EASI does it newsletter: I'll be sharing every so often about Effective, Affordable, Sustainable and Innovative ideas, products and services. Happy to consult with companies who are building out their innovative sustainability plans.
Build it, and sometimes they won't come.
Adam Giambrone shared the vision and construct of Neom, the inspired greenfield city on the coast of the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia.
- The mobility geek in me was super excited by the thoughtful approach to integrating various forms and modalities of transport
- The autonomy optimist in me was happy to see assumptions of autonomous transit (drones, delivery, passenger pods, etc.) fully captured in the vision
- The pedestrian-first plan was inspired
- The recognition that sustainably servicing the space and attendant smart technologies will be key segment to plan for was clearly a stand-out (often an after-thought in city planning)
We were also treated to a panel where Heather Thompson, CEO of ITDP made the case of fewer (or perhaps, no) greenfield cities, pushing for investments to improve and evolve existing cities instead.
While I appreciate the spirit of Heather's plea - we need to improve conditions where people are today - the rate of urbanization we're looking at suggest that this is an AND situation. We WILL need new, well-designed cities and communities as the world evolves from having 4B in cities in 2010 to 7B+ in cities in 2050. My personal bias comes from living in NYC and having grown up in Chennai - both cities that are constantly evolving, but whose infrastructure is always close to bursting. Between transit issues and water access, these are cities that prove the case for the need for productive cities and communities that can evolve and emerge beyond current constraints.I was glad the Van Espahbodi of Starburst was very much in the AND category, as well as agreeing with my core thesis that getting the citizen deeply involved in Greenfield city planning is going to be key. I know that the fiasco that was Boaty McBoatface may have scared some folks off from citizen engagement (smile!) but there's a lot to be said for a constant engagement with your aspirational target citizen. Every employee should have a picture in their mind of who their citizen is - and their designs and plans should keep them deeply in the center. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the idea of NEOM. They are innovating on so many critical levers. I just want to make sure that the CITIZEN is the animating soul of these projects, not just the technology and planning.I can't wait to see Neom come to fruition - I will visit certainly. The question is, would I ever live there? Would you?