"Reflection"

From the previous blogs, it can be seen that there are many positive aspects of commercial zones in the city center. This mainly includes offering a wide plethora of commercial services to the wider public. However, it should be noted that although this is the case, it also results in many negative consequences in the commercial zone and in turn the city center.  Some of these negative consequences include increased dumping of waste in the commercial zone, increase importation of products in an unsustainable way and finally traffic congestion and overcrowding. 

  Increased dumping in the commercial zone:

As I make my way along the streets in the commercial zones, I often see street corners and open abandoned areas in the city centers filled with garbage bags containing waste products and sometimes even over flowing. This is also seen when you take a look at garbage bins in the commercial zone that contain more than their maximum capacity. This is seen in my colleague’s blog: 

http://urbanpollutiontt.blogspot.com/2014/04/inappropriate-use-of-urban-space.html?showComment=1397267576242#c7808073643563776911

Illustrated in the image is the dumping of garbage products on the side of a building in the commercial zone in the Tunapuna city center.

Firstly, it is seen that improper waste management is a serious problem in the country especially in urban areas.  This is even exacerbated due to our small land space in Trinidad as well as due to the method that we utilize for getting rid of waste which is landfills.

This waste is seen as both land and visual pollution in the commercial zones and poses various negative effects. One such effect is that over time, this garbage would begin to give out a stench that can make the persons in city centers uncomfortable and even leave.

In addition, any loose waste items can be transported into the drainage systems and these can enter small crevices in the manmade drainage system and clog the system. Also, this garbage can build up over in the drains and when rains falls the water would not be able to drain out of the system due to the garbage blocking its path. These then causes the drains to over flow and thus flood the urban areas. 

   Increase imports

As commercial zones and city centers grow there is an increase in the amount of good and services being provided. This is in response to the increase needs and wants by the general public. As a result, commercial businesses import a drastic amount of goods to meet the increased consumption patterns of its urban citizens. 

As stated by my college in his blog, this allows for the importation of raw materials at unsustainable rates: 

http://urbanenviropollution.blogspot.com/2014/04/selling-degradation.html?showComment=1397266135342#c8620635129713448017

The image demonstrates a new mall set up in the urban city of Arima. This would led to increase importation of good and was a result of increasing demand for shoes and accessories in the commercial zones. 

This in turn allows many commercial stores in the city center to appropriate carrying capacities from through the increased import of goods and services. Likewise, it should be noted that this process also occurs with the multinational corporations located in urban areas. As stated in a previous blog, the locations in Trinidad are seen to be subsidiaries to the parent companies in other countries. This means that the products sold to the public by these companies would be from foreign countries and as mass consumption occurs more and more products will have to be imported from away and thus allows commercial zones in urban centers to appropriate carrying capacities from parent countries from elsewhere. 

      Congestion

As a result of growth occurring in the commercial zone as well as due to the presence of side street vendors congestion in terms on limited sidewalk space as well as traffic congestion occurs. When these two processes occur at the same time, space for pedestrians in the commercial zones becomes limited. According to one of my colleagues in her blog, sometimes side street vendors extend their stalls or the tables that they set up to sell their items into the road areas and this causes traffic. Thus persons in cars must carefully make their way through the commercial zone and this tends to hold back the free flow of vehicles in the area.

My colleagues blog based on side street vending and traffic congestion: http://streetvendingtrinidad.blogspot.com/2014/04/street-vendors-and-congestion.html?showComment=1397268459398#c2636977529254819982

Demonstrated in the image is traffic congestion, over crowing of both people and stores which are a common feature of commercial zones in city centers. This image shows the commercial zone in the urban city of Arima. 

Likewise, as stated in one of my previous blog posts, pedestrian space is also limited in the commercial zone due to side street vending. As Side Street vendors take up the side walk to set up their items for display they utilize walking area in the commercial zones. As a result, persons are forced to use the roads as their walk way which is a very unsafe practice as this can result in injury even death.