Who Can Solve London's Great Challenges? | Planetizen

Against the backdrop of a made-for-tv mayoral election, Richard Florida looks at the litany of issues afflicting London as the city struggles with the deepest challenges it has faced since the Great Depression and post-war years.

As Ken Livingstone, the former mayor and “fiery socialist with a penchant for dropping explosive sound bites”, faces off against Boris Johnson, “the tousled-haired, bike-riding conservative incumbent”, in an election run-up resembling “a reality TV show,” the reality of the pressing challenges facing the city could make for some rather dramatic television themselves.

“The city has been buffeted by the financial crisis, suffering more severe blows than most cities, from which it is still suffering.” With the city’s economic, media, and entertainment power weakening, and forecasted to decline further, “the next mayor will have to spearhead a plan to stave off growing competition from a host of global cities.”

Florida describes a laundry list of additional challenges that the city’s next mayor will have to address: from bolstering its high-tech economy to better connecting its educational institutions to the private sector and bridging the growing class divide.

“Whether Boris or Ken, London’s next mayor is going to have to thread this needle — to make the city even more attractive to global talent and business while at the same time improving its livability and affordability for ordinary people. It’s a daunting challenge — one that the city’s future prosperity turns on.”

Full Story: London’s Next Top Mayor

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Sense and the City: Smart, Connected, and on the Move If you find yourself in London between now and March 18th, check out this exhibition: ‘Comparing contemporary experiences of London with past visions of the future, the show looks at GPS, electric vehicles, internet access, smart phones and other recent advances in data and communication technologies, presenting these alongside works from the past by architects Le Corbusier, Archigram and others who imagined what the twenty-first-century city might look like.’ More on Time Out

Sense and the City: Smart, Connected, and on the Move

If you find yourself in London between now and March 18th, check out this exhibition:

‘Comparing contemporary experiences of London with past visions of the future, the show looks at GPS, electric vehicles, internet access, smart phones and other recent advances in data and communication technologies, presenting these alongside works from the past by architects Le Corbusier, Archigram and others who imagined what the twenty-first-century city might look like.’

More on Time Out

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Urban Constellations The collection explores themes such as new forms of political mobilization, the effects of economic instability, the political ecology of urban nature and the presence of collective memory. Cultural aspects of urban change are also considered including the work of artists, film makers and others, who have sought to critically engage with processes of urban change. The global scope of the collection includes essays on London, Berlin and Los Angeles, as well as less extensively studied cities such as Buenos Aires, Lagos and Seoul. via humanscalecities:

Urban Constellations

The collection explores themes such as new forms of political mobilization, the effects of economic instability, the political ecology of urban nature and the presence of collective memory. Cultural aspects of urban change are also considered including the work of artists, film makers and others, who have sought to critically engage with processes of urban change. The global scope of the collection includes essays on London, Berlin and Los Angeles, as well as less extensively studied cities such as Buenos Aires, Lagos and Seoul.

via humanscalecities:

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Retrofuturism, Renewables, Colonisation and Endless Cities – Four Visions of the Future | This Big City What are the fundamental trends of our age? In central London on November the 25th and 26th, thirty forward-thinking minds will attempt to address this topic at the iq2 if conference. This Big City contributor Rachel Armstrong will be one of the speakers, all 30 of whom will also be exploring this (massive) question: how will our homes, lives and cities be transformed by an urbanised, environmentally conscious and technologically empowered humanity? To give you some kind of idea of what to expect, we’ve selected four videos from iq2 if’s youtube channel, each of which features a different speaker and a different future-thinking idea (and if you’re tempted to go, the guys at iq2 are giving This Big City readers a massive discount on ticket prices – read on for details):

Retrofuturism, Renewables, Colonisation and Endless Cities – Four Visions of the Future | This Big City

What are the fundamental trends of our age? In central London on November the 25th and 26th, thirty forward-thinking minds will attempt to address this topic at the iq2 if conference. This Big City contributor Rachel Armstrong will be one of the speakers, all 30 of whom will also be exploring this (massive) question: how will our homes, lives and cities be transformed by an urbanised, environmentally conscious and technologically empowered humanity?

