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g[/IMG][IMG ]http://image.club.sohu.com/pic/ef/db/b53a42d3c1cb028e21c125d78c5ddbef.jpg[/IMG] 06227e70f951f9136a8d6e.jpg[/IMG] 
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Saturday, April 28, 2007
SOME SHANGHAI PIC
[IMG ]http://image.club.sohu.com/pic/6e/8d/af543da94b g[/IMG][IMG ]http://image.club.sohu.com/pic/ef/db/b53a42d3c1cb028e21c125d78c5ddbef.jpg[/IMG] 06227e70f951f9136a8d6e.jpg[/IMG] >
Communist URBAN PLANNING!
main features:put everything in order,identical commie blocks and GRIDED
a Northern Chinese city from the air!
suburb
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a Northern Chinese city from the air!
suburb
Anyone ever think Taipei is most underrated city in Asia?
To me, Taipei is just as good as Singapore, HK and Shanghai in many senses(maybe not skyline). But I haven't seen many people mention it in SSC? Please share your opinion 
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Cities with two names?
Which cities have two or more official names in different languages? I m not talking about translations into other languages (f.ex. London is "Londres" in Spanish) but about official names, for example Dublin is also Baile Athá Cliath, Brussels is Brussel in Flamish, Bruxelles in French and Brüssel in German, the three of them official languages in Belgium. In Spain there are several, one of them is Bilbao, which is called Bilbo in Basque. Do you know any other case?>
Mauritius Plans to Become World's 1st Cyber-Island
Tiny nation aims to be 1st 'cyber-island'
By Laurie Goering
Chicago Tribune
Sun Jun 19, 9:40 AM ET
This tropical island off the east coast of Africa is best-known for its white-sand beaches, its designer clothing outlets and its spicy curries.
But tiny Mauritius is about to stake a new claim to fame. By year's end, or soon afterward, it is expected to become the world's first nation with coast-to-coast wireless Internet coverage, the first country to become one big "hot spot."
"If there's anyone who can do it, it's us," said Rizwan Rahim, the head of ADB Networks, the company installing the wireless radio network across the 40-mile-long island. "It's a small place, so for a wireless network it's manageable. For us, it's a test. If it's successful here, we can island-hop to [mainland] Africa."
Like many African nations, this modest country has struggled economically as the industries that underlie its economy--particularly sugar production and textile manufacturing--have run into tough global competition and declining prices. Looking for alternatives, the government has settled on a new and ambitious vision: Turning sleepy Mauritius with its endless sugar cane fields and tourist beaches into a high-tech computer and telecommunications center.
"It is our vision to transform Mauritius into a cyber-island," said Deelchand Jeeha, the country's minister of information technology and telecommunications, in a speech last year. The nation, he said, "is confident in the potential of [the industry] as an engine of growth which can generate jobs and wealth creation."
Remote Mauritius is in many respects well-placed to win the high-tech investment it wants. An undersea broadband fiber-optic cable, completed three years ago, gives the island fast and reliable phone and Internet links with the rest of Africa and with Europe, India and Malaysia. Many of the country's 1.2 million people--a mix of French, Indian, Chinese and African descendants--are bilingual or trilingual, speaking French, English and either Chinese or Hindi. The country is democratic, peaceful and stable.
In Ebene, just south of Port Louis, the capital, the government has built the first of three planned high-tech parks. It also has stepped up training programs to turn out tech-savvy workers and has rewritten its business rules in an effort to create an attractive investment climate. The changes are aimed at luring call centers, remote data backup facilities for companies worried about terrorist attacks and, eventually, software development companies.
'It's the future'
The government's efforts have brought in investment by players like Microsoft, Oracle, Accenture and India's Infosys Technologies and created about 2,000 jobs in the past two years.
"It's the future," said Satyam Gutty, a taxi driver in Port Louis whose daughter just graduated with a university degree in information technology. "It's a big chance for Mauritius."
That's evident at evening computer courses set up around the country by the private National Productivity and Competitiveness Council. Even in rural areas, housewives, businessmen, schoolchildren and agricultural laborers are getting their first chance to use computers, part of the government's aim of making its entire society computer-literate.
"It's something extraordinary to see people with rough hands from manual labor holding the mouse," said Oomme Narod, a senior analyst with the council. So far, 37,000 people have been trained in computer basics, she said.
That doesn't mean, however, that Mauritius is suddenly flush with skilled high-tech workers. Many of those emerging from information technology training courses are prepared to work as call center operators--but not software engineers.
Despite the government's effort to provide an inviting investment climate, regulation also remains a problem. Rahim, who applied for a license for his wireless Nomad Internet network last December, got approval only three weeks ago, three months later than expected.
The main problem, he and others say, is that the government holds a substantial share in Mauritius Telecom, the island's only fixed-line telephone operator, as well as one of its Internet providers and the company that controls the submarine fiber-optic cable that provides all of the country's phone and Internet bandwidth.
Because the government makes so much money from the company and its cable, it has been reluctant to open the market to competitors that might reduce Telecom's profits, even though the country's National Telecommunications Policy, passed in 2004, calls for "positive discrimination" by regulators in favor of start-up companies facing off against established firms like Telecom.
Threat from competitors
The government "wants to create a cyber-island but they haven't changed their regulation and infrastructure enough to create the climate," Rahim said. If Mauritius doesn't act quickly, he warned, it may well see its cyber-island idea stolen by competitor countries.
"There are policy decisions that still need to be taken," agreed Narod, of the competitiveness council. Right now, "there is improvement, but at a slow pace."
Still, Mauritius' courts have shown signs of holding the government to its competitiveness policies, which may ease the way for future investors.
"If any investor had called me three months ago and asked about investing, I would have told them to go somewhere else," Rahim said. Now, he said, "you have to come in with open eyes and an African mentality of patience, but if you persevere you can get results."
From his office window in Mauritius' new Cybertower--a sleek blue glass and gray stone tower that is the heart of the country's first high-tech park--Rahim can point out one of five new radio transmission antennas his company has installed in the last month perched beside a Hindu temple on a nearby green mountainside.
The antennas now beam his wireless Internet service over about 60 percent of the island and within range of 70 percent of its population. Business contracts for the service went on sale two weeks ago; a residential launch has been delayed only because national elections in July have eaten up all the advertising space in local media.
By year's end, he said, he hopes to have enough antennas up to cover 90 percent of the mountainous island. Getting to every last corner, he said, might take a little longer.
"We have so many sugar cane fields," he lamented, tracing the island's outline on a map.>
By Laurie Goering
Chicago Tribune
Sun Jun 19, 9:40 AM ET
This tropical island off the east coast of Africa is best-known for its white-sand beaches, its designer clothing outlets and its spicy curries.
But tiny Mauritius is about to stake a new claim to fame. By year's end, or soon afterward, it is expected to become the world's first nation with coast-to-coast wireless Internet coverage, the first country to become one big "hot spot."
"If there's anyone who can do it, it's us," said Rizwan Rahim, the head of ADB Networks, the company installing the wireless radio network across the 40-mile-long island. "It's a small place, so for a wireless network it's manageable. For us, it's a test. If it's successful here, we can island-hop to [mainland] Africa."
Like many African nations, this modest country has struggled economically as the industries that underlie its economy--particularly sugar production and textile manufacturing--have run into tough global competition and declining prices. Looking for alternatives, the government has settled on a new and ambitious vision: Turning sleepy Mauritius with its endless sugar cane fields and tourist beaches into a high-tech computer and telecommunications center.
"It is our vision to transform Mauritius into a cyber-island," said Deelchand Jeeha, the country's minister of information technology and telecommunications, in a speech last year. The nation, he said, "is confident in the potential of [the industry] as an engine of growth which can generate jobs and wealth creation."
Remote Mauritius is in many respects well-placed to win the high-tech investment it wants. An undersea broadband fiber-optic cable, completed three years ago, gives the island fast and reliable phone and Internet links with the rest of Africa and with Europe, India and Malaysia. Many of the country's 1.2 million people--a mix of French, Indian, Chinese and African descendants--are bilingual or trilingual, speaking French, English and either Chinese or Hindi. The country is democratic, peaceful and stable.
In Ebene, just south of Port Louis, the capital, the government has built the first of three planned high-tech parks. It also has stepped up training programs to turn out tech-savvy workers and has rewritten its business rules in an effort to create an attractive investment climate. The changes are aimed at luring call centers, remote data backup facilities for companies worried about terrorist attacks and, eventually, software development companies.
'It's the future'
The government's efforts have brought in investment by players like Microsoft, Oracle, Accenture and India's Infosys Technologies and created about 2,000 jobs in the past two years.
"It's the future," said Satyam Gutty, a taxi driver in Port Louis whose daughter just graduated with a university degree in information technology. "It's a big chance for Mauritius."
That's evident at evening computer courses set up around the country by the private National Productivity and Competitiveness Council. Even in rural areas, housewives, businessmen, schoolchildren and agricultural laborers are getting their first chance to use computers, part of the government's aim of making its entire society computer-literate.
"It's something extraordinary to see people with rough hands from manual labor holding the mouse," said Oomme Narod, a senior analyst with the council. So far, 37,000 people have been trained in computer basics, she said.
That doesn't mean, however, that Mauritius is suddenly flush with skilled high-tech workers. Many of those emerging from information technology training courses are prepared to work as call center operators--but not software engineers.
Despite the government's effort to provide an inviting investment climate, regulation also remains a problem. Rahim, who applied for a license for his wireless Nomad Internet network last December, got approval only three weeks ago, three months later than expected.
The main problem, he and others say, is that the government holds a substantial share in Mauritius Telecom, the island's only fixed-line telephone operator, as well as one of its Internet providers and the company that controls the submarine fiber-optic cable that provides all of the country's phone and Internet bandwidth.
Because the government makes so much money from the company and its cable, it has been reluctant to open the market to competitors that might reduce Telecom's profits, even though the country's National Telecommunications Policy, passed in 2004, calls for "positive discrimination" by regulators in favor of start-up companies facing off against established firms like Telecom.
Threat from competitors
The government "wants to create a cyber-island but they haven't changed their regulation and infrastructure enough to create the climate," Rahim said. If Mauritius doesn't act quickly, he warned, it may well see its cyber-island idea stolen by competitor countries.
"There are policy decisions that still need to be taken," agreed Narod, of the competitiveness council. Right now, "there is improvement, but at a slow pace."
Still, Mauritius' courts have shown signs of holding the government to its competitiveness policies, which may ease the way for future investors.
"If any investor had called me three months ago and asked about investing, I would have told them to go somewhere else," Rahim said. Now, he said, "you have to come in with open eyes and an African mentality of patience, but if you persevere you can get results."
From his office window in Mauritius' new Cybertower--a sleek blue glass and gray stone tower that is the heart of the country's first high-tech park--Rahim can point out one of five new radio transmission antennas his company has installed in the last month perched beside a Hindu temple on a nearby green mountainside.
The antennas now beam his wireless Internet service over about 60 percent of the island and within range of 70 percent of its population. Business contracts for the service went on sale two weeks ago; a residential launch has been delayed only because national elections in July have eaten up all the advertising space in local media.
By year's end, he said, he hopes to have enough antennas up to cover 90 percent of the mountainous island. Getting to every last corner, he said, might take a little longer.
"We have so many sugar cane fields," he lamented, tracing the island's outline on a map.>
Mauritius Ventures into Duty-Free Tourism
Duty-free and cruise ambitions set to fuel tourist market
17 June 2005
Lloyd's List
THE main island of Mauritius is volcanic in origin and almost entirely surrounded by coral reefs.
With many travellers keen to experience the islandÂ's unique melting pot culture, spectacular beaches, world-class hotels and crystal clear lagoons, this island paradise is fast gaining worldwide recognition.
With the Indian Ocean cruise market booming and a local tourism market ripe for expansion, the government has launched plans to turn Mauritius into a duty-free zone. With plans for the new world-class passenger terminal at Les Salines, the tourism market is becoming one of the strongest pillars of the local economy.
From the records of the Central Statistics Bureau there has been a 7.1% increase in tourism in the first quarter of 2005 compared with a year ago.
In the governmentÂ's budget for 2005-06 the first stone was laid to transform the island into a Â"shopperÂ's paradiseÂ" by making luxury items duty-free. It is estimated that there will be a 3.8% growth in shopping malls and about 7.8% growth in the hotel and restaurant sector.
This means more employment growth, with many outlets opening principally duty-free shops.
A new cruise terminal completed in 2002 is used mainly for regional passenger traffic between neighbouring islands Réunion, Rodrigues and Tamatave.
The amenity was designed to handle 300 passengers at once and allowed for future passenger growth.
Inter-island traffic from Rodrigues is expected to increase by 1% annually while passenger traffic from Réunion expects a more dramatic increase.
On an international level, it is the proposed new state-of-the-art terminal at Les Salines that will help to attract leading cruise lines.
Plans for the world-class terminal include hotels, shopping malls and leisure facilities and involves waterfront development on the inner harbour.
A cross-harbour bridge, meant to alleviate congestion problems in the city, is still under consideration.
