Squatter cities

The idea is very interesting, but it seems unreasonably utopian in roughly the same way as large-scale socialism...

In both cases, I would expect the situation to require a lot of mutual oversight among participants in a way that can work in small communities, but tends to fail completely in larger ones.

In fact, what he's talking about can *be* the same thing as small-scale socialism/communes, if I'm reading it right.

Do consider the trade-offs paid by squatter cities, both cited and apparent, including: access to clean drinking water; lack of sewer systems and similar waste-handling methods; and dispute resolution by "violent gangs". (Okay, so the last isn't necessarily worse than in first-world cities with corrupt police forces.) Also, the reasons for some of the statistics aren't obvious to me, like what goes into the lower birthrate implied for squatter cities.

Aside from Angelbob and Lumiere's comments, I think my biggest worry would be the obvious natural distinction of the classes. At least someone in section 8 housing still has a consistent address; how would you even send postal mail to a squatter?

And what of upward mobility from inside to outside the squatter city? I worry that an actually-different economy within poorer economies would further disadvantage anyone within it, as they would have to master their own economy to rise to the top of their society, and then master ANOTHER economy to escape it. I have similar worries about an "everyone works" society making room for education, which would also work to create a "subsistence class" instead of our current "lower class."

The other thing is direct comparison to those outside the squatter city...if these squatter cities are to replace ghettos, we might find even greater anger from the poor about the rich, and more anti-rich-folk crimes...and which dispute resolution process do we use for cross-class disputes? Theirs or ours? I'd say ours, but imposing judgment from above tends not to be appreciated in occupied countries.

Also, it's just insulting to anyone who would be qualified to become a squatter, given the precedent.

...beyond criticism, though, I agree that it's an interesting and definitely an outside-the-box approach to some of the bigger problems of poverty.

Makes a lot of sense. You'd have to have enough concentrated homeless to hit critical mass, but that's the only problem I can see with it. They could probably even be absorbed if the city government they were near thought before acting.

squats

here's a blast from the past : the old el castillo squat in barcelona web page: [from the internet archive]

http://web.archive.org/web/20040614215045/http://castillo.freehosting.net/

Re: squats

So whatever happened to the castle project?