Citytalk and Urban Issues

WORLD'S MOST RACIST MULTICULTURAL CITY?

2007-05-01T16:00:00.001-07:00

I can't seem to find a discussion about this in these boards so here's the background article.

Calm after Australia race riots
Dec. 12, 2005. 05:06 AM
MIKE CORDER
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SYDNEY, Australia Â In one of Australia's worst outbursts of racial violence, thousands of drunken white youths attacked police and people they believed were of Arab descent at a Sydney beach, angered by reports that Lebanese youths had assaulted two lifeguards.

Young men of Arab descent retaliated in several Sydney suburbs, fighting with police and smashing 40 cars with sticks and bats, police said. Thirty-one people were injured and 16 were arrested in hours of violence Sunday.

The city was calm Monday, and police formed a strike force to track down the instigators, some of whom were believed to be from white supremacist groups. Police said they were also seeking an Arab man who allegedly stabbed a white man in the back.

Prime Minister John Howard condemned the violence, but said he did not believe racism was widespread in Australia.

"Attacking people on the basis of their race, their appearance, their ethnicity, is totally unacceptable and should be repudiated by all Australians irrespective of their own background and their politics," Howard said.

But he added: "I'm not going to put a general tag (of) racism on the Australian community."

Australia has long prided itself on accepting wave after wave of immigrants Â from Italians and Greeks after the Second World War to families fleeing political strife in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. In the last census in 2001, nearly a quarter of Australia's 20 million people said they were born overseas.

However, tensions between youngsters of Arabic descent and white Australians have been rising in recent years, largely because of anti-Muslim sentiment fuelled by the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States and deadly bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali that killed 88 Australians in October 2002.

About 300,000 Muslims live in Australia, the majority in large cities.

"Arab Australians have had to cope with vilification, racism, abuse and fear of a racial backlash for a number of years, but these riots will take that fear to a new level," said Roland Jabbour, chairman of the Australian Arabic Council.

The riots apparently began after rumours circulated that youths of Lebanese descent were responsible for an attack last weekend on two lifeguards at Cronulla Beach. Police said the assault was not believed to be racially motivated.

Police had increased the number of officers patrolling the beach in the Sydney suburb on Sunday after cell phone text messages urged people to gather there to retaliate for the attack.

Police said more than 5,000 white youths, some wrapped in Australian flags and chanting racist slurs, fought with police, attacked people they believed to be of Arab descent and assaulted a pair of paramedics trying to help people escape the riot.

Police fought back with batons and pepper spray.

Many of the youths had been drinking heavily, police said.

One white teenager had the words "We grew here, you flew here" painted on his back. Someone had written "100 per cent Aussie pride" in the sand. TV broadcasts showed a group of young women attacking another woman, whose ethnicity was not clear.

The violence shocked this city of 4 million which prides itself on being a cultural melting pot.

"What we have seen yesterday is something I thought I would never see in Australia and perhaps we have not seen in Australia in any of our life times and that is a mass call to violence based on race," Community Relations Commission chairman Stepan Kerkyasharian told Sky News.

"Our disgrace," said a front page headline in Sydney's Daily Telegraph. Below was a picture of white youths attacking a man who appeared to be of Arab descent on a train in Cronulla.

Keysar Trad, a prominent member of Sydney's Lebanese community, said he had spoken to one victim who was released from the hospital Monday and was urging for calm.

"He doesn't want any retaliation by anybody from a Middle Eastern background," Trad said. "He wants everyone to allow the rule of law to take its course, leave it to the police and he said he holds no grudges against anyone."

Morris Iemma, the premier of New South Wales state, said police would use video images and photographs to track down the instigators. "Let's be very clear, the police will be unrelenting in their fight against these thugs and hooligans," he said.

Cronulla, one of the few beaches in Sydney that is easily accessible by train, is often visited by youngsters from poorer suburbs, many of them of Arab descent. Residents accuse the youths of travelling in gangs and sometimes intimidating other beachgoers.

Cronulla is several miles south of iconic Sydney beaches like Bondi and is not a popular destination for foreign tourists.