With Mauritius Port Authority playing an active role in the Cruise Indian Ocean Association to attain 1% of the world cruise market in the short term and a 2% share in the long term, massive increases in cruise traffic are anticipated.
This could result in an estimated 80,000 passengers for the region if the 1% target is reached.
With Mauritius looking to grab 25% of this market the island could be looking at around 20,000 passengers and 40 ship calls in the short term. The MPA estimates that a 5% growth rate willfollow.
While the tourist market is being heavily courted, Captain Jean Patrick Rault of the Mauritius Shipping Company believes that protection of regionÂ's environment also needs to be considered.
He would like to see Â"restricted access to certain small islands off Mauritius and better policies regarding beach erosion in areas of the island such as Flic en Flac which is much appreciated by everyoneÂ".
With its famous hospitality, endless sunshine and sandy white beaches there is no doubt that Mauritius is set to become a big tourist destination and a main competitor to favoured winter destinations such as the Gulf and Red Sea resorts.>
17 June 2005
Lloyd's List
THE main island of Mauritius is volcanic in origin and almost entirely surrounded by coral reefs.
With many travellers keen to experience the islandÂ's unique melting pot culture, spectacular beaches, world-class hotels and crystal clear lagoons, this island paradise is fast gaining worldwide recognition.
With the Indian Ocean cruise market booming and a local tourism market ripe for expansion, the government has launched plans to turn Mauritius into a duty-free zone. With plans for the new world-class passenger terminal at Les Salines, the tourism market is becoming one of the strongest pillars of the local economy.
From the records of the Central Statistics Bureau there has been a 7.1% increase in tourism in the first quarter of 2005 compared with a year ago.
In the governmentÂ's budget for 2005-06 the first stone was laid to transform the island into a Â"shopperÂ's paradiseÂ" by making luxury items duty-free. It is estimated that there will be a 3.8% growth in shopping malls and about 7.8% growth in the hotel and restaurant sector.
This means more employment growth, with many outlets opening principally duty-free shops.
A new cruise terminal completed in 2002 is used mainly for regional passenger traffic between neighbouring islands Réunion, Rodrigues and Tamatave.
The amenity was designed to handle 300 passengers at once and allowed for future passenger growth.
Inter-island traffic from Rodrigues is expected to increase by 1% annually while passenger traffic from Réunion expects a more dramatic increase.
On an international level, it is the proposed new state-of-the-art terminal at Les Salines that will help to attract leading cruise lines.
Plans for the world-class terminal include hotels, shopping malls and leisure facilities and involves waterfront development on the inner harbour.
A cross-harbour bridge, meant to alleviate congestion problems in the city, is still under consideration.
With Mauritius Port Authority playing an active role in the Cruise Indian Ocean Association to attain 1% of the world cruise market in the short term and a 2% share in the long term, massive increases in cruise traffic are anticipated.
This could result in an estimated 80,000 passengers for the region if the 1% target is reached.
With Mauritius looking to grab 25% of this market the island could be looking at around 20,000 passengers and 40 ship calls in the short term. The MPA estimates that a 5% growth rate willfollow.
While the tourist market is being heavily courted, Captain Jean Patrick Rault of the Mauritius Shipping Company believes that protection of regionÂ's environment also needs to be considered.
He would like to see Â"restricted access to certain small islands off Mauritius and better policies regarding beach erosion in areas of the island such as Flic en Flac which is much appreciated by everyoneÂ".
With its famous hospitality, endless sunshine and sandy white beaches there is no doubt that Mauritius is set to become a big tourist destination and a main competitor to favoured winter destinations such as the Gulf and Red Sea resorts.>
pictures of gated communties?
do you have any gated communities, communidas fechados,closed villages etc in your cities? -please send photos here from abover or groud level! in my hometown ,we have no gated comunities , i find this good :-)>
what about Arabia?
arabia owns more than half of the petroleum of the world, and thats an INSANE amount of money.
where does that go? any info?>
where does that go? any info?>
not "in" your metro area, but DEFINITELY "of" it
There are special places near your metropolitan area that have been so dominated by people from your metro area that going to them makes them almost a part of your metro area.
Usually they are vacation spots (particularly places with second homes). They may be college towns where, though removed from your metro, the majority of the students are from "home"....and make the campus an extension of it.
PLEASE SHARE THOSE SPECIAL PLACES WITH US
*******************************************
For Chicago, I would definitely say Lake Geneva, WI, has always been joined to Chicagoland at the hip....from the days in the 19th century when Chicago's
millionaires, the movers and shakers who made the city run, built Newport like resorts on the lake shore. Even today, this area is far more associated with Chicago than it is to even closer Milw and has pretty much gotten to the point where it is adjoining the metro area.
Charming Galena, in the hilly, scenic n.w. corner of Illinois is pure Chicagoland. It was a mining town that went bust in the 1850's, freeze-framing all the buildings to that time era. When redeiscovered (starting with antiquing) in the 1960's,it was first a draw for Chgo artists, then for Chgo people who enjoyed the history and the hills and the stores, followed by the resort industry.
Harbor Country (along Lk Michigan in s.w. Michigan) is totally dominated by Chicagoans who take advantage of the beaches, the harbors, the resort life style so close to home.
*****
Shared with others, but still an incredible Chicago influence....
Wisconsin Dells, Door County (WI), the northern shore of Mich's LP along Lke Michigan, resort country (also shared with Detroit) from Traverse Bay almost up to Mackinac.
I think you make an argument that in both Door Co and the Dells, the Chicago influence is the greatest (the Dells draws from all over the midwest, but three metros: Chgo, Milw, M/SP dominate; Door Co. is more Chgo/Milw)>
Usually they are vacation spots (particularly places with second homes). They may be college towns where, though removed from your metro, the majority of the students are from "home"....and make the campus an extension of it.
PLEASE SHARE THOSE SPECIAL PLACES WITH US
*******************************************
For Chicago, I would definitely say Lake Geneva, WI, has always been joined to Chicagoland at the hip....from the days in the 19th century when Chicago's
millionaires, the movers and shakers who made the city run, built Newport like resorts on the lake shore. Even today, this area is far more associated with Chicago than it is to even closer Milw and has pretty much gotten to the point where it is adjoining the metro area.
Charming Galena, in the hilly, scenic n.w. corner of Illinois is pure Chicagoland. It was a mining town that went bust in the 1850's, freeze-framing all the buildings to that time era. When redeiscovered (starting with antiquing) in the 1960's,it was first a draw for Chgo artists, then for Chgo people who enjoyed the history and the hills and the stores, followed by the resort industry.
Harbor Country (along Lk Michigan in s.w. Michigan) is totally dominated by Chicagoans who take advantage of the beaches, the harbors, the resort life style so close to home.
*****
Shared with others, but still an incredible Chicago influence....
Wisconsin Dells, Door County (WI), the northern shore of Mich's LP along Lke Michigan, resort country (also shared with Detroit) from Traverse Bay almost up to Mackinac.
I think you make an argument that in both Door Co and the Dells, the Chicago influence is the greatest (the Dells draws from all over the midwest, but three metros: Chgo, Milw, M/SP dominate; Door Co. is more Chgo/Milw)>
Video tours of Iraq
Beyond Baghdad- Video journalism of Iraq's other cities
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...s/beyond/view/
Some pretty interesting stuff>
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...s/beyond/view/
Some pretty interesting stuff>
Most (Pacific-) Asian cities out of Asia?
Which cities (mainly in North America and Europe) have the largest populations of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese etc. people?
I guess in North America LA, Vancouver, Toronto and New York all have large populations of Asian people.
Post your suggestions.>
I guess in North America LA, Vancouver, Toronto and New York all have large populations of Asian people.
Post your suggestions.>
You're Single and Tired of the City. Is There a Suburb for You?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/19/re...te/19cov.html?
You're Single and Tired of the City. Is There a Suburb for You?
By ELSA BRENNER
Published: June 19, 2005
Mickey MacDonald says the party scene in Long Beach on Long Island is like "college continued." He rents an apartment a block from the beach.
Marko Georgiev/For The New York Times
David J. Bistany lives and works in Hoboken. Census figures show more than half of the residents over the age of 15 have never been married.
MARRIED people with kids aren't the only ones who move to the suburbs. When single people find the cost of real estate in the city too high, and the congestion too intense, they also look for homes in New Jersey, Westchester County, Connecticut and Long Island. But instead of examining class size and scores on SAT's, they're often more interested in finding like-minded people.
After Henry Uman divorced in the early 1990's, he bought a house in Larchmont, a family-oriented suburb in Westchester County on Long Island Sound, rather than move to the city. Mr. Uman, who is 69 and a retired lawyer, said he has found everything a single man his age could have hoped for in the unlikely choice of Larchmont: a house big enough so his three grandchildren could sleep over, good neighbors, a waterfront to walk along with his dog Huck, and "women to meet wherever I go."
Age and income levels notwithstanding, singles of all stripes seek many of the same qualities when looking for a place to live: good housing, proximity to work and to New York City, opportunities for recreation, and bars, restaurants and bookstores where other singles congregate.
The following are snapshots of some areas that are popular choices for single people. Some are predictable, like Hoboken, an established community in New Jersey rich with old town houses and bursting with restaurants and bars. Others are more surprising, like Huntington on Long Island, which attracts single people in their 30's and 40's. Many of them are near the water, which provides a certain social locus for people no matter their marital status.
Long Beach
A small city on Long Island, Long Beach is a favorite with 20-something singles. Located in Nassau County around 20 miles from Manhattan, it has a population of 35,462. It attracts single people who play on the beach during the day and party late into the night at local bars and restaurants. The community, where the comedian Billy Crystal spent his youth, has a 2.25-mile-long boardwalk that draws joggers, bicycle riders (who have their own lane) and others who prefer to stroll. The adjacent beach is a 3.5-mile stretch of pure white sand open to the public throughout the year.
When Mickey MacDonald, who is 22 and fresh out of college, landed a job as a sales representative for Pfizer in Nassau County last year, he didn't think twice about where to move. He describes the young singles' party scene in Long Beach as "college continued." He rents a one-bedroom apartment a block from the beach, although many of his friends share single-family houses, as they did during their fraternity days.
House rentals in the west end of the city, near the bars and restaurants, start at $1,800 a month for a two-bedroom and go up to $2,500, said Renee Goins, a sales agent with Gull Realty. Studio apartments can be found for $1,000 a month, and one-bedrooms for $1,500 and up, she said. One-bedroom co-ops start in the mid-$200,000's, one-bedroom condos in the mid-$300,000's.
Like other young singles, Mr. MacDonald enjoys a swim in the Atlantic Ocean after work during the warmer months, taking off later in the evening to meet friends and dance at bars like Minnesota's, which has a DJ and features hip-hop and rap music. On weekends, he sometimes travels to Manhattan via the Long Island Rail Road, which has a train back to Long Beach on Sunday mornings at 1:04. For commuters, the rush-hour commute is about 53 minutes; late at night, the trip is somewhat longer.
Janine Siegel, 39, who is in a biracial relationship, described Long Beach as an open-minded place. "In some place more traditional, such as the Five Towns on Long Island, we would stand out too much for my comfort," said Ms. Siegel, who is white and lives with her boyfriend, Christopher Watt, who is black. She was referring to the upscale South Shore towns of Hewlett, Woodmere, Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Inwood. Sometimes, Ms. Siegel, the mother of a 12-year-old daughter, and Mr. Watt frequent establishments like Billy's Beach Cafe, where they order wings and a beer and socialize at the bar with friends. In the summer months, they take in the city-sponsored free concerts on the beach.
Huntington
The North Shore village of Huntington, a 70-minute train ride from Manhattan, and its neighbor Huntington Station are favorites with Long Island singles who yearn for a hometown atmosphere. The main attraction is the village's vibrant downtown with its mixed-use buildings, apartments, condos, shops, food establishments, parks, cafes, movie theaters and performance venues. Both communities, part of the town of Huntington, also lure those who want to be close to the 17 beaches on the North Shore, and to the yacht clubs.
One-bedroom rentals in Huntington range from $1,000 to $1,300 a month, two-bedrooms from $1,200 to $1,800, with the village representing the higher end of the price spectrum, said Katy Anastasio, the owner of Anastasio Associates. A one-bedroom co-op can be found for $280,000 and up, one-bedroom condos for $350,000 and more, she said.
Meredith Dunn, 26, moved last fall to Huntington Station because that area of the town is somewhat less expensive than the village itself. Ms. Dunn noted that Huntington Station tends to draw singles in their 30's, while the village itself attracts unmarrieds in their late 20's. She considered Long Beach, but said that the crowd there "was just too young for me." Ms. Dunn, who moved from Ithaca, N.Y., where she was a graduate student at Cornell University, is not looking for a bar scene but prefers quiet recreational pursuits.
"The village reminded me of a little college town with its great bookstore and arts cinema," said Ms. Dunn, who works in Syosset, several miles south on Long Island, for Erase Racism, a nonprofit organization. "I'm not a bar person, so after work, I like to plunk down in a cafe and just start up a conversation," she said. Her favorite local literary hangout in the village, the birthplace of the poet and journalist Walt Whitman, is the Book Revue. It draws authors like J. K. Rowling, Chang-Rae Lee and Michael Crichton when they are on book tours.
