Can Importing Well-Run Cities Into Poorly Run Countries Lift The World From Poverty? | Co.Exist
That’s what Paul Romer thinks. His idea of charter cities—autonomous, technocratic economic hubs based on the model of Hong Kong—that would be founded in developing nations is revolutionary. But would it work?
Kate Stohr on Investing in Cities | Sustainable Cities Collective
Cities that turn a blind eye to pockets of blight and violence not only put community members at greater risk, but also put themselves at greater risk for the flight of capital and jobs. This, combined with leveling of populations in many areas, and projected population decline in others, means that cities cannot count on urbanization and rising birthrates to fuel economic development. Companies can and do go ‘city shopping,’ looking for ‘creative’ places that are safe and desirable. Cities that breed cultural diversity as well as opportunity — where the walk to and from work offers spontaneity and chance inspiration — will thrive.
Featuring Joe Peach of This Big City blog and Tumblr.
Two new hires, a data scientist, and a practice leader on their challenges and motivations, succeeding at IBM, and the qualities future consultants will need.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Cities | Sustainable Cities Collective
Cape Town Without The Freeways | Sustainable Cities Collective
Cape Town’s Foreshore freeway strangles the city and cuts it (and its people) off from the Port and water’s edge. With a comparison to San Francisco’s Embarcadero, Gareth Pearsonquestions what would happen if we did away with the Foreshore section of Nelson Mandela Boulevard altogether.
When Capetonians talk about the freeway along the Foreshore, there’s a good chance it involves a joke about the mysterious unfinished sections. It’s not the unfinished sections that I care about, it’s the entire thing.
The footprint of the freeway as well as the land in between each section is wasted, restricting the development of this lifeless area of the city. There have been a number of interventions proposed, as mentioned some time back in a post by Andrew Boraine. More recently, the City of Cape Town, is proposing a 3 storey parking building to sit between the freeways, to support a new tower, as part of the Convention Centre expansion.
There is often talk of sinking the freeway below ground, a monstrous project not disimilar to Boston’s Big Dig. Sure, this is an option, as with any project it has its advantages and disadvantages. But what if the freeway was removed entirely? What if it was replaced with a tree-lined boulevard that accommodates public transport, bicycling, and walking?
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.”
Tsunami-proof micro-villages, a design response to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake by Sako Architects. Bears some resemblance to a Fujian Tulou
Check out all the original posts around Urban Planning — and the broader topic of Smarter Cities — from thought leaders across IBM and the world on the Smarter Planet blog.
Last September, the New York Times ran a story highlighting my hometown. Reading, PA had officially “earned the unwelcome distinction of having the largest share of its residents living in poverty” among cities with populations greater than 65,000. Roughly 43% of our residents live in poverty – a staggering 36,000 people in my community of 88,000. Less than two months later, city residents voted in a mayor whose platform addressed “green jobs” and “sustainability.” Many urban areas are beginning to jump on the sustainability bandwagon. Reading, a mid-sized industrial city about 1.5 hours northwest of Philadelphia, is just beginning to enter the fray and the new administration is jumping in with both feet.
Cities are faced with a number of ecological, economic, and social problems and sustainable systems thinking is crucial for understanding and addressing them. A systems thinking approach – that is, one that encourages us to view a system in a holistic manner by understanding the relationships that comprise the system – provides cities with an important toolkit for addressing sustainability. Systems thinking and movements toward more sustainable urban practices and policies must go hand-in-hand to ensure that sustainable approaches to urban problems are more than simply old urban policies with a green label.
In her new book, “Small, Gritty, and Green: The Promise of America’s Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World,” Catherine Tumber argues that small and mid-sized industrial cities like Reading offer a number of important resources that will be valuable in a transition to a low-carbon economy, including access to surrounding farmland, manufacturing infrastructure, and industrial workforce skills that can be easily transitioned for production of renewable technologies.
The book questions the need for permanent uses and solutions for sites and argues that we need to increasingly look for short and medium term uses, rather than obsess about the long term; realistically it will take a long time for the economy to achieve stable and meaningful growth and for sites to become viable again – especially with what was paid for many sites at the market peak – and in the meantime these same sites will lie vacant for many years without an effective framework for their interim use.
via humanscalecities:
