the urbanist #505 - august 2011 - learning from shanghai
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o 08.11
SPUR•arne
What can China teach us about growth?II
II
LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dictatorship, democracy andurbanism
Gabriel Metcalf isSPUR'sexecutivedirector
2 Urbanist> August2011
Has any place experienced change as rapid as
China's, growing from 26 to 50 percent urban in just
20 years - a shift of a half a billion people? Thestandard of living has risen equally rapidly: Since
1990 the country's gross domestic product has grown
by more than tenfold.It might be possible to stop people from moving
to cities in search of economic opportunity, but it
would require a system far more authoritarian thancontemporary China. For example, there are 14
mill ion people in Shanghai w ith off icial permanent
resident permits, but an additional 9 million migrantslive in the municipal region and are partic ipating in its
econom ic expansion.
This year SPUR's annual city trip was to Shanghai.It was the first time we visited a city outside North
America, and it afforded a glimpse into China's
phenomenal urban growth, the most significant
urbanization project in human history. Shanghai is
a modern city. It has high-rise towers, upscale retai l
and restaurants, and a transportation infrastructure(trains, ports, airports, etc.) far better than anything in
the United States. But outside of the historic districts
built before World War II, the development appearedterribly disorganized to us. There is lots of transit and
lots of development but no real relationship between
the two. Development far away from transit is just as
intense as development close to transit. Add to thisa tendency to copy some of the wo rst affectations of
American cities and suburbs - extremely wide roads,towers surrounded by vast, empty lawns, elevated
highways cutt ing through districts - and the result is
a landscape that is profoundly un-walkable, in spiteof being packed with tall buildings as far as the eye
can see. On the SPUR trip, we called it "high-density
sprawl."
There are lots of reasons Chinese urbanization isturning out this way:
1. The grow th is so fast that they don't have timeto plan. They just build as fast as they can, trying to
make sure everyone has a place to live.
2. The officia l growth-management policy empha
sizes "new towns" rather than directing growth intoalready urbanized areas of Shanghai. In a country that
is experiencing th is much population growth, there
can be no question that new towns are a necessary
part of the solution. But Shanghai could put more
energy into growing its urban core.
3 . China is copying the America n model of car
dependency. If cars are symbols of personal freedom,
I don't want to sound like onemore star-struck Americanraving about the marvelsof modern China. I amrooting for democracy. Butour democracy is very, verytroubled.
imagine how powerful the symbol is in a society
struggling to move from a form of totalitarianism
toward a more open and tolerant model. Shanghai
has taken more aggressive steps to manage cars than
most cit ies in China, but providing lots of traffic lanesand lots of parking is pushing greater Shanghai into a
dispersed pattern.4 . In Shanghai the subways are organized in a grid
to facili tate one transfer to anywhere; there are almost
no central nodes that would warrant the greatestconcentration of density.
5. Local government is funded by selling develop
ment rights and leasing property, while the nationalgovernment is funded by personal and business
taxes. In order to pay for basic services, local govern
ment is deeply enmeshed in the business of land
development.6. Bureaucrats in charge of districts, towns or cities
compete with each other to create major places. Toget noticed and advance in their careers, mayors want
to be responsible for a new downtown or a major rail
hub. When a new mayor comes into office, he or shewants to make a mark with something new instead
of implementing another mayor's vision; as a result
the landscape is dotted with partly finished mega
developments. In some ways, the political structure isthe form-giver.
Despite these problems, it's clear that Shanghai
and China have a lot to teach us. First, the rising
prosperity did not happen by accident. China has anindustrial policy of identifying industries to target for
growth. The job of Chinese mayors is to come up with
a profitable mix of industry in their cit ies, and they
will not get promoted unless they succeed. Mayors
have many, many tools at their disposal to carry out
this task, including direct ing state-owned companies
I
At the ShanghaiUrban PlanningExhibitionCenter, anenormous scalemodel showsall exist ingand plannedbuildings in thecity center about one-tenthof Shanghai'stotal area.
and foreign investment companies to desiredlocations; creating new universities; and even
buildin g the factories they want and starting new
companies themselves. As we met with mayors of
fast-growin g new towns, we heard sophist icated
interpretations of the "lessons of Detroit. " They
talked about the need to nurture industries that
are furth er up the value chain and not rely on
manufacturing, w hich w ill flow to areas of least
cost. For example Jiading, a new town specializing
in auto manufacturin g, is working to attract R&D
and aff iliated industries - to design cars rather
than just build them.
The second big lesson from China in general,
and Shanghai in particular, is that the government
is spending heavily on the things the United States
seems unable to affo rd anymore - especially
transportation infrastructure and education. In
the most respected international comparison ofeducational atta inment among high-school stu
dents (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development 's Programme for International
Student Assessment), Shanghai came out ahead
of every other place in the world. People who think
China's economic success is only based on cheap
labor are drawin g the wrong conclusion, and are,
frankly, not as worried as they should be. The cost
of labor in China w ill rise - in fact it already has.
What is more challenging to the U.S. economy
is the smart, and massive, investments China is
making in its future productivity.
When confronted with the stories of China's
successes - the grow ing prosperity, the new
high-speed rail lines, the ability to move so
quickly on infrastructure and other large proj
ects - Americans tell themselves, "It's easier in
a dictatorship." But let's give the Chinese some
credit: The results they are achieving for their
people far outstrip those of any other dictatorship
I can think of. As I watch California wade into a
th ird decade of trying to build its first high-speed
rail system, with, at best, more than a decade
more to go, I don't want to sound like one more
star-struck American raving about the marvels of
modern China. I am rooting for democracy. But our
democracy is very, very troubled.
This brings us to the third and final lesson
we took away -and it 's a hard one. How does
the United States compete with undemocratic
countries without sacrificing our democracy? Can a
country w ith a rich publi c life and culture of debatestill take on the hard decisions?
What if we continue to deny that spending is
necessary to maintain first-world infrastructure and
publi c services?
What if we are too short-sighted as a people to
invest in the education and opportunity of the next
generation?
What if, in short, our system is not capable of
tacklin g hard problems?
Many of China's mayors, the ones directing
their nation's thr iving economy and building its
supportive infrastructure, were trained as econo
mists and engineers. If we can characterize China's
political system as governance by experts, then the
challenge it poses to us becomes even more clear.
American politi cal culture is deeply distrustful of
expert ise and deeply wedded to the idea that the
experts are probably w rong. This is w here China
dictatorship or not - is more enlightened than we
are. We cast our lot with democracy; with buildin g
a participatory citizenry that combines all our
strengths. But in order for it to work, we must vote
and act according to an intelligent, informed vision
that is bigger than imm ediate self-interest. We have
a lot of work to do to prove that these hopes for
our democracy are more than naive wishes.e
Urbanist > August 2011 3
August 2011
What we're doing
This year has been a wild one forCa lifornia's redevelopmentagencies, which direct financialinvestmentand newdevelopment toward struggl ingareas . Just a few months into histenure, Governor Jerry Brownvowed to abolish redevelopmentagencies and got fairly closetodoing so. Now they'reonce aga inon the chopping block. Whenthe governor signed the statebudget in late June, he passedone trailer bill that eliminates
COASTAL COMMISSION RULESAGAINST OCEAN BEACH ARMORINGOn July 13, the California Coastal Commissionunanimously denied a permit application fromthe City and County of San Francisco thatwould have permitted both existing and newemergency armoring of the coast in responseto ongoing erosion south of Sloat Boulevard.The commissioners protested the ad-hocnature of the city's coastal management andsaid they would not approve additionalarmoring until a long-range plan was in place.SPUR's Ben Grant provided testimony on thestatus of the Ocean Beach Master Plan, amulti-agency effort to find long-term solutionsto erosion and other issues at the beach. Thecommission's demand for a long-range planputs renewed emphasis on the SPU R-Iedmaster plan, which will be released inJanuary. Read more at bit.ly/armoring.
