Trans Scan: a global scan of emerging trends in mobility and the built environment

Planning for better city life

ALTHOUGH the concept is hard to define, governments and communities the world over are becoming increasingly preoccupied with making homes, streets, towns and cities more “liveable”.

In fact the Victorian Government, through its Competition & Efficiency Commission (VCEC) has just spent three years trying to identify exactly what “liveability” is - and how Victoria can create more of it. (See below: “Finding a definition” and “Taking measurements”)

Thanks mostly to the Chinese Government’s huge investment in public transport for the 2008-Olympics, Beijing has now climbed three positions to 113th spot among the world’s most liveable cities.

Elsewhere around the Asia-Pacific, Singapore’s heavy investment in airport services and public transport has been so successful that management consultants, Mercer, now rate it first in the world for “city infrastructure”, one of the most crucial components of making a city “liveable”.

Certainly Singapore is doing much to capitalise on its rising status. A few days before the Mercer results were published the Singapore Government staged a London seminar for UK-based Singaporean expatriates in the hope of persuading many of them to return home and take up a career in their increasingly liveable city. Explained a media statement from the Singapore Economic Development Board: “Singapore is positioned to be the talent destination in Asia and is already working to make this city even more liveable.”

Another of Perth’s near-by cities, Jakarta, was becoming anxious about its liveability status even before the Mercer results were published. People were lamenting the fact that their city together with Lagos and Riyadh has been judged by Business Week as one of the world’s least liveable cities for working expatriates - much to the chagrin of many expatriates themselves. (See: “Jakarta’s rating”)

Meanwhile in the US where cities had not rated highly in either Mercer’s Liveability table or infrastructure table, US newspapers nonetheless gave much coverage to Forbes Magazine’s strictly domestic findings about America’s top 100 most liveable cities. What Forbes seemed to think mattered most was an easy-going lifestyle. Meanwhile in Nebraska, state capitol Lincoln (pop: 247,246 and number five in Forbes’ ranking) locals were celebrating the 32nd consecutive year that their city had earned the liveability-enhancing title: “Tree City USA”. Lincoln’s ever-expanding “people-planted-urban-forest” (last count it comprised 400,000 trees) is also credited with reducing the cost of local road maintenance.

Domestic trees and an easy-going lifestyle matter to Australians too and Australian architect, Brett Blacklow, has been doing his best to promote a return to some of the conditions that promoted both. He has developed a design for a new low-cost house that for the sake of “liveability” sets out to reverse the trend of building on the “entire block” and brings the return of the traditional backyard. Says project leader, Kevin Doodney: “We are showing people that you don’t need to sacrifice liveability and sustainability to achieve affordability.” (See: “Return of the backyard?”)

But wherever in the world “liveability” was being debated, the message was clear. Whatever the financial crisis may turn up and whatever climate change may do, the places that will prosper most in tomorrow’s world will be the ones that are the most “liveable”.

The scan also showed:

Finding a definition

One result of the VCEC investigation has been to provide a new definition of “liveability”. According to the Victorian Government: “Liveability encompasses the wellbeing of a community and comprises the many characteristics that make a location a place where people want to live.” But the VCEC admits it had a major job coming up with a definition. In fact the definition quoted above is actually the one used in the government’s response to the VCEC’s list of recommendations and differs slightly from the phrase adopted in the official VCEC report. The report’s definition is: “Liveability reflects the wellbeing of a community and represents the many characteristics that make a location a place where people want to live now and in the future.” (Our italics.)

Taking measurements

The VCEC report highlights the fact that Melbourne rated second only to top ranking Vancouver in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s league table of the world’s most liveable cities. In fact it was the EIU finding and Melbourne’s wish to remain high on future lists that did much to prompt the VCEC investigation into what makes one place more liveable than another and what can be done to enhance such a favourable environment.

What the investigation found was that different people considered different factors important and much will vary according to an individual’s age and circumstance. Moreover the VCEC did not hold much with using the Economist Intelligence Unit’s markers for steering government policy and suggested instead that Victoria should use an enhanced version of its already established community wellbeing indicators, the so-called GVT or Growing Victoria Together indicators.

The Government has supported the recommendation in principle and will be adding to the existing GVT suite such liveability indicators as progress in easing traffic congestion, public transport usage and housing affordability. As made evident by the Singapore Government’s London initiative, the Victorian Government has also recognised the VCEC’s finding of a “positive relationship between economic competitiveness and liveability”. The diagram on page 12 shows how the VCEC sees liveability and competitiveness being linked.