Singles also feel at home at the Cinema Arts Center, a theater in the village featuring independent and foreign films, a cafe with live music and movie clubs.
Newark
Newark's image is rapidly changing. It is no longer just the city of immigrants, evoked by Philip Roth, or the city of race riots, seared into the public consciousness through television images in 1967. Today the former industrial port on the western bank of the Passaic River is experiencing a rebirth, attracting the attention of housing developers who are in many cases targeting young hip singles.
Although Newark still has a significant population living below the poverty line, many of those drawn to the city these days are students attending local colleges and universities. "With mortgage rates so low, they often buy something instead of renting while they're in school," said Octavio Mendes, a real estate agent at Burgdorff ERA Realtors in Short Hills, N.J. A two-bedroom, two-bath condo goes for $240,000 and up; two-family wood-frame homes with small backyards start at $550,000, he said.
For those preferring to rent, the Cogswell Realty Group in Manhattan plans to build 3,500 market-rate apartments in the center of downtown Newark within the next decade. The firm is now constructing 317 units, with rents ranging from about $950 for a small studio to $2,300 for a two-bedroom. Arthur R. Stern, the chief executive of Cogswell, said: "All of our plans for Newark are aimed at singles. It's a growing market there."
Elsewhere in the downtown, a two-bedroom, two-bath rental goes for $1,500 a month, Mr. Mendes said.
Newark is a hub for single people who live in the city or in the surrounding area. Richard Charles, 53, a commercial real estate broker, likes the Portuguese restaurants and nightclubs in Newark's multiethnic Ironbound district.
"Newark is a perfectly good counterpoint to New York City, and I don't have to go through the agony of tolls, and parking my car," said Mr. Charles, who is divorced and lives in Wayne, N.J. His favorite nightspots in Newark include the Adega Grill on Ferry Street, a nightclub with Latin music, and the Savoy Grill on Park Place, which is fast becoming known for its live jazz.
For sports fans, the New Jersey Devils' $310 million arena is expected to open for the 2007-08 National Hockey League season. And for culture mavens, there is the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
For commuters, Manhattan is less than 20 minutes away on the PATH train. Mr. Mendes noted that many singles also like the fact that on summer weekends, they are last than an hour from Asbury Park and other New Jersey Shore points along the Garden State Parkway.
Hoboken
In Hoboken in warm weather, restaurant tables with colorful umbrellas dot crowded streets lined with Victorian homes, brownstones, new condos and factories that have been converted into housing. The city of 38,577 people - the birthplace of Frank Sinatra 90 years ago - occupies a 1.3-square-mile area on the Hudson River.
Once a thriving industrial port, Hoboken today is a haven for singles drawn to its charm and proximity to Manhattan on the other shore.
David J. Bistany, 42, who lives and works in Hoboken, recently described the city's singles crowd as "young and mixed, gay and straight, mostly in the 25-to-35 range." Of the population 15 years and over, 56.1 percent have never been married, according to census figures.
When it comes to real estate, Hoboken offers a wide variety of prices and styles to choose from. Monthly rentals range from $1,300 to $2,000 for a one-bedroom, according to Mr. Bistany, a sales agent for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. Studio condos, about 600 square feet, start at $300,000. One-bedroom condos begin at $350,000 and go up from there; many are in former multifamily row houses.
Factories that have been converted to condos are generally more expensive, said Mr. Bistany, who lives in a condo in a century-old schoolhouse.
For recreation, the city's waterfront and pier - where the movie "On the Waterfront," starring Marlon Brando, was filmed 51 years ago - are host to live music festivals in a parklike setting. On weekends, Mr. Bistany jogs along the 14-block-long waterfront, taking in the sun and New York City views and meeting other singles like himself.
Nightspots include Lua, a restaurant and bar with waterfront views; Mulligan's, which has a sports bar and weekend disc jockey; and GoldHawks, a nightclub with live music. Mr. Bistany also frequents the Cage, a bar in the city for gay men and women.
Other times, Mr. Bistany hops the PATH into Manhattan. "One of the great things about Hoboken is that you don't need a car," he said.
White Plains
White Plains, a once-sleepy city now humming with activity, is a favorite for singles of all ages. It covers 9.8 square miles in the center of Westchester, with mostly families populating the leafy outlying areas, and singles and empty-nesters living in apartments and condos in the densely populated downtown.
Just 35 minutes from Manhattan by train, White Plains is convenient for people working in Manhattan, and as the headquarters of several Fortune 500 corporations, it also draws people employed by those companies.
"In some ways, White Plains is like Manhattan but less expensive," said Ken Wile, an agent for Houlihan Lawrence.
An 800-square-foot studio in a condo building starts at $250,000, "although they sell almost as fast as they come on the market," Mr. Wile said.
At Trump Tower at City Center, which is under construction, condos fetch about $700,000 or more, with most of the units sold.
Luxury rentals, which are plentiful in White Plains, begin at $1,700 to $1,900 a month for a one-bedroom apartment and go up to $5,500 for three bedrooms with views of the Sound in the distance. Less expensive rents can be found in multifamily homes.
Melanie Brown, a 25-year-old mezzo soprano, moved to White Plains last summer to be near Purchase College, the State University of New York, several miles away, where she is completing her undergraduate degree. She pays $1,000 a month for a studio apartment in a renovated building in downtown White Plains and walks almost everywhere she goes in the city.
Her favorite haunts include the Lazy Boy Saloon and Ale House and Kelly's Thirsty Turtle, which attract singles in their 20's and 30's, and Trotters Restaurant on Main Street, which has a popular bar where single professionals gather, along with a disc jockey on weekends.
For outdoor recreation, city residents head either to the west shore of the county, the Hudson River, or to the east shore, Long Island Sound. The county maintains a bike path that runs the full length of Westchester, and public parks and swimming pools are plentiful.
Larchmont
While Larchmont may not be a typical singles community, it offers an alternative for those who want a leafy waterfront suburb, a 35-minute commute to Manhattan and lower decibel ratings than those recorded in more densely populated locales.
For Mr. Uman, the retired lawyer, the 1.1-square-mile village on the Sound is all of those things and more. In addition to its many obvious charms, Larchmont is a culture-loving community, in Mr. Uman's estimation. It even has its own chamber music group, for which he plays clarinet.
The village, population 6,485, has a busy downtown, albeit a small one, with quaint shops and some highly rated restaurants. But rather than going out to local bars, Mr. Uman said, he prefers to meet new friends during his daily activities: walking along the town's shoreline, visiting the local library and shopping in the supermarket.
But the community's many assets come at a steep price. The recent median sale price for a single-family home in Larchmont was just under $1 million, far above the county's median, which is $615,000. Spacious one-bedroom co-ops in doorman buildings start at $275,000; two-bedroom units begin in the low-$400,000's, also above the Westchester County median.
Barbara Cleary, the manager of the Larchmont office of Merritt Associates, described the village as "mostly a family community." According to census data, 65.9 percent of the population over 15 is married. "But we're also seeing more and more singles moving here from Manhattan," she said, "because they can work and socialize in the city and still have plenty to do at home."
Singles who move to the village, she noted, are more focused on its quality of life than "in just meeting other singles." Many of the local restaurants have "an upscale and stylish New York kind of feel to them," she said, and the village is near public and private golf courses, and sailing and boating clubs. It also has its own municipal tennis courts and beach.
Stamford
Stamford, a city of 117,000 along Connecticut's shoreline, covers 37 square miles in upscale Fairfield County, 40 minutes northeast of Manhattan on the Metro-North Railroad. With a downtown rich in entertainment, restaurants and shopping, it is a favorite for singles of varying ages. Because it is also home to major employers like General Electric, USB Warburg and Xerox, Stamford tends to draw a large contingent of single professionals.
Along with the downtown's variety of entertainment and restaurants - "everything from a great hamburger to fancy French food, depending on your taste and pocketbook," said Elayne Jassey, a real estate broker at Prudential Connecticut Realty - the city also offers a broad spectrum of real estate. Rentals range from as low as $1,700 a month for a small one-bedroom apartment to $4,000 for three-bedroom penthouses. In the condo market, costs range from the low $200,000's for a one-bedroom unit, to $600,000 and up for a town house. New luxury condos under construction at High Grove in the downtown will sell for $1.2 million, Ms. Jassey said.
Hilary Young, 27, an administrative assistant at Prudential Connecticut, is sharing a duplex in the downtown with her father for now until she can afford a place of her own. She frequents what she calls "the after 9 p.m. local bar scene." By contrast, Linda A. Nockler, 38, a manager for a financial services firm in Greenwich, prefers quiet evenings at the Avon Cinema, which shows independent and classic films, followed by dinner at a nearby restaurant. As for meeting people, Ms. Nockler said, "the Borders store in North Stamford is a good place to take in a tea or coffee and engage in conversation."
South Norwalk
It's not surprising that South Norwalk's waterfront district has a nickname, SoNo, that plays off of SoHo in Manhattan. A once-decaying area along the Long Island Sound in Connecticut, the former fishing port has evolved during the past two decades into an upscale residential area with a bohemian flavor. SoNo's streets are lined with restaurants, nightclubs and artsy shops in an area that encompasses several city blocks and is rapidly expanding.
Raffael Licata, a hair colorist who used to work in a salon on Thompson Street in SoHo, bought a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo apartment in SoNo 11 years ago after he was struck by the pleasant similarities between the two neighborhoods.
"I came for dinner on a Sunday one summer afternoon and said to my friends: 'Where are we? I love it!' " he recalled. Shortly afterward, he bought the condo for $119,000 in a renovated 1913 building. These days, he said, he gets unsolicited offers of $300,000 and more for it.
According to Carol Ann Falasca, a broker at Coldwell Banker Real Estate in Norwalk, the city was ready to raze the harbor district 15 years ago. Now, she said, the lowest-priced condo on the market is a studio in an older building at $159,900, with a one-bedroom in a new building selling for $379,000. Monthly rentals range from $750 for a studio to $2,400 a month for a two-bedroom, two-bath unit in a new building.
Looking ahead, Summit Development, in partnership with the Spinnaker Companies and Greenfield Partners, is beginning construction of 61 condos and 136 rental apartments. Prices will begin in the $300,000's for the condos; the one- and two-bedroom rentals will go for $1,700 to $2,600 a month.
Mr. Licata described SoNo as friendly and "a lot less overwhelming and more laid back" than New York City.
"Sometimes when I'm putting out the garbage," he said, "someone will walk over and say: 'What are you up to tonight? Let's go grab something to eat.' " His favorite local haunts include Pane e Panini and SoNo Caffeine. "Those are places where I can also go by myself with the paper and sit, and the next thing know I run into someone," he said.
When it is warm, he heads for a grassy area in a park on Washington Street, where he invariably meets up with friends. Mr. Licata, who is gay, described the community as hospitable to people "of all stripes and colors." When he's in the mood for Manhattan, Grand Central Terminal is just slightly more than an hour away by train.>
You're Single and Tired of the City. Is There a Suburb for You?
By ELSA BRENNER
Published: June 19, 2005
Mickey MacDonald says the party scene in Long Beach on Long Island is like "college continued." He rents an apartment a block from the beach.
Marko Georgiev/For The New York Times
David J. Bistany lives and works in Hoboken. Census figures show more than half of the residents over the age of 15 have never been married.
MARRIED people with kids aren't the only ones who move to the suburbs. When single people find the cost of real estate in the city too high, and the congestion too intense, they also look for homes in New Jersey, Westchester County, Connecticut and Long Island. But instead of examining class size and scores on SAT's, they're often more interested in finding like-minded people.
After Henry Uman divorced in the early 1990's, he bought a house in Larchmont, a family-oriented suburb in Westchester County on Long Island Sound, rather than move to the city. Mr. Uman, who is 69 and a retired lawyer, said he has found everything a single man his age could have hoped for in the unlikely choice of Larchmont: a house big enough so his three grandchildren could sleep over, good neighbors, a waterfront to walk along with his dog Huck, and "women to meet wherever I go."
Age and income levels notwithstanding, singles of all stripes seek many of the same qualities when looking for a place to live: good housing, proximity to work and to New York City, opportunities for recreation, and bars, restaurants and bookstores where other singles congregate.
The following are snapshots of some areas that are popular choices for single people. Some are predictable, like Hoboken, an established community in New Jersey rich with old town houses and bursting with restaurants and bars. Others are more surprising, like Huntington on Long Island, which attracts single people in their 30's and 40's. Many of them are near the water, which provides a certain social locus for people no matter their marital status.
Long Beach
A small city on Long Island, Long Beach is a favorite with 20-something singles. Located in Nassau County around 20 miles from Manhattan, it has a population of 35,462. It attracts single people who play on the beach during the day and party late into the night at local bars and restaurants. The community, where the comedian Billy Crystal spent his youth, has a 2.25-mile-long boardwalk that draws joggers, bicycle riders (who have their own lane) and others who prefer to stroll. The adjacent beach is a 3.5-mile stretch of pure white sand open to the public throughout the year.