REDEVELOPMENT IS DEAD, redeve lopment agencies and aLONG LIVE REDEVELOPMENT second bill that allows them to
continue to exist if they paycertain "voluntary" contributionsto schools and special districts.The Ca lifornia RedevelopmentAssociation and the League ofCal ifornia Cities assert that thenew laws are unconstitutionaland are taking a lawsuit to theCa lifornia Supreme Court. Underthe new laws, the San FranciscoRedevelopment Agency wouldcontinue to stay in business, butsome of its projects (like theHunter's Point Shipyard) would
4 Urbanist> August 20lt
go forward on a slowertimeline,and others may not happen atall. SPUR has been working aspart of a broad coalition tosupport targeted reforms to stateredevelopment law, while at thesame time working on new toolsthat can replacesomeof thegood work that redevelopmentdoes in California. Hear SFRedevelopment AgencyDirector Fred Blackwell explainthe changes at bit.ly/sfredev.
MAYOR APPOINTS GABRIELMETCALF TO TRANSBAYJOINT POWERS AUTHORITYMayor Lee has appointed SPURExecutive Director GabrielMetcalf to the organizationresponsib le for designing andbuilding the Transbay Terminal.It's a critical time for this project,given recent funding challengesfacing Caltrain, high-speed railand the Transbay RedevelopmentArea .
THE FUTURE OF 4TH STREETThe stretch of 4th Streetbetween Market Street and theSan Francisco Caltrain station atKing Street is an important areafor urbanists to be thinkingabout. Why? Because rough ly$1.5 billion will be invested intransit infrastructure here, in theform of the Central Subway. Thisprojectwill ultimately link theT-Third Street Muni line withChinatown. Meanwhile, othersignificant plans will extendCaltrain to downtown and furtherlink the 4th and King Station tothe Transbay Terminal withhigh-speed rail. Recently the SanFrancisco Planning Department
launched the Central CorridorStudy, a new planningeffortfocused on the 4th Streetcorridor. SPUR believes stronglythat plans for 4th Street shouldconsider the substantia l transitimprovements in this area, aswell as the need to extend SanFrancisco's walkable downtowncore. Toget involved emailSarah Karlinsky at [email protected]
SUPPORTIVE HOUSING FORYOUTH PASSES PLANNINGCOMMISSIONThe San Francisco PlanningCommission voted July 14 topass the proposed plan for theEdward II Inn in the Cow Hollowneighborhood. The plan wouldconvert the tourist hostel into a24-unit residence for youth whoare aging out of foster careor areotherwise at risk ofhomelessness. SPUR DeputyDirector Sarah Karlinsky testifiedin support of the project, whichour Project Review Committeehas endorsed as critical toaddressing the needs of anunderserved population.
SPUR RELEASES"ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT"STUDYIn July SPUR teamed with theGlobal Footprint Network, aresearch group based inOakland, to release a study ofSan Francisco's"ecologicalfootprint," a measure of naturalresource consumption as afunction of goods and servicespurchased. Read the completestudy at spur.org/tootprint.e
• l!:'
China is now engaged in thefastest city-building projectin history. One billion peoplewill live in its cities by 2030.By 2025, China will have221 cities with more than amillion inhabitants and 23cities with more than fivemillion.
Shanghai, China's largest city,is ahead of the urbanizationcurve and provides a glimpseinto the country's future- and the world's. For justas the American suburbanexperiment traveled aroundthe world in the 20th century,Chinese urbanism will beadopted and adapted byother nations in the 21st.
Learning from ShanghaiWhat can China's massive urbanizationproject teach us?
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08.11 by Egan Terp lan ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Shanghai's regional economyIn China, decisions about new towns, industries andfinancial centers are made at a regional level. What can theBay Area learn from this ap proach to economic planning? ..
EganTerplanisSPUR's regio nalplann ingdirector.
I PreparingforChina'sUrban Billion, McKinseyGlobal lnstilute, March2009.wW\'/.mckinsey.com/mgi/reports/pdfslchina urban billionlChina- urban- billionfull_reporl.pdf -
6 Urbanist > August2011
Shanghai is the pinnacle of Chinese economicdevelopment and a good reflection of where theentire country is headed if growth continues. Thecity is now middle-income and has a diversifiedservice economy - and, despite wage growth, itsper capita savings rate is decreasing as residentsspend more money on housing, consumer goodsand other services. The city produces 100,000college graduates per year and nearly 30 percent ofits residents have a college degree(double the rateof a decade ago)' . And though the region maintainsa strong, globally competitive manufacturing base(building products like the new eastern spanof the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge), theeconomy is shifting away from export-orientedmanufacturing and toward high-end services likefinance, technology and business services. Severalof the sites SPUR visited were adaptive reuses ofmanufacturing spaces, including a former autoparts factory that now houses the Shanghai officeof architecture firm SOM, among other businesses,and an art deco slaughterhouse currently occupiedby several arts organizations.
These economic changes are giving rise togreater income inequality, rising housing costs,longer commutes and increased car-ownershiprates. There are also more than 8 million migrantsfrom rural China who lack official papers to workin Shanghai yet still need jobs and housing.Maintaining an economy that produces jobs for themasses while simultaneously increasing per capitaincomes and moving local industries to higher-valueactivities (which are often less labor-intensive) is adelicate and risky balancing act.
But this process is made easier by the factthat Shanghai is not just a city but a region, witha mayor who presides over all of the variousdistricts within it. This makesregional coordinationmuch more effective, as it occurs within a singlegovernmental jurisdiction.
To better understand economic development inShanghai and draw lessons for the Bay Area, let'slook at recent changes in two distinct parts of the
Shanghai region: Jiading and Pudong. Jiading isa "new town" (a master-planned city built fromscratch in a previously undeveloped area) 20 milesfrom the center of Shanghai with a focus on theautomotive industry. It is one of nine new towns inthe Shanghai area, each planned for a populationof 800 ,000 to 1 million. Pudong, the easterndistrict of Shanghai, was designated a nationaleconomic zone in 1990 and is renowned for thefuturistic skyscrapers in its Lujiazui District, whichlies directly across the river from Shanghai's famousearly-20th-century promenade, the Bund,
To put these two districts in a Bay Area context,Jiadingwould be like building a totally new cityof 1 million people in the Livermore Valley, withits own district mayor accountable to a regionalmayor. Pudong's Lujiazui District would be as if theU.S. government decided to make the former navalstation at Alameda Point into the country's leadingfinancial center and created a free-trade zone therewith tens of millions of square feet of office spacewhile preserving downtown San Francisco as aquaint, historic employment and retail center.
JIADING: DE CENTRALI ZINGGROWTH TO "N EW TOWN S"
Once a relatively undeveloped area of farmsand small villages, Jiading has been transformedin the past decade with new office and residentialtowers, factories, schools, parks and roads. As adesignated "new town," Jiading reflects Shanghai'spolicy of decentralization, shifting new populationgrowth and existing industry away from the region'scity center (which will remain at 10 million people).Much new growth will be distributed to nine newtowns of up to 1 million people, as well as 60smaller cities of approximately 100,000 people.
