What does New York's Broadway have to do with Styrumer Allee in Oberhausen?

What does Broadway in New York have to do with Styrumer Allee in Oberhausen?

6 November 2020

A guest article by Klaus-Martin Schmidt-Waldbauer from the Oberhausen City Archives

In the calendar of curious holidays from around the world
November 8th is World Urban Planning Day. The little-known day initiated in 1949
The well-known action day celebrates the broad field of planning and development of
urban settlement system.

Broadway in New York © Google Earth

Goals and Intention:
What is World Urban Development Day about

The
The term urban planning refers to the structural and spatial development
and planning of urban space. Important factors here are
social, cultural, ecological and economic aspects.

Mainly
World Urban Development Day is about exploring the opportunities and
Development potential of urban space in view of the numerous social,
ecological and economic challenges. Because the
Urban planning is playing an increasingly important role, given the forecast
that by 2050 about two-thirds of all people will live in cities.

The
Creating public awareness for the technical planning of the necessary
urban perspectives should not be underestimated. Therefore, in all
participating countries lectures, events and exhibitions on
the topic of urban and regional planning.

Diesen
World Day is accompanied by four key demands:

·
Establishment of
public awareness of the goals and challenges of global
urban and regional planning.

·
Urban planning is
Urban development in the interests of its residents. Therefore, it also requires
Support from citizens and city officials.

·
Every city produces
Noise and waste. The bigger a city is, the louder and, unfortunately, dirtier it becomes.
Progress already achieved or implemented and opportunities for
Improvements in the quality of life should be demonstrated on this day.

·
Every academic
Discipline, including urban planning, should present its results for the
to make it accessible to the public. November 8th offers an opportunity
on this.

Whether in the United States of
America, in Asia, in Oberhausen or anywhere else in the world. More at:
https://www.kuriose-feiertage.de/world-town-planning-day/

Now, since 27 September 2020, the Small Palace of the LUDWIGGALERIE
Schloss Oberhausen the exhibition “Oberhausen – Awakening makes
History. Structural Change 1847-2006”. Unfortunately, it is
second Corona lockdown until 30 November 2020, so that a
Visit on November 8th cannot be arranged.

The new green belt on Schwartzstraße in Oberhausen © City Archives Oberhausen

New York
is world-famous, Oberhausen is more regional. But both have common
Planning structures: planned in uninhabited landscape, characterized by
rectangular city structures, permeated by historical traces.
It took a lot of urban planning to transform a barren landscape into a livable
The exhibition in the Small Castle is intended to shape the urban landscape
Oberhausen can be arranged.

For New York, of course, a visit is more appropriate
as a city tourist when the pandemic allows it again. In Oberhausen
Unfortunately, the exhibition ends on January 17, 2021.

In the Manhattan district of New York, it is Broadway, an old
Indian trail, which long before the settlement was founded through the uninhabited
landscape and still runs diagonally through the checkerboard pattern of the
City planners sacrificed it with the advent of automobiles in the
1930s. But today it is increasingly being re-used by city planners.
as a place of rest, relaxation and recreation for pedestrians and
Cyclists are spotted in America's largest city and often together with the local
living and working areas.

In Oberhausen, it is not the traces of the
Indians, but the railway, which long before the planned city,
heathland from 1847 onwards. Many of these railway lines are
Today, boulevards, cycle paths, or tram lines are closed. But also in
As part of the city repair, as can be seen at the job center, a railway line
cut blocks into a new building block with a greenhouse on the roof
been transformed.

The new job center with roof garden in May 2020.
A railway line used to run through this property © Stadtarchiv Oberhausen, Axel Scherer

Town planning
is an ongoing process that will never stop.

In the
Oberhausen exhibition will be presented with a few meaningful plans, pictures,
Models and figures show how urban planning has repeatedly shaped the
human environment had to adapt to the new requirements.

A
I wish you all a nice relaxing Sunday. Klaus Martin Schmidt-Waldbauer, city planner and co-curator of the
Exhibition.