"Belfast faces a combination of economic, social,
communal and physical development problems unparalleled in any major city
in Europe" (DOENI 1977:64 in Boal 1990)
This statement can be illuminated by considering statistics of out-migration
during the fiercest portions of the Troubles. Between the early 1960s and
mid-1970s approximately 150,000 or one-third of the city's population left,
and about 76,000 moved from the BUA. While this mass emigration is shocking,
it created a situation beneficial to planning as described in Northern Ireland:
Regional Physical Development Strategy. More open space was created through
destruction of unnecessary housing estates and lack of commercial development.
The new housing that was built, often to replace inadequate property identified
in the 1962 plan, was low rise, allowing the city
to pass through this era of massive high-rise apartment construction with
few of its own.
Massive destruction caused by rioting, petrol bombing, and the like lead
to an increase in security-minded planning. Roads, housing estates, and
other infrastructure, including peacelines,
were constructed to reduce accessibility and hinder such damaging action.
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