Challenge of finding room for skyscrapers, street vendors

[rooster59]

Challenge of finding room for skyscrapers, street vendors

By Curtis S Chin
Special to The Nation
Hong Kong 

 

Communities must be put at the heart of urban development and planners must consider the impact of a city’s design also on inequality and on human lives

 

From targeting unauthorised fish ball vendors in Hong Kong to hawkers of T-shirts or noodle soup in Bangkok, cities across Asia have continued an on-again-off-again battle to clear streets of unlicensed vendors and free up space for pedestrians. The challenge remains how to do so without undercutting a city’s overall vibrancy and distinctiveness. 

 

I am reminded of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s quote from the 2016 Democratic Party convention in Philadelphia. “When they go low, we go high,” she said. 

 

That memorable turn of phrase reminds me today less of the ugliness of past political campaigns, and more of both Hong Kong’s and Bangkok’s changing skylines and the struggle to balance and find space for both skyscrapers and street vendors. Indeed, those same words from the former First Lady have relevance – in a different, economic context in both the United States and Asia – as a new Administration in Washington focuses on rebuilding America.

 

US President Donald J Trump is certainly no stranger to skyscrapers. Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York is arguably one of the most famous addresses in the world. In Chicago – site of the world’s first skyscraper – the Trump International Hotel & Tower, completed in 2009, is the second tallest completed building in that city, and the fourth tallest in the United States.

 

The United States long ago ceded the title of world’s tallest building to Asia and the Middle East. Seven of the top 10 tallest completed buildings in the world are now in Asia, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. This Chicago-headquartered not-for-profit organisation founded in 1969 maintains The Skyscraper Center, a database on the world’s tallest buildings.

 

As of March 2017, the world’s tallest buildings are the Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 2717 feet, the Shanghai Tower in China at 2073 feet and the Makkah Royal Clock Tower in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, at 1972 feet, according to the Skyscraper Centre. Coming in at number four is 1 World Trade Center in New York at 1776 feet. Hong Kong boasts the eighth tallest building – the International Commerce Centre. In Southeast Asia, the tallest buildings are Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Twin Towers; the Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower, in Vietnam; and Bangkok’s recently completed MahaNakhon tower – all at more than 1,000 feet tall.

 

Cities across Asia are growing outwards and upwards at breakneck speed, with the World Bank forecasting decades of urban growth to come. Despite almost 200 million people already having moved to Asia’s cities in the first decade of the 21st century, the region’s ongoing urbanisation is likely only to intensify.

 

Liveable cities, however, need more than skyscrapers. The people, the street life, and the neighbourhoods at the bottom of the buildings must not be lost in the shadows of new development. That remains a particularly critical point as city planners across Asia, including in Bangkok, unintentionally or not make it much tougher for street vendors, street-side tailors and cobblers, push carts and food trucks to make a living. 

 

As cities build taller, they must keep three key benchmarks for liveability in mind – community, resilience and sustainability.

 

First, communities must be put at the heart of urban development. Urban planners must consider not only the impact of a city’s design and new construction on traffic efficiency or parking spaces, but also on inequality and on human lives.

 

Amidst the rush to maximise real estate returns, developers must also incorporate public, open spaces to build a sense of community, cultivate street life and encourage social interaction.

 

And that fostering of community should ideally include people from all walks of life and income levels.

 

Second, cities must build in resilience.

 

A society or city that is socially inclusive and with strong community bonds leads to a city that is also resilient. An initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation, 100 Resilient Cities, defines urban resilience as the capacity to survive, adapt and grow no matter the stresses or shocks they experience.

 

Beyond skyscrapers, cities must build in comprehensive security and rule of law, effective public health systems, inclusive housing and labour policies, and diverse transport networks, as well as effective delivery of emergency services. Here, the private sector, including insurance and reinsurance companies, will play a necessary role along with government policies to encourage an enabling environment for resilience.

And third, cities need to grow in an environmentally sustainable manner. 

 

With more and more people moving into cities, tackling environmental challenges is already increasingly an urban issue. Incorporating innovations and technologies in areas such as infrastructure, energy and transport will be essential to building smarter if not “smart cities.” Here again, the contributions and coming together of public, private and not-for-profit sectors will be important.

 

There are many ways to measure a city’s success. At the Milken Institute, where I serve as that non-partisan economic think tank’s inaugural Asia Fellow, our researchers since 1999 have used a comprehensive, fact-based set of criteria to rank 200 large and 201 small metros across the United States as part of an annual Best-Performing Cities index.