With an economic focus as Shanghai's"Automotive City," Jiading is the largest automotivedistrict in China. Home to the ShanghaiAutomotive Industry Corporation, which partnerswith Volkswagen and General Motors, Jiadingmanufactures hundreds of thousands of cars each
year. Low taxes are key to this success. Profit taxes
are as low as 15 percent for firms that use new
technology, establish an R&D faci lity or are the
regional headquarters for a global company.
But in an attempt to avoid the fate of U.S.manufactur ing centers like Detroi t, Jiading's district
mayor, Sun Jiwei, says the new town is moving
away from a narrow manufactur ing emphasis to
embrace "upstream" activit ies (like research and
design) and "down stream" activities (like marketing
and testing) and capture the broad value chain
of the automotive industry. In addition to the
assembly plants, Jiading has att racted more than
100,000 related companies in industries such as
components manufacturing, logistics and after
sales services. Its big att ract ion in downstream
activities was the building of a Formula 1 race
track. Jiading's next strategy is to move upstream
to capture auto research and design firms as well
as those in related sectors like industrial design,
electronics, information technology and electric car
batteries.
Jiading's focus on cars reflects a national strategy
to decouple fut ure growt h from exports. Since the
global economy is slowing, China increasingly has
to rely on its internal markets for futur e growth.
While cars provide an engine for job growth, it
is real estate development - led and managed by
local government - that provides the funds to offe r
the lucrative tax breaks. The government, which
owns all property, sells developm ent rights and then
requires developers to sign long-term leases: 70
years for residential, 50 years for industrial and 40
years for commercial. These stable annual revenuesfill local government coffe rs and provide the funds
for a range of investments, f rom infrastructure togovernment-run companies to tax breaks for private
firms.As noted above, real estate development is often
the means to an end, which is to meet a target
for gross domestic product (GOP). Each level of
government contributes toward national, provincial
and local GOP goals. Local off icials (most of whom
are trained as engineers or economists) must
meet these targets or risk losing their jobs. This
provides strong motivation for an effective economic
development strategy.
PUDONG'S LUJIAZUI DISTRICT:RECLAIMING SHANGHAI'S STATUSAS A GLOBAL FINANCIAL CENTER
In the early 20th century, Shanghai was the
world's third-largest financial center afte r New York
and London. But afte r the Chinese Revolut ion,
financial services ceased to be a major industry in
Shanghai. Today, Pudong reflects the city's - and
country's - desire for Shanghai to reclaim a global
role in finance and wrest le the regional title away
from Hong Kong.
In 1990 , the national government declared much
of the land east of the Huangpu River the Shanghai
Pudong New Zone. Firms that locate there pay no
duties or income taxes, and (since 2001) foreign
compan ies can open financial institutions that use
the local currency, the renminbi. The area houses
the Shanghai stock exchange, wh ich comprises
With new townslike Jiading,the Chinesegovernmentis shift ingpopulationgrow th andexist ing industryaway fromShanghai'scity center.Like muchcontemporaryChineseurbanism, theplan for Jiadingemphasizeswide boulevards,mega blocksand towers setback from thestreet.
Urbanist > August 2011 7
Inspired byLa Defense inParis and othermonumentaldistricts, Pudongemerged out ofagricultur al landto become thenation's financ ialcenter and hometo millions.
1 Cushman andWakefield, Ql 2011.httpJ/rightsite.asia/sites/rightsite.asia/file s/shanghai_off_l ql1.pdt
B Urhanist > August 2011
87 percent of China's national stock market. As
a result , Shanghai receives about a quarter of the
entire country 's financial-services investment.
Pudong currently has more than 12 million square
feet of Class A off ice space - more than half of
all such space in Shanghai - and an additiona l 5
mill ion square feet is under construction."
The success of Pudong reflects Shanghai's shift
toward a service economy. In 199 0, 60 percent
of Shanghai's employment was in manufacturin g,
38 percent in services and th e rest in agriculture.
By 20 05 this had reversed: Services now make up
60 percent of the Shanghai region's economy and
as much as 75 percent of the economy in the city
center.
Pudong also reflects the national government's
belief in urbanization and infrastructure
development as the best ways to achieve GOP
grow th. Pudong has the region's international
airpor t , major port facilities and the world's only
com mercially operating Maglev train . (The train
is mostly a disappointment , however, in that it
was intended to link to the city center but in fact
terminates at a distant edge of Pudong, where
travelers sti ll have to t ransfer to taxis or the
metro.) Infrastructure in Shanghai has averaged
approximate ly 10 percent of GOP dur ing the past
decade.
CONC LUDING LESSON SIf Shanghai reflects China's success at economic
growth, what lessons can we app ly to the Bay
Area? Given obvious differences in our cultures and
governments, making comparisons is risky, but a
few lessons emerge:
1. Because the majority of the region is under the
jur isdiction of one governmental entity, Shanghai
municipali ty, there is consensus for where to locate
and how to support targeted industries such as
finance and automotive. This means overall regional
economic growth can happen much faster.
2. Local officials' career success is measured
by their ability to meet regiona l targets, such
as increasing the GOP. This provides a strong
motivation to develop and implement an economic
strategy that actually works.
The struggling Bay Area economy could benefit
from a regionally drafted economic strategy and
elected officials willing to support growth where
it best serves the region (even if that means
some places get greater focus than others). Our
government is not going to set GOP targets for all
elected off icials, but perhaps we could use more
local leaders w ith the political fort itude and regional
perspective to support what is best for the entire
Bay Area, not just for their own community.•
08.11 by Michae l A lexander TRANSPORTATION
Learning from a world-classtransit systemCan Shanghai's vast new network of high-tech subways andhigh -speed trains trump its growing love affair with the car?
Shanghai is China's urban showcase, andtransportation is one of its showpieces of scope,scale and speed. A decade ago, the city had onesubway line. Today it has a grid of 11, covering 260miles and averaging more than 5 million passengertrips a day. By 2020 all those numbers will double.Shanghai is also a hub for the world's largesthigh-speed rail network. After just three years ofconstruction, the 820 -mile Beijing- Shanghai bulletline opened in June - right on schedule.
A year after Shanghai's World Expo, the city'ssprucing for that impress-the-world event was stillevident. Still, public transit is planned for the longterm, and most is world class. It's the only wayto serve the transportation demands of a stillgrowing megacity of 23 million at an acceptableenergycost - and it's a strident contrast to theshortsighted decision-making that hobbles mostU.S. transportation policy.
RIDING TH E METROIf a trip on a brand-new subway in a foreign city,
to an unfamiliar destination, is navigation's acid test,Shanghai's rapid-transit system, the Metro, passes.Its spotless, functional stations, with their staffedservice counters, feel comfortable. All signs andinstructions are in English and Chinese. Platformmonitors displayarrival times of the next three trains- to the second. Navigating the vast undergroundstations is easy, even when transferring betweenlines. Above each platform a color-coded graphicindicates which station you're in (red), where thetrain is headed (black) and where it's been (gray).On the train, there are next-station displays, andnewer cars have LED route maps above the doors.
Ticketing, which always requires the mostpassenger decisions, is just as seamless. Just findyour destination station and its line on the ticketmachine's touchscreen map, and pay with cashor cred it card. Touch your plastic ticket to the gatereader, and go. Use your added-value ticket ontaxis, buses and ferries. Like BART, Metro charges
by distance: A single trip costs between 45 centsand $1.10, and Metro says it recovers 80 percentof operating costs from fares. (BART receives 65percent of its operating budget from fares, the bestrecovery rate in the Bay Area.)
Meanwhile, Shanghai has not neglected its bussystem. Up at street level a thousand bus linesawait, the biggest network in the world.
