Inquiry
2009 Sustainable Cities Forum
Inquiry 2008-09 | Sustainable Cities Forum | April 2-4, 2009
Committees | Simulation Questions | Simulation Roles | Schedule
Committees:
- Governance
- Security
- Urban Planning
- Economic Development
- Environment
- Social Services
- Culture and Identity
Simulation Questions
Dear Delegates:
As many, if not all, of you struggle to contend with the current global economic crisis, we are convening this conference to look at some of the major challenges the world’s cities are contending with as well as sharing best practices. The end result of the conference will be a blueprint for how cities can and should move forward.
Committee on Governance
1. Rapid urbanization is a challenging issue for many cities. It is becoming increasingly apparent that existing governmental structures and institutions are not yet organized to deal with the new responsibilities and, in many cases, adamantly resist any changes in their authority and power. Resurgent nationalisms weaken the efforts of transnational organizations such as the United Nations or the European Union to deal with growing problems of urban poverty and social exclusion. There are also often competing powers within municipalities, leading to fragmented development and growth.
The delegates are asked to make a minimum of eight recommendations of how cities can address the issue of moving beyond local politics to solve challenging global problems affecting cities, including how national governments can empower their cities.
2. Richard Sennett writes, “The cities everyone wants to live in should be clean and safe, possess efficient public services, be supported by a dynamic economy, provide cultural stimulation, and also do their best to heal society’s divisions of race, class, and ethnicity. These are not the cities we live in. They fail on all these counts due to government policy, irreparable social ills, and economic forces beyond local control. The city is not its own master.” He argues that one of the failures is that experimentation has given way to the forces of power and control, from design to governance. How do we recover our urban imagination?
The committee is asked to design a plan to engage the whole city in urban planning.
3. New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said that cities are increasingly becoming incubators of change and drivers of innovation. This can be seen in a range of ways globally, from the arts to urban policy. As cities contend with the deepening financial crisis and the demands of increasing population, how important will it be for local governments to continue to challenge and encourage their citizens to be pioneers – in art, in addressing climate change, etc.?
The delegates are asked to present recommendations on how to keep cities at the forefront of innovation, including how they should interact with their national governments.
Committee on Security
1. The world is seeing an increase in deadly urban warfare tactics, such as suicide bombing and suicidal attacks as happened in New York, Madrid, London and Mumbai. The city is a complex terrain, one that both encourages openness and engagement and one that provides many options for high impact attacks. Many ordinary objects and locations can be converted into weapons and battlegrounds. How does a leader behave politically, knowing the potential risks to civilian populations in potential target cities? What are the cost-benefit calculations? How can local and national forces contend with threats while achieving the goals of stability, economic development and sustainable security in cities? To what degree does urban terrorism affect the chances of achieving sustainable peace? How do leaders continue to encourage domestic growth and urban development given the risks of creating more desirable targets?
The delegates are asked to make recommendations regarding political (international and domestic) and tactical methods for protecting target cities while encouraging their openness and growth.
2. The amount of urban violence seen at any given time varies with changes in politics, the economy, and the environment. With increased rates of urban violence, cities, or parts of cities, can become paralyzed in a state of disrepair, economic stagnation, and hopelessness. How can cities secure their future against urban violence? What alternatives are there to having more police? Can the judicial or penal system be revised to ensure greater equity and higher numbers of rehabilitated individuals? How can violence, drug trafficking and corruption be discouraged to make the city safe for all?
Delegates are asked to address the issue of urban violence and develop ten universal recommendations that all city governments can be asked to consider in contending with these difficult issues.
3. As the issues of global warming and oil dependency receive increasing attention in the media, the world is beginning to view the issue of environmental sustainability as one of international security. What measures should countries and cities take to improve their environmental security? What is environmental security? Sustainability?
The delegates are asked to discuss the implications of global warming, continued oil dependency, and suggest ways to incorporate these issues into a municipal security plan.
4. In the last few years, the world has seen several debilitating natural disasters. From the tsunami that devastated southeast Asia to Hurricane Katrina, we have had the opportunity to observe differing responses to these events. What plans can and should cities put in place to prepare for natural disasters, from early warning systems to transportation routes to evacuation plans, to ensure the security of all of their residents?
The delegates are asked to make a checklist for mayors for early preparedness to ensure the security of their residents.
Committee on Urban Planning
1. Cities, especially large cities, can often become segregated entities, between rich and poor, formal and informal, and among ethnic, racial and religious groups. What is the role of urban planning in a city? Should the city be open to all? What is the role of transportation and public spaces, such as parks and libraries? Do roads kill cities? Should cities encourage interaction?
The committee is asked to develop guidelines for urban planners on how to develop the city for all.
2. Hurricane Katrina brought New Orleans face to face with the inequities and weaknesses both of its own society, and of the federal response. The disaster has left the city questioning the volatility and instability of its own race relations, as we have seen in the discussions over the fate of the largely black 9th ward. It has also left some questioning the very viability of New Orleans as a coastal city in a hurricane zone. In the face of the intensification of coastal natural disasters through climate change, is it worth investing the resources in rebuilding New Orleans? What does this mean for the urban planning of other coastal cities?