When Mickey MacDonald, who is 22 and fresh out of college, landed a job as a sales representative for Pfizer in Nassau County last year, he didn't think twice about where to move. He describes the young singles' party scene in Long Beach as "college continued." He rents a one-bedroom apartment a block from the beach, although many of his friends share single-family houses, as they did during their fraternity days.
House rentals in the west end of the city, near the bars and restaurants, start at $1,800 a month for a two-bedroom and go up to $2,500, said Renee Goins, a sales agent with Gull Realty. Studio apartments can be found for $1,000 a month, and one-bedrooms for $1,500 and up, she said. One-bedroom co-ops start in the mid-$200,000's, one-bedroom condos in the mid-$300,000's.
Like other young singles, Mr. MacDonald enjoys a swim in the Atlantic Ocean after work during the warmer months, taking off later in the evening to meet friends and dance at bars like Minnesota's, which has a DJ and features hip-hop and rap music. On weekends, he sometimes travels to Manhattan via the Long Island Rail Road, which has a train back to Long Beach on Sunday mornings at 1:04. For commuters, the rush-hour commute is about 53 minutes; late at night, the trip is somewhat longer.
Janine Siegel, 39, who is in a biracial relationship, described Long Beach as an open-minded place. "In some place more traditional, such as the Five Towns on Long Island, we would stand out too much for my comfort," said Ms. Siegel, who is white and lives with her boyfriend, Christopher Watt, who is black. She was referring to the upscale South Shore towns of Hewlett, Woodmere, Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Inwood. Sometimes, Ms. Siegel, the mother of a 12-year-old daughter, and Mr. Watt frequent establishments like Billy's Beach Cafe, where they order wings and a beer and socialize at the bar with friends. In the summer months, they take in the city-sponsored free concerts on the beach.
Huntington
The North Shore village of Huntington, a 70-minute train ride from Manhattan, and its neighbor Huntington Station are favorites with Long Island singles who yearn for a hometown atmosphere. The main attraction is the village's vibrant downtown with its mixed-use buildings, apartments, condos, shops, food establishments, parks, cafes, movie theaters and performance venues. Both communities, part of the town of Huntington, also lure those who want to be close to the 17 beaches on the North Shore, and to the yacht clubs.
One-bedroom rentals in Huntington range from $1,000 to $1,300 a month, two-bedrooms from $1,200 to $1,800, with the village representing the higher end of the price spectrum, said Katy Anastasio, the owner of Anastasio Associates. A one-bedroom co-op can be found for $280,000 and up, one-bedroom condos for $350,000 and more, she said.
Meredith Dunn, 26, moved last fall to Huntington Station because that area of the town is somewhat less expensive than the village itself. Ms. Dunn noted that Huntington Station tends to draw singles in their 30's, while the village itself attracts unmarrieds in their late 20's. She considered Long Beach, but said that the crowd there "was just too young for me." Ms. Dunn, who moved from Ithaca, N.Y., where she was a graduate student at Cornell University, is not looking for a bar scene but prefers quiet recreational pursuits.
"The village reminded me of a little college town with its great bookstore and arts cinema," said Ms. Dunn, who works in Syosset, several miles south on Long Island, for Erase Racism, a nonprofit organization. "I'm not a bar person, so after work, I like to plunk down in a cafe and just start up a conversation," she said. Her favorite local literary hangout in the village, the birthplace of the poet and journalist Walt Whitman, is the Book Revue. It draws authors like J. K. Rowling, Chang-Rae Lee and Michael Crichton when they are on book tours.
Singles also feel at home at the Cinema Arts Center, a theater in the village featuring independent and foreign films, a cafe with live music and movie clubs.
Newark
Newark's image is rapidly changing. It is no longer just the city of immigrants, evoked by Philip Roth, or the city of race riots, seared into the public consciousness through television images in 1967. Today the former industrial port on the western bank of the Passaic River is experiencing a rebirth, attracting the attention of housing developers who are in many cases targeting young hip singles.
Although Newark still has a significant population living below the poverty line, many of those drawn to the city these days are students attending local colleges and universities. "With mortgage rates so low, they often buy something instead of renting while they're in school," said Octavio Mendes, a real estate agent at Burgdorff ERA Realtors in Short Hills, N.J. A two-bedroom, two-bath condo goes for $240,000 and up; two-family wood-frame homes with small backyards start at $550,000, he said.
For those preferring to rent, the Cogswell Realty Group in Manhattan plans to build 3,500 market-rate apartments in the center of downtown Newark within the next decade. The firm is now constructing 317 units, with rents ranging from about $950 for a small studio to $2,300 for a two-bedroom. Arthur R. Stern, the chief executive of Cogswell, said: "All of our plans for Newark are aimed at singles. It's a growing market there."
Elsewhere in the downtown, a two-bedroom, two-bath rental goes for $1,500 a month, Mr. Mendes said.
Newark is a hub for single people who live in the city or in the surrounding area. Richard Charles, 53, a commercial real estate broker, likes the Portuguese restaurants and nightclubs in Newark's multiethnic Ironbound district.
"Newark is a perfectly good counterpoint to New York City, and I don't have to go through the agony of tolls, and parking my car," said Mr. Charles, who is divorced and lives in Wayne, N.J. His favorite nightspots in Newark include the Adega Grill on Ferry Street, a nightclub with Latin music, and the Savoy Grill on Park Place, which is fast becoming known for its live jazz.
For sports fans, the New Jersey Devils' $310 million arena is expected to open for the 2007-08 National Hockey League season. And for culture mavens, there is the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
For commuters, Manhattan is less than 20 minutes away on the PATH train. Mr. Mendes noted that many singles also like the fact that on summer weekends, they are last than an hour from Asbury Park and other New Jersey Shore points along the Garden State Parkway.
Hoboken
In Hoboken in warm weather, restaurant tables with colorful umbrellas dot crowded streets lined with Victorian homes, brownstones, new condos and factories that have been converted into housing. The city of 38,577 people - the birthplace of Frank Sinatra 90 years ago - occupies a 1.3-square-mile area on the Hudson River.
Once a thriving industrial port, Hoboken today is a haven for singles drawn to its charm and proximity to Manhattan on the other shore.
David J. Bistany, 42, who lives and works in Hoboken, recently described the city's singles crowd as "young and mixed, gay and straight, mostly in the 25-to-35 range." Of the population 15 years and over, 56.1 percent have never been married, according to census figures.
When it comes to real estate, Hoboken offers a wide variety of prices and styles to choose from. Monthly rentals range from $1,300 to $2,000 for a one-bedroom, according to Mr. Bistany, a sales agent for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. Studio condos, about 600 square feet, start at $300,000. One-bedroom condos begin at $350,000 and go up from there; many are in former multifamily row houses.
Factories that have been converted to condos are generally more expensive, said Mr. Bistany, who lives in a condo in a century-old schoolhouse.
For recreation, the city's waterfront and pier - where the movie "On the Waterfront," starring Marlon Brando, was filmed 51 years ago - are host to live music festivals in a parklike setting. On weekends, Mr. Bistany jogs along the 14-block-long waterfront, taking in the sun and New York City views and meeting other singles like himself.
Nightspots include Lua, a restaurant and bar with waterfront views; Mulligan's, which has a sports bar and weekend disc jockey; and GoldHawks, a nightclub with live music. Mr. Bistany also frequents the Cage, a bar in the city for gay men and women.
Other times, Mr. Bistany hops the PATH into Manhattan. "One of the great things about Hoboken is that you don't need a car," he said.
White Plains
White Plains, a once-sleepy city now humming with activity, is a favorite for singles of all ages. It covers 9.8 square miles in the center of Westchester, with mostly families populating the leafy outlying areas, and singles and empty-nesters living in apartments and condos in the densely populated downtown.
Just 35 minutes from Manhattan by train, White Plains is convenient for people working in Manhattan, and as the headquarters of several Fortune 500 corporations, it also draws people employed by those companies.
"In some ways, White Plains is like Manhattan but less expensive," said Ken Wile, an agent for Houlihan Lawrence.
An 800-square-foot studio in a condo building starts at $250,000, "although they sell almost as fast as they come on the market," Mr. Wile said.
At Trump Tower at City Center, which is under construction, condos fetch about $700,000 or more, with most of the units sold.
Luxury rentals, which are plentiful in White Plains, begin at $1,700 to $1,900 a month for a one-bedroom apartment and go up to $5,500 for three bedrooms with views of the Sound in the distance. Less expensive rents can be found in multifamily homes.
Melanie Brown, a 25-year-old mezzo soprano, moved to White Plains last summer to be near Purchase College, the State University of New York, several miles away, where she is completing her undergraduate degree. She pays $1,000 a month for a studio apartment in a renovated building in downtown White Plains and walks almost everywhere she goes in the city.
Her favorite haunts include the Lazy Boy Saloon and Ale House and Kelly's Thirsty Turtle, which attract singles in their 20's and 30's, and Trotters Restaurant on Main Street, which has a popular bar where single professionals gather, along with a disc jockey on weekends.
For outdoor recreation, city residents head either to the west shore of the county, the Hudson River, or to the east shore, Long Island Sound. The county maintains a bike path that runs the full length of Westchester, and public parks and swimming pools are plentiful.
Larchmont
While Larchmont may not be a typical singles community, it offers an alternative for those who want a leafy waterfront suburb, a 35-minute commute to Manhattan and lower decibel ratings than those recorded in more densely populated locales.
For Mr. Uman, the retired lawyer, the 1.1-square-mile village on the Sound is all of those things and more. In addition to its many obvious charms, Larchmont is a culture-loving community, in Mr. Uman's estimation. It even has its own chamber music group, for which he plays clarinet.
The village, population 6,485, has a busy downtown, albeit a small one, with quaint shops and some highly rated restaurants. But rather than going out to local bars, Mr. Uman said, he prefers to meet new friends during his daily activities: walking along the town's shoreline, visiting the local library and shopping in the supermarket.
But the community's many assets come at a steep price. The recent median sale price for a single-family home in Larchmont was just under $1 million, far above the county's median, which is $615,000. Spacious one-bedroom co-ops in doorman buildings start at $275,000; two-bedroom units begin in the low-$400,000's, also above the Westchester County median.
Barbara Cleary, the manager of the Larchmont office of Merritt Associates, described the village as "mostly a family community." According to census data, 65.9 percent of the population over 15 is married. "But we're also seeing more and more singles moving here from Manhattan," she said, "because they can work and socialize in the city and still have plenty to do at home."
Singles who move to the village, she noted, are more focused on its quality of life than "in just meeting other singles." Many of the local restaurants have "an upscale and stylish New York kind of feel to them," she said, and the village is near public and private golf courses, and sailing and boating clubs. It also has its own municipal tennis courts and beach.
Stamford
Stamford, a city of 117,000 along Connecticut's shoreline, covers 37 square miles in upscale Fairfield County, 40 minutes northeast of Manhattan on the Metro-North Railroad. With a downtown rich in entertainment, restaurants and shopping, it is a favorite for singles of varying ages. Because it is also home to major employers like General Electric, USB Warburg and Xerox, Stamford tends to draw a large contingent of single professionals.
Along with the downtown's variety of entertainment and restaurants - "everything from a great hamburger to fancy French food, depending on your taste and pocketbook," said Elayne Jassey, a real estate broker at Prudential Connecticut Realty - the city also offers a broad spectrum of real estate. Rentals range from as low as $1,700 a month for a small one-bedroom apartment to $4,000 for three-bedroom penthouses. In the condo market, costs range from the low $200,000's for a one-bedroom unit, to $600,000 and up for a town house. New luxury condos under construction at High Grove in the downtown will sell for $1.2 million, Ms. Jassey said.
Hilary Young, 27, an administrative assistant at Prudential Connecticut, is sharing a duplex in the downtown with her father for now until she can afford a place of her own. She frequents what she calls "the after 9 p.m. local bar scene." By contrast, Linda A. Nockler, 38, a manager for a financial services firm in Greenwich, prefers quiet evenings at the Avon Cinema, which shows independent and classic films, followed by dinner at a nearby restaurant. As for meeting people, Ms. Nockler said, "the Borders store in North Stamford is a good place to take in a tea or coffee and engage in conversation."
South Norwalk
It's not surprising that South Norwalk's waterfront district has a nickname, SoNo, that plays off of SoHo in Manhattan. A once-decaying area along the Long Island Sound in Connecticut, the former fishing port has evolved during the past two decades into an upscale residential area with a bohemian flavor. SoNo's streets are lined with restaurants, nightclubs and artsy shops in an area that encompasses several city blocks and is rapidly expanding.
Raffael Licata, a hair colorist who used to work in a salon on Thompson Street in SoHo, bought a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo apartment in SoNo 11 years ago after he was struck by the pleasant similarities between the two neighborhoods.
"I came for dinner on a Sunday one summer afternoon and said to my friends: 'Where are we? I love it!' " he recalled. Shortly afterward, he bought the condo for $119,000 in a renovated 1913 building. These days, he said, he gets unsolicited offers of $300,000 and more for it.