H IGH -SPEED RAILShanghai is a hub of China's rapidly expanding
high-speed rail (HSR) lines, which were boughtfrom manufacturers around the world. As part of thedeals, China required technology transfer, so now itcan build and operate its own systems - as well asothers in places like Brazil.
The new Beijing-Shanghai bullet line, whichcuts the nearly lO-hour travel time in half, expectsto carry some 220,000 passengers a day. Atpeak, trains leave every five minutes. It's thelatest addition to the world's largest HSR network,covering more than 5,000 miles today - anddouble that by 2020.
HSR is planned, financed and run by thegovernment, which accelerated construction duringthe 2008 recession. In a country where nearlya billion people don't have toilets, authoritiesjustify such premium-cost (though still subsidized)passenger travel as making China more competitivein the long term, creating jobs (110,000 for BeijingShanghai) in the short term and freeing older rail formore profitable freight. The government claims HSRreduces urban sprawl by linking urban centers thathave connecting subway lines, but if those subwaysgo to distant, expensive and lightly populatedsuburbs - as do some of Shanghai's - that benefitis muted.
From 2000 to 2006, national officials debatedwhether to use magnetic levitation technologyorsteel rail for the national passengersystem. Maglevlost. Shanghai's Maglev line takes seven minutesto run 19 miles from Pudong International Airport
Michael Alexanderisanurbanist andco-chair of SPUR'sAdvisoryCounci l.Heencourages SanFranciscotosharethesuccesses ofcities like ShanghaiandVancouver, B.C.
Urbanist > August2011 9
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~ O Hangzhong Road/Hongqiao Railway Station- Xinjiangwancheng
4D Jiangsu Road - Anti ng/North Jiadi ng
Since it brokeground in 1990,Shanghai's rapidtransit system ,the Metro, hasopened 11lines and morethan 260 milesof track, thelongest networkin the world.An additional11 lines will becompleted by2020.
to downtown, but weak connections at both endsmakea taxi trip just as fast door-to-door. It's morea legacy demonstration project, like the Disneylandmonorail.
There's another rail anomaly in one of Shanghai'snew towns, Lingang, at Shanghai's coastal tip.Designed by the German firm gmp, the town isoverscaled, autocentric and quite empty today. Butit has a critical function: It 's the logistics center forthe world's largest deep-water port, Yangshan, outin the mists of the East China Sea . Oddly, Lingangand Yangshan are linked across the shallows onlyby the 20-mile-long Donghai Bridge, not by rail,which meansthat millions of cargo containers mustbe carried by trucks.
TO TOO OR NOT TO TOODespite the government's clear focus on building
transit, there is no explicit goal to concentratedevelopment directly adjacent to stations. Butbecause densities are so high, the lack of transitoriented development may not matter much. There
is in fact lots of transit near new development.One place whereShanghai planners are actively
connecting transit with a plan for deve lopment isHongqiao International Airport, 10 miles west ofdowntown. Abutting the passenger terminal is a railstation with 30 tracks for high-speed trains; two(soon to be three) subway lines to downtown, oneof which continues to Pudong International Airport;four expressways; acresof taxis; and a plannedextension of the Maglev from Pudong. It's a greatintermodal center, but will the empty, hazy fieldssurrounding it really be filled with the planned 6million square meters (65 million square feet) oftransit-oriented development? One SPUR memberwith extensive experience in China observed that "6million square meters" is always the target numberfor such big projects.
AUTO FIX-ATIONChina juggles an industrial policy to grow its
automotive industry (as in the new town of Jiading,see"Shanghai's regional economy," page 6) with
10 Urbanist > August2011
contrast ing environmental and transportation/
urban growth policies. "Capitalism with Chinese
characteristics " may enable top-down planning of
public works, but it also supports the bottom-up
aspirations of the new middle class to own a home
and a car.An industrial policy that encourages an
automobile industry has significant benefits: the
industry is a major consumer of domestically
produced steel, rubber, plastics and electronics;
a foundation for aeronautics, space and defense
industries; a source of industrial innovation andgood jobs to feed Asia's largest auto market, which
grew 10 percent annually while Detroit tanked.
Status car: Audi A4. Superstatus car: Ferrari , which
sells more than half of its output in China.One evening we passed the same Ferrari
multiple times (always in first gear) as we strolled
through the French Concession, but Shanghai, w ith
an estimated 1.7 million cars, isn't as gridlocked
as notorious Beijing. One reason: If you want to
actua lly drive your new status symbol, you must
win one of the month ly auct ions for a license
plate. Just 8 ,000 plates are offered each month,and w inning bids top $6,000. No Shanghai plate?
Traffi c police and highway toll stations will stop
you from driving during rush hours. Beijing recently
copied the strategy.
Shanghai takes its highway strategy largely
from North America: There's an extensive freeway
network consisting of three ring roads and a grid
of expressways spaced roughly every seven miles.
Most are elevated, and limited to cars and trucks.
PEDESTRIANS AND BICYCLESWalking and cycling remain impor tant parts of
the transportation system. Streets are fill ed with
pedestrians. The biggest shopping street is closed
to cars; others have wide sidewalks shaded byplane and camphor trees (festively uplighted at
night) that make warm, humid, smoggy Shanghai
walkable and comfortable.For the 20 10 Expo, Shanghai transformed
the Huangpu River water front along the historic
Bund district , much as San Francisco did when
it removed the Embarcadero Freeway. Shanghai
tunn eled six of the intim idating 10 lanes of
riverfront road, narrowing the surface roadway and
expanding its pedestrian promenade into a major
open space and public amenity with postcard views
of the Pudong skyline across the river.
There are sti ll more than 10 mil lion registered
bicycles in the city. Many streets have bike lanes
separated from car traff ic, and at all hours they're
busier than San Francisco's Market Street at rush
hour. A few years ago, bicycling was considered
a symbol of poverty, and Shanghai wanted to ban
bikes on streets to make room for more cars. Now
the city is starting a bike-sharing program modeled
on the one in Hangzhou, the world's largest, and
Pudong off icials just announced plans to create
a separate pedestrian and bicycle street network
over the next five years. Despite Shanghai's flat
topography, about half the bikes have electric
motors. While gas engines are prohibited, theelectrics have their own down sides - most
electricity comes from burn ing coal, and shoddy
battery facto ries poison nearby residents andworke rs with lead.
Now if China could just translate some of itstransit success to greater environmental protection.•
GROUND TRANSIT:CHINA VS. THE UNITED STATES
On June 30, China opened an 820-mile highspeed rail (HSR) line from Shanghai to Beijing. Thetrip takes five hours. A trip of the same distancein the United States - New York to Atlanta takes 18 hours on Amtrak. While we struggle tobreak ground on the first HSR line in the UnitedStates, China is hard at work on a lO ,OOO-mileHSR system that will cover a nation the samegeographic size as ours in just nine years.
What are we missing out on? High-speed railslashes travel time between urban centers, reducespollution and oil dependency, and provides afoundation for future economic competitiveness.The benefits become stark when you compare atrip on China's HSR to current ground travel in theUnited States.
How does a one-day, 220-mile trip through three citieson China's HSR compare to the same length trip usingAmerican transportation options?
HSR I Amt rak I CarlCHINA USA USA
Travel Time 1.4 hours 5 hours 4 hours
Average Speed 157 mph 44 mph 50 mph
Top Legal Speed 213 mph 62 mph 80 mph
tTrip Cost per Mile 15¢ 36¢ 55 .5¢
per mile per mile per mile
Dataderivedfrom current ticket prices and IRSmileage reimbursementrate.
Compiled by Michael Painter.