Return of the backyard?

Just over a year ago, Professor Tony Hall of Griffith University released a study on how Australian cities - and in particular Perth - were building new houses with virtually no gardens. (See: Trans Scan January 2008 page 13.) He claimed the trend not only posed serious ecological problems but also that it was having a detrimental impact on lifestyles. Partly in response to Professor Hall’s findings a group of building industry professionals have developed what they are calling the “Smarter Small Home” - a two-storey, three-bedroom dwelling that is both low-priced and features a backyard.

The project leader, Kevin Doodney who is also a director of L.J Hooker Land Marketing, believes the new house with garden could be sold as a land-and-house package for around $275,000. The new house has a floor plan covering just 120m2 and can comfortably fit on a block of land of 300 - 400m2. Some of the biggest savings are achieved by adopting less expensive construction methods. For example, instead of the traditional slab on the ground, the house is built on steel screw-in piers. Instead of a traditional trussed roof, there is a flat, sandwich panel. And with an eye to running costs and energy saving, each home will come with a single override switch that can turn off all discretionary appliances like televisions and stereos, when the owner leaves the house - or perhaps goes out to enjoy the garden.

Setting the pace

When calculating its most liveable American city index, Forbes magazine measures personal income growth, “culture”, low crime levels, and low unemployment rates. Top city this year was Portland (pop: 513,000) and described by one resident as “a very easy place to live”. Say Janis Beitzer executive director of Portland’s Downtown District: “Portland draws so many people because it has a strong arts, cultural, contemporary music and foodie scene. It’s a place where people set their own pace of life and work.”

Tree benefits

According to Steve Schwab, city forester for Lincoln, Nebraska and the person directly responsible for seeing to it that Lincoln retains its title “Tree City USA”, neighbourhoods could barely be considered desirable places to live if it were not for tree lined streets. “Trees really make your neighbourhoods a lot more liveable,” he says.

As city forester he is also responsible for encouraging community involvement in tree care. He says the city authority does not employ enough people to take care of all its thousands of trees so local citizens are encouraged to help with watering newly planted trees - and even do the pruning and mulching. In fact the council’s website provides detailed advice on all aspects of tree care.

Currently it also promoting a research report from the US Centre for Urban Forest Research which describes how tree-shaded streets are better able to handle the rigours of hot weather and that over a 30-year period can actually cut road maintenance cost by half.

Jakarta’s rating

While other cities were celebrating their liveability, the people of Jakarta were so dismayed by their city’s negative rating on a Business Week list that the Jakarta Post sought readers’ comments on whether the city really was a bad place to work.

Apparently Jakarta had been found the “second worst” in the world for pollution, disease, political violence and the availability of goods and services. However not everyone agreed with the assessment - nor the types of indicators chosen to rank the city’s liveability. In fact a stream of expatriates wrote in to defend the city. One told the Jakarta Post it was no dirtier than many American cities. Another claimed Jakarta’s crime levels were lower than those in Washington DC while a third insisted: “The people are the best I’ve encountered anywhere on earth”.

City farming

If pleasant gardens and urban green space does enhance liveability (and there is plenty of evidence that it does) then Detroit may be about to increase its liveability by several points. While others in the city worry about the financial collapse of the local car industry, Detroit authorities are being presented with proposals to parcel together vacant and abandoned property to build what proponents are describing as “the world’s largest urban farm”.

The first phase of the plan is to transform 28 hectares in Detroit’s lower east district into a “viable, beautiful and sustainable area that will serve the community, increase the tax base, create jobs and greatly improve the quality of life in an area that has experienced a severe decline in population.”

But proponent, John Hantz, CEO of Hantz Farms is also eyeing several more square kilometres of city-owned vacant land - providing that he can obtain it at a nominal price. He says there is an increasing demand for fresh, locally grown fruit and vegetables and urban farms provide the solution. Mr Hantz says he would also power his farm with “green energy” - windmills, geothermal heat and biomass fuel from recycled compost.

Floating farms

Detroit is not the only city planning large-scale urban farms. London too is hoping to give its canals and rivers a new lease of life by opening them up to community vegetable and fruit growing areas. British Waterways, which manages the river systems, is even con- sidering a plan to turn “retired workboats” into floating vegetable plots. According to the agency’s chairman, Rosie Boycott, floating vegetable gardens would save the boats from the breaker’s yard and provide a “moveable feast” in built-up areas.