Abdali market appeared every Thursday in a central city bus depot.  Hundreds of vendors hawked clothes, housewares, toys, and tools at reasonable prices (outrageously cheap from an ex-pat point of view). There were food vendors and an extensive fruit and vegetable market.  Sellers stayed through Friday afternoon, some sleeping beneath their tables. Everything was orderly, clean, and covered by a patchwork roof of plastic tarps which kept the market cooler in summer, and protected in winter.

For months, there were rumors that the market was relocating to a new downtown site in Ras al Ain but the makeshift shops remained. In faltering Arabic, I’d ask my favorite vendors what was happening.  They’d laugh, fist-bump each other, and say they were staying put.  Then, in October, GAM closed the souk.

Around 100 street sellers clashed with anti-riot police. Protesters threw Molotov cocktails and the cops responded with tear gas, arresting several merchants. Then GAM bulldozed the stalls and immediately began work to tear up sections of pavement.  It was a violent end to an Amman tradition. (Image above is the aftermath of the riot).

Writer-disclosure: I’m a lifelong charity-shop-shopper, scoring deep discounts on old books, vinyl records, housewares, and clothes.  Men’s tuxedo pants and giant overcoats bought at American Salvation Army stores were the backbone of my university wardrobe. Here in Amman, I scoured the souk for supplies for my endless arts and crafts projects.  I’ve made mittens from moth-eaten cashmere sweaters and curtains from silk scarves.  I wasn’t alone.

Locals and foreigners from every layer of Amman’s economy used the souk; you could pick out foreign NGO workers, South Asian maids, and tourists looking for an off-the-path experience.  Friends who could afford to ski in Europe bought their jackets and ski pants at the souk for less than the price of coffee in a Zermatt cafe. Others would convert $50 raised at a school bake sale into two dozen warm hoodies to give to a local orphanage.  For many people, on many levels, this market worked.

For five weeks I searched the new Ras Al Ain site for vendors.  The large parking lot (7 acres) with ready-made stalls placed within neatly painted boundaries was empty.  Week after week, no one showed up.  It may have been a form of protest, or process delays (vendors needed to get permits).  For over a month, a guard said, “Insha’Allah, next week.”

Now the market is back. My guess is 50% of the vendors are still missing, and the produce stalls are gone.

GAM said the move alleviated traffic jams and safeguarded public health with medical facilities and added parking. The city is also studying adding Saturday to the mix for a 3-day market served by a shuttle bus. All good, plus the new site is visually interesting; it is ringed by concrete walls splattered with vivid graffiti.  The area seems empty by comparison to the old market, hopefully, over time, the remaining vendors will return.

As cities race towards modernity, it is critical that urban functionality remains. Sleek architecture may be a city’s face, but small economic and social engines like Abdali souk are it’s soul.

Image of old souk from The Jordan Times; all others by author

The post Jordan’s Abdali Souk revives in new setting appeared first on Green Prophet.

Italy’s RRC Studio has developed a master plan for Al Dhakira’s impressive expansion, which is expected to double the city’s size.

Coastal development throughout the Gulf region, including Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar, have had serious ramifications for the Persian Gulf’s ecosystems. Coral reefs have been wiped out, and mangrove forests have taken a hit as well.

Either Qatar seems to have learned from past errors, or RRC Studio has taken ecological matters into their own hands with a design that specifically makes room to leave the protected mangroves unharmed.

A continuous strip of green space will connect the two protected areas, creating a buffer zone between them and the city’s nucleus, which is organized around a renovated stadium and commercial district.

The design brief also calls for new housing units and villas that will be modeled after existing structures and the local landscape.

Density and a pedestrian-friendly layout are thought to be the holy grail of sensible urban design, but too much density often puts great strain on ecosystems.

RRC Studio has taken pains, at least in their plan, to ensure the density occurs away from the coastal area – further inland. Whether or not the rapid expansion will be able to keep pace with these honorable ideals remains to be seen.

:: Arch Daily

The post Qatari coastal city to double in size but won’t kill the mangroves (photos) appeared first on Green Prophet.

As a relatively infrequent visitor, the confusion of islands and waterways in this area ( 24°30’58.91″N  54°24’19.77″E) and the network of fast highways, reclaimed land, and new developments make instinctive navigation challenging, to say the least.

Pylons tend to be the scourge of scenic photographers. They stand so aggressively in the landscape, these most obvious and ubiquitous symbols of our relentless thirst for energy.

