TED: Power of Cities

TED has a collection of videos with the theme "The Power of Cities." Like many TED presentations they are interesting and thought provoking.

I'm embedding the one I found most interesting, and possibly closest to what we are doing. James Howard Kunstler on The Tragedy of Suburbia:



Kunstler is an outspoken critic of suburban sprawl, and talks about public spaces reflecting the values of society and having meanings. He then goes on a pictorial rampage of how America has transformed into collection of spaces not worth caring about (and in extension, not worth defending). The most interesting part, though, is the final part where he predicts that rising oil prices will ultimately catch up and people (and material) will no longer be able to travel at such distances. "Life in the mid-21st century is going to be about living locally."

While it does seem like a popular sentiment that rising oil prices will ultimately catch up with us, Kunstler has written a book, The Long Emergency, that covers this topic extensively. It might be an interesting read for one of us, and energy definitely seems to be a very important topic to delve into. I'm curious if gas is running out faster than cars are becoming more efficient.

Other talks (in order of interest, for me):

Stewart Brandt on squatter cities: Very short presentation starting with the statistic that 50% of the world now lives in cities (confirmed in 2007) and looking into what urbanization actually means. People are not moving to New York City, or Tokyo (at least not en masse) but moving to the shanty towns of Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, etc.

Robert Neuwirth on our "shadow cities": Neuwirth is a journalist who spent two years living in different squatter cities in four continents. His presentation is a more in-depth cultural look into many of these cities with a surprisingly upbeat conclusion and concrete suggestions for improving shantytowns.

The above two presentations gave a very different insight into urbanization, a collection of people migrating to urban slums to escape rural poverty. It's not a perspective you see (or understand, in my case) growing up in a developed nation.

William McDonough on cradle to cradle design: McDonough talks about the notion of cradle to cradle design where material should fit in an infinite cycle of reuse just like biological matter in nature. He is also working with the Chinese government to design several new sustainable cities with this cradle to cradle principle. While I'm skeptical of such large scale top down urban design, the presentation is convincing.

Majora Carter's tale of urban renewal: Carter is a South Bronx urban activist trying to make a greener and more sustainable New York City. Particularly eye-opening was how New York City zoning laws and city planning had pushed all sort of trash and waste facilities into low income neighborhoods where the pollution causes many statistically proven health issues.

Steven Johnson tours the Ghost Map: Johnson talks about 1850s London and how one epidemic after another made urban living extremely dangerous and unsustainable in the eyes of its citizens. The cholera epidemic, however, was solved by one astute scientist convincing the populace that it was indeed a water-born disease. Disturbing were some of the habits of Londoners before the days of sewage and mass material transit, and some overlap with the shantytowns today.

David Rockwell builds at Ground Zero: Conversation with architect David Rockwell on building the viewing stage at Ground Zero weeks after 9-11. I didn't even know they built a viewing stage.