CITIES

Street Talk
What innovationtechnological or otherwise
would make any city a substantially more livable place?
We put this question to urban leaders and our own readers.
Heres what they said
Compiled by Michael Easter and Gary Stix

Cell-Phone Paradise
Communication is at the heart
of the future. A future city would
need to respond to people on a
personal level. Our cell phones Solar-Panel Windows
can become devices that are able It would make cities across the globe more livable if the window-
to open the door to our home, panes of city buildings were replaced with transparent and semi-
pay for our bus and subway charg- transparent solar panels, which have been (at least crudely) in exis-
es, make purchases at any store tence for a number of years. The energy generated from this could
with a tap and a password, and then be directed around the city, reducing energy costs and the need
give us unfettered to burn coal and thus carbon dioxide emissions.
access to the Internet. The power could also be used for public transport, making such
Wires of Light CRAIG BRAQUET, transport and the expansion of transport networks much cheaper.
Its time for cities to bring Long Beach, Calif. Cheap, accessible and expansive public transport would greatly
fast, reliable fiber-optic reduce the need for motor vehicle traffic, while also reducing
broadband to every CO2 emissions.
home and business. HOLLY UBER, political activist and historian,
When people gave up Lockdown for Gridlock Melbourne, Australia
the old phone modem You could collect data from different
for the cable modem, kinds of sensorscell-phone sig
that spurred a revolution nals, surveillance signals, car-
A iCities in
in our economy and mounted [radio-frequency identi- Game Plan the Desert
even in the way we in- fication] tags, and so on and Where we place our The city should be
teract with one another. then create some algorithms infrastructurethe hous- designed and built with
The much greater to change traffic-light timing ing, roads, water systems, a specific maximum
speeds enabled by fiber to prevent gridlock, help bus- parks and other components number of people in
will do even more. They es move more efficiently and that make up a cityhas a mind, large enough to
will create a platform for let people know where to huge impact on livability. By accept expected popu-
new innovations and al- park their cars. being more strategic about lation growth for 100
low urban residents to CHARLES D. LINN,  these important investments, years. It would be diffi-
invent things we cant writer, editor and architect we can deliver a cleaner, cult to retrofit current
even imagine today. healthier environment, cities, so this should be
Fiber-optic broadband more walkable neigh- applied to the concept
is a missing piece in Front-Yard Farming borhoods and other im- cities eventually built in
creating a more livable All landscaping in the front yard of homes portant benefitsall for the desert by Apple,
and prosperous city in and apartments should be limited to either less cost to taxpayers. Microsoft or another
the 21st century. the growing of edible crops or the growing LISA P. JACKSON,  large company.
MIKE McGINN,  of native species to the area. U.S. Environmental Protection MIKE KURILKO, 
mayor of Seattle BLAINE M. OSBORNE, Salt Lake City Agency administrator Ocala, Fla.

84 Scientific American, September 2011

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 A
More Toilets Place
In the developing
world a billion people
to Put
live in urban slums, Your Head
with another billion In Vancouver homeless-
expected in the com- Water, Water ness has eroded the citys
ing decades. Their Everywhere livability. I would like to
most urgent need is The ancient metropolises like see forms (emphasis on
sanitationwater Persepolis [in what is now the plural) of housing that Smart Sensors
that is free of commu- Iran], Athens and Mohenjo appeal to the homeless Sensors can serve many
nicable diseasesand Daro [in what is now Pakistan] forms that they will use. purposes, from making
a clean, private place had superb water-distribution This undertaking will nec- traffic patterns more effi-
to urinate and defe- and sewage-removal systems. essarily address the root cient to measuring and
cate. Accordingly, the In my country, urbanism can causes of their issues. reducing our emissions
Bill & Melinda Gates be measured by the number Those afflicted by mental output to monitoring
Foundation invited of taps supplying clean water health, poverty, substance our health in our homes.
22 institutions (from into the household, proper abuse and joblessness and The shrinking size and
Caltech to universities disposal of wastewater, and runaways make up this growing dispersal of
in Brazil and South sewage treatment. So my population, and we cannot sensor technologies in
Africa) to reinvent vote goes to better water- subject them to a one-size- cities will make these
the toilet. distribution systems (both for fits-all approach. A place to improvements in urban
STEWART BRAND, drinking and sewage) as the put your head in safety and life possible.
founder of the Whole Earth one innovation that comfortif it isnt an in- PARAG KHANNA,
Catalog and co-founder of would make any city alienable right, it ought to senior research fellow at the New
the Long Now Founda- a substantially more be one. If our citizens are America Foundation and author
tion and Global Busi-
Urban livable place. healthy and productive, of How to Run the World:
ness Network Face-lifts PRADIPTO the rest falls into place. Charting a Course to
A total makeover. Cit- BANERJEE, JAY PELTON, the Next Renaissance
ies are responsible for graduate student, Vancouver, B.C. (Random House, 2011)
about 80 percent of carbon VIT University,
pollution. In Sydney we have India
decided to reduce our carbon Personalized Subways
emissions by 2030 by 70 percent Transportation innovation is one of the keys to creating a
from 2006 levels through decisive ac- more livable city. And one innovation that has the poten-
tion taken now to retrofit our central busi- tial to greatly impact life through transportation is per-
ness district using various technologies. sonal rapid transit. Personal rapid transit is essentially a
The innovation here is not the technology it- personalized subway system for a city. These systems
self but its application at the scale of a city. A series use pods that can hold a handful of people, carrying
of master plans will create low-carbon zones across them directly from point to point, with no stops and no
the city, with co-located trigeneration energy systems waiting at stations. Creating an easier way to navigate a
(combining power, cooling and heating), recycled water city promotes interactions among its inhabitants and, in
treatment, and automated waste collection/utilization. turn, a more livable, and potentially more productive, city.
And although individually these ideas and technologies SAMUEL ARBESMAN, senior scholar at the Ewing Marion Kauff-
are not new, bundling green infrastructure together in man Foundation and creator of Mesofacts, an initiative designed to pro-
this wayand at city scaleis an Australian first. mote awareness of the slowly changing facts in our everyday life
In Sydney our energy comes from coal-fired pow-
er stations located more than 200 kilometers away.
Our ultimate goal is to take the city off the national Conga-Line Commuting
electricity network. We are looking at 70 percent of My solution is to totally integrate public and private transportation.
our electricity coming from local, decentralized ener- Individuals would own or lease their own small electric vehicles.
gy and the remaining 30 percent from renewable- They would use them to commute to a station where they would
energy technologies. Interim reports suggest the tri- join to form a train driven by the electricity network. This would
generation network alone could cut greenhouse gas travel at speed along the major arteries, charging batteries as it
emissions in city buildings by 40 to 60 percent, avoid- went. At their destination station the individual cars would decouple
ing some of the high costs of transporting electricity and be driven to their final point. Stations could be well spaced be-
from the country to the city, as well as reducing the cause commuters would have their own vehicle to travel the last
need to upgrade the grid to cope with future demand. few kilometers.
CLOVER MOORE, lord mayor of Sydney, Australia LAURIE McGINNESS, New South Wales, Australia

