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Interesting example of "regeneration" - designing future cities to make them more "resilient" to climate change.

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With her hand stretched upward, the elderly storekeeper in batik dress and white headscarf indicates the height of the waters that poured into her home in Jakarta's great flood of 2007. Sukaesih is a diminutive figure, but she points to a ridge on the doorframe about two metres above the threshold.

The 60-year-old grandmother, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, lives in the down-at-heel waterfront neighbourhood of Muara Baru. Her front room-turned-store, where she sells soft drinks and the clove kretek cigarettes beloved of locals, looks unassuming, but is at ground zero for the city's battle for survival.

Just across the alleyway is the stone seawall that was reinforced and heightened after 2007, but is already cracking, buckling and leaking. The fortification is all that stands between these homes and the waters of Jakarta Bay, which lap just beneath the rim on the other side. Filthy water already seeps through the cracks continuously, leaving streams of muddy run-off flowing in front of Sukaesih's shop. When tides are high, the water pours over.

"We live with this reality every day," Sukaesih says, looking out at the embankment. "Water comes in through the wall all the time, and it comes over the top whenever there's a high tide."

The biggest problem, however, is that the seawall itself - the only thing protecting Sukaesih's community from inundation - is sinking.

Forget Venice, which is slowly dropping into its watery foundations at an estimated rate of 2mm per year. That's a drop in the ocean compared to Indonesia's capital, particularly its northern belt, where four million people live in neighbourhoods that are now up to four metres below sea level. Areas of north Jakarta, including the seawall designed to protect them, are sinking at an estimated 25cm a year.

"I have been here since 1981 but I don't know how long we can stay. The water gets higher every year," Sukaesih says - referring to the danger that is, in fact, posed by the ground sinking beneath her feet.

Jakarta is sinking because of subsidence. The city does not pipe in enough drinkable water, so Jakartans rely largely on wells which extract water from shallow aquifers. The result: the land above it collapses.

As the sinking continues, the danger of a catastrophic flood grows

The problem is exacerbated by the explosion of new apartment blocks, shopping malls and even government offices, which - despite official restrictions on groundwater extraction - not only draw water from this porous ground but also add to the weight compacting it. The concretisation of Jakarta has also led to increased run-off, making flooding worse while not replenishing the ground water supplies.

As the sinking continues at a rate unparalleled in any other urban area in the world, the danger of a catastrophic flood grows, caused not by devastating seawater surges or storms - but by monsoon rain-swollen rivers bursting their banks because gravity no longer helps them flow out into the bay.

There is a desperate need to supply potable water to the city from reservoirs to the east and west. But while plans for pipelines remain in the pipeline, some experts claim Jakarta is careening towards the point of no return.

The city: 'Two years to save northern Jakarta'

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A mother and a child walk on a flooded street during a high tide in Muara Angke, North Jakarta. Photograph: Kemal Jufri for the Guardian

Set in a basin of low-lying plains criss-crossed by 13 rivers, Jakarta - home to 10 million, with a total of 30 million living in the sprawl of Greater Jakarta - owes its existence to its waterfront location and geography.

The natural harbour was for several centuries an important port for its Hindu and then Muslim rulers, before Dutch settlers seized control and established the trading post of Batavia as capital of their East Indies territories.

The perils of flooding are as old as the city. The Dutch, the masters of such challenges at home, built a network of canals in an attempt to control the flow of waters, but never mastered them. Now, as the city sinks so dramatically, Dutch engineers and businessmen are again offering their proposals to defeat encroaching waters and reclaim land.

"We all knew that Jakarta was sinking back in the 90s and indeed earlier, but nobody was that worried or really had any idea of the extent," says JanJaap Brinkman, a hydrologist with the Dutch research institute Deltares, who has spent most of his adult life working on Jakarta's watery woes.

With more than 50 people dead and 300,000 forced to evacuate their homes, 2007 was a startling wake-up call

"Then came the floods in 2007. When we studied the data and looked at the mapping, we discovered the city was sinking not perhaps by a centimetre or so per year, as had previously been thought, but by 5-10cm on average, and much more in places."

With more than 50 people dead and 300,000 forced to evacuate their homes as waters covered more than a third of the city, 2007 was a startling wake-up call. The solution on paper was simple - the city must supply clean piped water, and end its dependency on groundwater extraction.

Tokyo did just that in the 1960s after sinking more than four metres during the 20th century. Within a decade, says Brinkman, pointing to graphs on his laptop, that downward trajectory was permanently halted.

But in Jakarta, there has been no significant progress in the nine years after the floods, thanks to a combination of financial restraints, competing infrastructure demands, and the sclerotic impact of the highly decentralised system of government introduced in response to the Suharto dictatorship. Brinkman, his good humour at times tested by this inertia, says there are now only two years left to act, or it will be too late to save northern Jakarta from disaster.