As a young photographer my tendency was to romanticise the landscape and avoid ugly intrusions, like pylons, in my compositions. Many was the occasion when I would elect not to waste film on an otherwise beautiful scene because it was marred by incongruous metal intrusions.

With the tools we have available today I doubtless would have taken the pictures anyway and removed the pylons afterwards on my computer. What a sad deception it would have been though!

Note from the editor: this photograph is part of a series called “Consumption” that seeks to document consumerism’s impact on the environment. From resource extraction and commodity production all the way down the supply chain to retail stores and waste processing facilities, Richard artfully examines what nature has come to mean in a world that depends on buying stuff.

The post Abu Dhabi energy pylons confuse perceptions of “land” use appeared first on Green Prophet.

Last weekend, hundreds of neighbors and activists demonstrated against a planned parking garage in the Lebanese capital. Over 300 park users, including kids and senior citizens, responded to a Facebook invitation to peaceably “protest against the demolition of Jesuit Garden,” a popular and ancient public park.

The tiny park was created by Jesuits who came to Lebanon in the 1600s to open schools. Built atop an ancient site that boasts Roman columns and Greek mosaics, the area occupies a city block and is filled with old growth trees. The Jesuit Garden, which houses a small library with 7,500 books in Arabic, French and English, was given to Beirut Municipality over fifty years ago.

Charles Hayak from the NGO Biladi, which organizes garden tours for schoolchildren, described how sailors built the original church. He told the Daily Star, “The best way to create peace is to learn about our common history.”

Demonstrators held signs in Arabic, French, and English saying “Cut pollution, not trees” and “We will not pay the price of your bad planning” according to Lebanon’s Daily Star.  They distributed fliers describing Beirut’s diminishing public spaces as well as the history of the nearby church that dates back to Byzantine times.

Participants took orderly turns on a stage to passionately express their opposition. “This is not a good project. They should think about people first,” said 75-year-old Benjamin Damirjian, a local who has visited the Jesuit Garden daily for over half a century. “I come to smell the fresh air and see the kids play.”

Beirut Municipality had just announced their intent to construct underground parking for 600 cars beneath the centuries-old garden, citing a lack of parking in Ashrafieh, the old Christian district.  Opponents say the hundred-foot tall, century-old pine trees with their extensive root systems wouldn’t survive construction, nor transplant to other sites. They also warn against noise and air pollution and predict that vibrations from excavators would damage the old church.

Jihad Kiame, an architect and urban planner who lives next to the park, said surveyors had appeared with heavy equipment to take soil samples last week. Local residents protested and eventually officials from the Directorate General of Antiquities (a subset of the Culture Ministry that must be consulted on any construction that impacts sites of historical importance) arrived and confronted the team.

“The new generation is looking for much more transparency in the process of deciding anything having to do with public spaces,” said Kiame, who said he often takes his small daughter to the park.

The municipality has promised to replant a new garden once the project is complete, but activists argue that the large trees are irreplaceable. Fadel Fakih, an environmental campaigner at NGO Green Line stated that exact plans for the project had not been released.

Local reports indicate the municipality plans to sell the spaces for thousands of dollars per square meter,  which points to financial motives trumping civic welfare. Taksim redux?

As the demonstration concluded, Fakih said, “This is a simple campaign to protect the garden. The parking garage needs to be stopped.”

Meanwhile, local activists are also working on stopping a new Beirut highway that will destroy the city’s remaining green space.

Image of protestor from the Daily Star

The post Taksim Redux? Lebanese Protest Over Loss of Beirut’s Ancient Jesuit Garden Park appeared first on Green Prophet.

A rather innocent stand for nature took a dramatic turn when police attacked the park protestors with pepper spray and destroyed their tents during the early hours of the morning on May 30, 2013.

Now, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in cities across Turkey – from Ankara to Izmir – despite a violent government crackdown.

“Police are throwing gas bombs from helicopters,” a Turkish designer told us on condition of anonymity.

“Artists are on the street too,” he said. “They are surrounded by police; they are under attack; hotels are accepting people, giving free rooms and doctors are on the street.”

Local media report that their own staff have been injured by tear gas canisters. Others on the street have suffered broken bones and serious head injuries.

Amnesty International has condemned the violent response to nonviolent civil disobedience.

“Amnesty International calls on the authorities to carry out a prompt, independent and impartial investigation into the allegations of excessive and unnecessary use of force, and ensure that any law enforcement officials responsible for arbitrary or abusive use of force to be prosecuted,” the group said in a statement.

