Thursday, March 02, 2006

How?

UN-Habitat chief Anna Tibaijuka reveals that her agency is changing its focus from improving conditions in slums to preventing them altogether. Scoop has the scoop. It's a worthy goal. But how? Master planning (which essentially involves criminalizing any deviations from the plans) simply shunts poor people to less valuable turf. Perhaps the world has to confront a tremendous fiction we've all come to accept: the idea that there's actually something called a housing market, fueled and regulated by supply and demand.

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