Dallas 2014 - newcitiesfoundation.org
Just spent the last couple of days at the
New Cities Summit in Dallas. This 2-day summit brought together over 400 urban planners, mayors, city leaders, business leaders and innovators from over 51 countries for what is being touted as
"the leading global event on the future of the urban world." The event was put on by the
New Cities Foundation, a Paris-based foundation whose mission is to be the global platform for urban innovation and exchange. It was started only 3 years ago by
Chairman John Rossant. John Rossant is Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs for Publicis, an advertising and media company and executive chairman of PublicisLive, the Geneva-based events organizer that has been producing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The Winspear Opera House, Dallas
The New Cities Foundation team, headed by Executive Director Mathieu Lefvre, is a young team comprised of a lot of well-heeled under 40s who have to be congratulated on putting together a world-class event. The New Cities Foundation partnered with the
Dallas World Affairs Council to bring a great team of volunteers to help out of which I was one. Dallas is the first U.S. city selected for the New Cities Summit. The first year it was in Paris...last year in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The conference brought out a global who's who starting with Dallas' bigwigs to CEOs of major companies and startups, directors of all the arts organizations you'd want to meet and more. Here are the ones I enjoyed listening to: Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings; Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price; Dallas Chief of Police Dave Brown; Catherine Cuellar, Executive Director, Dallas Arts District; Mark Dixon, Founder of Regus; Harold Madi, Director of Urban Design, City of Toronto; Aaron Seward, Managing Editor of The Architect's Newspaper; Harvard put out a show of their best professors with professors Alex Krieger from Harvard Graduate School of Design and John Macomber, Harvard Business School; Fahd Al Rasheed, CEO of Emaar Economic City, Saudia Arabia; Julie Lein, President and Co-founder, Tumml; Lady Barbara Judge, Chairman, UK Pension Protection Fund; Sean Donohue, CEO, DFW Airport; Javier Palomarez, CEO of US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce...the list goes on. There were over 42 speakers. And though name-dropping is fun, what in the world brought all these people to Dallas? You'd expect to see them in New York, London or Paris? But Dallas?
Well, apparently Dallas Mayor Rawlings and Director of Dallas Museum of Art Maxwell Anderson were responsible for this coup de grace. The event was at the
Winspear Opera House, which has been named one of America's finest opera houses. Perfect location to showcase the Dallas Arts District that Mayor Rawlings is so very proud of.
What was this really all about? Well, the theme for the conference was
"Re-Imagining Cities: Transforming the 21st Century Metropolis." These brilliant minds and leaders were examining the problems urban areas have. According to many speakers, about 50% of the world now lives in cities. By 2035, that number is expected to be 70%. Growth is especially centered around Asia with populations of up to 200 million living in cities, according to Parag Khanna of Hybrid Reality. There are issues of inequality, poverty, pollution, climate change. How do we think about our living space? How are we sharing what we have with others or not sharing? How do we conserve our resources? Where do we find the money to finance city infrastructure projects? How do you create a thriving cultural arts district? What about the smart city and technology? The event was pretty amazing, and my mind is still spinning from just thinking and thinking and thinking.
There were two speakers however that stood out to me the most and to which I gave my undivided attention. They were the
Mayor of Harare - Bernard Manyenyeni and the Executive Mayor of Johannesburg - Mpo Franklyn Parks Tau. Why these two men? They were the only mayors from African cities that were speakers. They stood out in the crowd of almost 99.9% from Europe, Asia, North America, South America and the Middle East. As much as I enjoyed listening to the seminars and panel discussions, I was struck by the fact that when the speakers defined the 21st century, urban development and city life - the world was - Europe, Eurasia (Russia et al), Asia, North America, South America and the Middle East. Were it not for Mayors Manyenyeni and Mayor Tau - you would not have thought that on this planet Earth there was a planet that had brown and black people and that the continent of Africa even existed.
The mayors both did a fabulous job in representing their respective cities at the final town hall discussion for the day called
"Inclusive Cities." This panel consisted of
Mayor Juan Karlos Izaguirre of San Sebastian, Spain; Mayor A.J.M. Muzammil of Colombo, SriLanka; Mayor Betsy Price of Fort Worth and Mayor Mike Rawlings of Dallas.Mayor Manyenyeni focused on Harare's positives, and the reengagement policy with the world for Zimbabwe as well as the need for additional funding. Mayor Tau impressed even Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings when he spoke about "
coopetition" between regions and cities - a nice buzzword; the needs of the impoverished in Johannesburg and how they were dealing with the digital divide with such programs as the
Digital Ambassador Program, which teaches Joburg residents how to use the internet and includes a rolling out of Wi-Fi hotspots in the city.
With their presentations, I was happy as an American-born Zimbabwean with family from both Zimbabwe and South Africa that I could lift my head up in pride. But the fact that there were only the two of them also made me think about the whole theme of the conference itself -
Re-Imagining Cities and how the perspectives were simply European, Middle Eastern and Asian. The focus was on technology, planning and innovation....minimizing the carbon footprint etc... The often-told story we hear in the media concerning the environment.