Jakarta's Great Garuda seawall plan

There is another dramatic and controversial plan to save the world's fastest-sinking city from itself: the so-called Giant Sea Wall and Great Garuda projects.

At the heart of the proposals - with an estimated cost of as much as $40 billion - is a massive dike arcing 25 miles across Jakarta Bay which would create a vast manmade lagoon, with a new coastal megacity to be built around it on reclaimed land.

The project, officially known as the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD) programme, was backed with aid from the Dutch government, embraced by Indonesia's president Joko Widodo, a former governor of Jakarta, and is now being championed by a Dutch-led consortium.

The land reclamation dates back to a stalled plan from the President Suharto era to create 17 new islets off the city's coastline. But it has morphed into a much more ambitious concept for a colossal new waterfront city, fanning out from sea wall in the shape of a garuda - the mythical bird of Hindu origin that is the country's national symbol - with a multilane ring road for the perennially traffic-clogged capital running along its rim.

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Residents fill up a water tank with clean water. North Jakarta is sinking, mostly due to overconsumption of ground water. Photograph: Kemal Jufri for the Guardian

From above, the designers' illustrations for the Great Garuda project are redolent of the artificial Palm islands off the shore of Dubai. Its prospective developers also looked closer to home for inspiration, planning to build glitzy skyscrapers, luxury flats, shopping malls and attractions similar to Singapore's Sentosa Island.

Champions say the Giant Sea Wall will soon be the only way to save the city from catastrophic floods sweeping across the northern belt of land, with the new islands providing the financing by tapping into the monies of property development tycoons. But the schemes are now mired in lawsuits, scandals and moral controversy - particularly over the mass evictions of traditional fishing villages and waterfront communities, many of which have been bulldozed flat.

Critics - a broad coalition of Indonesian scientists, land activists and local residents - say it is an outlandish and unnecessary project that would wreak environmental and social disaster. They argue the lives of traditional fishing communities are being destroyed as mass evictions are imposed, with whole neighbourhoods razed and residents relocated more than 10 miles away.

They also claim that walling off the bay would turn it into a "septic lagoon" of trapped freshwater. With little sewage treatment for the river water pouring into the bay, this corporate attempt to "sanitise" Jakarta's waterfront could end up having exactly the opposite effect.

The rivers: 'Everyone agrees we need to do this now'

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A worker cleans up trash on a recently revitalised river in West Jakarta. Photograph: Kemal Jufri for the Guardian

What is not in dispute is the need for urgent action. Just in front of the old fortification at Muara Baru, thick new pilings are being driven into the seafloor to provide a higher and stronger defence against the waters. Few people object to this, the start of Phase A of NCICD programme.

"This is the 'no regrets' stage, as everyone agrees that we need to do this now," says Tuty Kusumawati, head of the Jakarta planning department, as she pores over maps and diagrams of the waterfront.

To deal with the freshwater flooding, heavily polluted and rubbish-strewn rivers are being widened, dredged, cleaned and protected with new concrete barriers, in initiatives ordered by Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the governor known to all by his nickname, Ahok.

Some critics in its former colony are sceptical about the motives of Dutch government-funded consultants and businessmen

For the smaller rivers that have already sunk too far to flow out to sea, pumping stations and polders are being built, with reservoirs to hold water at times of heavy rain and flooding. But some experts say there aren't large enough pumps or sufficient land available to deal with the larger rivers - hence the call for more dramatic intervention.

When presented with the proposal for the Giant Sea Wall, the Indonesian government asked the Dutch consultants to deliver a more ambitious concept to accompany it. From that request, the design for the Great Garuda was born.

The Netherlands is an undisputed bastion of international expertise on fighting the seas and land reclamation. But in its former colony, some critics have expressed scepticism about the motives of the Dutch government-funded consultants and businessmen proposing such a colossal scheme.

Victor Coenen, the project manager for Witteveen+Bos, the engineering consultancy that heads the Giant Sea Wall consortium, shrugs off the criticism. "Fine, if they don't want our help, then we can go elsewhere," he says. "But it is the Indonesian government that has asked for Dutch assistance to deal with the flooding, and it is Dutch government money that is helping."

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'If they don't want our help, then we can go elsewhere,' says Victor Coenen, project manager of Dutch engineering consultancy Witteveen+Bos. Photograph: Kemal Jufri for the Guardian

This week's visit to Indonesia by a high-profile Dutch trade mission, headed by the prime minister, Mark Rutte, is giving fresh impetus to the debate. The Save the Jakarta Bay Coalition, an alliance of groups opposed to the scheme, has written to Rutte spelling outs their fears and criticisms.

"The Dutch are well known for their flood mitigation measures," the letter notes. "These measures adopt a complex approach, which follows the principles of environmental and social protection and good governance. [But] what is happening in Indonesia is entirely the opposite. We are deeply concerned about the livelihood loss and infringement of human rights, as well as irreparable environmental damage, caused by the project.

