đźš• How to Create a New City?

Author

Leo Ariel
January 08, 2024

Beep beep! This is the Magic Taxi Cab. Giving you a daily tour of the most timeless and timely ideas about our cities.

Today’s Drive

  • 500-piece NYC puzzle

  • Safe vs Dangerous Streets

  • How to Create a New City

🛑 500-piece NYC puzzle

Our Pick: We found a beautifully-crafted 500-piece New York City-themed puzzle. Designed and illustrated by Master’s student Thao Chi Vu. All proceeds will go toward supporting her 2nd semester at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Get one (by messaging her) here.

🛑 Safe vs Dangerous Streets

To a naive eye, it’s not obvious what makes a street safe. Action movies depict high-speed chases through crowded areas, but those busy streets are often the safest.

Safe Street, North End, Boston

A safe city street must have three qualities:

  1. A clear line between public and private space.

  2. Lots of people watching the street from adjacent buildings.

  3. Lots of people on the sidewalks.

Here’s a more in-depth explanation:

First, there must be a clear demarcation between what is public space and what is private space. Public and private spaces cannot ooze into each other as they do typically in suburban settings or in projects.

Second, there must be eyes upon the street, eyes belonging to those we might call the natural proprietors of the street. The buildings on a street equipped to handle strangers and to insure the safety of both residents and strangers, must be oriented to the street. They cannot turn their backs or blank sides on it and leave it blind.

Third, the sidewalk must have users on it fairly continuously, both to add to the number of effective eyes on the street and to induce the people in buildings along the street to watch the sidewalks in sufficient numbers. Nobody enjoys sitting on a stoop or looking out a window at an empty street. Almost nobody does such a thing. Large numbers of people entertain themselves, off and on, by watching street activity.”

Jane Jacobs

An unsafe street might look something like this.

Elm Hill Avenue, Roxbury, MA

  • Blurry line between public and private space.

  • Not many eyes on the street.

  • Hardly any people.

🛑 How to Create a New City?

Mark Lutter (Founder of the Charter Cities Institute, CEO of Braavos Cities) works with governments to form special economic zones. Recently he was interviewed by Tomas Pueyo on “How to Create a New City”.

Here are three takeaways:

  1. Project approvals must be swift, and requirements can’t be too aggressive. You can’t have long NEPA reviews. NIMBYism stops progress. Minimize the time from idea to execution, and the key to making that happen is fast project approval.

  2. Visa approval must be swift for any talented person. How can you create a world-class company when you can’t attract world-class talent because they can’t get visas?

  3. Work with governments, not against them. Governments tend to be focused on taxes and jobs: jobs get them re-elected, and taxes pay the bills. So they will always be sensitive to these. If you create something that generates income and jobs, the state will be happy and be more open to partnering.

¡Hemos llegado!

Hope you enjoyed the ride!