Depaving paradise

On February 4, 80-year-old Joni Mitchell won her tenth Grammy award for Best Folk Album. The Canadian-American also performed at the ceremony in Los Angeles, for the first time in her decades-long career, making history as she sang “Both Sides Now”, a song she wrote in the late 1960s. This was not the first time Mitchell created a buzz. Her 1970 lyrical denunciation of what was (and still is) deemed progress, was indeed much more powerful. Perhaps incongruously named, Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” is undoubtedly an environmental anthem. It has been credited with creating and increasing awareness about the degradation occurring at the time, which as we can all see has skyrocketed since then.

Mitchell lamented in her lyrics:

“They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

With a pink hotel, a boutique

And a swinging hot spot.

“Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you’ve got

Till it’s gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot.”

Some paid attention. Too many others did not. Today, however, there is a movement which is in direct contrast to Mitchell’s song. Small, but growing, depaving sees the removal of concrete and asphalt allowing for the expansion of green spaces in urban areas. Depaving has gained traction in several cities in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Belgium and France.

The first known deliberate depaving project was in 2008 in Portland, Oregon in the US, by a group that subsequently evolved into a nonprofit organisation. Since then, its many benefits – including flood reduction, cooling of urban areas and improved mental health – have been seriously studied, resulting in local governments becoming involved. In addition, in France, the national government has begun to budget for depaving in its major cities. In Belgium, starting this year, housing developers in some cities have to show that they have made allowances for the capture and reuse of rainfall before their plans are approved.

This reclaiming of land has for the most part been restricted to disused parking lots and abandoned properties. The removed concrete and asphalt are also recycled and as a bonus, uneven pavements are being addressed for easier access to the new green areas. In one project in Canada, a former inner-city, no-go zone has been transformed into a space replete with grass

and native trees that is much sought after for relaxation.

So far, there has been no mention of community gardens being installed in any of the renatured areas, but it would be a plus if small patches were earmarked for this. Food insecurity remains a challenge almost everywhere in the world.

While there are thousands of urban spaces in the world that could benefit from depaving right this minute, maybe a more direct route going forward would be to cut back significantly on paving. A proper approach to development, with the constant threat of global warming hanging over us, would be spaces that allow humans and nature to coexist. That has not been the practice; we have seen socalled developers use up every green spot in every city to the detriment of posterity.

One example of a missed opportunity for true urban development in Georgetown is the spanking new Independence Boulevard which was completed around June last year. Older locals might remember or have heard that it was once a trench where punts filled with cut sugarcane stalks were floated to the factory for grinding into sugar. After or around the time Albouystown was built up as a residential community, the ‘punt trench’ was filled in and became known as ‘punt trench dam’. The result, in later years, was/is endemic flooding in Albouystown as drainage was restricted to the Sussex Street canal, which more often than not was clogged with plastic and other detritus.

The Irfaan Ali administration spent $1 billion widening the existing Independence Boulevard road

and pouring concrete for a promenade down the centre. Residents of the area are said to be thrilled with the aesthetically pleasing outcome. However, Albouystown will continue to flood, especially as several sections of the community are significantly lower than this new beautification development.

It is perplexing that the government harps on about Georgetown having green spaces, but seems ready to cover every patch of available land with concrete. Somehow there appears to be a mistaken idea that the gardens and the park are enough. They are not. Lest we forget, the threat from the Atlantic is omnipresent and we have seen more than once how detrimental torrential rainfall can be. Development truly does not translate to concrete promenades with stalls selling food and drinks, however pretty they may appear, but should at the very least ensure that citizens can live in some measure of comfort.

To paraphrase Joni Mitchell, we should not wait until it’s gone before we appreciate what we have. Surely we can endeavour not to build without first considering our place on the planet. That is not asking too much of the stewards of our patrimony.