Transport as an Integrative / Disintegrative Factor in Urban Regions

RAVELLA, OLGA; GIACOBBE, NORA; FREDIANI, JULIETA

Estambul, Turquía

Congreso; 42nd International Society of City and Regional Planners Congress (ISoCaRP); 2006

Faculty of Architecture. Yildis Technical University.

The implementation of the railway between 1850 and 1930 allowed the development of many cities in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area and the foundation of La Plata city in 1882. This mean of transport enabled the integration of the region’s inhabitants with the capital of Argentine, in the frame of an agroexport economy. The neoliberal policies carried out since 1976, when the Military Government took power in Argentine, impulsed the destruction of thousands of kilometers of railroads. This process caused the disappearance of towns whose population increased the poor peripheries of big and intermediate cities, for instance the city of La Plata. Another fact to be considered is the increase in the number of vehicles since the 1960s, when the automobile industry was established in the region and facilities were promoted for  purchase, resulting in the so called “urban-automobile model”. This model allowed an uncontrollable urban sprawl that was intensified since 1980, due to the following phenomenon: on the one hand, the emergence of real estate sectors that became privileged actors of the urban development, and on the other hand the reappearance of illegal occupations in large extensions of the territory. Both phenomenons are competing in the same spaces structured by the main axes of communication. Social segregation in a shared territory. In this context, the paper analyses the social, economic and space integration/disintegration of a planned city of the XIX century (La Plata) that was positioned in the international scenario through an integrated transport system. Political and manager decisions, that contributed to weaken the foundational principles, are causing the loss of this position. An analysis of the integrative/disintegrative urban process is presented at three historical moments corresponding to its respective economic cycles.