"We therefore stress that, if your government and the Indonesian government insist on building the NCICD, tens of thousands of people connected to small-scale fisheries will lose their livelihood."

The widening and fortification of the city's rivers has already seen the eviction of thousands from kampung communities that have sprung up along its rivers and reservoirs. Bulldozers are often deployed with just a few days notice and residents ordered to move to new concrete public housing, often miles away from the waterfront where they work.

According to Brinkman, however, "There are only two options, retreat or advance. We either abandon and evacuate north Jakarta, which is a non-starter, or we advance out into the bay with the seawall."

The bay: creating a septic lagoon?

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$40bn to save Jakarta: the story of the Great Garuda

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Forget Venice. The fastest-sinking city is the Indonesian capital, parts of which are dropping at 25cm a year. Can an outlandish plan for a giant seawall and luxury waterworld city in the shape of a mythical bird save Jakarta from drowning?

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AW: Piece on culture, heritage and the regeneration of Leeds

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AW: Piece on culture, heritage and the regeneration of Leeds

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It is Saturday evening and a queue of clubbers stretches around Hope House, an old metal foundry built in 1820 in the Leeds neighbourhood of Mabgate. Inside, German house music specialist Motor City Drum Ensemble is performing a sold-out show. Revellers undulate to the bass around four towering, homemade wooden sound systems.

It's an unconventional fundraising strategy for an educational programme aimed at children excluded from school - but an effective one. The club night is in service of Music and Arts Production ( Map), a charity which provides at-risk young people with access to a range of art and music courses. Map is partly funded by events like this - named Cosmic Slop - and by hosting independent creative traders and art exhibitions in the Hope House building itself.

It is a fragile way to fund a charity - and one which will not, with any likelihood, work for much longer. This month, Leeds' new, glistening Victoria Gate shopping centre opened near Mabgate. Complete with a super casino, high-end boutiques and a towering John Lewis department store, it's an imposing cultural and economic statement with the power to change whole neighbourhoods.

Tom Smith, co-founder of Map, fears they will bear the brunt of that change. Their 10-year lease expires in 2019. "The landlord bought the property knowing there's going to be a John Lewis shopping centre next door, and it will be worth a fortune in five or 10 years, so they've sat on it," he says. But not any more: "They're on their 14th amendment of an application for planning permission now - it's just the heritage committee that is holding it back."

Mabgate is something of a hidden gem in artistic circles. It's a gritty, graffiti-smeared space on the fringe of the city centre, and until recently was home to a red-light district. Peppered with empty takeaway wrappers and abandoned two-storey industrial mills, it has also long been the unofficial 'Leeds arts quarter', home to all manner of artists, musicians, writers, photographers and designers, attracted by the cheap rents and sense of freedom.

As the John Lewis store prepared to open, locals began to see a change in the area. Property developers began circling; the sex trade was effectively legalised in another part of the city centre, drawing away the prostitutes. It became clear that the neighbourhood was being cleaned up with an eye to wholescale "regeneration".

"We found out through tricking one of the surveyors, by telling him we knew about the plans for the area," says Simon Walker, who manages the Temple of Boom music venue in Mabgate. "We got him to show us a front elevation for this area. The place we're sat in now was completely flattened."

Few people here own their land, and with leases expiring, locals would be powerless to resist the new plans.

"It was gutting to see because over the years we've financed all the maintenance of these buildings, and it has become the beating heart of what we call the arts quarter," says Walker. "It's not nice to see landlords or the council making any plans behind our backs. It would be nice to think that we can convince them that what we're doing is worthwhile and is of value."

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One of several Sex Pistols covers by Jamie Reid, who had a studio in Temple Works. Photograph: Alamy

For evidence of how regeneration can flatten a cultural community, locals point to Holbeck, an area on the other side of Leeds city centre, home to Temple Works.

This vast Victorian flax mill has an Egyptian-style facade that gives it the air of something out of Indiana Jones; it is one of the few Grade-I listed buildings in the area. Until earlier this year, Temple Works housed 65 resident artists, hosted fundraising events and held an artistic education programme. Jamie Reid, who designed the Sex Pistols' graphics, had a studio here.

The manager was Susan Williamson, a social scientist by trade. "I was originally there to sort out what we could do in terms of planning to turn it into a big cultural venue like the Tate Modern," she says over the phone from her new office in London. "But, due to ownership and funding, we ended up running it as an alternative, underground place."

For nearly a decade, Temple Works was a cornerstone of the local creative community. Then the council announced the area was being regenerated, and the owners wanted to sell.

"I myself found a wonderful buyer for the place," Williamson recalls. "But they were gazumped by Burberry and we all had to leave."

Though the opening of the fashion brand's new distribution centre was put on hold after the Brexit vote, the artistic centre that was Temple Works is now gone for good.

