[Urbanstudy] Crawford Market redevelopment

[Curt Gambetta]

I have a request. A friend of mine in Bombay, a journalist and foodie,
 is concerned about what is slated to happen to Crawford Market. 

If unfamiliar with the issue, here are some recent articles:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Save_Crawford_Market_move_gathers_pace/articleshow/2500928.cms
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1129549

He
was inquiring as to what materials on rejuvenating public markets in
India would be of use to someone who is concerned about the issue. Are
there any interesting models--successes or failures--in South Asia we
can think of that approached the future of a public market more
democratically? I am most familiar
with what I see as failures, for instance, the KR Market structure in
Bangalore and the sustained effort to clean up and move out hawkers
there. I know that a number of people at CASSUM in Bangalore have
worked on this issue, but are there other recent examples that might
educate us on the issue? Or examples outside of India or South Asia
that might be interesting to critique? I think this is an important
issue, because the landscape of food retail and distribution is
changing, and what is happening to Crawford Market doesn't at all seem
out of sync with larger efforts to streamline distribution, centralize
the players and interiorize food retail space. 



Maybe the issue of interest here is not what you get out of the whole
process but the process of getting there. Here we seem to have the
heritage/ preservation process on the one hand and the BMC/developers
on the other (please correct me if I am wrong). This is not of course
to forget the civic activism that has been taking place around the
issue (though I am curious what this activism is asking for, in
relation to those who sell in the market?) I am interested in whether
there have been compelling infrastructures of negotiation and
collective politics in other cities that attempted to give those who
sell, buy and manage the marketplace a substantive role in determining
the future life of the market? When politicians talk of giving these
interests a stake in the process, the issue is often already defined
and refined in such a way that you either participate or you don't--if
participation is even solicited (the objective of many of the good
government/ civic activism initiatives enters into the problem at this
stage, trying to increase vehicles of participation). So, you are asked
to participate in an issue that has already been crafted for you,
supposedly in your best interest (even though what is in your best
interest may prove disastrous... look at the Bangalore Metro project!).
The question that interests me is: who is defining the problem and how?
This seems essential.



Beyond this more general question... can anyone offer any insight as to
what is happening around the Crawford Market issue? Is 'saving'
Crawford market through the heritage process the only alternative on
the table to the proposed redevelopment plan?



Curt


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