Urbanist > Augusl2011 11
10 8 .11 I AT A GLANCE
Shanghai Municipality and theBay AreaThe Shanghai Municipality includes 17 districts as well as thecity center. At 23 million people and 2,450 square miles, itis more comparable to the Bay Area than to San Francisco.
HOUSING BUILT PER YEAR
400,000
350000
en!::z 300000:::Jt.:lZ 250000Vi:::J0:I: 200000l.L.00:::LiJ 150000lD~:::JZ 100000
50000 -0
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
HOW PEOPLE GET AROUND
Bike 15%
SHANGHAI
Bike 1%I
BAYAREA
12 Urbanist > August 2011
GEOGRAPHY AND POPULATION
SHANGHAI MUNICIPALITYShanghai city center population: 10 millionShanghai Municipality population : 23 million
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREASan Francisco population: 805,000Bay Area population : 7.35 million
GDP PER CAPITA EDUCATION ATTAINMENT
$80,000 100%
Bay Area 90
60,00080
70
US 60
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 CollegeHigh schoolLess thanhigh school
o
10China
/Shanghai
20,000
40,000
. 1
Sources: HOUSING BUILTPER YEAR Shanghai: Shanghai Statistical yearbook 2010. Bay Area: Associated Bay Area Governments, Housing Needs Plan, June 2008.HOW PEOPLEGET AROUND Shanghai: Rail Transit Impacts on Trip Making and Land Developent in Shanghai, China, Haixiao Pan and Ming Zhang, 2010. Bay Area:Metropolitan Transportation Commission, modeling analysis for Sustainable Communities Strategy, 2010. MAPS Courtesy SOM. GDP PER CAPITAShanghai: ShanghaiStatistical Yearbook, 2010. Bay Area: BEAGross Regional Product. EDUCATION: Shanghai: Shanghai 2010 Census. Bay Area: US Census Bureau, 2008, AmericanCommunity Survey.
Urbanist > Au gust 2011 13
____________I_ S_T_R_E_E_T_L_I_F_E ______1 by Go rdon Price10 8 .11
Placemaking in the New andOld CityIs Shanghai the city of the 21st century, like New York in the20th century, Paris in the 19th and Florence in the 15th?
Gordon Price,previous lyasixterm city councillorinVancouver, isdirectorofthe CityProgram atSimonFraser Univers ityandauthor ofthe blogPrice Tags (WIVIV.
pricetags.IVard press.com).
The Shanghainese have built an economic dynamo - and
are proud of it. Last year's World Expo rivaled the BeijingOlympi cs in creating a transformative new infrastructure.
As a region of 23 million spread over 2,45 0 square miles,
Shanghai can be vast and intimidating. But it is not a strangeplace, at least not for visitors from cit ies with 19th -century
roots. Its historic center is still a well-scaled walking city with
great transit, and it is safe, surprisingly green and serviceablybilingual.
Like Paris, Shanghai divides into left and right banks
historic Puxi and newly developed Pudong - separated by
the Huangpu River. Don't confuse the whole of Pudong with
its Lujiazui district , a financial center of overwrought towers
and overscaled avenues. Hard to pronounce, harder to wa lk.
The best place to view Lujiazui is from the other side of
the river, along the newly rebuilt embankment of the Bund,
a stunning set piece of colonial classicism and one of the
world's great urban promenades. This is where the British,French and Americans extracted land concessions in the
mid-1 9th century, the best known of which is the French
Concession.
Behind the Bund extends a rough grid of colonial arterials,now crisscrossed w ith elevated freeways. Surprisingly, the
new highways fit in pretty well, w ith their flower boxes,
spectacular lighting and accompanying greenways. All
arterial roads are lined with shops, malls and commercial
buildings; some, like Nanjing and Huaihai roads, are amongthe most famous retail streets in Asia.
The superblocks between the arterials were historically
filled with /i/ongs, a traditional housing sty le that is actually
a blend of two cultures: British terrace row housing andChinese courtyards.
=____ _ _ _ _ "'"- ... <i'
The Bund Lujiazui financial district
14 Urbanist > August 2011
A Iilong between towers and highways
Tianzifang
It's easyfor Westerners to romanticize the Iilong withoutunderstanding what it's like to live in one. Associated withovercrowding and poverty, the Iilongs have been the target ofdemolition, replaced by "towers in the park," high-rise slabs all facingsouth, that may be brutal to our eyes but are a step up for many oftheir residents.
As the low-rise Iilongs become an increasing rarity amongthe concrete canyons, we may see more careful restoration andadaptation of them along with the preservation of other examplesofShanghai's deco heritage from the 20th century.
Shanghai already has two good examples to point to, most notablyXintiandi, which, with its rebuilt shikumen stone-gate houses, is nowa trendy entertainment center for the affluent and international. Sinceits restoration, the less-altered lilong settlement of Tianzifang hasbecome a popular and well-visited arts district where residents rentout the first floors of their homes to boutiques and bistros.
Xintiandi - for which SPUR memberJohn Kriken was themaster planner - has been so successful with its mix of heritage
People's Square
buildings, corporate towers, high-end condos, all in a car-constrainedenvironment, that slavish duplicates have been ordered up for othermetro areas around China.
Thanks to these examples of economically successful heritagepreservation, Shanghai planners are able to use a combination ofbureaucratic insistence and economic appeal to save the past andcreate sophisticated public spaces - as also demonstrated on YongFoo Road, where the old British Consulate is now a private club andthe centerpieceof a new pedestrian-priority district.
The building known as "1933," a surreal abattoir transformedinto an arts center; Bridge 8, a creative cluster in new and oldindustrial spaces; and the Knowledge and Innovation Community inWujiaochang are just three examples among dozens that suggest amore creative vision of Shanghai's future.
Meanwhile, extensive demolition has allowed the city to green upcentral Shanghai with an astonishing number of parks and publicplaces, including People's Square, once the colonial racetrack andnow the major cultural and civic precinct.
Urbanist > August 2011 15
Shanghai's main defect
remains its air quality. Most
days are gray, the air fi lled with
dust from inland deserts and
unaddressed pollutants. Have
Shanghai dwellers ever seen a
star-filled sky?
If not, perhaps they are
compensat ing with manmade
nightti me lighting. Luminationcovers ent ire high-rise facades
on the Pudong side of the river,
while the gold-saturated displays
of the Bund and Nanj ing Road
attract thousands on the historic
side.Where the elevated freeways
cross, the ramps are lined wi th
blue LEDs; along Huaihai Road,the crowns of mature trees are
ornamented with glowing red
lanterns.
Shanghai air quality
Pudong at night
16 Urbanist > August 2011
Huaihai Road
Shanghai sidewalks accommodate many uses
Tree-lined street in the French Concession
Plaza outside the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum in Lujiazui
Away from the primary promenades, Shangha i's sidewalks have to
accommoda te every imaginable use - and every imaginable small
vehicle; seemingly they cannot cope.
One would expect to be frazzled by overstimulation and theclaustrophobia of crowds. And yet, most of the tim e, one is not.
Perhaps it's because of the trees. Has the impact of street trees
ever been more significant? The French Concession overflows with
London plane trees.Cleverly, the Chinese use their expressway rights-of-way as tree
farms, growing the seedlings to a size where they can be transplanted
throughout the region.Which leads to the question that jumps out when the tourist leaves
the center of historic Shanghai for the new town s and development
areas: Why have the Chinese planners, and their international
consultants, learned so littl e from the success of these Shanghai
traditi ons?The question arises again and again, on the vast boulevards
of Lujiazui surrounded by desolate plazas; in the new towns, on
avenues without bike lanes; in a neoclassical college campus without
apparent student life; or at the wor ld's largest skateboard park, whe re
the only occupa nts are those watering the shrubbery.