Aborigines rioted in the Sydney neighbourhood of Redfern in February 2004 after blaming police for the death of a 17-year-old boy. Forty police were wounded, eight of them hospitalized, in a nine-hour street battle with residents.>

2005 GDP(nominal) Rank[conjecture]

2007-05-01T15:30:00.001-07:00

2005GDP Rank

EU 12,955,370
1 US 14,486,624
2 Japan 4,663,823
3 Germany 2,730,109
4 UK 2,227,551
5 PRC(mainland) 2,054,880
6 France1,972,724
7 Italy 1,709,668
8 Canada 1,034,532
9 Spain 1,019,024
10 India 719,819
11 South Korea 714,219
12 Mexico 692,961
13 Russia 671,815
14 Australia 612,800
15 Brazil 587,784>

?MEGAPOLITAN

2007-05-01T15:00:00.001-07:00

USA Today article http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...gacities_x.htm talks about the the formation of a few giant megalopolises. What do you think? Should we be thinking along those lines in terms of development/transport/greenbelts, etc. or is the concept a stretch? >

American Cities: 4 categories

2007-05-01T14:30:00.001-07:00

Can you categorize US cities by the following descriptors:

Describtor A: Great place to visit and to live

Describtor B: Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there

Describtor C: Nice place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit (as in quality of life is high, but not much to see on a vacation)

Describtor D: Neither a place where I'd like like to visit or live

*********

List as follows:

A
City 1
City 2
City 3
etc.

B
City 4
City 5
City 6
etc.

C
City 7
City 8
City 9
etc.

D
City 10
City 11
City 12
etc.>

What product is most associated with your city?

2007-05-01T14:00:00.001-07:00

Coca-Cola is headquartered in Atlanta and is arguably Atlanta's most associated product. What product is your city most associated with?>

What product is most associated with your city?

2007-05-01T13:30:00.001-07:00

Coca-Cola is headquartered in Atlanta and is arguably Atlanta's most associated product. What product is your city most associated with?>

Buenos Aires, Always in style (from the Washington Post)

2007-05-01T13:00:00.001-07:00

Look guys, the Washington Post published a great article on Argentina

WORTH READING, BELIEVE ME!

---------------------------------------------------------------
Buenos Aires, Always in Style

By Cindy Loose
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 10, 2005; Page P01

There's a high beauty quotient among the people of Argentina, and they dress with flair. Even women in jeans have that ability to throw on an ordinary scarf or shawl in such a way that they end up looking elegant.

My friend Pam and I look at each other immediately after arriving on the streets of Buenos Aires. We've been friends since college days -- so long we can sometimes read each other's minds. She says it first: "Haircuts."

We stop in the first salon we pass. At these prices, we might as well get highlights, too. A wash, cut, highlights and blow-dry cost 37 pesos each -- about $13.

Try doing that in Paris, which I've come to think of as the Buenos Aires of Europe.

I came to Argentina last month hoping to find a viable alternative to Europe, where the almighty euro is still giving the U.S. dollar a firm beating, recent gains notwithstanding. I happily anticipated that I would find things cheaper here -- after all, the Argentine peso went into free fall back in 2002. But how exceptional would the bargains be, and would it really be a true substitute -- close enough to the original to satisfy the traveler yearning for a European-style experience?

Matter of fact, during my days and nights in Buenos Aires, I had to keep reminding myself that I was in South America. Walking wide boulevards lined with fine, European-style architecture, past chic restaurants and bistros where people linger over meals, you sometimes feel as if you are in Paris. Late at night, though, the bright lights and indefinable sense of energy in the streets reminded me more of New York -- although New York is much more ethnically diverse. PorteÃ±os, as residents of Buenos Aires are called, are predominantly of European extraction.

Basically, visiting Buenos Aires is like going to Europe and finding that everything is half-off American prices. Plus you've got coupons that knock another 20 percent off select goods and services.

Granted, you still have to get there. But our package price of $900 each -- about the cost of airfare to Europe this summer, or to Argentina, for that matter -- included airfare direct from Dulles, six nights in a very nice, centrally located hotel with breakfasts, airport transfers in a private car with a tour guide to greet us, and a half-day bus tour of the city.