But I had to ask myself...what's the African perspective on this? Not from the pseudo - everyone trying to be American or European angle, but what comes from our root? It was like we were forgotten - the non-existent continent - Africa. Yet Africa is the largest continent....and it's Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and Asia that are heading to Africa in droves in the last ditch "nice" colonization we see now. The race is on for Africa's resources. I wondered well...if Europe, Asia and the Americas and Middle East were so good at managing their resources, then why were so many of them heading to Africa.?
The approach of the summit to this topic came from this decidedly Euro-Asiatic worldview. Surprisingly, Chinese artist and a keynote speaker
Huang Rui brought a more African and spiritual perspective, where he discussed how art is organic and the true, liveable beautiful spaces we create come out of a spirit, a way of looking at things. His art is incredible.
After taking
Re-Imagining Cities in all of these hectic two days, I've come to my conclusion. The academics, the smart people, the rich people of the world believe the 21st century is all about cities but perhaps it's not.
Perhaps we need to go back to a more ancient view, expressed in the African aesthetic of creating beautiful spaces. It's not about making people live in concrete jungles, packed in like sardines in order to Save The Planet! Walking and biking every where with limited mobility. You gotta get out and move. See the world. Explore. No one discussed the impact of high density areas on human mental health. Is it even healthy to be packed into small spaces; entertained in cultural districts? What kind of person comes out of such an environment? A zombie? Is the person crazy, stable, able to solve problems...a human? Cities run the risk of becoming beautiful prisons. Leave it up to the "smart people," and we will all be living in caves underground, never seeing the sunshine.
What was forgotten was the fact that Earth is a gigantic garden. All of these cities that are envisioned although glamorous with green spaces are artificial environments. Earth needs things to grow...needs space. We need to live in a green space not just have a few green spaces here and there. There have been many studies on plants responding to the sound of music and voices. And just like plants, the Earth responds to our vibrations - negative and positive. What does the Earth need to grow beautiful things, to thrive, to create an eco system we love calling home, and we love living in? In Ancient Egypt, the spiritual principle related to architecture and design was "As above, So below." The idea was your buildings, cities, structures brought heaven to earth.
Imagining Egypt by Mark Millmore (P.S. most people don't know Egypt was not always a desert)
Harare and Johannesburg have many challenges being major African cities. But perhaps, it's time for these cities to look at their problems as opportunities. Perhaps the respective mayors and city leaders need to take the lead in this discussion of redefining cities - bring a new aesthetic to the global stage, a decidely African one. A city should be a garden. A place of beauty. It should inspire you to higher thoughts not take you down to mindless entertainment such as Lady Gaga or Kanye West...sorry to say.
There are many studies and research being done by psychologists looking at the psychology of poverty. Tight spaces = Crazy people. You're in a prison, and it breeds a mindset of hopelessness and despair, limited perspectives. Human minds need stimulation, but not just anything. The stimulation needs to be our Earth - living in it and with it and loving it. Inspiring our artists where ever they are to bring out the beauty and help all of us see it. It doesn't have to be toxic and exploitative of the environment.
We need a clean up and keep our cities beautiful campaign throughout all of Africa's beautiful cities. Residents of African cities even in the high density areas and townships especially so need to clean up.
I remember walking in the old downtown Johannesburg (not Rosebank for all you tourists), which used to be nice, but now is old, shabby with broken windows...storefronts do not have new paint. Everything is rundown and that affects a person's mind. It doesn't look clean or feel clean. "As a man thinks - so he is." South African cities with their high emphasis on security are so fear-based. Mayor Tau mentioned how because these cities were built with apartheid social models in mind...many things have to be redone. It's true. Fear keeps people immobilized and paralyzed, unable to see the possibilities, unable to change and embrace the future, and let go of negative ideas.
Interestingly, Johannesburg has had a successful tree planting program, where now there are 6 million trees in the city. That's awesome and that needs to be continued. Even in Mbabane, Swaziland, another southern African city...it has the cutest downtown. But it's so old and drab and driving through there I thought about what a few flowers, some fresh paint on the buildings would do. People wouldn't know where they were. Africans are gardeners.
We need to take advantage of what we already have and do naturally, designing our cities around our gardens - CREATING BEAUTIFUL SPACES TO UPLIFT A BEAUTIFUL SPIRIT.
Those of us who are sons and daughters of the soil need to remember that the Earth is a living organism. In addition, we need to remind our Asian, European, North American, Middle Eastern and South American neighbors to get rid of their silly zoos. Animals don't need to be trapped. Respect the Earth, and it'll respect you.
The Earth is a garden and that needs to be our starting point.
We need to go back and study the ideas of a genius, considered to be the world's first great architect and an African - Imhotep. His ideas and principles of balance, harmony and sacred geometry even influenced the design and spirit of beautiful spaces such as Louis XIV's Versailles gardens.
With that said, I loved the New Cities Summit...it definitely accomplished its purpose and made me re-imagine my 21st century metropolis.
From BonjourParis.com - Versailles Gardens
There's a lovely book by Ian Thompson called "The Sun King's Garden: Louis XIV, Andre le Notre and the Creation of the Gardens of Versailles
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