"It was a really inspiring place," says artist Dave Lynch, citing a project he worked on with the scientist Mile Nix to project images on to clouds. "It was the size -being in such a big space allows you to think about big things. The cloud projection is a big thing really, a ridiculous idea. But I was in a place where I could test out things on a large scale."

Reid, too, says his work was influenced by the surroundings there. "It always is. That's why working in sterile galleries can result in dull exhibitions."

How did he feel when Temple Works was shuttered? I don't like it but it's always been like that," he says, noting that there is an irony to such developments. "Croydon was 'regenerated' in the 60s at the expense of the community, and now the regeneration is being knocked down and regenerated. The Victorian parts they missed in the first wave are now the 'heritage quarter'."

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Byron Street Mills, one of the shared workspaces in Mabgate that are threatened by new development. Photograph: Paul Jones

In an emailed statement, a Leeds City Council spokesperson argued that "much of the regeneration that has taken place has been anchored by the creative and digital sectors" and it has created significant employment. They added: "In relation to Temple Works, after the temporary licence for artists expired, the council successfully supported all organisations located there to find new facilities where they wanted to stay in the city. We also provided logistical and property support to enable them to find new locations."

The statement described Leeds' bid to become the European Capital of Culture in 2023. "It will be supported by a new culture strategy for the city, which will include a plan for future cultural infrastructure. This may not always take the form of major capital investments but rather consider alternatives such as studio spaces, maker spaces, community centres and parks."

Meanwhile, cultural infrastructure such as Map is fighting to stay alive. "We are helping a lot of kids in Leeds who are in really bad situations," Smith says. "If we have to move into a different place, we'll definitely have to downsize. Which means we'll be a much less effective organisation with a lot less benefits to young people."

They are working with a network of partners on a bid to buy the whole building of Hope House, in order to provide a collective sanctuary for independent creatives who work in the same areas as the charity does: music production, illustration and more. Smith dreams of offering an apprenticeship scheme within that network.

But there's nothing to guarantee that they won't be outbid, just like Temple Works. If that happens, the loss to the neighbourhood could be profound.

"It's really important for people to be able to express themselves; to be part of a scene," says Smith. "There are a lot of people that come to live in Leeds purely because of the music and art. I don't think the council always appreciate the indirect revenue it brings in."
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* This article was amended on 8 November 2016 to clarify that Victoria Gate is near, rather than in, Mabgate and that Leeds has more than two Grade I listed buildings
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John Lewis blues: could regeneration destroy Leeds' much-loved arts quarter?

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It is Saturday evening and a queue of clubbers stretches around Hope House, an old metal foundry built in 1820 in the Leeds neighbourhood of Mabgate. Inside, German house music specialist Motor City Drum Ensemble is performing a sold-out show.

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AW: Interesting article on how we might 'regenerate' to build an alternative vision of the city

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AW: Interesting article on how we might 'regenerate' to build an alternative vision of the city

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Public Space Protection Orders as a tool of 'regeneration' / cleansing.

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Rushcliffe borough council in Nottinghamshire has introduced spot fines for extreme cases of anti-social behaviour under the public space protection order (PSPO) powers given to councils by the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. Reports claimed the council planned to issue £100 spot fines to homeless people - the council countered that these fines would be used as a last resort. But the terms under which the council states it will enforce these powers are vague and subjective: while many people will not be affronted by the sight of a rough sleeper on a bench, for others a homeless person bedding down in a park is seen as threatening their use of public space.

The use of PSPOs has accurately been described as a form of wide-ranging anti-social behaviour order (asbo) for public behaviour and space. Author Bradley Garrett points out that while "asbos were directed at individuals, PSPOs are geographically defined, making pre-defined activities within a mapped area prosecutable." No surprise then that the people most often targeted by these new powers, which forbid certain behaviour in designated spaces such as drinking and congregating (or "socialising" as ordinary people might call it), are often the most marginalised and scapegoated in society.

Hackney council planned to introduce a PSPO with a clause targeting rough sleeping in 2015, and public anger forced a backtrack, although it admitted it would not rule out future PSPOs. Exeter city council used the powers to confiscate 57 tents from homeless people in the city in 2015. Freedom of Information requests by Vice magazine earlier in the year revealed 1 in 10 councils are using PSPOs in essence to criminalise homelessness.

Homelessness has complex causes, and entrenched homelessness presents particular difficulties: the reasons people sleep on the street are myriad, and many people simply don't want the help offered to them. The rate of mental health problems reported in the single homeless population is extremely high - 80% of homeless people report a mental health problem. Homeless people who refuse help are often those who need more complex outreach, rather than being castigated and threatened with fines.

Rushcliffe council's response to media reporting on its PSPO proposals says: "The £100 fixed penalty notice is very much a last resort and would only be given out to people who are acting in an anti-social way, are refusing support and assistance from the council and relevant charities." It doesn't take a genius to understand that all people are different, and despite their dehumanising treatment homeless people are too: not everyone will want to accept the outreach offered, and threatening someone in a dire situation with a fine is both cruel and unworkable. Good luck enforcing legal action against a person with no fixed abode, let alone a postal address for a court summons.

