earticle

영어

Compact city is an idea that has increasingly been core of urban regeneration strategies in recent years. The critical essence of the compact city includes dense and proximate development; walk, bike and public transportation systems oriented development; and eco-friendly green development. However, it is very hard to accomplish the compact city idea on earth because of inherent conflicts. This paper discusses theoretically the causes of the conflicts. I argue that there are three faces of inherent conflicts over compact city–personal, social and spatial conflicts. First, as income increases, an individual tends to prefer more space, higher privacy, and private transportation (Ellwood & Polinski, 1979; Crotte et al., 2009). The idea of compact city is discord with personal inclination. Second, when a city is compressed to build the city compact, it hence raises housing and real estate price. Real estate price burden decreases the utility of middle and low class (Helsley and Strange, 1995). Society confronts conflicts between landlords and tenants; old and young generation. Third, compact city recommends further concentration of development in a few established areas. This leads to the center-periphery issue - the spatial conflicts between a few established centers and many less developed peripheries within a city, region, or country. Up until now, urban expansion is a natural process which is accord with personal interest. Yet, compact city is an attempt of contracting cities opposing individual inclination. Therefore, to make cities compact successfully, developing supplementary policies to mitigate adverse effects are in need and building consensus of citizens on the ideal of compact city is crucial.