The Urban Planning committee is asked to make recommendations on how coastal cities can and should be built.
3. The Masdar initiative in the United Arab Emirates seeks to build the first ever zero carbon city, which would be powered entirely by renewable energy sources. If successful, this would appear to be a shining example for the development of cities around the world. But the efforts of the Masdar initiative bring up serious questions. If Masdar has been built at such enormous cost, is it really a sustainable and viable model for other cities around the world? Is the equitability of the project jeopardized by the use of underpaid migrant labor for its construction? Is there an inherent contradiction between the Masdar initiative and the origin of its builders’ wealth through the mass sale of fossil fuels?
The Urban Planning committee is asked to assess the positives and negatives of Masdar and develop recommendations for how other cities can draw on its lessons.
Committee on Economic Development
1. The current economic recession and financial crisis, while having begun in the United States, is now a global phenomenon. Cities are affected in their economic development, their taxes, their aid from the national government, in unemployment, in abandoned homes and businesses, in increasing demand for services from its population.
The delegates are asked to consider and delineate the common challenges faced by cities due to the economic crisis and to develop recommendations for local governments to weather the downturn.
2. Development decisions affect many of the things that touch people's everyday lives - their homes, their health, the schools their children attend, the taxes they pay, their daily commute, the natural environment around them, economic growth in their community, and opportunities to achieve their dreams and goals. What, where, and how communities build will affect their residents' lives for generations to come. Smart growth is a strategy to consider both economic growth and sustainability in a city’s development plan. Its ten principles are: 1) Mix land uses; 2) Take advantage of compact building design; 3) Create a range of housing opportunities and choices; 4) Create walkable neighborhoods; 5) Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place; 6) Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas; 7) Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities; 8) Provide a variety of transportation choices; 9) Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective; and 10) Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions.
Looking beyond the economic crisis, the delegates are asked to consider the Smart Growth strategy in the context of their individual cities and then to amend the principles or devise a completely new strategy.
3. With rapid urbanization has come the rise of the informal economy. Nearly one billion people globally live in squatter settlements, giving rise to an informal economy, not just based around housing – tenants and landlords – but also in the services these communities need. Informal jobs arise as cities are flooded with job seekers leaving their homes and coming to the city for better opportunities. The informal sector is untaxed but may tax city services, such as illegally accessing water and power.
The delegates are asked to recommend how cities should contend with the informal sector, for both the health of the cities and the health of its formal and informal residents.
Committee on Environment
1. The rapid urbanization of the 20th and 21st centuries is a challenge for cities and the global environment. In 1900, ten percent of the world's population lived in cities; in 2007 that number rose to 50 percent; by 2050 it will reach 75 percent. How will this affect the carrying capacity of urban regions, especially with those regions posed to encompass ten million or more people? The increase in population coupled with economic development is an additional stress on local environments. In Mexico City, 76 percent of the population lives in urban areas, and there are 397 cars per 1,000 people, compared to 38 per 1,000 in Shanghai. These are just a few facts from around the world that show how the overwhelming global urbanization directly affects environmental concerns.
In this age of increased urbanization, what can/are governments do/doing in terms of building greener cities that promote the wellbeing of the citizens? What can they do to make the current expansion of cities more environmentally friendly?
Taking into account these facts (among others), the delegates are asked to develop guidelines regarding the way to best address mounting environmental concerns.
2. Julian Agyeman writes about the concept of “just sustainability.” He writes, “Two concepts that provide new directions for public policy, environmental justice and sustainability, are both highly contested. Each has tremendous potential to effect long-lasting change. Despite the historically different origins of these two concepts and their attendant movements, there exists an area of theoretical compatibility between them. This conceptual overlap is a critical nexus for a broad social movement to create livable, sustainable communities for all people in the future.”
The delegates are asked to assess the concept of just sustainability in the context of the environmental challenges cities face and to recommend whether or not cities should create a Just Sustainability Agreement.
3. The automobile gave rise to the suburbs. The growth of suburbs and urban sprawl are often cited as main factors adversely affecting city environments, including increased emissions from cars, the reliance on cars over public transportation, and the amounts of water and land used per person. In this context, many cities are rethinking urban density and attracting people back to the city, to smaller living spaces.
The committee is asked to consider the positives and negatives of increasing density in cities and to recommend under what conditions this should and should not happen.
4. Urban agriculture has been considered as a way to contend with a number of urban environmental problems, from producing produce locally (thereby avoiding transportation costs) to helping to reduce the carbon footprint of a city to acting as a coolant in the concrete jungle. Some cities are experimenting with urban agriculture from rooftop garden to urban greenhouses to new styles of architecture, and some cities are losing their urban agricultural aspects as they struggle to urbanize and provide housing.
The delegates are asked to design a blueprint and rationale for the potential use of urban agriculture.
Committee on Social Services
1. In South Africa, government subsidies for low-income housing only met 14 percent of the demand of the population. Ninety-nine percent of the housing in Addis Ababa is considered to be slums. Cities in developed countries are facing devalued home prices and foreclosure at record rates. Should it be the role of the government to directly provide affordable housing or provide incentives for other organizations to do so? How involved in ensuring equitable housing should the government be?