But amidst this spirit-dampening, boneheaded bureaucratic tide is a sign of hope: each time a council tries this, the public are furious. While local government may treat homeless people as an irritant, a problem to be dealt with that is no less annoying than tackling rising damp in your house or sitting through a root canal procedure at the dentist, their residents are up in arms.

The fury is two-fold: that homelessness can still exist, and that homeless people are treated so cruelly, crated off, fined and swept from public view. Seeing people sleeping in shop doorways is uncomfortable, but the answer is not for the police to harry them into shadowed alleyways away from the public gaze but to help them - and end homelessness. Fining homeless people for being homeless is akin to breaking your friend's good leg because they're hopping while the other is in plaster, or setting someone's car on fire because it's got a flat tyre. It doesn't help, and the logic has departed entirely from the Act. Luckily the public don't have any truck with it, and the groundswell of anger about homelessness can hopefully translate into pressure to end it, for every homeless person, for good.

Sign up for your free Guardian Housing network newsletter with news and analysis sent direct to you on the last Friday of the month. Follow us:@GuardianHousing

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Fining homeless people for being homeless is cruel and unworkable

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Rushcliffe borough council in Nottinghamshire has introduced spot fines for extreme cases of anti-social behaviour under the public space protection order (PSPO) powers given to councils by the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. Reports claimed the council planned to issue £100 spot fines to homeless people - the council countered that these fines would be used as a last resort.

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Visited the new foodcourt in Kirkgate market for the first time. Lots of nice cafes to eat in with food from a variety of world cultures. Fairly reasonably priced at the moment and brought tea from a very friendly couple in the corner. Saw people eating fresh oysters at a fish bar as well, which I've not seen before. Lots of space for new businesses. Would be interested to know how more longstanding stalls have experienced this change.

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Was out and about in Leeds yesterday and took a few photos of Kirkgate, the oldest street in Leeds, by the market. It's undergoing a transformation at the moment as a result of a long-touted regeneration project. Just down the road in the picture is a new bistro/cafe which looks from the outside to be quite up-market and expensive. It's next to a slightly worn looking beauty salon which has been there for a long time. I was struck by the contrast between the new and the old and thought of the sorts of conflicts attendant with gentrification processes.

See article here: http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/regeneration-plans-for-oldest-street-in-leeds-1-8005210

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Very early in the morning, Diana Phololo and a dozen elderly women from 54 Soper Road step out on to the dark streets of central Johannesburg. If they are quick, they will beat the municipal cleaners to the detritus left overnight by revellers in the newly hip neighbourhoods of South Africa's sprawling commercial capital.

There is little solidarity among the 100 residents of the burned-out building where Phololo, 58, has lived unlawfully for nearly 20 years. Each races to the shattered bottles left on the pavements outside the bars and restaurants. Sold by the kilo for recycling, the glass provides the residents with enough money to eat.

"It's not easy at my age, but it's all I've got," Phololo says.

By dawn, the residents of 54 Soper Road are back home. They rest in overcrowded, windowless rooms or on the verandah, enjoying the few rays of sun that pierce the wall of tower blocks surrounding their small, derelict building. There is no gas, electricity or sanitation. Water comes from a single standpipe. Children play in the rubbish-strewn yard.

"Nothing really has changed here for years," says Mandla Kayise, 50, who moved into the squat a decade ago when he arrived jobless in Johannesburg from his poor village in KwaZulu-Natal, 350 miles south.

But soon he, Phololo and the others will be gone. An eviction is scheduled later this year. Despite the length of time many have been living there, no law in South Africa guarantees occupiers security after a set period.

Once infamous for violence, crime and so-called "hijacked" buildings or squats, the centre of Johannesburg has undergone an astonishing transformation in recent years. Blocks that were once no-go zones now house art galleries, cafes and museums. New businesses are opening. Neighbourhoods such as Braamfontein and Maboneng are now seen as hubs of creativity and cool.

But the change, though real, is limited - and exactly how widely its benefits will be shared is not yet clear.

"Regeneration has to be for everyone ... I have no problem with land for luxury apartments, as long as there is commensurate land for the poor," says Stuart Wilson, of the local NGO Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa.

Many have dated the decline of the 18 sq km inner city of Johannesburg to the country's first democratic elections in 1994, which saw the African National Congress (ANC) take power.

But this is unfair, says Gerald Garner, a local historian and guide. Racist measures adopted by the apartheid regime from the 1950s gradually forced industries out of Johannesburg's centre in search of labour. Then international sanctions led to the exodus of global companies and their staff in the mid 1980s.

The cumulative effect was devastating, according to Garner. Apartment blocks and homes emptied, the doors of multi-storey offices were locked, luxury hotels closed. Basic utilities were disconnected.

