2011 Year in Review

Happy New Year Urbanist!  2011 has been an exciting year for Encountering Urbanization’s writers as we began the year as graduate students in New York City researching international urban planning and now have moved across the world to South Africa, Tanzania and Singapore for work.  Here is a recap of our ten most read posts of 2011.  We look forward to sharing many more stories with you in 2012!

10. Curitiba, Brazil: Model of Sustainability  “Curitiba won the Global Sustainable City Award 2010 and is hosting a few World Cup matches in 2014.  To prepare for this planners have realized that they need to improve the city’s infrastructure to handle the huge influx of football fans.  CNN also featured a story on Curitiba after it was awarded the Global Sustainable City Award in 2010.”

9. Visiting Navotas: The Slums of Manila  ”In the third and final article of his series on Manila, the capital mega-city region of the Philippines, Australian urban planner Marcus Tudehope ventures to  Navotas, one of the seventeen cities that make of the Metro Manila region.”

8. Film: Dharavi, Slum for Sale  ”A new documentary by Director Lutz Konermann portrays the story of the controversial redevelopment of Dharavi in Mumbai, India.  Dharavi, the largest slum in India and possibly the largest in the world, is home to over one million people and millions of dollars of industry. US trained developer Mukesh Mehta’s Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) seeks to demolition the slum and build high-rise buildings that will both rehouse the existing squatters and provide extra housing to be sold at market rates that will fund the rest of the project.”

7. Singapore: Efficient vs Resilient City  “As I wait for a shuttle bus this Sunday morning to take me across the island instead of the much faster, less crowded train I can’t help but be as upset as my fellow passengers at SMRT for using Sunday morning to finish their track inspection. As I wait on the bus though and read the many opinion pieces in the paper and blogs about this planned outage it suddenly occurred to me: I would never have left my Brooklyn apartment on the weekend without first checking the MTA’s website for disruptions in the F train service.”

6. China’s First Property Tax  ”While studying in Shanghai this summer I learned that many newly rich Chinese acquire property as an investment because there are very few other legal investment options that are as lucrative.   The absence of property tax also provides an incentive for hoarding property since there are no annual costs.  However this is about to change in Shanghai and Chongqing as the national government announced last week that it would allow cities for the first time to impose property taxes on homeowners in hopes of stopping speculation in the housing market and to shift a major source of government funding away from land auctions to property taxes.”

5. Comparing Urban Form  ”Have you ever wondered how New York City’s urban form compares to London?  Or the ancient streets of Rome?  This comparison from Bricoleurbanism compares eight famous cities’ urban form at the same scale to the city of Mississauga, ON, revealing ‘the inherent problems of scale in trying to evolve any suburban, auto-oriented area into a more pedestrian-oriented center.’”

4. Urban Form in Shanghai vs. New York City  “After walking the massive blocks of Pudong this summer I was not that surprised when I realize that one block in Pudong was the same size as about 6 blocks in Lower Manhattan.  What is surprising though is to consider what the size of these city blocks may mean about the density of these cities if future development mirrored these sections.”

3. Ranking the World’s Mass Transit Systems  ”Have you ever wondered what the best mass transit systems in the world are?  Most New Yorkers would agree that we do not have the cleanest system in the world, nor the most efficient system given recent MTA service cuts and constant construction.  However New York certainly does have the busiest and more efficient public transit system in the US…”

2. Rebuilding after Japan’s Earthquake and Tsunami  ”As Japanese authorities are still trying to avoid nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture while also dealing with at least 350,000 homeless citizens, it is difficult to think about plans to rebuild Japan.  However groups like Architecture for Humanity already are thinking about rebuilding efforts….”

1. Dar es Salaam: Underwater and Underreported  “If you’re reading this from outside of Tanzania, chances are you haven’t heard that large swaths of the 3-million plus city of Dar es Salaam have been underwater for several days. It’s a situation of superlatives: flash floods due to several month’s worth of rain in 72 hours, including the highest rainfall ever recorded in a single day, have caused the worst flooding the city has seen in 57 years. Thousands are homeless, much of the city has been paralyzed with damaged roads and power outages….”

Happy New Year from the Encountering Urbanization Team!

For photo and graphic sources see original articles.

