Näsby City Planning

Background

At uni, I was tasked to create a city planning based of a real project that the municipality of Kristianstad city had assigned the Kristianstad University to make. The city is interested in providing a more sustainable environment as well as opposing different problems that the area suffers from. I was given a report that another company had made for the city, as a foundation to base my design plan from.

Problem

The city was interested in making a plan for how to shape the Näsby region, which had several issues that were necessary to deal with. The people of Näsby area mainly consists of students who studies at the university in the area as well as a lot of immigrants and low income/unemployed citizens.

The report that was given was fairly limited in information, as most of it contained statistical data, but less interviews with locals. But, from the report it is apparent that the area challenges with high unemployment rates, crowded homes, youth criminality, segregation problematics and that certain areas of the Näsby region are regarded by the population as unsafe to visit. Also, the traffic is mentioned as being problematic within the area. The people of this city are reported of being tired of short term-project to temporarily fix issues that the city area holds.

The recommendations from the report are to install lighting, camera supervision and cleaning graffiti as a solution in order to counter the local youth criminality and unsafe environment.

Analysis of the report

The report that was provided about the city was clearly not made with full effort, as it mainly provides statistical data and less interviews with the locals, which seems to be made out of routine, rather than putting more work into finding out how the citizens feel or what they wish for the city. The recommendations that are also short-term solutions (cleaning graffiti) and lazy solutions for a bigger problem (add lights and camera supervision).

Potential strengths and opportunities

The report does show indication that the people are interested in long term solutions and that locals value the nature that the city area holds as well wishes for more activities available in the area.

By prioritizing the youths, there may be potential to counter the criminality and to raise the sense of security of the region. Through the creation of activities, different cultures may be able to meet and make people unite, countering the segregation issues within the area.

By using the nature that the city has, we are able to make trails for walking and bicycling (which is described by the report as a popular activity in the area). This will encourage people to use more environmentally friendly transportation and may improve the traffic situation.

By creating open grass fields, as well as walking trails, the people are able to play football (which also is regarded as a popular activity in the area), have picnics and hold social gatherings. The nature and trails give possibility for orientation and running paths for exercising (which what the adults in the area wishes to have). An outdoor gym may also be of value, considering the high rate of unemployed/low-income citizens in the area. This in turn, having more people in the open can help counter the sense of unsafe environments. In addition to this, cleaning streets, adding garbage bins and lighting can be of help to further improve the sense of security of the city region, but without measures to entertain the youth, these improvements will only be of temporary help.

Conclusion

Näsby has several problems that needs to be addressed, but the help needs to be long-term in order to have any valuable effect. To make better improvement of this area, more care needs to be taken into understanding how the locals feel and what they wish for the future of the city region. My recommendation is to make use of the nature that the city has and create opportunities for people to meet and hold activities, in order to counter segregation and youth criminality.

Lessons from this project

It can be easy to look at information that is given and not reflect on whether the method or conclusions that are being made actually makes sense. This project made me realize that it is necessary to look deeper with a critical eye and question how previous works have been done.