According to Carol Ann Falasca, a broker at Coldwell Banker Real Estate in Norwalk, the city was ready to raze the harbor district 15 years ago. Now, she said, the lowest-priced condo on the market is a studio in an older building at $159,900, with a one-bedroom in a new building selling for $379,000. Monthly rentals range from $750 for a studio to $2,400 a month for a two-bedroom, two-bath unit in a new building.
Looking ahead, Summit Development, in partnership with the Spinnaker Companies and Greenfield Partners, is beginning construction of 61 condos and 136 rental apartments. Prices will begin in the $300,000's for the condos; the one- and two-bedroom rentals will go for $1,700 to $2,600 a month.
Mr. Licata described SoNo as friendly and "a lot less overwhelming and more laid back" than New York City.
"Sometimes when I'm putting out the garbage," he said, "someone will walk over and say: 'What are you up to tonight? Let's go grab something to eat.' " His favorite local haunts include Pane e Panini and SoNo Caffeine. "Those are places where I can also go by myself with the paper and sit, and the next thing know I run into someone," he said.
When it is warm, he heads for a grassy area in a park on Washington Street, where he invariably meets up with friends. Mr. Licata, who is gay, described the community as hospitable to people "of all stripes and colors." When he's in the mood for Manhattan, Grand Central Terminal is just slightly more than an hour away by train.>
Average Price of real estate in London from the BBC
Here's interesting information from the BBC:
Greater London
Average Cost: £289,655
Detached: £624,934
Semi-detached: £320,460
Terraced: £308,268
Flat: £239,694
Change in last quarter: 4.7%
Change in last year: 10.3%
Sales: 20812
Greater London Local Authorities
NAME AV PRICE (£) QUARTER ANNUAL SALES
Kensington And Chelsea £525,112 -9.2% 2.4% 492
City Of Westminster £454,724 3.4% 12.4% 635
Camden £322,748 -6.0% 3.5% 444
City Of London £312,684 7.3% -0.9% 46
Hammersmith And Fulham £273,970 -1.0% -3.3% 304
Islington £269,833 2.5% 8% 299
Wandsworth £268,219 2.7% -5.2% 651
Tower Hamlets £254,337 -0.6% 4.4% 570
Richmond Upon Thames £250,053 -1.3% -1.1% 251
Southwark £232,286 -2.1% 10.6% 469
Lambeth £208,710 -1.9% 0.1% 552
Barnet £206,181 -4.0% 1.3% 370
Kingston Upon Thames £202,452 -3.4% 4.4% 218
Harrow £201,110 2.9% 9.8% 194
Hackney £200,371 1% 2.6% 249
Hounslow £195,298 -6.6% 3.6% 239
Haringey £195,120 -3.6% 6.9% 300
Merton £194,508 -1.0% 3.7% 240
Brent £191,571 -3.8% 5.4% 305
Ealing £190,398 -3.5% 3.3% 284
Greenwich £189,823 -2.8% 17% 272
Bromley £188,707 3.3% 8.4% 357
Newham £176,371 -2.3% 9.3% 226
Redbridge £175,392 -1.9% 3.5% 281
Sutton £163,499 1.8% 14.1% 232
Hillingdon £162,902 -1.1% 8% 201
Enfield £160,410 -3.7% 7.7% 307
Lewisham £158,023 -2.1% 3.1% 387
Croydon £155,448 1.9% 10% 359
Waltham Forest £149,766 -2.3% 6.2% 241
Havering £148,152 -2.6% 11.4% 124
Barking And Dagenham £133,038 -4.1% 14.2% 117
Bexley £128,696 -3.7% 4.9% 138
Sources:
England and Wales
Land Registry of England and Wales, Crown copyright. The information above is based on figures provided by the Land Registry of England and Wales.
Figures for England and Wales are for the period Jan - Mar 2005.
The BBC makes no warranty or representation as to the accuracy, completeness or reliability of the above information and accepts no liability (including for negligence) in respect of any of the above information.>
Greater London
Average Cost: £289,655
Detached: £624,934
Semi-detached: £320,460
Terraced: £308,268
Flat: £239,694
Change in last quarter: 4.7%
Change in last year: 10.3%
Sales: 20812
Greater London Local Authorities
NAME AV PRICE (£) QUARTER ANNUAL SALES
Kensington And Chelsea £525,112 -9.2% 2.4% 492
City Of Westminster £454,724 3.4% 12.4% 635
Camden £322,748 -6.0% 3.5% 444
City Of London £312,684 7.3% -0.9% 46
Hammersmith And Fulham £273,970 -1.0% -3.3% 304
Islington £269,833 2.5% 8% 299
Wandsworth £268,219 2.7% -5.2% 651
Tower Hamlets £254,337 -0.6% 4.4% 570
Richmond Upon Thames £250,053 -1.3% -1.1% 251
Southwark £232,286 -2.1% 10.6% 469
Lambeth £208,710 -1.9% 0.1% 552
Barnet £206,181 -4.0% 1.3% 370
Kingston Upon Thames £202,452 -3.4% 4.4% 218
Harrow £201,110 2.9% 9.8% 194
Hackney £200,371 1% 2.6% 249
Hounslow £195,298 -6.6% 3.6% 239
Haringey £195,120 -3.6% 6.9% 300
Merton £194,508 -1.0% 3.7% 240
Brent £191,571 -3.8% 5.4% 305
Ealing £190,398 -3.5% 3.3% 284
Greenwich £189,823 -2.8% 17% 272
Bromley £188,707 3.3% 8.4% 357
Newham £176,371 -2.3% 9.3% 226
Redbridge £175,392 -1.9% 3.5% 281
Sutton £163,499 1.8% 14.1% 232
Hillingdon £162,902 -1.1% 8% 201
Enfield £160,410 -3.7% 7.7% 307
Lewisham £158,023 -2.1% 3.1% 387
Croydon £155,448 1.9% 10% 359
Waltham Forest £149,766 -2.3% 6.2% 241
Havering £148,152 -2.6% 11.4% 124
Barking And Dagenham £133,038 -4.1% 14.2% 117
Bexley £128,696 -3.7% 4.9% 138
Sources:
England and Wales
Land Registry of England and Wales, Crown copyright. The information above is based on figures provided by the Land Registry of England and Wales.
Figures for England and Wales are for the period Jan - Mar 2005.
The BBC makes no warranty or representation as to the accuracy, completeness or reliability of the above information and accepts no liability (including for negligence) in respect of any of the above information.>
Average Price of A Manhattan Apartment: $1.2M
NEW YORK, April 1 (Reuters) - The average sale price for a Manhattan apartment topped $1.2 million in the first quarter, a new record, as the supply of properties for sale shrunk, according to the Prudential Douglas Elliman Manhattan Market Overview.
The average sale price rose to $1.21 million -- up 23 percent from the final quarter of 2004 and up 26 percent from a year ago.
In the condominium sector, the average sale price jumped to $1.55 million -- exceeding $1.5 million for the first time -- and surging 34 percent from 2004's fourth quarter, the report said. The average condo sale price went up 22 percent from the year-ago first quarter.
For Manhattan's entire apartment market, the average price per square foot climbed to $910 -- topping $900 a square foot for the first time. That's up 16.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2004. It's a gain of 28 percent from a year earlier.
"Improving economic conditions, a tight housing supply, rising incomes and the widely held expectation of rising mortgage rates in the near future, caused housing prices to surge this quarter," the report said.
It was the first time the quarterly report included Manhattan markets above 116th Street on the West Side and above 96th Street on the East Side.
The median sale price -- the point where half the sales are higher and half are lower -- climbed to $705,000. That's up 16.5 percent from the previous quarter and up 18.5 percent from a year ago.
The volume of apartment sales fell to 2,028 units -- down 6.2 percent from the previous quarter and down 5.8 percent from a year ago, according to the report.
Limited supply kept sales volume in check.
The average sale price of a cooperative apartment, where an owner holds shares in the building and does not own the individual unit, rose to $988,746. That's up 15.5 percent from the previous quarter.
The average co-op sale price went up average sale price of a cooperative apartment, where an owner holds shares in the building and does not own the individual unit, rose to $988,746. That's up 15.5 percent from the previous quarter.
The average co-op sale price went up 25 percent from the first quarter of 2004.
04/01/05 02:22 ET
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.>
The average sale price rose to $1.21 million -- up 23 percent from the final quarter of 2004 and up 26 percent from a year ago.
In the condominium sector, the average sale price jumped to $1.55 million -- exceeding $1.5 million for the first time -- and surging 34 percent from 2004's fourth quarter, the report said. The average condo sale price went up 22 percent from the year-ago first quarter.
For Manhattan's entire apartment market, the average price per square foot climbed to $910 -- topping $900 a square foot for the first time. That's up 16.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2004. It's a gain of 28 percent from a year earlier.
"Improving economic conditions, a tight housing supply, rising incomes and the widely held expectation of rising mortgage rates in the near future, caused housing prices to surge this quarter," the report said.
It was the first time the quarterly report included Manhattan markets above 116th Street on the West Side and above 96th Street on the East Side.
The median sale price -- the point where half the sales are higher and half are lower -- climbed to $705,000. That's up 16.5 percent from the previous quarter and up 18.5 percent from a year ago.
The volume of apartment sales fell to 2,028 units -- down 6.2 percent from the previous quarter and down 5.8 percent from a year ago, according to the report.
Limited supply kept sales volume in check.
The average sale price of a cooperative apartment, where an owner holds shares in the building and does not own the individual unit, rose to $988,746. That's up 15.5 percent from the previous quarter.
The average co-op sale price went up average sale price of a cooperative apartment, where an owner holds shares in the building and does not own the individual unit, rose to $988,746. That's up 15.5 percent from the previous quarter.
The average co-op sale price went up 25 percent from the first quarter of 2004.
04/01/05 02:22 ET
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.>
DUBAI- Question and Answer?
Ok HERE is another Thread about Dubai in general, but maybe there are some more questions remaining.
The UAE forumers including myself are complaining about the lack of knowledge concerning Dubai or the UAE some people have here.
They have to explain the same points again and again, examples, oil, money, who is filling those skyscapers etc.
So i though it would be good idea to create a Q&A Thread similar to the one on SSP, moderators i was not sure where ,so i did it here.
The Idea is that finally if somebody posts something wrong (Dubais economy consists of oil etc.) one of the formers can send him the link to this thread where he will get the correct facts!
RULES >
A Forumer askes a question, and another forumer gives an answer which is definetley right, not only in his opinion, best proofen by a link or other forumers.
Of course a question like "is dubai a good place to live in", or "what about dubais economy" is senseless, try to ask specific things, which don't create a discussion.
There are additions to answers allowed, but no discussion!!
Be sure you only post an answer which is 100 % right , and not influenced by your own opinion.
This time i hope it will work , and the thread does not have to be closed eventually again.
Try to be friendly and reasonable.
After the first question is cleared, somebody is allowed to ask the next one
and the question will be added to the first post where all Q&A will be collected.
1.
The UAE forumers including myself are complaining about the lack of knowledge concerning Dubai or the UAE some people have here.
They have to explain the same points again and again, examples, oil, money, who is filling those skyscapers etc.
So i though it would be good idea to create a Q&A Thread similar to the one on SSP, moderators i was not sure where ,so i did it here.
The Idea is that finally if somebody posts something wrong (Dubais economy consists of oil etc.) one of the formers can send him the link to this thread where he will get the correct facts!
RULES >
A Forumer askes a question, and another forumer gives an answer which is definetley right, not only in his opinion, best proofen by a link or other forumers.
Of course a question like "is dubai a good place to live in", or "what about dubais economy" is senseless, try to ask specific things, which don't create a discussion.
There are additions to answers allowed, but no discussion!!
Be sure you only post an answer which is 100 % right , and not influenced by your own opinion.
This time i hope it will work , and the thread does not have to be closed eventually again.
Try to be friendly and reasonable.
After the first question is cleared, somebody is allowed to ask the next one
and the question will be added to the first post where all Q&A will be collected.
1.
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| Concerning Dubai's planned transportation system: http://urbanrail.net/as/dub/dubai.htm "- The driverless trains consist of 5 car sets offering a separate first class compartment and section for women and children." What's up with this? Answer: Well there is no real correct answer, you can just guess, they wan't to attract people who are used to drive with their s-class and don't want to use the public transportation system if they have to sit next to a smelling construction worker. Children and women, well the same point as above, and there is no actual seperation between women and men, but some women might prefer it to have their own section. They are not forced to use this section , it is just an offer. Kinda the same thing, that women and children are the first to get a rescue boat if the ship sinks  , it is more or less a privilegue. I cannot proof my point, because there is just no official answer. More : http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=97253 |
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| what are the rules on alcohol and weed? Answer : Weed is completely illegal, very stiff sentences. Alcohol is allowed only in hotels, which means all the nightclubs and bars here (with the exception of a few) are all tied to a hotel. You can buy alcohol from off-licenses but to do that you need an alcohol permit. Only non-Muslims are allowed alcohol permits. Alcohol is freely available at the airport duty free and in a little duty free shop on arrival into Dubai, many residents stock up there on their way back into the country. |
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| average temperature of each month throughout the year. amount of rainfall of every month throughout the year. Answer: Average January temp: 24°C (75°F) Average July temp: 41°C (106°F) Annual rainfall: 300mm (11.8 inches) |
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In the late 19th century, The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to restrict the Chinese community from expanding. So as new immigrants arrived from China each year, the density of San Francisco Chinatown increased without any possible ways of expanding outwards. Such restriction was designed to discourage the Chinese from immigrating to the United States. By 1882, there were 15,000 people living in an area consisting of only 12 city blocks.
