I've begun work on the Port Adelaide project that I mentioned in this earlier post. The project, which pushes to an e-book --- is being developed in the context of this new Flickr group---Port Adelaide character that has just been started.

The Port Adelaide Character group has a historical heritage perspective that assumes an “enclave” model of the Port: the Port is a where people can live, shop, work, and “spend their lives, in a matter of speaking” — “a community that essentially is separate and can stand on its own feet.” This model works in opposition to, and is opposed by, the commerce model, which makes the urbanscape and community entirely subordinate to the interests of industry and, which is oriented toward the maximization of land values, building density and profit.

My own perspective is close to that of David Harvey, who argues that urbanization has been intimately tied to the growth of global capitalism.

A capital surplus means that it needs to be invested it--the capital absorption problem. There are all kinds of places it can go but one of them is into the production of space and new forms of urbanization. That is what is happening in Port Adelaide now with its re-development.