Today’s cities are finding it hard to be both livable and
economically strong. Not one has truly balanced people, profit, and the planet,
every so often; I find it important to reset and to re-envision what a
successful future looks like.
Sustainable Cities generally refers to achieving a balance
among the environmental, economic, and social pillars of sustainability.
Communities are the smaller pockets of cities, therefore creating sustainable
communities can lead to sustainable, thriving cities.
This article seeks to take a step back and revisit the
fundamentals of what the building of a sustainable city requires. The footprint
of cities is a heavy contributor to the un-sustainability of life on the
planet; each city takes much more than its total land area to support the
population that lives, works, and plays there.
It’s a mind boggling fact that over half of the world’s
population lives in urban areas, and this number will increase to about two
thirds of the world’s population by 2050. That means that today, 3.9 billion
people are living in cities, and that number will continue to rise
exponentially.
Tokyo, Japan is today’s most populous city, with 38 million
dwellers; followed by Delhi, India with a population of 25 million people and
expected to grow to 36 million by 2030. In the U.S., 81% of the populations of
320 million live in urban areas or suburbs.
The Ideal City
For most people, the impetus to work for a more
sustainable city stems from the desire to live in a more beautiful and
live-able city for themselves and their children, or from the worry that the
next natural disaster will wipe current infrastructure and systems.
The ideal city would be cleaner, quieter, safer, more
accessible, and healthier. Cleaner cities would have less trash and less
pollution than current systems allow for. Quieter cities would have less noise
from cars and a more organized sense of the urban chaos that city dwellers
love. Safer cities would be well lit, well patrolled, and have a strong sense
of community.
Well accessible and sustainable cities would make
public transportation the cheapest and easiest option for travel, negating the
need for cars and the congestion and pollution they bring. Bike access and
priority is also a cornerstone of the ideal sustainable city. Finally, the
ideal city makes health and sanitation systems a priority, and would do so by
making health care easily accessible, as well as fresh food, access to
recreation, and top-notch sewer and waste services.
The View from Main Street
Although many of us may have a vision for the city that we
want to live in, I think it’s safe to say that few of us feel as empowered as
we’d like to in the process of change-making. This stems from a root system of
problems, not from one single source that we would be able to identify and
target with a panacea.
Although many city
residents may think that our cities are moving slowly into the future, and are
lagging behind the private sector in terms of innovation and embracing
technology, it’s important to keep in mind the challenges and barriers that
cities must take into account when planning for change.
When cities implement new programs, they’re putting taxpayer
money at stake, and thus are less incentivized to take risks that may lead to
innovation or breakthrough in old systems. City governments have a wide array
of stakeholders to consider, and many stakeholder groups have different needs
and wants from city services.
Even so, considering the hurdles, there are a distinct set
of barriers to implementing sustainable practices, systems, and economies that
most cities are facing.
The broad and short list includes the following:
·
city budgeting is often focused on the
short-term, while planning for sustainability requires long term thinking
·
city zoning laws and other regulations do not
allow for sustainable development or necessary urban infill
·
citizens are disengaged in civic processes and
from their neighborhoods
·
there is not adequate demand for sustainable
business practices, products, or services to create a thriving green economy
·
city departments are siloed in the planning
process (so that housing does not communicate with transportation on major
projects)
·
Where’s the Fast Lane to Change?
As impassioned citizens, we tend to argue the case for the
one project or the plan that addresses what we see that we need to build a
sustainable city, but the reality is that we need to push from many different
angles at once. The most basic premise for change starts at the roots of a
city, with its people’s will for change, and in conversation.
The level on top of this grassroots communication requires
that citizens have access to the channels that feed their information to city
officials who can continue the conversation at the city and policy level. The
disconnect happens between these two tiers, creating blind spots in both policy
making and citizen conversations, and rendering outreach efforts by city
governments fruitless, for lack of clear channels of engagement between the two
groups.
A handful of new apps are popping up to fill this gap in
communication, and will hopefully encourage civic engagement in this digital
age. The worry is that all city dwellers are not on the same wave of
technology, and so whole demographic groups and even neighborhoods are left out
of these technology-based conversations.
Assuming that we’re on track (and we are) for creating
positive and inclusive sustainable change in our cities, and recognizing that
dialogue between city governments and city dwellers is a key factor in the
equation; what are the overarching stretch goals that these conversations
should be considering?
To keep it purely scientific, with the goal of decarbonizing
city economies and cities by 2050 (which is what we need to do globally to
avoid major consequences of climate change), we need to do the following:
·
Create land-use legislation that will smartly
raise density, and will increase access to amenities, shopping, and employment
within cities
·
Make urban areas more self-reliant for food,
power, and water
·
Create multiple options for recycling, reuse,
and remanufacturing of materials, along with skilled tradespeople for those
activities
·
Make urban areas accessible by car-free
mobility; invest in viable alternatives for walking, biking, and public transportation
These necessary changes don’t sound easy, and there’s
clearly no single answer to the question of what we need to build sustainable
cities (and soon). What is clear, however, is that cities are reliant upon
their most plentiful resource: their citizens, to be key drivers and engaged
ambassadors of the change process. Systems-change is necessarily iterative and
collaborative, and human systems are no exception; we’re all in this together.
Finally, for any of these challenges to be addressed – and
potentially overcome – it is vital that cities take a leadership role to ensure
that the needs of their stakeholders are fulfilled. New and engaged
partnerships must be formed, including direct interaction with industry, and
communication in the digital age should provide a platform for increased levels
of co-operation and education on a much wider scale.
Along with leadership must come accountability, especially
if civic leaders are to engage with their communities to find and enact
mutually-beneficial solutions to their growing challenges and problems. Leaders
will need to address a myriad of sensitive social issues – social cohesion,
poverty, aging populations, the obesity and mental health crises, immigration,
multi-culturalism, discrimination, and growing racism and xenophobia –
alongside the provision of infrastructure and services.
Accountability can take many forms and these are all vital
if we are to successfully deliver sustainability in our cities. Creating
sustainable cities won’t be easy – but with a positive attitude, the right
vision and approach, it can be done. We need to start making changes now. We
need to create sustainable cities that nurture a resilient way of life.
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