Urbanization Notes #4

• A Bird’s Eye View of China’s Rapid Urbanization from polis
• Miami City of Art
• Manuel Castells at Occupy London
• Street Films: documenting liveable streets worldwide
• The City Solution: Why cities are the best cure for our planet’s growing pains in National Geographic

Urbanization Notes #3

• Ciro Miguel creates landscapes where familiar urban and natural landmarks collide.
• “A Year in New York City” a short film by Andrew Clancy
• NYU decides to place the new Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), in Downtown Brooklyn.
• London Planners Break Down Boundaries Between Cars and Pedestrians by eliminating sidewalks
• Police invade a Rio de Janeiro Favela to “Pacify” it before the Olympics

Photo Credit: Ciro Miguel

Urbanization Notes #1

• “China takes aim at rural influx” by demolishing low cost schools
• How New York City sold public housing in the 1930s
• Food deserts in American cities are a solvable problem
• What does 7 Billion people on earth mean for our cities?
• Film Review: Creativity and the Capitalist City

Urbanization News: July 29

Pop Up to Permanent: The Globe and Mail features cities in North America and Europe that have embraced the idea of pop-up projects as a planning tool to rethink public spaces. The image above is from Times Square in New York, a “pilot” project that closed one of the city’s most chaotic streets to car traffic, a change that’s feeling pretty permanent these days.

HSR Crash Update: The New York Times reported that Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao admitted last week’s high-speed rail crash that killed 39 people was the result of a serious design flaw – not only did a signaling device malfunction after a lightning strike, but inadequately-trained workers also failed to notice.

Extortion, Violence Cripple Bus System: In more unfortunate transit news, TheCityFix reports that thousands of residents in Medellin, Colombia are without bus service due a driver strike to protest inadequate protection from extortionist gangs. A longtime bus driver was recently murdered after refusing to pay an extortion fee, setting off the strikes.

Master Plan in Abu Dhabi: The National outlines a new master plan for two suburban communities in Abu Dhabi,  which would work to connect communities divided by a highway, promote walkability, and integrate them with the growing Abu Dhabi metro area. The revitalization would cover one of the oldest Emirati communities in the United Arab Emirates.

Green or Greenwashing?: The UK released a new national planning framework of its own that attempts to cut red tape, safeguard the environment, and prioritize sustainable development. Green groups, however, claim the lofty language obscures that the framework would actually jeopardize environmental protection and make carbon-intensive development projects easier.

Dealing With Density 1: Last week we featured a story about public housing in Hong Kong – this week the Wall Street Journal offers a personal view into the crisis of overcrowding, the trend of subdividing already small apartments, and the challenge of providing housing in the city of seven million.

Dealing With Density 2: While in Hong Kong more people are fitting into smaller spaces, the Guardian UK reports on Moscow’s controversial plan to double the city’s size to relieve crippling congestion – a plan that would destroy forests, summer homes, and relocate hundreds of thousands of rural residents. Moscow’s population has grown by 200,000 people per year since 2006.

Nixed Signals: The Times of India reports that Gandhinagar, the only city in the state of Gujarat that has no traffic lights or stop signs (but lots of roundabouts), is getting its first traffic booth as the number of cars on the road has grown unmanageable.

Urbanization News: July 24

“1 Million Dead in 30 Seconds”: That’s the appropriately jarring title of an article by Claire Berlinski in the Summer volume of City Journal, about the increasing risk of earthquakes for massive destruction as cities grow larger. It’s really an excellent piece that speaks to wealth, risk, and how this plays out in the human costs of a natural disaster: “Mother Nature doesn’t have it in for the poor. Rather, earthquakes come to our attention only when they are disasters, and they are disasters only when they strike dense urban areas full of badly made buildings.” The image above is an earthquake vulnerability map made by Benjamin D. Hennig at the University of Sheffield.

Flood Blame Game: Massive flooding in Lagos, Nigeria caused not only widespread damage but also accusations that President Goodluck Jonathan is insensitive to disaster victims for failing to visit the state after the destruction. The federal government shot back that the flood was the result of poor planning by a local government that allowed housing and road construction in drainage areas vulnerable to flooding. The housing problem that in part caused irresponsible building in the first place is now worsened by the loss of so many homes in the flood.

India in Numbers: The Wall Street Journal reported on India’s Census numbers, which revealed that the pace of urbanization is speeding up – the growth rate for urban areas over the last decade was about 32%, making the 12% rise in rural growth pale in comparison. Interestingly, the same WSJ India blog reported back in April about how the population in Central Delhi actually fell by 10% in the same time span – mostly due to massive slum clearance. Could that trend be reversed? Last week a panel of private sector, government and academic minds convened a panel in Mumbai moderated by Mint with a bold premise: “The country must stop looking at slums as a problem.” The post has an abbreviated transcript with some interesting thoughts about planning, urbanization, and the value of informal settlements in India.

This Week in Waste: With the heatwave it was unfortunate timing that a fire in a Manhattan wastewater treatment plant sent 200 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Hudson river last week – it not only smelled terrible but also brought to light an aging system that’s woefully under capacity especially as more people move to New York. On a brighter note, this NY Times post highlights how cities in the Western U.S. facing water shortfalls are finding opportunities in treated wastewater for irrigation instead of simply discharging it into waterways.

