A Common Battle

For the past few months I’ve posted time and time again about the murals and ‘peace walls’ that still exist to this day throughout Belfast. Each relic from this divided city’s past express a distinct rift in the landscape between groups of people, separated by a seemingly irrelevant concrete wall at the edge of a sidewalk or concentrated around a rallying cry from past generations against their neighbors. This all seems unbelievable at first as an outsider walking or riding through on a tour bus… But as much as these tourist groups ride through the infamous neighborhoods of the troubles, the underlying tension around sectarianism remains. Violent crimes between groups are low (except for rioting during certain parts of the year), but the insular community feelings and fear of neighboring communities remains high in working class communities where the large welfare system seemingly can’t revive the vibrancy each had before the division nor does tourism assist in that effort. The groups remain marginalized and new generations are born into the continuous cycle of poverty.

Does this sound familiar? Maybe not to all of us, but consider how major American centers operate. Within the core of Milwaukee, Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, etc. pockets of ethnic minority and distinct socio-economic class have gathered into ghettoized communities, which were often the first to be marginalized further by government intervention (Highway systems, public housing projects, poor education systems, waste facilities, etc.). Jerusalem, Sarajevo, Nicosia, Belfast are names synonymous with conflict and tragedy between groups of people, but how is Chicago or New York any different? The gang and drug related battle over territory continues in many of these cities as a result of a cyclical process of feeling marginalized, disadvantaged, underserved, misrepresented by the media and misunderstood by authorities.

It’s often extremely difficult to understand how violence among people with tremendous similarities and communal interest in a place could continue. How could neighbors harvest such strong hatred for one another and wage war against each other in their own backyards? But consider it in another context, many of these marginalized groups felt unprotected and/or unrepresented by the government or police structure to protect themselves. They band together in an armed struggle which easily grows through the support and recruitment of others with similar feelings while exploiting the importance of armed defense as the only remaining option for retaliation. It happened to children like the one pictured below in Belfast in the early 1970’s as teens became the foot soldiers of paramilitary activity.

This picture of a 3.5 year old is utterly disturbing (Photo from the Belfast Telegraph)

To sum up, my interest in the communities around Belfast and other divided cities is not a sick obsession with “Dark Tourism” or conflict. Instead I’m interested in understanding how, as a designer and an advocate for a communities well-being (economically and socially), I can help rebuild relationships with these under-served populations to gain their trust and provide them with a built environment they are truly proud of using; public space that is truly shared space and provides social and economic benefit to a community for its vibrancy. A reward for communities who can move past their differences with their neighbors to benefit all sides involved.