 

The economic outcomes-based index heavily weights growth in employment, wages and technology. More subjective metrics such as quality-of-life and cost-of-living are not included.

 

This past year, tech still drove the top rankings as cities that exceled in innovation again topped the index, with San Jose, California, in Silicon Valley, claiming the No 1 spot for the second year in a row. A similar Milken Institute Best Performing Cities China list based on official Chinese economic, jobs, wage growth, foreign direct investment and other data singled out Shanghai, Guiyang and Zhoushan as top performers. 

 

Certainly, not all cities are blessed with the resources that Silicon Valley’s urban areas or Shanghai have as they too face the growing physical, social and economic challenges that are a part of an increasingly urbanised 21st century.

 

But today, amidst the diversity of the world’s changing urban landscapes, on one point there should be agreement.

 

Liveable, dynamic and vibrant cities are greater testament to a country’s prosperity and policy successes than any number of skyscrapers, no matter how big or how tall. As the United States rebuilds and cities in America and across Asia build higher, it is what is sustained below that will matter most.

 

Curtis S Chin is a former US Ambassador to the Asian Development Bank. 

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-03-26

[farcanell]

A long winded way of saying "go check out how Singapore has done it!"

[fruitman]

Foodvendors in corners of sidewalks :YES....tshirtvendors = NOPE..

 

[ezflip]

Forget the U.S. or Europe or many place in "civilized" Asia. The answer lies in Singapore with their mix of hawker style food and shops mixed into their skyscrapers.

 

One could argue that Singapore skyscrapers are nothing compared to Hong Kong, New York, and Tokyo but that is besides the point. I like Tokyo and Seoul with their idea of dedicating whole buildings as places to go for food and shopping but it does lack the feel of street vendors. Something people enjoy in Thailand. Well, some of us at least...

[Grubster]

First they need to learn how to leave enough room for a sidewalk, I hate walking around in Bangkok.

[elgordo38]

1 hour ago, Grubster said:

First they need to learn how to leave enough room for a sidewalk, I hate walking around in Bangkok.

If one cannot find leg room then what would be incentive to buy? My condo is bigger than your condo? In Bangkok your buying/renting into more crime more traffic more pollution and as one poster stated units were going for from 30 million bahts to 150 million. Prestige has a price I guess. 

[fruitman]

1 hour ago, Grubster said:

First they need to learn how to leave enough room for a sidewalk, I hate walking around in Bangkok.

 

So you don't like aircons dripping on your head or motocy's driving on sidewalks? Rat's and soidogs everywhere and loads of holes/missing floortiles? Or climbing flyover bridges in 40 celcius?

 

I especially like the wet floors around foodvendors, even more when they do it every day on same spot so there's a thick layer of filth growing there.

 

The other day i was on a market, i didn't watch my steps close enough and suddenly my foot was kneedeep in the filthy water of a drain which was jammed..guess the water came from a butchershop who sprayed it all in there.

[berybert]

5 hours ago, fruitman said:

 

So you don't like aircons dripping on your head or motocy's driving on sidewalks? Rat's and soidogs everywhere and loads of holes/missing floortiles? Or climbing flyover bridges in 40 celcius?

 

I especially like the wet floors around foodvendors, even more when they do it every day on same spot so there's a thick layer of filth growing there.

 

The other day i was on a market, i didn't watch my steps close enough and suddenly my foot was kneedeep in the filthy water of a drain which was jammed..guess the water came from a butchershop who sprayed it all in there.

Or as many call it, culture.

[elgordo38]

14 hours ago, fruitman said:

 

So you don't like aircons dripping on your head or motocy's driving on sidewalks? Rat's and soidogs everywhere and loads of holes/missing floortiles? Or climbing flyover bridges in 40 celcius?

 

I especially like the wet floors around foodvendors, even more when they do it every day on same spot so there's a thick layer of filth growing there.

 

The other day i was on a market, i didn't watch my steps close enough and suddenly my foot was kneedeep in the filthy water of a drain which was jammed..guess the water came from a butchershop who sprayed it all in there.

The only answer is like the west you have to go up to dual roadway systems. This costs money. Priorities are subs, military hardware and bullet trains to no where so the answer is? Another committee to study the situation. Only complete gridlock will get them to this stage plus the 10 to 20 years of building.