Sea Span: The longest sea bridge in the world opened last week in Qingdao, China. Over 26 miles (42 km) long, the Jiazhou Bay Bridge links more modern development on one side of the bay with the older government and banking center on the other side.

Public Housing in Hong Kong: Asia Sentinel report Alice Poon was interviewed by Shanghai’s Dong Fang Daily Shanghai Review of Books about her recent work, Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong. The interview offers interesting insights into the history of public housing and real estate development in Hong Kong, and cultural perceptions of property rights. The photos below are by photographer Michael Wolf – check out his project to photograph residents in Hong Kong’s oldest public housing estate here, where he photographed 100 rooms, each 100 square feet in size.

Armchair Engagement: Yuri Artibise’s Yurbanism blog highlighted a new tool that might just bring more people into the process of planning our cities without scheduling more public meetings. PlaceSpeak is being tested in Canada and would offer residents a way to voice their opinions about local issues using an online platform. Check it out and browse some issues in Vancouver, and what local residents have to say about them, here.

Want to take an urban land use class?: The World Bank Institute is offering a seven-week e-learning course called “Sustainable Urban Land Use Planning” starting on September 1st. The cost is $600 – registration is open until August 11.

Urbanization News: July 8

Rankled: This week’s featured news story is from Polis, which posted an excellent critical piece about city rankings:

“The regurgitated notion that New York, London, and Tokyo sit comfortably at the peak of the “global city” hierarchy has little bearing on the activities of the street cleaners, shop owners, artists, and residents who populate these places. Or does it?”

The post raises that questions not only the metrics used to rate “top” cities, but also mentions recent research on how cities deemed to be the best can also hurt other cities by drawing away businesses and workers, and “world-class” cities also tend to have higher degrees of inequities.

Melissa has written about and critiqued city indices in past posts too, check them out here and here.

Urban Evolution from Revolution: Der Spiegel describes how while the future of the Yemeni capital hangs in the balance, what started as a sit-in has evolved into a 3-4,000 organized tent city.

New to the Tube: The Economist reports on the London Tube‘s new map that’s supposed to be more geographically accurate – but will it be easier to use? The article gives a nod to NYU-Wagner professor Zhan Guo’s recent paper that made headlines last month in the UK from showing that the (now) old map tricked 30% of passengers into taking longer trips than they needed to. If you’re in London, let us know if the new, squigglier map has made your commute any faster.

2014 Transport Goooools: TheCityFix reports that the Inter-American Development Bank and other donors are making huge investments in Brazil’s infrastructure, especially the transport sector, in advance of the 2014 World Cup.

Building Binge?: As Chinese cities like Wuhan are racing to developing new infrastructure, the New York Times reports new worries about understated risk of loans to local governments.

Two Wheels Good, Two Wheels Bad: This Big City proposes that better bike networks are a positive feedback for other qualities that make for more socially sustainable cities. With that in mind it’s sad to hear local media reporting from Toronto that “The war is over, the car has won.” That’s true in another sense, according to the New York Times’ Economix blog, which speaks to the huge direct subsidies and indirect social costs cars pose on cities, which trump the benefits cities receive from cycling.

Urbanization News June 17

ECA International, the world’s leader in the development and provision of solutions for the management and assignment of employees, around the world just release its international cost of living survey.  There were a few notable results, especially in Australia as Sydney rose from the 29th to 16th most expensive city and all major Australian cities rose up the ranking into the top 30. The most expensive city in the world remains Tokyo, Japan.

Top Ten most Expensive Cities in the World:

2011 rank	Location	Country	2010 rank
1	Tokyo	Japan	1
2	Oslo	Norway	2
3	Nagoya	Japan	4
4	Stavanger	Norway	6
5	Yokohama	Japan	5
6	Zurich	Switzerland	10
7	Luanda	Angola	3
8	Geneva	Switzerland	9
9	Kobe	Japan	7
10	Bern	Switzerland	11

Did you know that track trespassing is the largest cause of unnatural deaths in Mumbai?  In 2009 about 10 people per day died by being hit as they crossed the tracks.  To curb these dangerous, but often necessary treks across Mumbai’s train tracks an unorthodox experiment has been taking place as official made slight changes to the areas near the tracks with  India’s new Train Safety Campaign:

On the surface, the experiment involves small, odd changes. Certain railway ties have been painted bright yellow; a new kind of signboard has been installed near the tracks; engine drivers have modified the way they hoot their warning whistles. This modest tinkering has had dramatic results. In the six months before the experiment went live in December 2009, Wadala had recorded 23 track-crossing deaths, said M. C. Chauhan, a manager with the Central Railway’s Mumbai division. Between January and June 2010, that number had dropped to nine; in the next eight months, up until February 2011, only one death was registered. Read more from the Boston Globe.