Since the Chinese were prevented from expanding outwards, and their day to day economic activities depended on the surface area of public contact, they devised a clever way to increase their livelihood - creating private alleyways within the existing city blocks. These alleyways increased the surface area of public contact so substantially that Chinatown became a self-sufficient entity with housing, businesses, and recreational activities all compacted into one area.
The alleyways were privately owned and were not shown on the official city maps until quite recently. And because one could access the basement of any buildings from the alleyways, they quickly turned into an intricate network system connecting both the ground and the underground together.
The layout of San Francisco Chinatown was ideal for the brewing of radical ideas and innovative (subversive) activities. Since immigration was an indirect result of Western Imperialism, it was not surprising that San Francisco Chinatown should be a hotbed for Dr. Sun Yat-sen's underground revolutionaries. These revolutionaries would eventually succeed in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty; ending over 2000 years of Chinese feudalism in 1911. San Francisco Chinatown has since became one of the highest density neighborhood in the United State, yet it's building heights remain only at 3 to 4 stories high.
See alleyway maps at: http://www.boonlong.com/ChinatownSF.html>
| is UAE like other Middle eastern countries racists against Americans? Answer: The UAE is one of the safest countries in the Middle East for Americans. The population of US nationals here is around 10,000 and there is no tension between them and the locals. If anything, people just disagree with US foreign policy, and not Americans themselves. |
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| I want to know is Dubaians the correct names for the people that live in Dubai Answer: It varies. Most expats call them simply the 'locals' or the Emiratis. I don't really know anybody that calls them Dubaians, IMHO that name sounds a little strange to say and I don't think it is really used except in the media if at all. |
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| how far apart are the current clusters of high rises (specifically SZR and Dubai Marina)? just look at the Major Projects pdf, or visit the UAE section, and you should get an impression : Download Map |
Urban Decay
I know a little about urban decay but I want to learn some more!
What is a good definition of urban decay?
What are some good examples of it?
Post photos!
And what causes urban decay?
Teach me! Thank you!>
What is a good definition of urban decay?
What are some good examples of it?
Post photos!
And what causes urban decay?
Teach me! Thank you!>
Select a theme for a city.
It can come from any medium.
Now, to all anime fans: remember "Revolutionary Girl Utena"? Well, think of the opening song, "Rinbu Revolution".
That tune, IMHO, can represent any major West Coast city north of LA, not inclusive. (The best fit would probably be SF.) I can imagine Utena strolling the streets of Toronto or Montréal to the beat of "Rinbu Revolution", too.>
Now, to all anime fans: remember "Revolutionary Girl Utena"? Well, think of the opening song, "Rinbu Revolution".
That tune, IMHO, can represent any major West Coast city north of LA, not inclusive. (The best fit would probably be SF.) I can imagine Utena strolling the streets of Toronto or Montréal to the beat of "Rinbu Revolution", too.>
Denver's future?
Ive been strongly considering moving to Denver CO (from San Antonio, TX) b/c the climate there is my idea of perfect.
If it weren't for climate I would much rather move to Houston or Dallas, I like the really big, modern cities... San Antonio is not one of them.
Anyone know what the future holds for Denver? I hear they haven't built a new skyscraper since 1985, the city had been growing a lot are there still plans for more growth? Shopping centers, parks, museums, skyscrapers... anything? Overall how does the future look as far as growth?>
If it weren't for climate I would much rather move to Houston or Dallas, I like the really big, modern cities... San Antonio is not one of them.
Anyone know what the future holds for Denver? I hear they haven't built a new skyscraper since 1985, the city had been growing a lot are there still plans for more growth? Shopping centers, parks, museums, skyscrapers... anything? Overall how does the future look as far as growth?>
Canada's Western Provinces Vs. Maritime Provinces
What are the future prospects in economic development in the Maritime Provinces and the Western Provinces?
The best city in each region, in terms of development and future aspirations?
Calgary/Edmonton/Vancouver/Victoria for the West
Halifax/...? - for the East (although locational advantage to Europe)>
The best city in each region, in terms of development and future aspirations?
Calgary/Edmonton/Vancouver/Victoria for the West
Halifax/...? - for the East (although locational advantage to Europe)>
Would u rather to live in Oakland? (city proper)
I'm just curious about u want live in Oakland but not in San Francisco or other cities in Bay area. Just proper city of Oakland.
Please, someone need shows pic of Oakland.>
Please, someone need shows pic of Oakland.>
What city in europe has the most graffiti?
What city in europe do you think has the most graffiti?
I went to Brussels the other day, and there was tons of graffiti every where, i couldnt believe it, i thought london was bad. So i say brussels. What do you think?>
I went to Brussels the other day, and there was tons of graffiti every where, i couldnt believe it, i thought london was bad. So i say brussels. What do you think?>
The future development/reconstruction of Baghdad
Things are bad now, but experience from other civil wars shows that when the war ends, and security improves, refugees begin to return along with capital and pent-up demand for development. We've seen this pattern in such war-torn cities as Beirut, Juba (Sudan), Kabul (to some extent), Saigon, Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan), and many others. It is not always a fast process - it can take a while. But when war ends, cities tend to become boomtowns. Commerce that was suppressed by violence resumes, returning exiles bring back money and expertise, and there is a big demand for new construction and repairs/redevelopment of older construction.
I think Baghdad will be the same. It will eventually come through the violence, and will become a boomtown. The structural factors are there - it is already a huge city (around 7 million people), there is a lot of vacant/unused land within the Baghdad city plain (and around the edges), there is already a somewhat modern motorway network, and the Iraqi birth rate is still very high. It is on a major river. The city already has quite a few interesting monuments, a major international airport, a large university system, and direct road access to Amman, Damascus, and Kuwait City. Once the city achieves peace, these things will take off.
But what will the reconstruction of Baghdad look like?
Here are some screen captures of Baghdad from Google Earth, along with brief comments. What do YOU think will happen when the city redevelops?
This is an overview of the urban area. The airport is in the southwest, Sadr City is in the northeast, and the Green Zone is the clump of land on the west side of the river which points into the Karada peninsula.
Here is a motorway interchange in the city. Baghdad's road network has several routes that were built to "western standards" back in the 1970's and 80's.
What will the "new Baghdad" look like once reconstruction takes hold after the war?>
I think Baghdad will be the same. It will eventually come through the violence, and will become a boomtown. The structural factors are there - it is already a huge city (around 7 million people), there is a lot of vacant/unused land within the Baghdad city plain (and around the edges), there is already a somewhat modern motorway network, and the Iraqi birth rate is still very high. It is on a major river. The city already has quite a few interesting monuments, a major international airport, a large university system, and direct road access to Amman, Damascus, and Kuwait City. Once the city achieves peace, these things will take off.
But what will the reconstruction of Baghdad look like?
Here are some screen captures of Baghdad from Google Earth, along with brief comments. What do YOU think will happen when the city redevelops?
This is an overview of the urban area. The airport is in the southwest, Sadr City is in the northeast, and the Green Zone is the clump of land on the west side of the river which points into the Karada peninsula.
Here is a motorway interchange in the city. Baghdad's road network has several routes that were built to "western standards" back in the 1970's and 80's.
What will the "new Baghdad" look like once reconstruction takes hold after the war?>
South China Mall, a man-made miracle
Quote:>
>http://www.ibnlive.com/news/south-ch...e/29062-2.html
i saw a report on the news here about it - they were like its the only mall in the world that has no stores
the reporter was walking all over showing the empty stores
u can see the report here: http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/29062/...e-miracle.html>
| Dongguan (China): Christmas is just around the corner and the malls in the US are jampacked with shoppers. However, it's a different story in China, which is home to some of the biggest malls in the world. Having attractions including FranceÂ's Arc de Triomphe to the statues outside the pyramids in Egypt, the South China Mall can also guarantee a gondola ride just like that in Italy. "You can never build things too big in China. We are now one of the world's man-made miracles,Â" vice president, South China Mall, King Chen says. It is not quite like the Great Wall of China but the Â'great mallÂ' is larger than six football fields and three times the size of the Mall of America, the mother of all malls. Mega retail centres including the South China Mall are cropping up all over China with seven of the ten largest expected to be here by 2010, as economy has boomed. "The Chinese people are getting richer, buying more and living better lives. We want to give them a place to go,Â" says Chen. However, in spite of having amusement parks, children shows and replicas of seven cities like Venice and Hollywood, what are missing are the stores in the mall. The mall had been open for a little less than a year and the managers had hoped to fill this mall with hundreds of shops but it is nearly empty now. Unlike the US, where mall operators sign on retailers before they construct a mall, the company here built the mall first and is still waiting for retailers to show. "Many of the malls that are being developed are simply too large and essentially supply of space is getting ahead of demand for space so many of these malls simply fail to address the real demand that is present in China today,Â" says real estate developer, Morgan Parker. However, the operator is not afraid of potentially choppy waters. "We have built it so the retailers will come,Â" Chen says. And after all, the mall is in China where the economy is exploding and nearly everyone believes the future is bright. |
i saw a report on the news here about it - they were like its the only mall in the world that has no stores
the reporter was walking all over showing the empty storesu can see the report here: http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/29062/...e-miracle.html>
Your city´s oldest buildings?
So what´s you city´s oldest buildings? buildings, houses, churches, castles etc..
Helsinki was founded in 1550 but the buildings back then were built of wood and there is nothing left today. Helsinki also lacks an "old town" so typical for many European cities. The oldest buildings in the capital today are situated in Alexander street on right side of Senate square.
The oldest in that area is Sederholm House which is a stone building built in 1757.
Another old building (built in 1764) in the corner of Alexander street and Sofia street.
Then there is the Pyhän Laurin kirkko which was originally built in 1460 but was destroyed by fire in 1893 and restored in 1894. The belfry was built in the 17th century, and the original wooden upper part was replaced with the new brick part in the 1850s. The church is the oldest building around Helsinki area.
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Helsinki was founded in 1550 but the buildings back then were built of wood and there is nothing left today. Helsinki also lacks an "old town" so typical for many European cities. The oldest buildings in the capital today are situated in Alexander street on right side of Senate square.
The oldest in that area is Sederholm House which is a stone building built in 1757.
Another old building (built in 1764) in the corner of Alexander street and Sofia street.
Then there is the Pyhän Laurin kirkko which was originally built in 1460 but was destroyed by fire in 1893 and restored in 1894. The belfry was built in the 17th century, and the original wooden upper part was replaced with the new brick part in the 1850s. The church is the oldest building around Helsinki area.
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Sao Paolo...billboard ban angers advertisers
From: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/12/news/brazil.php
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| Billboard ban in São Paulo angers advertisers By Larry Rohter Tuesday, December 12, 2006 SÃO PAULO Imagine a modern metropolis with no outdoor advertising: no billboards, no flashing neon signs, no electronic panels with messages crawling along the bottom. Come the new year, this city of 11 million, overwhelmed by what the authorities call visual pollution, plans to press the "delete all" button and offer its residents unimpeded views of their surroundings. But in proposing to transform the landscape, officials have unleashed debate and brought into conflict sharply differing concepts of what this city, South America's largest and most prosperous, should be. City planners, architects and environmental advocates have argued enthusiastically that the prohibition, through a new "clean city" law, brings São Paulo a welcome step closer to an imagined urban ideal. The law is "a rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash," Roberto Pompeu de Toledo, a columnist and author of a history of São Paulo, wrote in the weekly newsmagazine Veja. "For once in life, all that is accustomed to coming out on top in Brazil has lost." But advertising and business groups regard the legislation as injurious to society and an affront to their professions. They say that free expression will be inhibited, jobs will be lost and consumers will have less information on which to base purchasing decisions. They also argue that streets will be less safe at night with the loss of lighting from outdoor advertising. "This is a radical law that damages the rules of a market economy and respect for the rule of law," said Marcel Solimeo, chief economist of the Commercial Association of São Paulo, which has 32,000 members. "We live in a consumer society and the essence of capitalism is the availability of information about products." The statute's most visible impact promises to be at eye level and above. The outsized billboards and screens that dominate the skyline, promoting everything from automobiles, jeans and cellphones to banks and sex shops, will have to come down. All other forms of publicity in public spaces, like distribution of fliers, will also stop. The law also regulates the dimensions of store signs, and will force many well-known companies to reduce them substantially by a formula based on the size of their facades. Another provision, much criticized by owners of transportation companies, outlaws advertising of any kind on the sides of the city's thousands of buses and taxis. The law, as passed, also applied to advertising banners trailed by airplanes and ads on blimps. But in the first of what promises to be a long series of legal challenges, a court ruled the clause unconstitutional on the grounds that the federal government, not the city, controls airspace. "What we are aiming for is a complete change of culture," said Roberto Tripoli, president of the City Council and one of the main sponsors of the legislation. "Yes, some people are going to have to pay a price. But things were out of hand and the population has made it clear it wants this." The law, approved by a vote of 45 to 1 in September, goes into effect on Jan. 1. Opponents complain that the date does not allow enough time for merchants to comply, that fines of up to $4,500 for violations are extreme and that the result will inevitably be a diminishing of urban life — "like New York without Times Square or Tokyo without the Ginza," Solimeo said. "I think this city is going to become a sadder, duller place," said Dalton Silvano, who cast the sole dissenting vote and is in the advertising business. "Advertising is both an art form and, when you're in your car or alone on foot, a form of entertainment that helps relieve solitude and boredom." This is not the city's first effort to regulate outdoor advertising. A few years ago it was prohibited in the historic downtown area. But there have been complaints about inspectors taking bribes and advertisers simply flouting the law. "All our efforts to negotiate have had no effect because none of the accords and agreements we reached with the advertising sector were ever complied with," Mayor Gilberto Kassab said in an interview. "A billboard that was forced to come down would be back up a week later in a different spot. There was a climate of impunity." Since "it is hard in a city of 11 million to find enough equipment and personnel to determine what was and wasn't legal, we decided to go all the way, to zero things out," Kassab said. "When you prohibit everything, society itself becomes your partner in enforcing the law" and reporting violations. Popular reaction has largely been supportive. "I'm in favor of anything that improves the way this city looks, and this law will definitely make things better," said Fernando Gil, 25, a student interviewed on Avenida Paulista, the main street in the heart of the financial district. "All that neon and bright lights, it just doesn't fit here." Advertising companies generally acknowledge that abuses of public space have occurred and that a majority of the city's estimated 13,000 outdoor billboards have been installed illegally. But they also complain that they are being made scapegoats, and that the real problem lies elsewhere. "It is not politically correct to talk about the million-plus posters and signs that small businesses and mechanics' shops have up all over the place, because they are poor," said Francesc Petit, a prominent advertising executive who has spoken out against the law. "It's easier to attack McDonald's and Coca-Cola and the banks, because that doesn't offend anybody." Kassab said that once the situation is under control he hopes to allow limited, strictly regulated advertising at bus stops, newsstands, outdoor street clocks and public bathrooms. But some residents who support the new legislation hope that day never comes, even if it were to profit the city's coffers. |
Your Favorite Asian City
At the risk of having my geography challenged, I pose the following question: By any standard, what's your favorite Asian city? I apologize in advance for any glaring omissions from the poll list.>
India: Investors Build Free Apartments in Mumbai Slums
Not Everyone Is Grateful as Investors Build Free Apartments in Mumbai Slums
Anand Giridharadas/International Herald Tribune
Article Tools Sponsored By
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS
Published: December 15, 2006
A growing number of towers like Crescent Heights and Buckley Court, house the rich and the aspiring. At the other extreme is a growing labyrinth of slums, sheltering more than five million people in squalid conditions. There are shortages of water and toilets. Disease is rampant, as is the odor of waste and garbage.
Yet now, a housing boom in this fast-growing economy may start to change that. Under a government program that is unusual in slums the world over, investors both here and from abroad are doing what was once left to philanthropists: giving slum dwellers new apartments free of charge.
Builders raze entire slums and use part of the land for tenement houses to shelter the former residents. The apartments are 225 square feet, the size of a typical shanty here. In return, the developer wins the right to build lucrative towers on the rest of the land, and pays nothing but the cost of resettlement.
Investors are eager to build these homes. Â"The moment you put them in a tower, youÂ're releasing 90 percent of the land,Â" said Pranay Vakil, chairman of the Indian arm of Knight Frank, a global real estate consulting firm.
So far, 100,000 apartments have been built in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, housing 600,000 people, said Debashish Chakrabarty, a civil servant who runs the cityÂ's Slum Rehabilitation Authority. Â"Not only is there a component of providing good housing to people who cannot afford it,Â" Mr. Chakrabarty said. Â"It also promises good returns to many of these big-time developers.Â"
Even so, the slum dwellers and their charitable backers have questions about resettlement. They are worried that todayÂ's horizontal slums will simply become tomorrowÂ's vertical ones, without the vibrant street life and sense of community.
There are 933 million slum dwellers worldwide, according to the United Nations, and many different methods of addressing their plight. A common approach is for government to sanction slum clearance and then build low-cost housing with public funds.
The United Nations is now financing an alternative project to give slum dwellers small loans to improve the quality of their shacks on their own and, in the case of natural disasters, to build new homes.
What makes the Mumbai program unusual is the participation of investors building free apartments, said Toshi Noda, Asia director of the United Nations Human Settlements Program, known as UN-Habitat.
Â"Free apartments is not common,Â" Mr. Noda said. Â"It is a new scheme. I think it will work, because the private sector can get their profit by developing the other half of the real estate.Â"
Some leading property developers and their financiers have noticed. Trikona Capital, a New York investment fund focused on Indian real estate, recently said it would invest $1 billion over the next four years in slum resettlement in Mumbai and the lucrative construction that follows. The fundÂ's investors include financial giants like Lehman Brothers and Fidelity Investments.
Â"It makes a lot of investment sense for us,Â" said Mahesh Gandhi, a Trikona director. Â"WeÂ're not here just to serve a social cause.Â"
Next year, the government will open bidding for resettlement in Dharavi, a vast Mumbai shantytown with hundreds of thousands of residents that is one of the worldÂ's largest. Foreign companies, including ETA-Ascon of Dubai, have expressed serious interest, Mr. Vakil of Knight Frank said. Trikona is also considering a bid, which could be in the range of $200 million for each of five 107-acre plots.
So profitable is resettlement becoming that a local developer, Akruti Nirman, has built its business around slums, and it is expected next year to raise $100 million in a stock offering that has attracted overseas investors.
The moves reflect a surge of enthusiasm for Indian real estate, which was closed to foreign capital until last year. Billions are pouring in from firms like Goldman Sachs to build malls, apartments and offices, and many property-related stock offerings are planned in 2007. Over the next decade, the real estate industry is projected by analysts to grow to $102 billion from $14 billion today.
Typically, land and construction costs of slum resettlement amount to roughly a third of the total project cost. But because builders usually get the land free or at a big discount, the effective cost an acre works out to much less than the market price of the land.
While some occupants of the new luxury buildings might be squeamish about living next to new buildings with former slum dwellers, the alternative is often to live next to old slums — and their dwellers. Businesses like Tata Consultancy Services, a large outsourcing company, and the French bank BNP Paribas have moved into towers built on former slum grounds.
Yet critics worry that building skyward will strain public services and disrupt the livelihoods of vendors, shopkeepers and fishermen, whose work calls for them to live in ground-level homes where they can store their boats and nets or closely supervise their stores.
They warn that the poor will not be able to afford the upkeep of capital-intensive buildings, and there are fears of replicating the ghettoization that has fed unrest in suburban Paris and elsewhere.
Big buildings also deprive slum dwellers of self-sufficiency, said Celine dÂ'Cruz, a coordinator in Mumbai for the advocacy group Slum Dwellers International. In a slum, a broken pipe is fixed by a local handyman. In an intricately built tower, professional help is usually required.
Â"I wouldnÂ't glorify that ecosystem,Â" Ms. dÂ'Cruz said of the slums. Â"But people have found an equilibrium within their means. The moment you give them something beyond their means, itÂ's a disaster.Â"
A slum can be resettled if 70 percent of the households agree; dissenters who remain are removed forcibly. Slum dwellers who arrived in Mumbai after 1995 are excluded from the resettlement program in an effort to discourage continuing migration, and they too can be ejected when slums are cleared.
A recent visit to units built by Akruti Nirman in the Andheri suburb of Mumbai found mixed results. The new buildings were concrete, with windows protected by grates. Children played in a clean courtyard below.
Next door was a warren of shanties not yet cleared. The picture was of a typical slum in India: tiny spaces. Clothes hung on outside walls. Cigarette butts and other debris floated in streams of sewage in the streets. Children played near dirty, mosquito-infested puddles.
But many living there said they wanted their slums back: shared open latrines instead of private toilets, rag covers instead of wooden doors.
Â"It was much better there,Â" said Ram Jatan Pal, a graying man who supports eight people on the few dollars a day he earns as a sidewalk bookseller. Â"Before, there would always be four guys around your shanty. We sat, we chatted. Now itÂ's like being caged in a poultry farm.Â"
The home was a single room with an attached kitchen and bathroom. A bunk bed was littered with Mr. PalÂ's books, making it unavailable for sleeping, which is done instead on straw mats on the floor.
Â"If they close this building and give us our slum back, we are ready to leave immediately,Â" Mr. Pal said. Â"EveryoneÂ's doing this for their own profit.Â"
But the Beheras, a family of migrants from the state of Orissa, said resettlement gave them new dignity.
The mother, Shisula, appreciates having her own toilet. Lilly, her 12-year-old daughter, studies twice as long in the silence of an apartment.
That afternoon, the family was snapping together hundreds of pairs of sunglasses in the apartment, a cramped room that doubles as a factory during daytime.
For Rita, 17, a school dropout, what the Pals call loneliness is what the Beheras call privacy.
Â"ThereÂ's peace here,Â" she said.>
Anand Giridharadas/International Herald Tribune
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By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS
Published: December 15, 2006
A growing number of towers like Crescent Heights and Buckley Court, house the rich and the aspiring. At the other extreme is a growing labyrinth of slums, sheltering more than five million people in squalid conditions. There are shortages of water and toilets. Disease is rampant, as is the odor of waste and garbage.
Yet now, a housing boom in this fast-growing economy may start to change that. Under a government program that is unusual in slums the world over, investors both here and from abroad are doing what was once left to philanthropists: giving slum dwellers new apartments free of charge.
Builders raze entire slums and use part of the land for tenement houses to shelter the former residents. The apartments are 225 square feet, the size of a typical shanty here. In return, the developer wins the right to build lucrative towers on the rest of the land, and pays nothing but the cost of resettlement.
Investors are eager to build these homes. Â"The moment you put them in a tower, youÂ're releasing 90 percent of the land,Â" said Pranay Vakil, chairman of the Indian arm of Knight Frank, a global real estate consulting firm.
So far, 100,000 apartments have been built in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, housing 600,000 people, said Debashish Chakrabarty, a civil servant who runs the cityÂ's Slum Rehabilitation Authority. Â"Not only is there a component of providing good housing to people who cannot afford it,Â" Mr. Chakrabarty said. Â"It also promises good returns to many of these big-time developers.Â"
Even so, the slum dwellers and their charitable backers have questions about resettlement. They are worried that todayÂ's horizontal slums will simply become tomorrowÂ's vertical ones, without the vibrant street life and sense of community.
There are 933 million slum dwellers worldwide, according to the United Nations, and many different methods of addressing their plight. A common approach is for government to sanction slum clearance and then build low-cost housing with public funds.
The United Nations is now financing an alternative project to give slum dwellers small loans to improve the quality of their shacks on their own and, in the case of natural disasters, to build new homes.
What makes the Mumbai program unusual is the participation of investors building free apartments, said Toshi Noda, Asia director of the United Nations Human Settlements Program, known as UN-Habitat.
Â"Free apartments is not common,Â" Mr. Noda said. Â"It is a new scheme. I think it will work, because the private sector can get their profit by developing the other half of the real estate.Â"
Some leading property developers and their financiers have noticed. Trikona Capital, a New York investment fund focused on Indian real estate, recently said it would invest $1 billion over the next four years in slum resettlement in Mumbai and the lucrative construction that follows. The fundÂ's investors include financial giants like Lehman Brothers and Fidelity Investments.
Â"It makes a lot of investment sense for us,Â" said Mahesh Gandhi, a Trikona director. Â"WeÂ're not here just to serve a social cause.Â"
Next year, the government will open bidding for resettlement in Dharavi, a vast Mumbai shantytown with hundreds of thousands of residents that is one of the worldÂ's largest. Foreign companies, including ETA-Ascon of Dubai, have expressed serious interest, Mr. Vakil of Knight Frank said. Trikona is also considering a bid, which could be in the range of $200 million for each of five 107-acre plots.
So profitable is resettlement becoming that a local developer, Akruti Nirman, has built its business around slums, and it is expected next year to raise $100 million in a stock offering that has attracted overseas investors.
The moves reflect a surge of enthusiasm for Indian real estate, which was closed to foreign capital until last year. Billions are pouring in from firms like Goldman Sachs to build malls, apartments and offices, and many property-related stock offerings are planned in 2007. Over the next decade, the real estate industry is projected by analysts to grow to $102 billion from $14 billion today.