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'Jay Jay' makes traditional beer to sell from his room inside 54 Soper Road. Photograph: James Oatway for the Guardian

When racist laws restricting movement were reluctantly eased by the beleaguered apartheid regime, tens of thousands of poor migrants rushed to the city. Others came, and still come, from elsewhere in Africa. About 1,000 vacant buildings became vast squats, often run by violent gangs. The centre became an internationally infamous no-go zone.

Fitful regeneration efforts began around 15 years ago with major public projects funded by the ANC-run town hall, central government and overseas aid. Momentum gathered as South Africa prepared to host the 2010 World Cup, and private developers began buying up the "hijacked" buildings, evicting squatters and constructing apartments.

Sometimes this occurred peacefully, but in the past the process of emptying occupied buildings has, on occasion, involved significant violence. This was directed both at South African citizens, some of them long-term residents, and the large numbers of migrants who continued to flow in from poorer, less stable neighbouring countries and beyond.

Now only 100 or so illegally occupied buildings remain, though these still provide accommodation for about 60,000 people.

The residents of 54 Soper Road, in the tough neighbourhood of Berea, are among them. Berea has proved resistant to regeneration. There are many illegally occupied buildings and few of the signs of economic growth seen elsewhere. Pawnshops, nail parlours and liquor stores line dirty streets. Violent crime and prostitution is rife.

"The washing gets stolen before it dries," says Majozi Thembezile, 57.

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A security guard outside the new Joziburg Lane development in central Johannesburg. Photograph: James Oatway for the Guardian

For the last three years the residents have faced eviction but, despite the appalling conditions, they do not want to leave. "We have very little hope from our side," says Thembezile, who like many residents at 54 Soper Road came to Johannesburg from a rural village 20 years ago.

A last-ditch legal battle may delay the eviction, but is unlikely to halt it.

The fate of Thembezile's home raises important questions about the future regeneration of Johannesburg, and has implications across South Africa and beyond. One is how to find alternative accommodation for thousands of very poor people living in neighbourhoods that are now being gentrified.

Current provision is grossly inadequate. Since a landmark court ruling in 2011, the local council is obliged by law to house anyone evicted to make room for either private or public developments. Campaigners and experts, however, say authorities have provided only a handful of squalid and overcrowded blocks where families are forcibly split up. Even these can only meet a fraction of the demand.

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Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba. Photograph: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images

As a result, the development of the city centre is forcing the very poor living there, who are almost all black, to the distant edges of Johannesburg where rents are cheaper. Many end up in the crowded townships the apartheid regime originally established to house black workers away from neighbourhoods designated for whites, which occupy the prime locations.

Some say the new exodus recalls that darker, earlier period: "We are replicating the apartheid city. Obviously there is no racial segregation any more ... but we are entrenching historical inequality," says Wilson.

Eviction would mean ruin for the residents of 54 Soper Road. They say the city council has told them there is no money to rehouse them locally, when most make a living within walking distance of their home as security guards, day labourers or recyclers. Commuting from rented accommodation further out, even if they could find something affordable, would be prohibitively expensive.

Much depends on the city's new mayor, Herman Mashaba, a self-made tycoon from the centre-right Democratic Alliance who makes no secret of his belief in the power of the private sector.

Mashaba took office just weeks ago, ending decades of ANC civic rule. In an interview with the Guardian, he said living conditions at places such as 54 Soper Road amounted to human rights abuses and that the city had "a responsibility to help the destitute".

It is unclear, however, whether local authorities can find the funds, administrative capacity and, most importantly, the political will to adequately rehouse those rendered homeless by development.

Mashaba certainly has an uncompromising message for those who are trying to halt the evictions, and a welcoming one for investors.

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Webster Maboka, doorman at the One Eloff Street redevelopment project. This former car manufacturing plant now boasts apartments, art studios and trendy restaurants. Photograph: James Oatway for the Guardian

"In the first place, someone has taken someone's property," he said. "If you want to make money, come to Jo'burg. We want to work with you. We are starting with local investors, but at the end of the day we need international investors."

One of the newest developments in the city centre is Joziburg Lane, a small alley beside a 60-year-old former department store that, having stood empty for many years, is now being rapidly converted into 320 "loft-style apartments" to be let to young professionals. Local authorities impose very few conditions, such as the provision of social housing, on new projects.

"It's very much the free market, which I suppose is a good thing," says Geoff Jardine, the 34-year-old developer of the complex.

At 10am each weekday on Joziburg Lane, coffee beans are roasted, pomegranate juice poured, craft cheeses sliced and hipster fashions hung on rails by bearded men in checked shirts and Bermuda shorts. An events space will host concerts and exhibitions, a "Bangkok-style" market is being built and a bar is already open.

"What's exciting is that a very high proportion of property in town is owned by guys in their 30s, which is unique to Jo'burg. There's opportunity here and real energy. I'm looking forward to seeing what that does in 20 years time," Jardine says.

