ABSTRACT
Cities of the Global South, and African cities in particular, are facing rapid urbanization. This has given rise to unplanned urban development amidst planned neighbourhoods, and more recently the proliferation of gated communities, with urban fragmentation as the result. Several problems arise from such urban fragments, for example lack of (permanent) street connectivity (e.g. caused by prohibiting street access by the public to gated communities) and social exclusion (e.g. the poor often residing within unplanned neighbourhoods). This chapter endeavours to identify and understand the role of streets as a binding factor by measuring the quality of streets as public spaces that connect the different urban fragments found in Msasani Bonde la Mpunga settlement, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. A mixed-method approach that involves quantitative and qualitative indicators was adopted to measure, observe and survey three shared streets within this fragmented settlement. Results show that the gated community and the unplanned neighbourhood, characterized by fencing and irregular, short street-patterns with dead ends (respectively), contribute to a low level of street connectivity and, consequently, a low level integration within the settlement. Residents perceive street economy and employment opportunities as the most important factors for improving social integration of the upper- and lower-class fragments of the neighbourhood.
