Themes The Power of Cities

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In the last 3,000 years, the history of humankind has been tied to the history of cities. With half of the world's population living in urban settings now, it's urgent that we examine them and update our understanding.

Robert Neuwirth lived in and studied the overcrowded slums of megacities such as Nairobi and Rio de Janeiro -- and found hope and vitality there. Majora Carter talks about how enlightened policymaking can "green the ghetto," offering an eye-opening look at why ghettos exist. Steven Johnson, meanwhile, shares the history of a mapping innovation that helped wipe out a deadly disease in London -- and brought about a new reading of urban epidemics and public health.

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Discuss this theme: The Power of Cities

  • javier hume – April 27 2008

    More ideas on saving solar energy//Recycliing a small part of tv light(small solar panel on tv display). Also Can we save energy by recycling office light, not just sun light, by putting solar cells inside the office buildings allowing you to recycle cieling light. It is a small percentage. But cost effective when law makes you place technology like this is demanded like in russia where it is being done, mandated by law.

  • ERCAN TUTAL – February 15 2008

    ERCAN TUTAL
    AYDER Chairman of Board
    27.Agt.2007
    Istanbul

    Towards Carfree Cities VII – Programme







    DISABLED FREE COMMUNITY..!!

    In your daily life you do not see the disabled around.
    You are able to go everywhere...You are in..but some people is out...out of the active layer of the socity...which makes the community “disabled-free”..!?

    NO WAY IN...!!

    There is no access to the city and the community for people with special needs, such as wheelchair users..


    SOCIAL EXCLUSION..!!

    By having no accessible transportation system..They are at home..inactive..because there is no safe, relible and accessible transportation.
    Public transports
    Trains
    Buses
    Metros
    Airplanes
    Transfers
    Shuttles (to school and work)
    Cars (private)...no Parking places
    Taxies



    COMMUNITY BASED SOLUTIONS

    Accidents cause disability:
    % 40 traffic
    % 25 home
    % 20 work
    % 15 shooting gun

    5.000 spinal cord injuries
    3.000 end up disability in a year.


    Training for Facility,Family, Sataff, Caregivers, Teachers, aids, drivers
    Standards
    Transportation Guidelines
    Higest Level Safety
    Fast and Correct Emergency

    SAFE.....RELIBALE....ACCESSIBLE TRANSPORTATION
    Freedom of movement in the Communuity.


    DISABILITY in TURKEY

    There are 8.5 million disabled people in Turkey according to the State Institute of Statistics. This striking figure is not seriously considered and problems are solved by locking disabled people into their houses, and accordingly, they are disregarded.
    General population (2002) Disabled population
    men 34,552,575 4,648,740
    women 34,069,984 3,783,197
    total 68,622,559 8,431,937

    World Health Organization (WHO) has designated the percentage of disabled people in the world between 10-15%, depending on the development level of the countries.
    Recent offical research by OZIDA demonstrates that 12.29% of the population in Turkey is disabled. When the family and relatives of disabled people are also considered, the quantitative importance of the issue becomes more evident.
    12.29% population is too big a number to be cast aside in neglect. It holds a huge productive potential. By not providing adequate education and keeping them away from production, this population has become imprisoned in their houses and has been deprived of cultural and political relations and has become a major minority.
    %96 of children at the age of schooling can’t go to school; %99 of all disabled are unemployed. In short, disabled people are disregarded and discrimated.
    Only %1 of disabled people who have not acquired any education can find jobs.

    Disabled population according to age groups
    Age group total men women
    0-4 263,055 157,186 105,869
    5-9 319,276 183,599 135,677
    10-14 278,837 155,941 141,896
    total 1,158,636 654,049 504,587

    Lack of education brings unemployment. As mentioned before, only %1 of disabled are employed.

    Employment status of disabled population %
    (age 12 )
    total men women
    Public sector 18.23 18.36 17.64
    Private sector 34.85 35.02 34.04
    Employer 3.09 3.58 0.74
    Work on his own 35.71 40.16 14.63
    Unpaid family worker 8.11 2.87 32.96
    Unknown 0.02 0.02 0

    Legally speaking, public institutions have to recruit %4 and private sector has to recruit %3 disabled people as permanent staff. But none of these sectors are meeting the requirements.
    These numbers can be reached by improving the education level and personal development of the disabled.
    According to data obtained from 2002 National Disability Survey; disabled people, themselves, stated their major problems as:
    o utilization of opportunities provided by the state (health, education, employment)
    o participation to social life
    o accessibility
    o Insensitivity of community
    o Lack of knowledge related to his/her disability.
    It is an inevitable social responsibility to create equal opportunities for handicapped people, to prevent any intentional or unintentional discrimination that they face and apply positive discrimination if necessary to improve their living standards and to let them have an equal share from social development as productive individuals of society.



    NOTES:

    THE CITY AND THE DISABLED (Barcelona Decleration)1995
    (…/..)
    That disabled persons are fully entitled members of the communities in which they reside, and their condition is acknowledged in various international conventions, especially in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Pact for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Pact for Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on Children's Rights, the Declaration of Rights for the Disabled, and the Declaration of Rights for Mentally Retarded Persons.

    XI) The Municipal Governments will adopt the necessary measures ensuring free mobility of disabled persons throughout the city, and special care will be taken to adapt regular means of passenger transport, and will establish, for those disabled persons who by reason of their disability are denied access, alternative services and special economic conditions to ensure their mobility on equal terms with the rest of the population.

    Ercan TUTAL

    www.ayder.org.tr
    www.alternativecamp.org

  • Denise Allen – February 2 2008

    It may be in the long-run of things be good that people are migrating from small towns and villages to larger industrial cities. More people will be able to be successful and live a Luxurious life in the city. There also much more possiblities and oppurtunintes in larger areas.

  • Maloti Ray – December 20 2007

    .
    I quote Stewart Brand's opening sentence: "Basically there is a major demographic event going on and maybe the passing 50-percent urban point is the economic tipping point."

    It is useful to dwell further on this remark. Since 2002, United Nation demographers have specifically predicted that by 2007, more people will live in cities than outside cities. In April this year, demographers confirmed the crossing of the threshold, marking urbanization as human history's biggest social transformation since industrialization.

    Of political-economic interest are the changes exacerbated by demographic movement: three are urban poverty, climate crises and trans-national conflict (my polite way of referring to religious and partisan disagreement). Forthcoming changes ahead will be marked by two major national events of 2008 - the August Olympic Games in China and the November presidential election in the US - one market persistently double-digiting and the other increasingly slowing.

    May I recommend as a comprehensive backgrounder the 2007 UNFPA State of World Population report at http://www.unfpa.org/swp/
    .

  • Mark Whitaker – April 28 2007

    Are these kind of urban conglomerations sustainable after all? Stephen Johnson argues, that sustainable cities means exclusively the people don't die off in them, though that seems a limited view of what sustainable means. Or are such scales only setting up the massive point source pollution and a consumer based clientelism that drives the terrible industrialized agriculture phenomena? Or is there another way to solve that as well? Some ideas here in commodity ecology and the bioregional state:

    http://biostate.blogspot.com/2007/04/development-unincorporated-ethnobotany.html

    The post additionally touches on McDonough's TED talk as well as Neuwirth's TED Talk.