Garner, the guide, tells his tourist clients that the centre of Johannesburg has been almost entirely rebuilt six times in the city's 130-year history in an "incredible cycle of boom and bust". This, at least, is a message which resonates with some in 54 Soper Road.

"Here at home I can't sleep properly. I can't study. There's too much noise. We are just struggling every day," says Mzwakhe Mkhize, a 22-year-old engineering student who lives with his mother in a tiny, windowless smoke-stained room. "But I look at the Mercedes and the Porsches and the BMWs driving through the city, and think that, one day, I will drive one of those cars."
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'Regeneration should be for all': will change in Johannesburg benefit its poorest residents?

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Very early in the morning, Diana Phololo and a dozen elderly women from 54 Soper Road step out on to the dark streets of central Johannesburg. If they are quick, they will beat the municipal cleaners to the detritus left overnight by revellers in the newly hip neighbourhoods of South Africa's sprawling commercial capital.

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Landmark regeneration project in Leeds - lots of interesting resources about a place that you can go and visit.

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Please turn it on to get the best experience.

Welcome to South Bank Leeds website. We have ambitious plans to double the size of Leeds city centre to create 35,000 new jobs and over 8,000 new homes.

We have published a draft strategy for the future of the area which is available to download. Explore the website to find out more about one of Europe's largest regeneration projects.

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Doubling the size of Leeds city centre by transforming South Bank.

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Landmark regeneration project in Leeds city centre / South Bank Leeds

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We use Javascript to power a number of areas of this website.Please turn it on to get the best experience. Welcome to South Bank Leeds website. We have ambitious plans to double the size of Leeds city centre to create 35,000 new jobs and over 8,000 new homes.

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An image from Mumbai of slums existing in the shadow of skyscrapers, highlighting rich and poor, living next to one another.

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Urban Regeneration and Renewal of Southwark, London - Alice Coventry

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Urban Regeneration and Renewal of Southwark, London - Alice Coventry

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From unsold £50m apartments at the top of the Shard to the redevelopment of postwar municipal estates.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/07/southwark-london-regeneration-urban-renewal-social-cleansing-fears

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Gill Mooney - Regenerating Hull City Centre

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Gill Mooney - Regenerating Hull City Centre

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£25million is to be spent on regenerating Hull city centre, ready for the year spent as UK City of Culture.

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Gill Mooney - Regeneration of Hull's fruit market

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Gill Mooney - Regeneration of Hull's fruit market

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The fruit market area of Hull, next to the marina, is the current subject of significant regeneration, developing it into an 'arts quarter'. It has been instrumental in drawing the City of Culture status to Hull for 2017, and is the precursor to massive regeneration in other parts of the city.

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Welcome | Bondholders - Marketing The Humber

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The Humber has powered the UK economy for decades, bringing everything from food to freight, coal to cars, passengers to petroleum. As the UKs busiest port, the Humber is one of the UKs most important assets.

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Gill Mooney - "Britain's Worst Places to Live"

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Gill Mooney - "Britain's Worst Places to Live"

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The idea of a place, and its inhabitants standing in to represent social problems is exemplified in this (very coarse) description of Bransholme, a large estate on the outskirts of Hull. It has been the recipient of considerable regeneration attempts over the years.

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iLiveHere - Britain's worst places to live

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Bransholme, or BransHole as I prefer to call it, is one of the largest council estates in Europe and is situated in the arsehole of England, Hull, or 'ULL if you emanate from that region. In 1642 Hull became famous as Sir John Hotham closed it's gates on King Charles and told the king to "fhuk off you ain't enough Bizzell".

The gates remained shut on this isolated Town and centauries of inbreeding have given us this remarkable city. To the north of Hull, Bransholme is known as home to thousands of third and fourth generation Chavs.

The schools in this Estate are more like transition camps as kids progress towards their future lives in Hull infamous Prison. Parents are keen to see their kids do well and often involve them in their family businesses from an early age. In fact you would hard pressed to find a kid that can not out run Oscar, the Police Helicopter, or hotwire a car in under ten seconds.

The Estate has a weird culture for naming their children, it seems you take the names Billy, Booby, Joe or Ellie and pick two for a Christian name and pop them down to the local vicar is anything silk by Von Dutch or Fila.

The middle of the estate is a shopping complex know as the "Senner". Parents congregate is various Burberry attire and double buggies filled with Bobby-Joes to swap stories of their recent muggings, twockings and to nick as much as they can before being chased out by security.

When you enter the centre you are fairly impressed with it's lighting and cleanliness, there are even two banks in it, staffed with burley bouncer type cashiers, but as you walk through you slowly realise you are in another world, the land the gene pool forgot. Pensioners on electric scooters race up and down the main thoroughfare reliving the twocking accident that "robbed them of their pins". The other customers include many gannies, though women tend to be gannies at the age of 30 on Branshole and their numerous siblings that meet up for ritualistic interfamily slagging contests and general gang warfare. If you are on your own these mutants will glare at you looking for any sign of weakness before they collectively remove you all your worldly goods.

