shaw neighbourhood and parts of Penn Quarter) is that all experienced gentrification after the arrival of punk communities to their spaces in the early 1980s. I argue that DC punk urbanism is tied to a process through which middle- and upper-class suburban youth valorize neighbourhoods marked by urban decay and disinvestment, occupy those spaces without putting themselves into relation with already existing subaltern urbanisms and subsequently replace the neighbourhood fabrics of the residents who formerly lived there with their own.

Performing an Anti-Homeless City

In the time of globalization, many cities, including the city of Victoria in BC, have engaged in a development model fueled by investment, tourism, and economic immigration. This model requires public authorities to implement policies that contribute to making cities worthy of capital, tourists, and immigrants. Digital connectivity, real estate development, local amenities, and revitalized neighbourhoods are essential ingredients for economic development. In contrast, poverty and urban decay are not good for the way of life that politicians, entrepreneurs, tourists, and urbanites desire. Therefore, all visual manifestations of urban decay, including homelessness, should be restricted by law. In response to this development model, homeless people are forced to perform actions that are banned like building tent cities in parks. In doing so, homeless people challenge exclusionary legal and spatial orderings that support anti-homeless cities. This paper develops a performativity-based approach to legal geography to contribute to the debate about homelessness in Canada. Rather than focusing on the social right to housing, my argument in this paper zeroes in on the right to use urban space without being excluded. To this goal, I explore interactions between local authorities, homeless people, and other social actors in Victoria to explain that reiterated human interaction is the means to perform and rectify legal and spatial orderings that segregate homeless people. Thus, the performativity-based approach to legal geography developed throughout this paper illustrates not only how anti-homeless cities are socially performed, but also how they are collectively contested.

Urban decay: a case study of the negatives in the Toronto Telegram fonds, Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections

The negatives in the Toronto Telegram fonds (1876-1971), at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections at York University, in Toronto, Canada are representative of eras in history and are of great historical, geographic and intrinsic value. The declining condition of the negatives is of significant concern for the longevity of these photographic artifacts. The fundamental value this fonds has to support research and teaching at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Library and York University must be recognized. My research concentrates on the 830,000 negatives, which include glass plate, cellulose nitrate, and cellulose acetate materials, all suffering from minor to severe forms of chemical and physical degradation. Vinegar syndrome is a major problem; the consequences of which are permanently deformed cellulose acetate negatives. This case study investigates the deteriorating condition of each type of negative within this fonds, and suggests appropriate measures for decelerating degradation.

Urban decay: a case study of the negatives in the Toronto Telegram fonds, Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections

The negatives in the Toronto Telegram fonds (1876-1971), at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections at York University, in Toronto, Canada are representative of eras in history and are of great historical, geographic and intrinsic value. The declining condition of the negatives is of significant concern for the longevity of these photographic artifacts. The fundamental value this fonds has to support research and teaching at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Library and York University must be recognized. My research concentrates on the 830,000 negatives, which include glass plate, cellulose nitrate, and cellulose acetate materials, all suffering from minor to severe forms of chemical and physical degradation. Vinegar syndrome is a major problem; the consequences of which are permanently deformed cellulose acetate negatives. This case study investigates the deteriorating condition of each type of negative within this fonds, and suggests appropriate measures for decelerating degradation.

Analysis of vacant and abandoned properties in the City of Toronto.

The city of Toronto is in the midst of unprecedented development fuelled by low-interest mortgage rates, foreign investment and staggering commute times. Despite this, a small percentage of properties remain vacant or abandoned in Toronto. This paper identifies the types of properties that are vacant and abandoned, assesses the property stock for degree of decay and re-examines the appropriateness of the classification of 'vacant' and 'abandoned'. This research indicates that vacant buildings in Toronto transition to abandonment for reasons that may be different from American cities. Vacancy in Toronto may be more affected by lengthy planning approvals, development financing and issues of site acquisition, more than urban decay or blight. The research further indicates that most vacant and abandoned buildings in Toronto are residential, commercial vacancy is transient by nature and industrial abandonment is found mostly along existing railway corridors.

Analysis of vacant and abandoned properties in the City of Toronto.

The city of Toronto is in the midst of unprecedented development fuelled by low-interest mortgage rates, foreign investment and staggering commute times. Despite this, a small percentage of properties remain vacant or abandoned in Toronto. This paper identifies the types of properties that are vacant and abandoned, assesses the property stock for degree of decay and re-examines the appropriateness of the classification of 'vacant' and 'abandoned'. This research indicates that vacant buildings in Toronto transition to abandonment for reasons that may be different from American cities. Vacancy in Toronto may be more affected by lengthy planning approvals, development financing and issues of site acquisition, more than urban decay or blight. The research further indicates that most vacant and abandoned buildings in Toronto are residential, commercial vacancy is transient by nature and industrial abandonment is found mostly along existing railway corridors.