High-Speed Trains in China to Run Slower I know many transportation junkies that are excited about the opening of the Beijing-Shanghai bullet train this summer, hopefully they will not be too disappointed by this weeks announcement that it will be running slower than expected:

China’s troubled Railway Ministry on Monday lowered the top operating speed for its flagship Beijing-to-Shanghai bullet train, which is set to open later this month, scaling down what was supposed to be a pinnacle of a transformed rail system that has become one of the country’s proudest and most ambitious domestic initiatives. The new line, once set to run at up to 236 miles per hour, will instead run trains at 186 and 155 miles per hour, the ministry announced. Read more from the New York Times.

Urbanization News June 10

Section 2 of New York City’s High Line opened this week to much celebration.  The first section of the park is loved by New Yorkers and praised by planners as a successful example of converting and preserving unused urban infrastructure. Here is a description from Good:

It looks pretty amazing, succeeding just as the first section did in preserving the best of the High Line’s many incarnations, while creating something totally new. Even more than the first section, this one honors the original rugged pride of the industrial past with exposed tracks and echoes of the days when New York got its frozen turkeys by rail, and sent out oreos to the world in boxcars.

Apple’s New Campus Eliminates Surface Parking, Adds Cars to Traffic So Apple’s new campus is not in located in one of the cities we typically cover at Encountering Urbanization, but it will certainly have an impact on the urban planning in and around Cupertino, California. The City Fix writes about how it will effect parking:

The new campus will occupy 98 acres of land bought from Hewlett Packard Co., in close proximity to the existing Apple campus….In addition to its underground parking lot, the new campus would include a four-story parking structure to accommodate a growing employee base and an ensuing car culture.

This week the book “Living in the Endless City” was  released.  The Wall Street Journal offers a peak at some of the graphics from the book that compares Mumbai, New York, Shanghai, Istanbul, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Johannesburg, London and Berlin.

Today, 53% of the world’s population lives in cities, up from 10% in 1900. By 2050, that figure is expected to rise to 75%. The new book “Living in the Endless City” (Phaidon), edited by Ricky Burdett and Deyan Sudjic, looks at the challenges cities face as their populations boom.

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Fujisawa Smart Town Planned for Japan to Be Most Advanced Eco City in the World  The developers of a new Japanese city hope that this will serve as a model city for future projects around the world. If they are able to replicate this model the energy savings of entire towns on centrally control systems could be huge.

By 2014, Japan may be home to the most advanced eco town in the world. A group of 9 companies announced that they will partner in the Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town, a breakthrough development of 1000 homes built to be more energy independent than any other modern town. The project will be built on the site of an old Panasonic manufacturing plant, and with the intense attention given to Japan’s energy future after the Fukushima disaster the eco town couldn’t come at a more apropos time. Read more from InHabitat.

Urbanization News June 3

This week’s featured story is the semiannual occurrence of Manhattanhenge, when the setting sun aligns with the east-west streets of the Manhattan’s grid.

This photo is by Michael Tapp, from Tuesday May 31.  If you missed this week’s “Manhattan Solstice” you can catch it again Tuesday July 12 at 8:25pm EDT.  Enjoy more photos from Gothamist.

Living in the Endless City Book Launch On Monday June 6 the London School of Economics Urban Age Group will hold and event marking the launch of their new book Living in the Endless City.  This book follows up on the work of The Endless City. 

Marking the launch of a new book on Mumbai, São Paulo and İstanbul – the outcome of the Urban Age research programme at LSE – the event will explore how social and environmental equity are determined by the spatial and political organisation of some of the world’s most complex cities. Find the full event details at LSE Cities.

Cities alter storm intensity We already know that cities are hotter than rural areas due to the urban heat effect, but a new report shows how cities also change the intensity of storms: 

Urban areas have “a strong climatological influence on regional thunderstorms,” scientists conclude in the May Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climate… As storms approached the city, their structure changed in 71 percent of daytime storms and 42 percent of nighttime ones. Many storms broke or skirted the urban area… The scientists suspect the changes trace to urban areas’ tall buildings, pollution and heat-island effect. Read more from Janet Raloff at Science News

Hello Kitty Theme Park Planned in China A new theme park may not seem like immediate news for urbanist but it will certainly be interesting to see how the rural Chinese town of Anji develops along side this new park.

Sanrio Corporation, the Japanese company that created the popular mouthless cat in 1974, has announced that it will build a Hello Kitty theme park in the rural town of Anji, several hours’ drive from the major cities of Hangzhou and Shanghai. Working with a Chinese construction company, Sanrio plans to open the park, which will include rides and a hotel, by 2014.  Read more from the New York Times.