Experiencing the City : How urban places are valued

"To be human is to live in a world filled with significant places: to be human is to have and to know your place." Edward Relph, 1976.

Doubles Vendors on The Brian Lara Promenade, POS.

Homeless People in Tamarind Square, POS.

As usual I was walking around POS, confused and wondering what photographs to take for this blog entry when something caught my attention. I always knew that there were doubles vendors on the promenade but I never paid attention to how many there were. Believe me, it was a lot more than I thought! Why were there so many doubles vendors on the promenade? Can't they go to other areas in the city to sell instead of concentrating on the promenade? Won't competition increase by having so many other vendors selling the same food? A simple 'yes' can be given as a response to all these questions, yet still they concentrate there. Perhaps those vendors valued the promenade more than other places in the city  to sell their doubles. Maybe it is because the promenade is immediately within city's central business district (CBD) where most consumption activities take place that the vendors feel the need to set up their stalls there. Excited by my ideas, I took a picture of some vendors and proceeded past the promenade looking for more ways that people value places in the city. Not far off I came across Tamarind Square where I noticed some vagrants/ homeless people relaxing and sleeping on the grass. Effortlessly, I realized how much more obvious the way that they valued the square was, in comparison to the vendors where I actually had to 'think' about why they valued the promenade. The homeless people could care less about the consumptive value of Tamarind Square and instead value the place because it serves as a temporary 'home' for them. Its amazing how differently places in the city, namely the CBD, are valued by various people.

One of the most treasured aspects of Trinidad and Tobago's culture is our cuisine. Hence the reason I decided to focus on the way the doubles vendors valued the promenade because doubles is a local favourite. Most vendors know that the chances of them making substantial amounts of money from sales would be high in the CBD. However, this is a matter of concern because such activities commercialize the promenade, thus taking away its authentic purpose which was to serve as a recreational area in celebration of the country's most recognized cricket player, Brian Lara. According to Relph (1976), this is an example of how the modern urban world has become characterized by inauthentic places and superficial relationships between people and place.

Homelessness is definitely an aspect of Trinidad and Tobago's culture due to the fact that the number of homeless people roaming the streets of POS is high. Seeing a vagrant in POS is 'normal' to the average citizen and as a result not much attention is given to the issue. It is interesting to look at how those people value urban place because of this. Their value of place reflects a more emotional relationship between people and place. Tamarind Square acts as a 'home' for several of the city's homeless people, thus their value of that urban place is more centered around feelings of security, safety, identity and belonging. This point was  made clearly by Tim Hall and Heather Barrett (2012, pg 236) : " Everyday life, for the vast majority of people at least, is anchored around places that provide senses of safety, security, identity and belonging. The most obvious of these places are the home and the neighbourhood."

Until next time!
Danielle :)