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 CITIES

Scooping
Power, Power Up the
Anywhere Fallen Fruit
People in poor coun- Long before I learned about
tries crowd the urban the risks of climate change, I
centers because of the was fanatical about energy effi-
lack of infrastructure in ciency. Whenever my wife and I
rural areas. Micro CHP move into a new home, I check the attic
generators, which for adequate insulation. I look for leaks
can use fuels rang- around doors and windows and install a pro-
Sustainability ing from solar- grammable thermostat if needed. When our hot-
Lessons thermal to biogas, water heater needed replacement, we installed a
Public transportation has to be make rural areas tankless water heater that decreased our summertime
a priority and include, for daily more livable by pro- gas use by 50 percent.
commuting, small, nonpollut- viding electrical Taking these steps is called weatherization. I would
ing cars integrated into a infrastructure, rather call it saving money by saving energy. For the
public transportation system, affording the pow- next few decades energy efficiency will be one of the
as Paris did with the Vlib erful potential to lowest-cost options for reducing carbon emissions while
bicycle-sharing scheme. Sec- decrease over- promoting economic growth. The quickest and easiest
ond, people need to get in- crowding in urban way to reduce our carbon emissions is to make our ap-
volved with sustainability by areas and leading to pliances, cars, homes and other buildings more efficient.
using fewer cars, separating long-term improve- In fact, energy efficiency is not just low-hanging fruit; it is
recyclable garbage at home, ments in urban fruit that is lying on the ground. Over the next several
living close to work or working quality of life. years I want to help millions of American families seize
close to home, and teaching IQBAL Z. QUADIR, the same opportunity to cut their utility bills by making
children about sustainability. d irector of the Legatum their homes and appliances more energy-efficient while
Children are phenomenal Center for Development increasing comfort.
agents of change. and Entrepreneurship at STEVEN CHU, U.S. secretary of energy
JAIME LERNER, former the Massachusetts
mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, which Institute of Technology
implemented, during Lerners and developer of the con- Car-Free Zones
first tenure in the early 1970s, cept of providing Abolish the private automobile from the urban
an innovative transportation universal access to phone core (or significantly built-up areas) and redirect
system that has been service for the poor the current investment in private capital that au-
imitated worldwide in Bangladesh tomobiles represent to investment in public trans-
portation and redevelopment of former streets,
parking lots, and the like into housing, parks and
Better Information on the Internet, Please urban agriculture.
Better urban planning, public policy and education could be solutions, Completely rethink our definition of the city
but in the current Chinese system those changes could be costly and and begin to plan accordingly. We need to see cit-
hard to actualize. Shanghai is not so compact compared with other ies as complete human ecosystems and recognize
world metropolitan areas, as we have about 20 million people in a that the complementary (and arguably more im-
very spread-out urban area. We already have some severe urban portant) productive component of the urban hu-
problems such as intense traffic congestion, overcrowding in public man ecosystem is its resource hinterland, an area
areas, housing supply shortage, environmental pollution, fast-increas- typically hundreds of times larger than the city it-
ing amounts of greenhouse gas emissions and the public overreacting self and increasingly scattered all over the planet.
to rumors. In short, the citys true ecological footprint
When I turn to science for solutions, the Internet and other public dwarfs the tiny, consumptive urban center. The
media seem to have much more potential to readily spread helpful big footprint is essential for the survival of the
information to the public and enable them to make efficientand urban core and yet is typically ignored or taken
beneficial decisions, making things easier for everyone. That should for granted.
be the main goal desperately sought after by the urban-management WILLIAM REES, professor at the University of British
practitioners. Columbia and originator of the ecological footprint concept,
PAN HAOZHI, student, Tongji University, Shanghai which measures human demand on ecosystems

