[getsmart-l] The nature of cities is changing

[Gloria Boxen]

Some quotes from Glen Murray's article in Sunday Star, Jan 6, 2008; read the complete piece at

http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/291150.

Our idea of cities needs a rethink                  TheStar.com - columnists - Our idea of cities needs a rethink             
                                                                                                                   Our urban planning and zoning laws are tied to needs of an out-of-date industrial economy
                  
                                                                                                                January 06, 2008      
                                                                Glen Murray

"...Now, 80 per cent of us live in cities and the majority of new jobs are not manufacturing but creative jobs in science, technology, design, culture, and financial and professional services.

Yet cities are still zoned and planned for an industrial economy. The biggest single shift in the way cities were organized as a result of industrialization was the separation of where we live from where we work. The new economy is the opposite: We now live and work in the same place. In fact, for many of us, work is wherever we can access the Internet...."

"...Our tax systems, trade policies, zoning and infrastructure polices are still designed for the industrial economy and, as a result, are failing to deliver the economy Canadians deserve or to minimize the downshift from manufacturing-centred cities.

"The effects of the accelerating pace of climate change, loss of biodiversity and a deteriorating environment affecting food supplies, water, energy, infrastructure and the livability of cities are not well researched. The urban challenges of climate change will be significant."

"...A bridge or a light-rapid-transit line – or any infrastructure, for that matter – is a cultural investment. Its beauty or ugliness, the inclusion of art and design, will define the living culture and impression of the city in which it is built more than what is on the walls of the local gallery because it becomes the everyday cultural experience of the commuter and the identity of the community..."



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