Policy Trend toward Renovation of Metropolis
and Local City
Shunsuke Arakawa
Various
efforts for urban renovation are being made by the government, governmental
agencies, local authorities, etc. This presentation will
describe some of the examples of these efforts.
The following recent transformation in cities should be noted; depopulation
in large city areas, hollowing out of population in suburban areas
because of the inconvenient transportation as well as poorly maintained
living environment, the flat or decreased employed persons, and the
trend toward elimination of households consist of relatives. In smaller
local cities, the similar transition sometimes comes before large city
areas; even the shrinking population is often observed in such cities
and towns, with the hollowed-out central urban areas. Furthermore,
there are increasing tendency to be depopulated even in relatively
stable suburban areas, while a part of senior citizens returns to city
centers. The percentage of elderly persons exceeds 20% in most cities,
though the variations among cities imply problems. In addition, the
development of mega stores in suburban areas has much effect on structures
of regional economy.
Regarding inhabitant consciousness, although the desires to be householder
can be clearly observed, rented house orientation has become gradually
common, according to the decline of sense of property. In family units
consist of elderly people or married couple, or single-person households
tend to show urban center orientation; households with children living
in subdivisions tend to wish to settle down in suburban areas.
The urban renovation policies have focused on city center of mega cities;
in contrast, suburban areas have not been sufficiently considered.
Recently, there have been tendency toward local authority from nation,
and toward private from public. The various measures for local city
centers have achieved only limited success in the past. Now we can
see some changes; reevaluation of traditional grant money without prudent
management, and reconsideration of role sharing between national and
local governments in urban planning; e.g., major role is assigned to
the local government directed by the national government. The movement
toward revision of three laws for urban development, City Planning
Law, and Building Standard Law, as well as the enforcement of Landscape
Law, will lead to a new urban planning. Urban Renaissance Project includes
reconstruction of the system towards a city without waste, renovation
of urban environment infrastructure, formation of basis for robot industry,
etc.
The revitalization of urban areas is mainly based on inducing private
investment, reducing regulations, constant economic assistance, and
assistance such as subsidiary provided by the local government.
For instance, one of the scenarios for reorganization and revitalization
presented an image of the future Tokyo area, where the homogeneous
system will be divided into five cells, and again to be reorganized,
as the core of surrounding area. This system will work based on the
following factors: creation of environmental infrastructures centered
on natural and historical resources, and the reorganization of facilities
to offer information and transportation for linking wide areas, allowing
to generate new mobility of people and products.
The transportation has been the core infrastructure, which occupies
important roles in Japan. However in the 21st century, environmental
infrastructure should be properly maintained, making use of forgotten
cultural and natural stocks, instead of producing something new.
The environmental infrastructure is the third infrastructure, following
the first and the second ones (transportation and information), which
aims to generate suburban residences, and to develop a new urban planning
in the area between suburbs and the urban area.
The current planning lacks long-range vision for future 50 to 100 years;
we need to define an ideal form of truly rich urban life, as well as
the lasting vision for our future city based on a new paradigm.
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[Renovation of
urban environment infrastructure] |
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