To give you some kind of idea of what to expect, we’ve selected four videos from iq2 if’s youtube channel, each of which features a different speaker and a different future-thinking idea (and if you’re tempted to go, the guys at iq2 are giving This Big City readers a massive discount on ticket prices – read on for details):

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5 Cities with Congestion Pricing | Sustainable Cities Collective Congestion pricing is gathering some inertia in cities worldwide for a few reasons; safety, money, and public desire are among the main ones. Unlike traditional mechanisms to deal with more cars such as, well, building new roads, congestion pricing has had a profound effect on the cities it has come to. Pricing schemes operate on the same general platform – charge a car if it passes into a certain zone of a city – but each country has generated an architecture that is influenced as much by culture as it is by need. Below is a list of cities (and in one case, a city-state) that have designed and deployed congestion pricing systems:

5 Cities with Congestion Pricing | Sustainable Cities Collective

Congestion pricing is gathering some inertia in cities worldwide for a few reasons; safety, money, and public desire are among the main ones. Unlike traditional mechanisms to deal with more cars such as, well, building new roads, congestion pricing has had a profound effect on the cities it has come to. Pricing schemes operate on the same general platform – charge a car if it passes into a certain zone of a city – but each country has generated an architecture that is influenced as much by culture as it is by need. Below is a list of cities (and in one case, a city-state) that have designed and deployed congestion pricing systems:

(via smarterplanet)

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socialisimo: London has become uninhabitable. Every year spring tides surge through the Thames Barrier, making London the new Venice. But whereas the city of gondolas has come to terms with water, London is overwhelmed. This image shows the impact of 7 metre flooding, the level required to breach the Thames Barrier.  Image © Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones.

socialisimo:

London has become uninhabitable. Every year spring tides surge through the Thames Barrier, making London the new Venice. But whereas the city of gondolas has come to terms with water, London is overwhelmed.

This image shows the impact of 7 metre flooding, the level required to breach the Thames Barrier. 

Image © Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones.

(via thegreenurbanist)

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Will London’s New Wayfinding System Get More People Walking?

If you’ve walked through Covent Garden, Southbank or Oxford Street recently, the chances are you will have stumbled across the funky new Legible London pedestrian signs installed by Transport for London (TfL).  These sleek, stylish ‘monoliths’ have been sprouting up all over the capital during the last year.

Each monolith is strategically placed and has:

  • An easy-to-read map that is orientated to the users point of view;
  • 5 and 15 minute walking distances;
  • 3D drawings of key shops and buildings in the area.

Changing Londoners mental maps

The thinking behind the new system is to encourage more people to walk around London instead of driving or using already overcrowded public transport.  By catching people at key decision points – such as tube stations – and providing them with the right information on walking times and local attractions, it is hoped that they will choose to walk.

According to TfL, information really is key in achieving modal shift.  Research found that most Londoners mental map of London is based on the tube map which is geographically distorted and can be very misleading.  For instance there are over 100 connections on the underground where its quicker to walk than take the tube!  Legible London maps will often show users that their destination is closer and more walkable than they think.

Source: Sustainable Cities Collective

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UK’s first fuel cell-powered black cab hits the streets of London It may not look much different than your average black cab on the outside (decals aside), but it’s quite a different story under the hood of this taxi, which has just been deemed road legal in the UK. Developed by Intelligent Energy, the cab actually includes both a fuel cell with a 30 kW net output and a 14 kWh lithium polymer battery pack, which combined promise to provide enough juice for a full day of operation — along with a top speed of 81 MPH and acceleration from zero to sixty in fourteen seconds. Londoners won’t be seeing them everywhere just yet, however, as the company only expects the first fleet to be ready sometime next year in time for the 2012 Olympics. Source: Engadget

UK’s first fuel cell-powered black cab hits the streets of London

It may not look much different than your average black cab on the outside (decals aside), but it’s quite a different story under the hood of this taxi, which has just been deemed road legal in the UK. Developed by Intelligent Energy, the cab actually includes both a fuel cell with a 30 kW net output and a 14 kWh lithium polymer battery pack, which combined promise to provide enough juice for a full day of operation — along with a top speed of 81 MPH and acceleration from zero to sixty in fourteen seconds. Londoners won’t be seeing them everywhere just yet, however, as the company only expects the first fleet to be ready sometime next year in time for the 2012 Olympics.

Source: Engadget

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nprfreshair: kenyatta: Mapping The Quietest Places in London Silent London by Simon Elvins: Using information the government has collected on noise levels within London, a map has been plotted of the capitals most silent spaces. The map intends to reveal a hidden landscape of quiet spaces and shows an alternate side of the city that would normally  go unnoticed.  (Yeah, I’ve been on a map kick lately.) Shhh.

nprfreshair:

kenyatta:

Mapping The Quietest Places in London

Silent London by Simon Elvins: Using information the government has collected on noise levels within London, a map has been plotted of the capitals most silent spaces. The map intends to reveal a hidden landscape of quiet spaces and shows an alternate side of the city that would normally  go unnoticed. 

(Yeah, I’ve been on a map kick lately.)

Shhh.

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