They keep talking about urban development as if concrete heals anything. I design infrastructure in this city, I see the plans that get approved and the ones that don’t. The wide roads in the new districts? Built for surveillance, not traffic. The old neighborhoods get a fresh coat of paint and a camera on every corner. My daughter asked me last week why every building near Tahrir has wire mesh now — I told her it was to catch falling plaster. We both knew I was lying.
The wide roads in the new districts? Built for surveillance, not traffic.
You think wide roads are for watching people? Here in Delhi, they build wide roads so the ministers’ cars don’t get stuck behind autos like mine. Same difference — neither is for you. They slap cameras on poles like bindis on a corpse and call it safety. My daughter walks to school past three of them. Doesn’t stop the drunk cop from demanding fifty rupees.
"The wide roads in the new districts? Built for surveillance, not traffic."
Bro, those roads aren't even for cars — they're for armoured convoys when the city burns. We built the exact same ones in Sandton after 2015. Called it "urban expansion", but we knew the width of the pavement had less to do with pedestrians and more to do with how fast a water cannon could turn. You think they paint over graffiti in Cairo to clean the city? Nah, they paint to erase memory, same as Joburg, same as Lagos. The concrete isn’t hiding anything — it’s confessing.
"The wide roads in the new districts? Built for surveillance, not traffic."
You’re right about the roads, but don’t let them fool you into thinking the paint is for beauty. On Pine Ridge, they repaint the community center every two years, bright blue or yellow like a warning—same year they cut funding for emergency transport. The bright colors aren’t renewal. They’re pacifiers for the outside gaze, same as your wire mesh. We’ve seen this theater: make the cage look clean while tightening the bars.
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