Some att ribute th is lack of energy and urban life to Shanghai's
planning ahead to accommodate expected mill ions of residents. But
too often the scale feels wrong.
It's not without precedent. The Parisians built La Defense, the
Viennese designed Donau City - moderni st megaprojects that even
their creators don't like. It's hard to understand why the Chinese,
scavenging the world for the best examples of urban design, would
choose these sterile models for some of their new town s. Shanghai
mounted a world's fair that washed itself in green, constructed 10
major transit lines simultaneously and filled its streets with greenery
and its bike lanes with the latest electric technologies. Yet the
Shanghainese are saturating their urban environment w ith thousands
of new cars, t rucks and buses, celebrat ing this achievement in car
ads as they elevate the expectations of the rising middle class. And
so now they find themselves in gridlock.
Why? Maybe because they believe they can solve the congest ion,
energy and environmental problems after they catch up w ith us?
Or simply because they believe this is the way to build the city of
the 21st century.•
Shanghai traffic
Urbanist > August20 11 17
10 8 .11 I INSIDE SPUR
New Faces at SPUR
..
Publications and communications managerKaren Steen oversees SPUR's print and onlinecommunications, including our policy reports,website, blog, member emails, social media and, ofcourse, the Urbanist.A journalist specializing in architecture andurban planning, Karen has written for Metropolis,ReadyMade, 1.0 ., Time Out New York and theNew York Times. Her book Crystal Cove Cottages(Chronicle Books), a profile of a historic communityin Southern Ca lifornia, was a Los Angeles Timesbestseller. Karen comes to SPUR from CBSInteractive, where she helped launch the businessnews site BNET.com. Previously, she was aneditor at Metropolis and at the Pulitzer-winningnewspaper Willamette Week. A daily transit rider,she spends her commute writing fiction. Sherecently completed a novel on themes of land useand the environment thanks to her many hourslogged on BART and AC Transit.
1B Urbanist > August 2011
Eli Zigas, food systems and urban agricultureprogram manager, inaugurates a new policy areaat SPUR. He will manage our work on urbanagriculture, regional foodshed planning and creatinga vibrant, accessible food system in San Franciscoand the Bay Area.
Eli hasspent several years managing non-profitprograms. He most recently co-founded CultivateSF, an organization that explored the feasibility ofcommercial urban farming in San Francisco. Beforethat, he was program manager for DC Vote, aneducation and advocacynon-profit organizationin Washington, D.C. In that capacity, he managedfoundation and direct-mail fundraising and assistedwith outreach programs. Prior to working for DCVote, Eli was the communications manager for theUdall Legacy Bus Tour, a cross-country biodieselbus tour promoting public service on environmentaland Native American issues.
A native of Washington, D.C., El i made his wayto San Francisco via Iowa, where he earned hisB.A. in policy studies from Grinnell College. Hecurrently serves as a co-coordinator of the SanFrancisco Urban Agriculture Alliance.
A recent transplant fromSouthern California,Noah Christman hasdesigned and managedplanning and communitydevelopment projectsincluding small-scale infillhousing in California, asustainability-focused
school in rural Tanzania , and monumental newtown developments in China. As part of FUZE ICommunity Design, he has designed branding forUrban Land Institute programs in OrangeCountyand the Inland Empire, including ULI's statewide2010 High-Speed Rail TOD Marketplace. His cat,Tussin, is awesome.
Priorto joining SPUR,Elizabeth Hoehnke workedat the Commission forArchitecture and the BuiltEnvironment in England,where she led affordablehousing and street designprograms. Trained in
." Australia as a landscapearchitect, she completed an M.A. in urban designat the University of Westminster, London. Neverwithout her sketchbook, Liz is a Bikram enthusiastand coffee connoisseur.
Casey Jung is anundergraduate student atBarnard College in NewYork City, where she ismajoring in urban studiesand architecture. As a nativeSan Franciscan, she is eagerto learn from an organizationthat is committed to
improving and preparing the city that she callshome. She hopes to expand on her experiencestudying climatechange in cities and is lookingforward to an exciting summer with SPUR.
Hilary Pedigo likes to thinkof herself as San Francisco'sGirl Friday. She can't helpbut volunteer for those whomake our city and worldwork better, includingSPUR, Architecture 21,Maestro Films, formerSupervisor Gerardo
Sandova l, her local food pantry, and her neighborsin the Inner Sunset. GoGiants!
Cole Armstrong, a SanFrancisco native, hasbeen an urban planningenthusiast since attendinghis first SPUR eventat age 19. He holds aB.A. in political scienceand economics fromSwarthmore College and
the team championship title of SPUR City TriviaNight. His beard (not pictured) hasappeared in adocumentary about the Giants' World Series run.
Justin Baker Rhett is asenior at Amherst College,where he majors in arthistory and history. ASan Francisco native,Justin has spent the pastfour summers workingfor Summerbridge SanFrancisco, teaching
history to eighth graders. He is very interested inurban planning and plans to write a thesis on theexpansion of interstate highways and freeways inthe post-World War II era.
Amanda Bensel comes toSPUR with an architecturedegree from UC Berkeleyand experience workingwith the City of BerkeleyPlanning Department andArchitecture for Humanity.She will continue herstudies in international
environmental policy at the Monterey Institute ofInternational Studies. When not working, Amandacan be found cycling, hiking or dancing frequently in costume.
Jillian Burns joins SPURfor the summer beforecompleting her final yearas an environmentalmanagement and protectionmajor at Cal Poly San LuisObispo. Jillian's interestsinclude environmental
J policy, sustainabledevelopment, biology and Spanish. Her favorite dayof the year is Bay to Breakers.
Urbanist > August 20ll 19
URBANFIELD NOTES
Eight eras of the old town:Shanghai's forgotten zones
Anaddit ivearchiveof cultura l landscapes and observationscompiled by SPUR members and friends. Sendyour ideasto Urban Field Notes editor Ruth Keffer at [email protected].
Caseworkers: Katya Knyazeva and AdamSinykin
CASESTUDY #40
Shanghai'sold town - the Chinese City- is today considered a slum. The compactlow-rise neighborhood in downtown occupies1/3,000th of metropolitan Shanghai. Mostlanes are too narrow for cars, and half thehousing stock is makeshift. It's an embarrassment to locals and a little baffling to visitors.
For seven hundred years this was all ofShanghai. It was hardly a slum. The city wasa magnet for sea merchants, agribusinessand gentry from throughout eastern China. Asurrounding wall guaranteed Shanghai 's security and prosperity. In 1843 , Chinese portswere forcibly opened to foreign trade. The oldtown's autonomy set it apart from the risingcolonial city just outside the wall - and thissegregation led to its economic decline asmodern Shanghai flourished.
But cohesion and isolation preserved theold town. Artifacts and architectural stylesfrom the Ming to the present are stillembedded in the fabric of the alleys. The oldtown is authentically mixed-use andpolymorphous: generat ions of residents,art isans, t iny businesses and antiquities areenfolded within the membrane of its lanes.
The old town's rustic character is uniquefor being so central. But its location ishazardous. Government developers haveafinancial stake in evict ing the poor andreintegrating the old town into the traff ic flowof the surrounding city. Success for theplanners will be the death of the old town.
But for the present, one can still meanderacrossthe old Shanghai and experiencedistinct overlapping eras. Our att raction tothis archaic and quirky neighborhood turnedinto an ongoing (or interminable) photographic project.
