Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Summer '09 Wrap-Up

Massive displacement, redevelopment and gentrification in Beijing's hutongs.

Rapid urbanization in Shanghai (along with loss of culture as well as environmental costs, ie. toxic air, water)

Chengdu pandas and Chinese tourism development.

Chengdu's vertical suburbs.

Lasting effects of the Wenchuan earthquake. This is what's left of the old road.

Massive scale redevelopment and challenges involved with tourism development and cultural preservation among ethnic minorities.

Tokyo's urban efficiency.

Stockholm's growth and sustainability.

Copenhagen's famous design as well as its balanced transit planning (ie. bicycle infrastructure)

Malmo's sustainable redevelopment

Overall, I have seen a multitude of ways in which planning can hinder and assuage issues associated with urbanization on many scales. Unfortunately, much of what I saw outside of the United States appears to miss out on the most important population of them all...the lower income citizens. Even in rich, socialist societies, development is aimed toward maximizing profits. Yet, combined, all these projects and plans contain many of the answers needed to achieve successful urban development. The problem is, no one has successfully used them all together in a truly sustainable way. My next posts will discuss some of these developments and their relation to Albuquerque.

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