The delegates are asked to recommend what role, if any, the government should play in providing affordable housing for its residents.
2. In December of 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations subscribed to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which declared that every person had a right to free and compulsory elementary education. In 1960, the General Conference of UNESCO approved the Convention Against Discrimination of Education. In the years following these agreements, educational systems changed dramatically. Countries around the world have supported many programs to attempt to overcome the inequitable opportunities facing children from different races, ethnic groups, genders, or religious affiliations. However, substantial barriers to equity still persist. UNESCO projects that by the year 2010 there will be 152 million children between the ages of 6 and 11 years and 324 million children between 12 and 17 who will not be attending school. Excluded children are most likely to come from poor families and are more likely to be female than male. Since the majority of the global population will be living in today’s cities, how are cities preparing to contend with this challenge? How important is an educated citizenry for economic development? Iis quality public education the right of every urban citizen? How can governments combat these inequities and assist students who graduate with fewer skills to enter the workplace? What role should assisting NGOs play in providing additional education and how does that impact the varying levels of competence of products of the public school system?
The delegates are asked to develop an Agreement on Urban Education.
3. With more and more citizens and scarcer and scarcer resources, health care is an urgent problem in urban areas. As density in cities increases and more and more squatter communities develop, the threat of pandemics spreading easily is a primary concern for government officials. Diseases ranging from tuberculosis to dengue fever to HIV/AIDS have the potential to devastate urban communities worldwide. What systems do local governments need to put in place to contend with these challenges?
The delegates are asked to construct a public health plan for urban centers.
Committee on Culture and Identity
1. How does architecture and urban planning reflect the philosophy of the government and the culture of the city? How do countries use urban architecture to define themselves to the world? Does the process of urban planning differ between cities with autocratic or centralized governments and those with democratic governments? Is architecture merely functional or should it also help shape the identity of the city?
The committee is asked to develop recommendations for cities to use in working with architects to design the city.
2. Dubai is a city in the United Arab Emirates that has long historic routes as a regional trading center, but only recently has become well known internationally for its rapid growth and modernization. The government has undertaken a bold scheme to use the income from the limited oil reserves of this emirate to build a global financial center as well as an international shopping and tourist destination. In recent years, other cities have also recreated themselves, Berlin, Chicago…changing and redefining their identities to contend with modern times. How do cities shape their own local identities given the interconnected world we live in today? How relevant is a local sense of culture in a universal, cosmopolitan environment? How are local identities and cultures impacted by the overwhelming prevalence of western images and pop culture EVERYWHERE?
The delegates are asked to recommend how cities should balance the importance of local identity and globalization, how should they balance history and modernization.
3. Ninety-two percent of the citizens of Buenos Aires are Roman Catholic. In Mumbai, apart from Hinduism, the other religions followed are Islam, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Judaism and Christianity. In ancient cities, religion was the main organizing force. How has that changed today? How do religious identities shape cites? How does having many religions compare with having one main, usually state sponsored religion?
The delegates are asked to discuss the impact of religion on their own cities and how to balance religion with modernization.
4. What is the role of art in the city? How does art define a city’s identity? How does art contribute to discussion and debate? How have cities defined and impacted art? What emphasis should cities place on art in their development?
The committee is asked to make recommendations about the role of art in the city. -top-
Simulation Roles
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New Orleans
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Cities
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Masdar
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Addis Ababa
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Columbia Prep |
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Cristo Rey School |
Berlin
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St. Martin De Porres HS
Jessica Herrmann |
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Bedford HS
Dave Attewell, Alykhan Mohammad |
Buenos Airess
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Salem HS
Peter Radosevich |
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Brookline HS
Hena Kapadia, Michelle Liu |
Capetown
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Corporate Consortium
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Bedford HS
Gillian Javetski |
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Detroit
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Dover-Sherborn HS
Alison Meyer, Lucy Perkins |
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Dubai
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Dover-Sherborn HS |
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Istanbul
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Lagos
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London
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Boston Latin HS |
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Medford HS
Chelsea Brown, Mara Gittleman |
Mexico City
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Medford HS
Adam White, Emily Freedman |
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Mumbai
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Phillips Exeter Academy
Dwijo Goswami |
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New York City
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Rio de Janeiro
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Packer Collegiate
Ian Hainline |
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Shanghai
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Stuyvesant
Meera Pandit |
Tokyo
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Readings
- The Giant Awakes: Chapter 7
- The Bund Shanghai: China Faces West
- Student Protests in Twentieth Century China
- Anti-Design: Chapter 6
Schedule
Download schedule here
Thursday April 2nd
6:00pm -- 7:20pm -- presentations
7:30pm -- 8:30pm -- small-group discussions
Friday April 3rd
4:30pm -- Inquiry Committee and Teaching Group Help Set Up
5:45pm -- Opening Statements:
Barnum 008 for New Orleans
Pearson 104 for Masdar
7:10pm -- Delegation meetings begin
10:00pm -- Adjourn
Saturday April 4th
9:15am -- Report to your Committee Room
6:30pm -- Adjourn
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