KatyaKnyazeva isajournalist andphotographer born inSiberia. Adam Sinykin, from New York, haswrittenscenariosforfilm, televisionanddocumentary features.Together they haveproducedillustrated booksintheU.S.andEastAsia. BasedinChinasince2006,theyarenowcompleting abook about Shanghai'soldtown: aphotographicatlas, comprehensivestreet guide andoralhistory ofthecity'soldest and most obscurequarter.
20 Urbanist> August 2011
City labyrinth . Interactionbetween street, trade andsocial network stretches backcenturies. There's a world ofactivity here: produce stalls,snack carts, improvisedmarkets and family stores.Recyclers pedal their carts tothe sound of a cracked bell;neighbors play cards or barterfighting crickets; families chatacross the balconies, washvegetables in the communalsinks or simply lounge in thealleys.
Creeks and lanes.Fuxing Road is a 10lane highway dividing
the old town. It used tobe a waterway runningacross the city westto east. A tapestry ofcreeks defined theoriginal contours ofShanghai, providingportagefor river tradersand irrigation for farms.As the populationgrew, creeks werefilled and becamelanes. Map courtesyvirtualshanghai.com.
Merchant city of the Qing.Merchants from Canton, Fujianand Ningbo immigrated toShanghai for the exploding rivertrade in the 1800s. They builtcommunity centers (huiguans) thatserved as banquet halls, temples,
brothels, theaters, hotels andgraveyards. Zhening Guild Hall,
1850 , was converted to a factoryin the 1960s.L- ---.J «
Capitalistendgame.Contemporary
plans for the old
town involve
eradicating old
housing, carving
new traffic
channels and
constructing
an antiquity
flavored theme
park along the
riverside. Current
residents wi ll be
relocated
to tenements in
the suburbs.
Lane houses.Shanghai's
vernacular
residences are
lilongs: two-story
units aligned in
rows branching
out from a main
lane. Originally
built as cheap
tract homes,
lilongs became
Shanghai's most
quintessential
and prized
architecture. They
were intended
for one family,
but today dozens
of people live in
each lane house.
Liberation sheds. Communist Shanghai put the knife in new architecture,
but there was a blizzard of quick modifications. Private houses were opened
to the masses. Large buildings were subdivided and haphazardly expanded.
Here, extra floors are slapped on a wooden tenement.
The Gardens of the Ming. In
the 16th century, Shanghai eclipsed
Suzhou as a trading and cultu ral
center. Landed gentry competed
to build showpiece mansions. The
Secret Library ("Shu Yin Lou") was
part of a famous garden owned
by an imperial scholar. It's the
oldest residence in Shanghai,
sti ll occupied, and it's a ruin. The
government w ill not restore or
maintain the property while it 's in
private hands.
Cultural Revolution (19661976). Red Guards scrubbed off
old signs, vandalized homes, burned
wooden temples, razed old gardens
and built pig-iron workshops in their
place. Slogans and red icons were
scrawled on every wall.
Urbanist > August2011 21
URBAN DRIFTcit y newsfrom aroundthe globe
EUROPEAN CITIES PUTPEDESTRIANS FIRSTAcross Europe, planners aretaking an opposite approach totraffic planning from car-orientedAmerican methods. Whilewe synchronize traffic lightsto increase the flow of traffic,European cities like Zurich havestarted spacing lights closelyin an effort to slow cars downand improve the pedestrianenvironment. London andStockholm have implementedcongestion charges on vehiclesentering the central city duringbusiness hours, and other citieshave closed many of their streetsto cars. With the cost of driving inEurope two to three times what itis in the United States, it makessensefor European cities to makelife easier for pedestrians, cyclistsand transit users. And with halfthe world's transport emissionscoming from private cars,European countries are compelledto act by the Kyoto Treaty, whichthe U.S. did not sign."Across Europe, irkingdrivers isurbanpolicy,"Elisabeth Rosenthal,TheNew York Times, 6/26/2011
ACITY OF PROTEST ERUPTSIN YEMENIn the five months since antigovernment protests began inSana'a, the capital of Yemen,protesters have descended on theUniversity District and createda city-within-a-city of 3,000to 4,000 tents. It has streetnames, Internet connections,pharmacies, multiple newspapersand memorials to those whohave died. The tent city aroseas much of the other activity inthe surrounding city ground toa halt. Many businesses and
22 Urbanist > August 20 11
schools have been closed, andpublic activity has shifted tothe tents. Citizens teach classesand give speeches, and womenspeak freely in public in frontof crowds for the first time intheir lives. Supporters of thegovernment have their own tentcity, a smaller compound nearthe Ministry of Culturewherethey dispense free food. It seemsas if the momentum is on theanti-government side, however,as many business people havehelped fund the unofficial tentcity, and former governmentofficials have started to defect tothe side of the protesters. Whilethe country has not yet beenreformed, many of the peoplehave already had a tasteoffreedom in the city of protest."Thetent dwellersof Sana'a," AlexanderSmoltczyk,Spiegel Online, 6/30/2011
CHINA COPIES AUSTRIANTOWNHallstatt is, by any measure, abeautiful town. Built at the edgeof a lake in a popular tourist areaof Austria, it has been chosen asa UNESCO World Heritage Site.A state-owned Chinese companyadmires Hallstatt so much that ithaschosen the town as a modelfor a new village in the southernChinese province of Guangdong.China Minmetals Corp. mostlikely wanted to keep the plannedforgery a secret; the companyhas spent years quietly visitingand drawing the city. But recentlyone of the secret sketchersrevealed drawings for a numberof the town's buildings. The U.N,cultural agency is studying thelegal ramifications."ChinasfauxHallstatt?Theoutrage!" DavidBrussat.TheProvidenceJournal, 6/23/2011
JAPAN'S MAGNETICAMBITIONSThe Japan Central Railway hasreceived permission to moveforward with a $112 billionplan to build a high-speedmagnetically levitated trainbetween Osaka and Tokyo.Powered by electricity, the trainwill take 16 years to build andwill turn the 225 mile trip - thesame distance New York is fromD.C.- into a 45-minute jaunt.This line is particularly expensivebecause, in addition to the highcost of installing new rails thatwill allow the train to hover abovethem, its designers opted to makethe line as straight as possibleby tunneling under mountains.The only mag-lev line everconsidered in the United Stateswould connect Las Vegas andLos Angeles, but has not receivedsignificant funding."JapanW,II BuildBlazinglyFastTokyotoOsakaMaglevTrain,"Sarah laskow,GOOD, 6/21/2011
REGENERATION'S DARK SIDE:LONDON AND THE OLYMPICSBritish author lain Sinclair's newbook, Ghost Milk, is an assault onLondon's construction programfor the 2012 Olympics, and abroader assault on the cultureof urban revitalization. Sinclairasserts that the supposed goalsof the games' planners are fornought, because much of whatthey seek to create already existedon the site. The worst part of thedevelopment is that many existingcommunities have been tornapart by the construction; Sinclairsees the legacy consisting mainlyof a massive shopping mall filledwith chain stores."lainSinclaironexposing thedarksideof east London'sredevelopment," ClaireAllfree,Mefro, 6/7/2011
SPUR Board of Directors Chairs and committees Welcome to our new members!