However, despite the low life people are still tempted in for the bargains. On a Saturday afternoon you can get a bag of nearly rotting veg for just a pound and meat that would make your dog vomit for even less. This can be thrown together and fed to "the bairns" thus leaving the parents with enough money for the weekly supply of baccy, Becks and 20/20.

Branshole is a national contender for Chav Central and a small thermonuclear devise could put a significant dent in the national crime figures and income support payments.

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Bransholme, or BransHole as I prefer to call it, is one of the largest council estates in Europe and is situated in the arsehole of England, Hull, or 'ULL if you emanate from that region. In 1642 Hull became famous as Sir John Hotham closed it's gates on King Charles and told the king to "fhuk off you ain't enough Bizzell".

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cities by population, from 1950-2030

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The Economist offers authoritative insight and opinion on international news, politics, business, finance, science, technology and the connections between them.

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Long term residents as social rubbish?

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/18/-sp-truth-about-gentrification-how-woodberry-down-became-woodberry-park

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Mapping sites of public private urban regeneration in London.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2014/may/18/public-private-partnership-housing-projects-london-mapped

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The maps of racial distribution map in US major cities.

Detroit is a significant city for its racial division in urban area, and it's facing the financial difficulty too.

Here are the map and the article about bankruptcy (D, Balz. 2003)

The author mentions about the importance of federal government and political problem with urban policies.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1315078/Race-maps-America.html

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YouTube video of the new about private policing in Oakland California.

They criticize the poor regulation of the government and anarchic situation, and also mention about the problem of private policing.

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No Money For Cops Means Private Security Firms Cash In

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"As cash-strapped, crime-challenged cities like Detroit, L.A., Atlanta, and Oakland face continually dwindling budgets and smaller police forces, there's been a trend of both wealthier and middle-class neighborhoods banding together to hire their own private security patrols to fend off crime.

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More on Royal Park primary school

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Early 2014 saw local consortium occupy The Royal Park primary school, as plans to develop the listed building were heard. Allegedly the listed Victorian community hub was left to fall into disrepair to justify the council actions, after sale to private housing investor was confirmed.

Late 2014 bulldozers moved in.

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Affordable and Social Housing scrapped in favour of business ruled to be unlawful.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/silver-hill-housing-council-unlawfully-agreed-to-scrapping-affordable-and-social-homes-plan-10046122.html

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This is an advert for 'luxury living' by the London branch of the property developers Redrow. It has a very dystopian feel (post-apocalyptic, almost!). Why is the city being represented in this way? Why is so much emphasis being attributed to the individual and finding a 'luxury living space'?

'To look out of the city, that could have swallowed you whole, and think "I did this", to stand with the world at your feet'. This line presents a hyper-individualised, neoliberal twist on a sentiment expressed at the beginning of Georg Simmel's The Metropolis and Mental Life, regarding the metropolitan individual's 'resistance to being levelled, swallowed up in the social-technological mechanism' of the city

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Redrow's Luxury London flat advert pulled after 'class war' criticism

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Ominous advert for luxury flats in London is pulled after being compared to American Psycho with its dystopian vision of city workers in London

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Redevelopment plans approved on the old site of the Yorkshire Evening Post

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-31453117

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The desired trickle down anti-poverty effects of regeneration, just forces poverty elsewhere.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/10/gentrification-not-urban-renaissance

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2/2 During and plans after http://www.holbeckurbanvillage.co.uk

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Dom Oliver - Holbeck's "revolutinary regeneration"

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Dom Oliver - Holbeck's "revolutinary regeneration"

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A couple of images showing Holbeck before, during and what was planned after regeneration (due to the financial crisis this development has staled). 1/2

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Gentrification in London: Canary Wharf vs. Poplar

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A student film created as part of our Bsc Geography (Hons) course at the University of Hertfordshire. Created, Directed and Shot by: Andrew Smith, Bradley Hacker, David Brett, Rachel Kirkby and Victoria Bell. This is a prime case study of gentrification, and somewhat relevant with the changing times now so please let us know of any opinions on the topic or the video itself.

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Victoria Gate (projected to open in autumn 2016) is an 'exciting addition to the vibrant shopping scene in Leeds. Delivering John Lewis’s first store in the city, the first phase will capture the heritage of the Victoria Quarter and offer a range of high quality and designer brands.

The detailed designs for phase one include three main buildings:

A flagship John Lewis store, with a striking facade drawing on Leeds’ textile heritage

Victoria Gate arcade, with stores, restaurants, cafes and leisure space in an elegantly designed two street arcade linking Victoria Quarter to the John Lewis store

A multi-storey car park for up to 800 cars

Alongside regenerating the physical space, the first phase will also deliver up to 1,000 retail and hospitality jobs and 1,000 construction employment opportunities'