“Amnesty International also calls on the authorities to ensure protestors’ rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.”

On Monday, construction to build a new mega shopping complex began in Gezi Park, prompting protestors to set up an Occupy-styled tent protest.

Mashallah News reports that just 1.5 percent of Istanbul is dedicated to green space.

Meanwhile, the government has launched an ambitious campaign to “grow” the city with a slew of development projects despite widespread opposition to the further concretization of a once-vibrant city.

Turkey was largely shielded from the Arab Spring uprisings, but now the people are pushing back.

“People are fighting for nature,” a source told us. “Unbelievable.”

“We do not have a government, we have Tayyip Erdogan,” political scientist and protester Koray Caliskan told the Reuters news agency.

“They are not listening to us,” he added. “This is the beginning of a summer of discontent.”

For background, read these stories on Green Prophet to learn more about Taksim Square and what the original demonstrators are fighting against:

Controversial Renovation on Istanbul’s Taksim Square has Begun

Istanbul’s Taksim Square To Become Lifeless And Isolated In New Urban Plan, Opponents Warn

Lead image via picadambaattin, Twitter. For more great, and sometimes disturbing images, follow #occupygezi on Tumblr

The post One Dies in Istanbul as Thousands Protest for Turkish Nature Preservation appeared first on Green Prophet.

The largest collection of theme parks in the world is growing in Dubai, an enormous development of “pleasure zones” with no completion date in sight. They’re not short on money (having raised $55 billion in private investment for the first phase alone); the open end date is largely attributed to the park’s relentless ambitions to expand and develop.

It’s going to be a new city in the desert, a metropolis of actual and virtual fun-tastic amusements where you can live and work and play (and undergo surgery and food shop and be arrested).
The project was unveiled in 2003, with initial plans to spread six distinct “worlds” over 100 square miles. There is Attractions and Experience World, Sports and Outdoor World, and Eco-Tourism World, followed by Themed Leisure and Vacation World, Retail and Entertainment World, and Downtown World.  In total, the complex promised 45 “mega-parks” and hundreds of lesser attractions.

Then, like Sleeping Beauty, it fell asleep.

The 2008 global money mess saw most of the projects shelved and the workforce fired. American entertainment giants including DreamWorks, Universal Studios and Six Flags dropped out of the project.

But Dubai development is relentless, and last September, Dubai Properties Group announced the revival of their Mudon residential project, estimating early 2014 completion.

Some construction resumed this year, with the 72,000 square meter Dubai Miracle Gardens opening last March.  Four areas are now operational, but still undergoing construction:

• Dubai Motor City
• Dubai Outlet Mall
• Global Village
• Al Sahra Desert Resort

Actual development has clearly scaled back.  The reality, pictured below, is incompatible with artists’ renderings.

But this is Dubai, surely someday some variant of this thing will hatch. And what about its environmental impacts?

Attempts to find a formal assessment proved futile; it’s possible each development is being treated as a standalone project.  But positive features promised by, say, “Eco-Tourism World” are surely be offset by the “Snowdome”  that will house a mountain ski deck and snow play area, a toboggan run and ice rink, and something called a “penguin-arium”.

Author disclaimer: I’m allergic to theme parks.  Scratch that: I hate theme parks.  Revise that. I’d chew off my right arm rather than spend time in another American theme park, historically the world’s biggest and loudest and most crammed with overspent, overstressed families. But I have kids, there’s no escape.

The official tagline for Disneyland – I’m talking the original Pasadena park – is “The Happiest Place on Earth”, an ironic claim given the armies of crying kids and frustrated parents, standard ticket-holders every day I went.

What will Dubaiworld’s catchphrase be?

The post Futuristic Dubailand Theme Park City Growing Ahead With $55 Billion appeared first on Green Prophet.

Until a recent urban renewal project that forced most residents out, the neighborhood of Tarlabaşı was home to a diverse array of Istanbul’s minority populations.

In the early 20th century, Tarlabaşı’s winding streets and colorful buildings were home to many of the city’s Greek residents. After violence against the Greek population their mass emigration from Turkey, Roma and Kurdish families moved in. But today, a municipal plan to turn the area into a wealthier, more mainstream neighborhood has forced out most families — and is making life miserable for the residents who refuse to leave, reports independent media agency Bianet.

Forced to collect rainwater for drinking

The Ber family profiled by three Bianet reporters are, like many modern residents of the neighborhood, recent immigrants to Istanbul from Turkey’s eastern regions.