Co-Chairs Board Memb ers John Madden PROGRAM COMMITTEES Board INDIVIDUALS Tamara Diamond Russell Kalmacoff Charry Nelson CathleenTandy
DevelopmentBodhiA. Harnish Julianne Donohoe Nira) Kapadia Steph A. Nelson Rial Taplin
Linda Jo Fitz Carl Anthony Gordon Mar Carlos Abreu John Doremus Angel~a Karrer AlicraV Neumann TishaATasa ":i
Ballot Analysis LeeBlitch Justin Ackerman Deborah A Dory SnrutiKasarekar Stephen Newhouse Marc Teue.ra
Lee Blitch Alexa Arena Jacinta McCann Bob Gamble DanAI/leek Douglas Drummond Jennifer «een Kathenne Anne Nguyen tzereoun teonent
Tomiquia Moss Building P. Steven Aiello Conna S. Durnilrescu Kate Keating Lily Nguyen l aura Tepper
Fred Blackwell Chris Meany Peter Aimne AngelaEaton MichaetK eating Janice Nrcol r.~ a r y Henken
Co-Vice Chairs Chris Block Ezra MerseyManagement Deventoert JrrnEhas Anthony King Ron Niem il rO'll ski Jeffrey Till
Disaster Planning Larry Burnett Sara Amaral Greg M Endom Steven King Adam Noemng Wylie Timmerman
Emilio Cruz Larry Burnett Terry Micheau Jacinta McCann David Anderson Cameryn Erickson Nancy Kuschner David Nolley ~I.ark t ooetcner
Business Mason Austin Susan Exline Rodriguez Mattia Nuzzo Joaquin Nave Torres
David Friedman MichaelaCassidy Mary Murphy Dick MortenMembership
Renee Azerbegi George Felger KnnantheKitr nka Luis FehpeObandn ~l.atthewTovar
Chris Poland Alonso A Barahona Robert Feldman AnsaKtevens Daniel G. OConn or Holly Trytten
Mary McCue Madeline Chun Jeanne Myerson Tom Hart Christopher Barkley NicoleFb'e tta Vicky Knoop LizOgbu Jonathan Tsang
Michael Cohen Brad Paul Housing Terry MicheauNorm Barnes Thomas Fortier YekangKO vrcao'os Andy Turner
Bill Rosetti Lindsey Barnhart Jenn Fox 1000nna korneeva EroPaoma MoilyS Turner
V. Fei Tsen Charmaine Curtis Chris Poland Ezra Mersey Robert aattano Mark Fnend jacob kraemer Gretchen Parker Taylor KrrbyUng
Lydia TanFacility Rental Brandon Bauoach John & Cheryl Arnold Chris Krahn Daniel Parotek Bernardo Urqureta AlA
Gia Daniller-Katz Teresa Rea Bill Stotler Markley Bavinger Frykman Gina M Kuhlenkamp Joshen Paybarah Jessica Viramontes
Peter Bejger KayaFujrwara Brendan Lange Kurt Pelzer Dentrre vrsser
Secret ar y OscarDe La Torre Byron Rhett Project ReviewExecutive
Todd Bennett vmny Fung Angela Leu Lori Perlman enno vueie.J.
Kelly Dearman Wade Rose Charmaine Curtis Lisa Beyer Rene I. Gamboa, Richard Lee Anne Peskoo Jul ie Vogel
Tomiquia Moss LeeBlitch Neelu Bhuman LEEDAP Debra Lehtone Sylvia Pella Dmylro Voytenko
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SheneyBraofcrdaeu Christian James Geopel steve teueuv Emfty Prrnentet Susannan vokosa
Reuben Schwartz J. Richard Braogh ceaevmnson Christen Leung Natalie Popovich Charity Wagner
Tre asurer Oz Erickson Elizabeth (Libby) RobertBregott oe-ocn Kendra Levme Ryan Potvin Hilary Wall
SustainableFinance Mcnlewaro Brcvn Owen Goldstrom Jake t evuas Michelle Railsback Tonia Wall
BobGamble Manny Flores Seifel Bob Gamble Andrew Bryant lan C Grilli lhs life frames, Inc Leena Randbawa Tracy N Wang
Norman Fong Chi-Hsin Shao Development Paula Bungen MohilGupta PontusLmdberg Arlene Reiff Carol Watson
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Im m ed iat e Gillian Gillett Ontario Smith Catriona Burns Erin Hatkeoscner QiaoLiu Ellen Richard Joshua Wiese
Bry Sarte Lydia Tan CindyBustamante RobertW .Hanley SpringVenluresLLC John Riley DavidWrns low
Past Co -Cha ir Chris Gruwell Bill Stotler Kaittm Carrnody Dana Hamson Donald Luu Kevm Roberts Andrew Wolfram
Transportation Individual Simon Casey Thomas Hart Briggs MacDonald Clare Robmscn WoodS Bagot Architects
Andy Barnes Anne Halsted Stuart SunshineMembership Jane ceo Emunah Hauser Matt Macko LursRodriguez Jing Xiao
MichaelTeitzEmilio Cruz Kyungno Cha W DeanHenry Doug MacLean mark rogers
Dave HartleyAnthony Bruzzone Bill Stotler Mei fl.eiChan Jesse Herzog ruounMarernut Apol lo Rojas BUSINESSES
Advisory Mary Huss JamesTracy Dylan Charles Tim Hickey Dane t Marroqum Les Rcbenstem Avila and Associates
TASK FORCES Investment Amy Chastain Cla:reH IIi Richard Marshall Dana Sack Consuttrng
Council Chris Iglesias Will Travis Shirley Chen Shane Hi!1 Kathenne Martmez Lynda Lawrence Salinger Engineers.fnc.Ann Lazarus BeverlyCh oi Gretchen Hilyard Daniel Matl hres Jettrey J Seastrom C~G Landscape
Co -Cha irs Laurie Johnson SteveVettel Climate Adaptation Pat Chnstensen Zachary Hrrscnte'd Adam Stuart Mayberry Bonnie Ora Sherk Architects
Ken Kirkey Debra Walker Will Travis Major Donors Kevin Clark Jenny Hoang Gree Mayer Daniel Sherman IDEO
Michael Alexander Linda Jo Fitz JoeuezaC oicsr Mark Hotme'mer Nancy McClure Le.ghSnimamcto San ~I.aleo County
Paul Sedway Florence Kong Cynthia Wilusz- Regional PlanningJett Conurt Walter Horstog Dan:el McHugh AmuShirarn Health System
Anne Halsted Sean Connor Mark HOl ton JennfMcNulty Robert Cartier Snuren s onng ventures u. C
Dick Lonergan Lovell Larry Burnett Chrtstme Conway Obne J Hostetter John t.~eans DavidSiegel
Cindy Wu Libby Seifel Planned Giving Anne Cook xamerme Ho.....e Van I,~ei Jonathan Sitverman
Ellen Lou use c order» Melissa T Hung Brian Me:nrath RobertSnc erar
Janis MackenzieMichaela Cassidy MeganC orn:ng Sayexalnoue Deb ~.~ eisel Josh Smith
OPERATINGCOM MITTEESMrchaelCosta Mlchaellsaa:s Jonathan I.~ endoza Juhana CnoySornmer
Silver SPUR John V Covington Josh Jackson Alex C. Meyer Janna Stacey
Audit Dave Hartley Lindsay D'Andrea BruceJe tt DanielMoberly Emily Stapleton
Nathan Dahl RebecceJeweu Gretchen Mokry Stephanie SternPeter Mezey
Teresa Rea Taylor Darton Doug Johnson Aoife Moffis GaryStevens
Alessandra Davidson Susan Jordan amirmortazavi Richard A, Sucre
Judith Lynn Rulh S Kadish ~I.ark Murphy ta ra suthvan-lena ne
dekeus-Orsjrn Keney Kahn EdwIf1C. Nagel RemiTan
Urbanist> August 2011 23
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