Two Things [6]

1.

It has been almost a year since August 4th, when surveys from thousands of households, under the multi-sector needs assessment, identified the following priorities: Shelter, reconstruction and rehabilitation, livelihoods, cash assistance, access to healthcare and medication, psychosocial support, and food security. Amid a wave of local and international organizations providing help and assistance for many, in a city more divided than ever, impoverished by a series of overlapping poor management, where sectarianism has emerged as a crucial mobilizing agent in the struggle for urban reform or preservation, it is time today to investigate neighborhood planning as a flexible framework that one must undertake to provide the divided city of Beirut a healthy and sustainable development for the future years to come.

2.

Difference and diversity are noteworthy features of the city and its society – to be incorporated in any planning approach, even if the consequences on the ground may differ. Considering that planning could change the spatial, economic, social, and political dimensions of a defined urban space, it would be crucial to depict which of these dimensions can be used to intensify or lessen contestations over space. By introducing a spatially targeted program sought to solve social problems at the neighborhood scale and innovative tools for neighborhood planning and management, backed by a small-scale governance structure, neighborhood planning will create an intermediate level between the municipality, citizens, and other local actors, enhancing its social capital, leading eventually to an undivided planning strategy at a city scale.