86 Scientific American, September 2011 Photograph by Tktk Tktk

2011 Scientific American
 Populist Purse-
Strings Control
Participatory budgeting
Smart Growth
changes the standard
The policies and planning prac- Intermetropolises operating procedures of
tices of smart growth would
I envision an interconnecting government by involving
create and encourage sustain-
grid of futuristic cities strategi- the citizens directly in mu-
able places. This approach to
cally placed around the conti- nicipal budgetary deci-
combating sprawl is about en-
nent. The main purpose and sions. The process decen-
couraging new development
design of these cities is such tralizes decision making
of housing and jobs to locate in
that they utilize their natural to the subcity level by
and around the urban core. For
surroundings, wind, hydro, breaking down the budget
example, in Maryland former
solar, geothermal and bio, along neighborhood lines,
governor Parris Glendening
to power themselves and involving residents in set-
spearheaded the states land-
provide a neighboring ting priorities for local gov-
mark smart-growth legislation
city with excess ernment expenditures and
in 1997. The state law creates Clusters
power or neces- electing a council of dele-
priority-funding areas that
sary power. Cities should be built gates that is held account-
dictate where public funding
CHRISTIAN near the resources they able. Experience shows
of new infrastructure (that is,
CARR, need, such as agricultur- that the results can be
roads, sewers, social services)
Kristiansand, al and industrial land. more efficient use of public
will be allocated. These areas
Norway Within cities there funds, consensus building
are located near big cities,
should be clusters of tall around investments in
which encourages new devel-
buildings, designed to underserved neighbor-
opmentand even redevelop- Ixnay on leave most of the ground hoods and a dramatic drop
mentnear our urban centers the Oalcay free to be renaturalized in corruption. This changes
and saves green fields and
Cities need to stop or left in its natural state the rules of the game,
farms on the urban fringe
burning fossils. and providing an urban bringing heretofore disen-
from development.
BRUCE park with easy access to franchised individuals and
THOMAS VICINO, professor at STERLING, the building dwellers. groups to the bargaining
Northeastern University and co-author science-fiction author Each building or building table and provides an alter-
of Cities and Suburbs: New Metropolitan who helped to establish cluster would have basic native incentive structure
Realities in the US (Routledge, 2010) the cyberpunk genre services such as com- for collaboration.
merce, administration, Porto Alegre, a city in
sports, and such. The the south of Brazil, started
Social Cohesion high-density model experimenting with this
For as long as we have had cities, we have had ineq- would greatly simplify process in 1989. Since then,
uity in access to social and environmental resources transportation and utility it has been improved and
among urban citizens. Cities cannot be more livable networks, while at the adapted in various forms
nor support sustainability without policies that work same time providing by more than 1,200 munic-
on both unsustainable overconsumption in the city easy access to the natu- ipalities elsewhere in Brazil
and unlivable social divides among groups. This is ral world, which would and Latin America, as well
not an impossible innovationjust a difficult one be literally an elevator as in Africa, Asia, Europe
and one we have never tried. ride away. and North America.
CAROLYN STEPHENS, London School of Hygiene & Tropical VTOR PEREIRA, JANICE PERLMAN,
Medicine and National University of Tucumn, Argentina Porto, Portugal president of the Mega-Cities Project,
a nonprofit organization that iden
tifies and shares successful urban
The Internet of Things innovations across cities worldwide
We need more smarts. Cities, in their next generation, will become more highly embedded
with intelligence via computing and thus with information, responsive capability and, ulti Michael Easter is a reporter
mately, agency. Some of this transformation is already visiblethe Internet of things will at Mens Health and interned
make it possible to query our surroundings the way we search the Web; citizen sensing through at Scientific American.
smartphones creates geo-coded, real-time, cheap and useful data. Beyond the near term, the  ary Stix is senior writer at
G
possibility of a city that is significantly smarter could help us manage many aspects of daily life Scientific American.
and could be customized to our preferences and routines. The key will be to design this new
urban intelligence to create a better city and with enough transparency so that our privacy is SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
ONLINE
protected and opting out is easy. For more responses
DANA CUFF, director of cityLAB and professor of architecture and urban design at the University of California, from pundits and readers, go to 
Los Angeles, and author of The Provisional City: Los Angeles Stories of Architecture and Urbanism (MIT Press, 2002) ScientificAmerican.com/sep2011/survey

Illustration by Artist Name September 2011, ScientificAmerican.com 87

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