I hope they don’t find inspiration from the UAE cities... since those are built on the backs of migrant slaves.
I got bad news for you about America!
The US is bad, but Kafala is something else.
Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities
41–50 of 81 posts
Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities
#42Hamburg build from 2008 on a new district, the HafenCity, a soulless place of concrete, expensive apartments, and chain stores. I recently thought about how great it would have been to try something radical new – like building everything with wood, fantastic public transport, and as little cars as possible. My conclusion was that the only way that realistically could have happend was with subsidies from a billionaire…
As a general matter, I think Utopianism is a bad idea, and I don’t think we should be sinking huge amounts of resources into giant leaps like this. I’d rather see incremental tweaks in the right direction first, as I think those are far more effective at bringing lasting change. Fundamentally, we’re really bad at predicting the future. Utopian projects involve making big bets on what the future might hold, which make…
Accommodating cars is the most important variable in all places I see. Once you design for accommodating cars, everything is so spread out that it precludes a non-car oriented life. So while you can make commercial streets pedestrian, you can’t change the fundamental fact that everything is too far from everything else to have the necessary foot traffic to sustain businesses.
Not to mention the political challenges that come with trying to design a place simultaneously compatible with cars and pedestrians/bicyclists.
I’m convinced that there is no in between.
Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities
#43Urban Design and police has become a kafkaesque mess. It has become near impossible to summon the political will to actually build something livable. Developments generally lean towards familiar and easy, instead of building anything interesting. Tragically, in many parts of the world, one of 3 types of plans fall in the easy+familiar domain. You have the grossly inefficient suburbs of the US, lifeless concrete planned cities of communist fame and wild-best of haphazard urban densification as seen in Indian cities like Bangalore.
What's even worse, is that the average consumer is woefully under-equipped to recognize problems with this system until it is too late. It isn't until their kids start growing up that they realize how dead the suburb feels, and how the car dependence relegates one of the parents to a soccer mom nanny. Why it takes 2 hours to get to anywhere in Bangalore or why the incredibly dense concrete jungle feels spiritually dead despite how hard you try to fix it. Years of brainwashing towards the American dream and a tall condo with a view, really do not help consumers make informed decisions either. Not like contractors do user-studies anyways, but still.
Funny thing is, these problems are already solved in some capacity. City has been studied to death for millennia. It is no wonder that people in modern 1st world countries, pay good money to spend 1 week in European cities that have been "preserved" as they were.
I am not even advocating for some replica of Copenhagen or Vienna (as much as I love biking). Strong towns[1] and Not-just-bikes[2] are evangelists of just two of many well thought out ways of building better cities.
Even the much maligned Apple Park could have been amazing if not for Cupertino's parking minimum rules. Guess billionaires can only do so much.
The plans are already there, what's lacking is political will. If billionaires is what it takes to break cities out of this terrible inertia, then so be it.
Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities
#44Hamburg build from 2008 on a new district, the HafenCity, a soulless place of concrete, expensive apartments, and chain stores. I recently thought about how great it would have been to try something radical new – like building everything with wood, fantastic public transport, and as little cars as possible. My conclusion was that the only way that realistically could have happend was with subsidies from a billionaire…
> Hamburg build from 2008 on a new district, the HafenCity, a soulless place of concrete, expensive apartments, and chain stores.
I find your description here fascinating, because it's exactly how I've described the CityPlace district [1] here in Toronto that was built over the last 20 years, with most development in the last 10. Makes me wonder how common this style of modern, sterile, "ideal" development is in big cities around the world.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CityPlace,_Toronto
(I also think it's interesting how both HafenCity and CityPlace work the word "city" into their title, with a similar naming scheme)
Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities
#45I think Pronomos[1] was specifically started with the idea of investing in such ideas.
Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities
#46Hamburg build from 2008 on a new district, the HafenCity, a soulless place of concrete, expensive apartments, and chain stores. I recently thought about how great it would have been to try something radical new – like building everything with wood, fantastic public transport, and as little cars as possible. My conclusion was that the only way that realistically could have happend was with subsidies from a billionaire…
As a general matter, I think Utopianism is a bad idea, and I don’t think we should be sinking huge amounts of resources into giant leaps like this. I’d rather see incremental tweaks in the right direction first, as I think those are far more effective at bringing lasting change. Fundamentally, we’re really bad at predicting the future. Utopian projects involve making big bets on what the future might hold, which make…
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Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities
#47Hamburg build from 2008 on a new district, the HafenCity, a soulless place of concrete, expensive apartments, and chain stores. I recently thought about how great it would have been to try something radical new – like building everything with wood, fantastic public transport, and as little cars as possible. My conclusion was that the only way that realistically could have happend was with subsidies from a billionaire…
As a general matter, I think Utopianism is a bad idea, and I don’t think we should be sinking huge amounts of resources into giant leaps like this. I’d rather see incremental tweaks in the right direction first, as I think those are far more effective at bringing lasting change. Fundamentally, we’re really bad at predicting the future. Utopian projects involve making big bets on what the future might hold, which make…
The fundamental problem with utopian vision usually isn't its bets on the future, it's the fact that there's no meaningful feedback loop. Typically, such a vision is the self-centered self-expression of some mogul or architect or politician who hopes to reshape the world, but does not understand the world and the people who live in the world, and will never bear the burden of the failures of his design.
See, for instance, Le Corbusier's Ville Radieuse, or even Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City.
Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really? I'm sorry to hear it's the same in the UK but I loved Berlin and Tallinn wasn't bad (most of what was bad was out of their control ie the weather). I've lived in SF, San Diego, northern Nevada, DC, Berlin, Tallinn, London (Enfield) and Yerevan and by far European cities were much better run in my opinion
I haven't lived in US cities but I'm sure you're correct. I wasn't trying to make an argument for US cities over EU - I've heard they've even bigger problems. Still I don't consider EU cities (Italy, France, Germany at least) to be great for living. Maybe with electric transport and better use of police enforcement.
I'm curious why in those places you mentioned better use of police enforcement? I haven't done much living (or even traveling outside of major tourist areas) in France and Italy but living in Berlin I can honestly say I don't think I ever felt unsafe. Contrasting that to the US and China (and I know you're not saying the US is better, it's just what I'm more familiar with) in the US I would worry about either 1) being attacked by a mentally disturbed person or robbed and the police not caring unless it was life threatening or 2) being shot by police (I'm brown). In China it was totally different, the only thing I'd worry about there is being injured by or offending a well connected person who seem like they operate with relative impunity (I have visceral memories of Lambos and Ferraris parked on public sidewalks and no one would touch them because if you could afford them you were well connected enough that you could destroy whatever cop messed with you)
Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities
#49What a strange thing to pin on tech. Company towns have existed forever, to the point of having laws made about how they can function. Walt Disney and ford also wanted to create a utopia city. I think this is more of a rich man's hobby than anything related to tech moguls at all. Hell, some even establish their own currency https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_scrip#Coal_company_s...
Re: Why Tech Moguls Are Obsessed with Building Utopian Cities
#50Hamburg build from 2008 on a new district, the HafenCity, a soulless place of concrete, expensive apartments, and chain stores. I recently thought about how great it would have been to try something radical new – like building everything with wood, fantastic public transport, and as little cars as possible. My conclusion was that the only way that realistically could have happend was with subsidies from a billionaire…
As a general matter, I think Utopianism is a bad idea, and I don’t think we should be sinking huge amounts of resources into giant leaps like this. I’d rather see incremental tweaks in the right direction first, as I think those are far more effective at bringing lasting change. Fundamentally, we’re really bad at predicting the future. Utopian projects involve making big bets on what the future might hold, which make…
I would argue that this is already happening. We have some new bike lanes, and a little less cars here in Berlin, at some places. And I do not suggest that every development should be utopian. But why not give some utopies a try within a certain scope, e.g. a new district of one town? Worst thing that could happen is we sink a lot of money, and we have a not so nice quarter, but one could argue that exactly this happend with the conservative approach at the HafenCity.
Best case is we recognize that this is actually the way we want to live, and it serve as a role model for future developments.