Their house is certified as cultural heritage by the Istanbul municipality. But because it stands in the way of the urban renewal plans, they were offered approximately 35,000 Euros two years ago to leave and move to a different part of the city. For a family of ten, it will be impossible to find a suitable house for that amount on today’s market, so they refused the offer and stayed.

Other Tarlabaşı residents who demanded more money for their houses were personally threatened, so most of them caved in, took the money, and left, says Ali Ber.

The city is already sending the Bers threatening messages. Recently, their water was cut, forcing the family to collect rainwater for drinking. When Ali Ber asked the municipality why, he was simply informed that the family “could have already been evicted.”

More information about the ongoing gentrification of Tarlabaşı can be found at Tarlabaşı Istanbul.

A recurring problem

“Urban renewal” projects in Istanbul rarely renew their target areas.

The neighborhood of Sulukule was also predominantly inhabited by Roma until the city evicted most residents to make way for planned gentrification. By the time an Istanbul court annulled the project last year, saying it violated the area’s heritage protections and the residents’ rights, most houses had already been destroyed and hundreds of new villas were under construction.

In the city’s main square, Taksim, a more high-profile controversial renovation has begun. The Taksim Project, as it’s known, will replace the square’s adjacent park with a reproduction of old military barracks and a shopping mall, and will isolate the square from surrounding neighborhoods by transforming streets into highways.

Construction on the Taksim Project is now underway, despite the protests of many urban planners, environmentalists, and citizens, none of whom were consulted on the project.

:: Bianet

Read more about controversial urban planning in Istanbul:

Controversial Renovation of Istanbul’s Taksim Square Has Begun

Istanbul’s Main Square To Become Lifeless and Isolated In New Urban Plan, Opponents Warn

Istanbul Court Annuls Almost-Finished Roma Neighborhood Project

Image via m-lodious

The post Istanbul Municipality Forces Neighborhood To Make Way For Planned Gentrification appeared first on Green Prophet.

The HavvAda artificial island was designed as an antidote to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s proposal to build a canal between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. The project has scores of critics, who worry about the environmental and regional impact opening up this waterway could have.

The 48 km canal, which could be completed as soon as 2023, would provide an alternative Mediterranean access route to the cluttered Bosphorous waterway, but it could also displace as much as one billion cubic meters of dirt. Developers commissioned renowned designer Dror Benshetrit to envision a solution to this problem. Read on to find out what he came up with.

Benshetrit has an enormous design portfolio, which includes designs sold the US chain store Target, but the HavvAda artificial island project is a first for him.

The dirt displaced by building the canal would be moulded into six hills on a man-made island near Istanbul. These would be supported by giant geodesic domes that form their own mini-climate and are arranged around a central core.

This unique arrangement enables, among other things, people to get from one point of the city to another within twelve minutes.

Each of the six domes would share infrastructure in what Benshetrit calls 3-dimensional design and the valleys created by the mounds of earth would be used as natural recreational areas.

Commercial buildings would be placed on the outside of each dome and residential facilities would be placed inside; a system of cable cars and other forms of public transportation would cut down the use and necessity of individual vehicles.

The island could accommodate 300,000 residents, who would enjoy a great deal less pollution, overcrowding and traffic than most city dwellers face today.

Benshetrit does not suggest that HavvAda is a panacea for urban development, but he does believe this is a starting point for re-invisioning how we build or design cities. This is an “evolving proposal,” he told Co.Design.

The post HavvAda Artificial Island Made from Giant Globs of Dirt From Istanbul Canal appeared first on Green Prophet.

A relief to the environment as Israel allots money to upgrade poorly services sewers in Arab towns.

Last Wednesday, Israeli Energy and Water Resources Minister Uzi Landau announced the government is allocating NIS 355 million to improve the sewerage systems in Arab neighborhoods across Israel. In recent years, the neglected and dilapidated sewer infrastructures in several Arab towns have collapsed, polluting nearby streams and nature reserves, including Nahal Kziv and Nahal Beit Hakerem in the Galilee.

The environmental group Zalul appeared last Wednesday before the Knesset Interior (the Israeli parliament) and Environment Committee to propose the creation of a fund to support the repair of sewage problems in poor cities not serviced by major water or sewage corporations, mainly Arab villages. Zalul warned that the NIS 335 million (about $85 million) would be spent in vain without plans and funds to maintain these systems.

The group estimates that because small cities can’t afford to keep up expensive sewage systems, around 20 percent of their wastewater ends up in local streams – a reason why the Jordan River is nearly dead. Solid waste management is also a severe problem in these areas, as these municipalities generally lack the funds for regular trash collection.

Over half of Arab-Israeli families live in poverty according to a 2011 report by Adalah, a legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel. The study also revealed that a disproportionate amount of Arab-Israelis live in over-crowded areas. Compounding the strains caused by crumbling infrastructure.

Israel’s minority communities have been able to retain a high level of independence and self-reliance if they choose. For example, the city of Jisr al Zarka, a 500-year-old village inhabited by Arab-Israelis that traditionally live as fishermen. But, as with Jisr al Zarka, this seclusion often comes at the cost of insufficient infrastructure and scant access to national resources. In order to address this problem without diluting cultural identity, perhaps Israel should turn to the growing number of high-tech Arab-Israeli innovators.

The UN recently commended an Israeli wastewater treatment facility known as Shafdan, for utilizing local resources and leadership. Shafdan is primarily managed by the community rather than national corporations. However, Israel’s national water company still offers Shafdan support to strategize and resolve problems that arise. Arab communities need similar innovations, planned and operated by the community with support from national sources.

::Haaretz

Image of Acre via Shutterstock

Read more about the environment and infrastructure in Arab-Israeli communities:

Arab School Scoops a Coveted Israeli Green Globe Award

Acre Father Aims to Make His Capital Green

Israeli Arabs and Jews Throw Out The Garbage Together

The post Arab Towns Get Sewerage Upgrade in Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.

Sulukule was declared a target area for “urban transformation” by the Turkish cabinet in 2006. Six years, four lawsuits, and many evictions later, an Istanbul court has finally declared the project not to be in the public interest, reports Turkish independent media center Bianet. In the meantime, however, irreparable demolition and damage has occurred to the area and its residents.

“Social ostracization, gentrification and urban profiteering”

Turkey’s Housing Development Administration (TOKİ) began construction in Sulukule in May 2009.

Since then, large areas of the old neighborhood buildings have been demolished to make way for 640 villas. The new houses have all sold out at prices far beyond what a typical Roma family can afford. At most, 50 Roma families would be able to stay in the neighborhood.

TOKİ promised the displaced Roma families new housing in a neighborhood much farther from the city center. But some 300 of those families had difficulty making their payments to TOKİ on time, and have been forced out of those houses as well.

The whole project has been condemned by Turkish and international civil society groups and termed a  “social ostracization, gentrification and urban profiteering” scheme by the World Heritage Committee. Now, thanks to the court’s verdict, a new plan will have to be devised: one that accommodates the Roma and doesn’t ruin the historical skyline.

Victory at last — but is it too late?

The court ruled to annul the project in response to three separate lawsuits, filed by the Istanbul Chamber of Architects, the Chamber of Urban Planners and the Roma Cultural Advancement and Solidarity Association.

The plaintiffs argued that the project targeted a protected area, hadn’t received proper clearance from the Regional Conservation Council, and violated the Roma community’s property rights.

An additional suit filed by the Roma Association and three Roma citizens in the European Court of Human Rights is currently pending, and could increase the damages won by the Roma community.

The annulment may have to be enforced, however. Construction was still ongoing in the area a few days after the Istanbul court announced its decision, according to a representative of the Sulukule civil platform against the development.

And the question remains: what will happen to the 640 villas that have already been erected on the site, or the residents whose houses were destroyed?

The plague of “urban transformation” in Turkey

In Istanbul, massive housing developments have been sprouting all over the horizon in the past decade. With the blessing of TOKİ, many other modest neighborhoods historically occupied by poorer ethnic minorities have been transformed into high-rise apartments for the upper-middle class. The excellent documentary Ekümenopolis explores this process in depth.

Other efforts by the state to “transform” Turkey’s urban landscape have been misguided at best.

Last month, for example, the government declared 4.1 million acres of land previously classified as forest to be open for development, a move that Turkey’s Union of Engineers and Architects decried as opening the land to “loot and plunder” on an unprecedented scale. The government is currently promoting a plan to cut off Istanbul’s main square, Taksim, from the rest of the city and replace its park with a mall.

:: Bianet

Read more about urban development in Turkey:
4.1 Million Acres Of Land Previously Classified As Forest Goes On Sale In Turkey Today
Istanbul’s Main Square To Become Lifeless And Isolated In New Urban Plan, Opponents Warn
Bosphorus To Become Center Of Hydrogen Energy Production If Second Canal Is Built

Image via InuraIstanbul2009

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