CITIES OF THE FUTURE: URBANISM, WEALTH, AND JUST PLANNING

A PhilSoc Thought Experiment: Designing for the Future

Attendance: 13

Calls of order: 2

Note: underlined and emboldened signifies a decision made by the group as one solution for the problem presented in this discussion; if it’s in bold and underlined, it means we agreed overall that the city of the future should contain that feature.

How should they be structured?

• • Except pints, only metric
  • Not corrupt
    • Issue: very hard
  • Decriminalisation of Drug use
    • Defo illegal drugs
      • Not psychedelics
      • Not cannabis
      • VERY heavy taxation of legalised drugs
  • Not structured? -> question implies that cities can be structured
    • Re-structuring through AI?
  • Shift away from cars to public transport -> EMPHASIS ON ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS
    • Cities for people, not industry
    • Pedestrianisation
  • Urban Sprawl -> transport is tricky
    • Density = person per square feet
  • Must plan for city growth
  • Green belt or not?
    • Limits space for expansion
    • Socially + mentally beneficial to have green spaces
      • Berlin -> incorporates green spaces everywhere
      • Vertical gardens + roof tops = nice ways in dense cities
      • Plan for growth of trees
      • Lack of green space -> higher temp in cities
    • Why green spaces?
      • Mental health
      • Fresher air
      • Environment
      • Community aspect
        • Project in London -> education of people to maintain green-spaces = better community?
      • Derelict land = perfect for green spaces?
• What should they contain?
  • Healthcare/emergency services
    • Neighbourhood police
      • By nature -> ordinary police are pushed to abuse their power
        • But ordinary police = provide a symbol of safety for elderly
        • How would neighbourhood police differ?
        • Issue of people not being bothered -> private police = clearly very bad
    • Police system is very necessary
      • Harsher system that holds police accountable for actions
      • One year working with children
  • Red light districts
    • Legalise prostitution?
      • Get care that they need + be safer for clients + workers
    • Sex tourism?
  • Tourism?
    • Landmarks?
    • Massive statue of an owl
    • Fund local artists to provide community projects
    • Allow AirBnB?
      • Issue -> people buy up places to use -> drives up rent
      • Issue -> takes away houses for people
  • Homelessness?
    • Pods for homeless people -> off streets at night
  • Public Toilets 😊
    • Switzerland
      • Free
      • Cleans itself after you leave
      • Unisex
      • Dumpster for needles
  • Bins – recycling
    • Italy
      • Little bins for cig buts – everywhere
    • Electrical items
  • Promote zero waste shops
  • Drug Use?
    • Provide safe facilities for drug users
    • Quality commission
      • Generally, works
    • Drug testing stations -> tests how pure they are
    • Clinics offering free drugs to addicts based on their inclusion on a register
      • Prevents issues of stigmatisation
      • Skills training scheme attached 
    • Finance?
      • Cannabis tax
      • VAT tax
  • Public advertising policy?
    • Public advert ban
• What should their transport links be organised?
  • Flying cars 😊
    • Pavements = green spaces now
  • Buses -> store trollies + bikes can go onto the bus
  • Make public transport as good as possible -> minimum cars
  • Car ban?
  • Bus lanes -> deliveries for businesses = important
  • Drones
  • Little tubes for goods deliveries
    • Delivery jobs would be lost regardless
    • Doesn’t pollute
  • CURVY ROADS AND ROUNDABOUTS
    • NO GRIDS
  • Cycle lanes
  • Accessibility -> disabled? Provide for people with limited mobility?
  • Left or right side of the road?
    • Left = statistically safer -> but marginal -> around 5%
• How should they be run?
  • AI -> take jobs 😊
    • Better resource management + menial tasks -> generally better efficiency
  • Privatisation of charities
    • Won’t need charities in an ideal city?
    • Government welfare system is less efficient than charities?
    • Charities = a form of social investment?
  • Religion?
    • Secularism?
      • Banning burka + head coverings?
    • Religious Freedom?
  • Civil Governing
    • Mayor? Districts? Council?
      • Mayor:
        • Generally, no one bothers to elect them
      • Council?
        • Representatives of each district -> rotating head
    • Elected Body?
      • + administration
    • Large projects ought to be put back to the public
      • Public funding? Direct involvement
      • Must be advertised directly -> people need to actually know about it
    • Voting!?
      •  NOT FIRST PAST THE POST
  • Waste management
    • San Francisco model
      • Large bill for recycling stuff -> reduced bill based on how well you’ve recycled
      • A lot turned to compost -> sold to farmers
      • Almost entirely self-sustainable
    • Want waste management system –
      • Force companies -> zero waste?
        • Plastic = bad
        • Thrift stores
        • Reusable bags 😊
        • Reason why there are aggressive sealing policies
          • Prevents tampering
          • Non-plastic solutions?
  • City structured for changing climate -> Rising temperatures?
    • Buildings slightly underground?
    • Location dependent
• Where do we want our city?
  • Near the sea? On the sea? Under the sea?
  • Global Warming -> high variability in temp + catastrophes -> wind + rain 
• How would the city be powered?
  • Nuclear B-)
    • Thorium
• Buildings
  • Much less concrete
  • Thermal insulation = incredibly important
  • Renewable materials -> directions of houses
• How should different districts be balanced, planned, or interconnected?
  • Residential, shopping, etc districts
    • Problems = less walkable and loss of community
  • No strict district rules
    • Heavy industry must be isolated?
  • Better to be interconnected -> residential + shops, etc combined
    • Everything necessary = five min walk
    • Efficiency? Issue with interconnected cities
  • Central business district?
    • Develop/emerge naturally?
      • Rather plan it
        • Central district + social district
    • Generally, a very good public transport system mitigates most of these issues
      • Cushion of extent