Typically, land and construction costs of slum resettlement amount to roughly a third of the total project cost. But because builders usually get the land free or at a big discount, the effective cost an acre works out to much less than the market price of the land.
While some occupants of the new luxury buildings might be squeamish about living next to new buildings with former slum dwellers, the alternative is often to live next to old slums — and their dwellers. Businesses like Tata Consultancy Services, a large outsourcing company, and the French bank BNP Paribas have moved into towers built on former slum grounds.
Yet critics worry that building skyward will strain public services and disrupt the livelihoods of vendors, shopkeepers and fishermen, whose work calls for them to live in ground-level homes where they can store their boats and nets or closely supervise their stores.
They warn that the poor will not be able to afford the upkeep of capital-intensive buildings, and there are fears of replicating the ghettoization that has fed unrest in suburban Paris and elsewhere.
Big buildings also deprive slum dwellers of self-sufficiency, said Celine dÂ'Cruz, a coordinator in Mumbai for the advocacy group Slum Dwellers International. In a slum, a broken pipe is fixed by a local handyman. In an intricately built tower, professional help is usually required.
Â"I wouldnÂ't glorify that ecosystem,Â" Ms. dÂ'Cruz said of the slums. Â"But people have found an equilibrium within their means. The moment you give them something beyond their means, itÂ's a disaster.Â"
A slum can be resettled if 70 percent of the households agree; dissenters who remain are removed forcibly. Slum dwellers who arrived in Mumbai after 1995 are excluded from the resettlement program in an effort to discourage continuing migration, and they too can be ejected when slums are cleared.
A recent visit to units built by Akruti Nirman in the Andheri suburb of Mumbai found mixed results. The new buildings were concrete, with windows protected by grates. Children played in a clean courtyard below.
Next door was a warren of shanties not yet cleared. The picture was of a typical slum in India: tiny spaces. Clothes hung on outside walls. Cigarette butts and other debris floated in streams of sewage in the streets. Children played near dirty, mosquito-infested puddles.
But many living there said they wanted their slums back: shared open latrines instead of private toilets, rag covers instead of wooden doors.
Â"It was much better there,Â" said Ram Jatan Pal, a graying man who supports eight people on the few dollars a day he earns as a sidewalk bookseller. Â"Before, there would always be four guys around your shanty. We sat, we chatted. Now itÂ's like being caged in a poultry farm.Â"
The home was a single room with an attached kitchen and bathroom. A bunk bed was littered with Mr. PalÂ's books, making it unavailable for sleeping, which is done instead on straw mats on the floor.
Â"If they close this building and give us our slum back, we are ready to leave immediately,Â" Mr. Pal said. Â"EveryoneÂ's doing this for their own profit.Â"
But the Beheras, a family of migrants from the state of Orissa, said resettlement gave them new dignity.
The mother, Shisula, appreciates having her own toilet. Lilly, her 12-year-old daughter, studies twice as long in the silence of an apartment.
That afternoon, the family was snapping together hundreds of pairs of sunglasses in the apartment, a cramped room that doubles as a factory during daytime.
For Rita, 17, a school dropout, what the Pals call loneliness is what the Beheras call privacy.
Â"ThereÂ's peace here,Â" she said.>
Chinatown, Alleyways, and Revolution
In the late 19th century, The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to restrict the Chinese community from expanding. So as new immigrants arrived from China each year, the density of San Francisco Chinatown increased without any possible ways of expanding outwards. Such restriction was designed to discourage the Chinese from immigrating to the United States. By 1882, there were 15,000 people living in an area consisting of only 12 city blocks.
Since the Chinese were prevented from expanding outwards, and their day to day economic activities depended on the surface area of public contact, they devised a clever way to increase their livelihood - creating private alleyways within the existing city blocks. These alleyways increased the surface area of public contact so substantially that Chinatown became a self-sufficient entity with housing, businesses, and recreational activities all compacted into one area.
The alleyways were privately owned and were not shown on the official city maps until quite recently. And because one could access the basement of any buildings from the alleyways, they quickly turned into an intricate network system connecting both the ground and the underground together.
The layout of San Francisco Chinatown was ideal for the brewing of radical ideas and innovative (subversive) activities. Since immigration was an indirect result of Western Imperialism, it was not surprising that San Francisco Chinatown should be a hotbed for Dr. Sun Yat-sen's underground revolutionaries. These revolutionaries would eventually succeed in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty; ending over 2000 years of Chinese feudalism in 1911. San Francisco Chinatown has since became one of the highest density neighborhood in the United State, yet it's building heights remain only at 3 to 4 stories high.
See alleyway maps at: http://www.boonlong.com/ChinatownSF.html>
Places with multiple skyline views?
Where in the world can you see 2 skylines.
I would imagine the likes of Dallas/Fort Worth, multiple suburban skylines, but what about the likes of
Philadelphia / New York
Manchester / Liverpool,Sheffield,Leeds etc
any examples>
I would imagine the likes of Dallas/Fort Worth, multiple suburban skylines, but what about the likes of
Philadelphia / New York
Manchester / Liverpool,Sheffield,Leeds etc
any examples>
Global languages: don't leave home without one
If you were going to come up with a list of global languages the knowledge of which would allow you to have a degree of ability to negotiate most cities in the world, which languages would they be?
To clarify: I'm talking of languages that would be included where a city has tourist or visitor information listed in a variety of versions (signs and literature), that the ability of getting a translator would be possible, that may even have a significant number of people within cities throughout the world speaking that language.
I realize that there will be a wide range of differences in how successful each of these languaes would be....but the list itself would be interesting.>
To clarify: I'm talking of languages that would be included where a city has tourist or visitor information listed in a variety of versions (signs and literature), that the ability of getting a translator would be possible, that may even have a significant number of people within cities throughout the world speaking that language.
I realize that there will be a wide range of differences in how successful each of these languaes would be....but the list itself would be interesting.>
Parks in your city
Of course there are plenty of parks in big cities, so you obviously can't post them all, so post your favorites? Post some pictures!
This is Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney:
Royal Botanic Gardens is a chinese garden located in Sydney's chinatown:
Hyde Park is one of the largest in the city, modeled after the Hyde Park of London, England:
>
This is Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney:
Royal Botanic Gardens is a chinese garden located in Sydney's chinatown:
Hyde Park is one of the largest in the city, modeled after the Hyde Park of London, England:
>
Palmas...a major new city rises in Brazil
From: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...lines-business
___________
___________
Quote:>
>>
| A major new city rises in Brazil From pastureland the government has built Palmas into a shiny state capital with soaring buildings. Now, it just needs people to move in. By Marla Dickerson, Times Staff Writer December 30, 2006 PALMAS, BRAZIL — This planned city boasts stately boulevards, universities, a gleaming airport and beaches — no small feat for a place deep in Brazil's interior. Never mind that only 208,000 people currently reside in a space designed to accommodate 3 million residents, giving Palmas the feel of an empty movie set. Seventeen years ago, Palmas was little more than a blueprint and scrubby pastureland. It has sprung from the red dust to become this nation's fastest-growing state capital. And it's a testament to the aspirations of Brazil's sprawling rural center and north, whose development has long lagged behind that of the bustling southeast. "Palmas is the new frontier," said Mayor Raul Filho, whose city was founded in 1989 as the capital of Brazil's newest state, Tocantins. This region "is the future of Brazil." Although most of Brazil's 188 million residents still live within a few hundred miles of the Atlantic Ocean, the nation's vast interior is experiencing a surge of growth and investment. The opening of Brazil's so-called cerrado, an immense expanse of tropical savanna in the center of the country, began in earnest in the 1950s with the construction of Brasilia, about 400 miles south of Palmas. The meticulously planned federal district was an effort to spur development in the interior and shift population growth away from the southeastern megalopolises of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Advances in soil and plant science are driving new development. Nearly 100 million acres of poor-quality cerrado soil have been converted into arable farm ground, most of that in the last 25 years. Cheap, abundant land has turned central Brazil into a hothouse of soybean, cotton and sugar cane production, boosting demand for infrastructure and services to support a crucial export industry. For Jarbas Meurer, who arrived in 1991 at age 14, Palmas was the chance to live the Brazilian dream. His father was running a struggling drugstore in the neighboring state of Mato Grosso when the family saw a report about Palmas on a television news program. What better place to start a new life than in a city that was literally being built from the ground up. Early settlers like Meurer lived like pioneers without electricity, running water or other basic services. He remembers camping in a makeshift shelter and bathing in a nearby river, a rare respite from the choking dust kicked up by earthmovers scraping roads and home sites from the virgin savanna. Today he runs a building supply company, selling construction materials to fortune seekers who arrive almost daily. Although Palmas isn't expanding at the breakneck pace of the early days, its population swelled 50% between 2000 and 2005. The 29-year-old Meurer said that business was good and that he had put down roots. "It is a chance to grow with the city," Meurer said. "There is opportunity here." Political tension sowed the seeds for the creation of Tocantins, which encompasses what was previously the northern half of the state of Goaias. Brazil is roughly the size of the continental United States, but it has only 26 states. Some of them are so large that they dwarf neighboring countries. The vast distances have created intrastate rivalries among far-flung residents about where public resources should be spent. "Politicians used to come up this way only in election years," said Palmas businessman Emilson Vierira Santos, whose company manufactures iron sheets and bars for the construction trade. "The rest of the time we were forgotten." The northern separatist movement led to the creation of Tocantins in 1988. Helped by billions of dollars in federal aid and inspired by the legacy of Brazil's best-known master-planned city, legislators approved a new capital smack in the center of the new state. The gold-domed capitol looks like the palace of a Middle Eastern potentate. "We are like a small Brasilia," Mayor Filho said. Indeed, with its grandiose scale and soaring modernist buildings, Palmas evokes the same sense of audacity, ambition and will to power. The Palacio Araguaia, Palmas' main government building, anchors one of the largest public squares in Latin America but is virtually devoid of people. Residents on bicycles pedal unmolested down six-lane thoroughfares suitable for Los Angeles traffic. Whether Palmas grows as large as its founders' vision for it remains to be seen. Maintaining a big-city infrastructure is proving costly. Unregulated squatter settlements have emerged on the outskirts of the city, thwarting plans for orderly expansion. Perhaps the biggest challenge is creating jobs in a poor, rural and still largely isolated region. Officials are betting heavily on agriculture. Long home to gigantic cattle herds and pineapple plantations, Tocantins is attracting cotton and soybean farmers lured by cheap land and a sunny climate that enables them to plant two or three crops a year. Officials are promoting the production of biodiesel, a renewable fuel made from a variety of crops, including soybeans, castor beans and palm oil. To help get those farm products to market quickly and at lower cost, the Brazilian government is planning a railway to run the length of Tocantins as well as projects to open its rivers to more freight traffic. A series of hydroelectric plants has already made the state a net exporter of electricity. And it has given Palmas a new tourist attraction. A dam on the Tocantins River created a massive reservoir in 2001 that has turned the sweltering city into an inland resort with miles of beaches — albeit one where swimmers need to be wary of piranhas. Some environmentalists are appalled at government efforts to push large-scale development along the southern fringes of the Amazon. Brazil has a long track record of projects intended to foment growth in its interior that have damaged the environment with little benefit for residents. Development could further marginalize the region's indigenous tribes, who have already lost much of their traditional lands. But for entrepreneurs such as Cleide Honorato, who owns a car rental agency and a four-bedroom house with a swimming pool, growth and prosperity have converged in Palmas. "Newcomers are good for my business," she said. "I wish there were more of them." |
Advantages / disadvantages for living in your city
What do you like best about living in your city? No place if perfect, so what do you not like? Please be honest.
I don't live anywhere near a city, so i don't think i'm qualified to answer
>
I don't live anywhere near a city, so i don't think i'm qualified to answer
>
Military bases/towns and buildings
Military bases/towns, and their buildings, are intrigueing to me. In the US, these places are diverse sociologically and extremely integrated, yet are staunching conservative. While being spartan aesthically we should not ignore these places, and their buildings. There's something about them.
Post pics (buildings, base maps, etc.) and/or discuss the social aspects of things related to military bases/towns.>
Post pics (buildings, base maps, etc.) and/or discuss the social aspects of things related to military bases/towns.>
The Berlin Model (built, u/c and future)
The Berlin Model in Berlin
The following are pictures taken from the Berlin Town Hall Model Room (way back in Easter this year - been so busy that I aint been able to find time to post all these pictures and lots more). White models indicate buildings already built, the wood-colour blocks indicate buildings either built, u/c or future proposals after 1990-2000. The main future proposals being around Alexanderplatz (where all those towers are)...currently only masking blocks, but general dimensions for the very long term (Berlin has a very high vacancy rate for the moment and near future).
>
The following are pictures taken from the Berlin Town Hall Model Room (way back in Easter this year - been so busy that I aint been able to find time to post all these pictures and lots more). White models indicate buildings already built, the wood-colour blocks indicate buildings either built, u/c or future proposals after 1990-2000. The main future proposals being around Alexanderplatz (where all those towers are)...currently only masking blocks, but general dimensions for the very long term (Berlin has a very high vacancy rate for the moment and near future).
>
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