If we'd been extremely frugal -- eating in the cheapest restaurants and taking public buses for 30 cents -- we could have gotten by on less than $200 for all other expenses that week. We chose instead to enjoy a few affordable luxuries. This included taking cabs (after all, the meters start at 55 cents), great meals in beautiful settings, a day trip out of the city and an overnight trip to an estancia, one of the many former estates where the wealthiest aristocrats of Argentine society once lived and trained their polo ponies during the months they were not vacationing in Europe.

Unfortunately, we couldn't ignore the bargains in shop windows. After all, our salon "savings" alone could buy us three or four pairs of fashionable leather shoes, or four or five stylish woolen sweaters, or maybe a pair of those boots of buttery soft pigskin, with a purse to match.

Of course, this tourist windfall comes at the expense of the Argentine people who, despite a stable government at the moment, still struggle with the fallout of many years of inept and corrupt leadership. Just a few years ago, the Argentine peso was pegged to the American dollar, one for one. During our trip, banks were giving about 2.8 pesos for one dollar. Even that apparently did not reflect the true state of the peso: Most shops and restaurants were happy to take American dollars and give a flat three-to-one exchange.

Yet the city -- or at least the central areas that tourists frequent -- shows few, if any, signs of the financial collapse that the country has endured. Restaurants, bars and tango venues are filled with locals. Parks and buildings both public and private seem wellkept. You see fewer obviously destitute people than you would in similar neighborhoods in American cities. Although the U.S. State Department warns of petty crime, I feel safe walking in busy downtown neighborhoods both day and night.

I repeatedly wonder aloud how the city and so many of its inhabitants can continue to look so good. The answer that keeps coming back boils down to this: Looking good is a central tenet of the culture in this country that was once one of the richest on Earth. When Argentine actor Fernando Lamas would repeat his familiar phrase, "You look mahvelous, darling" -- a phrase famously vamped by comedian Billy Crystal -- he was summing up the ethos of his country.

Perhaps native-born Patricia Foster gives the best insight into current-day Argentina. Foster, who works long hours managing a tourist ranch about two hours outside the city, is one of those classy women who throw on a shawl and look as if they just stepped out of a Town & Country ad. Life is tough, she says, and she's lucky to have a job. Unlike her parents did with her, she is unable to help her grown daughter, whose monthly earnings don't even pay her rent. But it's important to keep up appearances.

The Spanish were the first European settlers to arrive and conquer here, and some of the churches built by Jesuit missionaries remain in Buenos Aires. But subsequent waves of European immigrants have left their mark. There are about as many Italian restaurants in the city as there are steakhouses, and you can raise a glass in an Irish tavern with a Spanish-speaking O'Donnell or Flaherty, or have a German strudel in a cafe in an old French mansion.

About 9 million of Argentina's 37 million people live in and near the port city, which boasts 47 separate and distinct neighborhoods.

When I learn that our hotel is in the central business district, I assume it will be a long walk from anything other than canyons of office buildings. But it turns out Buenos Aires doesn't have soulless high-rise neighborhoods. The ground floors of office buildings are used for retail, so our hotel on Reconquista is surrounded with chic stores and restaurants, the streets lively with pedestrians from early morning until late at night. As long as we stash our cameras and keep our mouths shut, Pam and I are mistaken for locals. People handing out fliers trying to entice us into restaurants or stores routinely address us in Spanish. When it becomes clear we're from the United States, we get an enthusiastic greeting. Argentines, we're told, still remember with gratitude Jimmy Carter's call for human rights at a time they were under the thumbs of a right-wing military dictatorship. They still fondly recall that then-first lady Hillary Clinton met with the mothers and grandmothers of "the disappeared." (Amnesty International has documented the disappearance of 9,000 people at the hands of the military dictatorship that ruled from 1976 to 1983. Estimates of disappearances range up to 40,000. Each Thursday, mothers of the disappeared rally at the Plaza de Mayo, reminding the current government that they still seek answers to the fate of family members who vanished.)

Although we've taken an 11-hour, overnight flight from Dulles, the one-hour time difference means no jet lag, and we hit the streets immediately upon arrival.

We quickly realize we don't have to plan our days. Like a handful of great cities around the world, Buenos Aires is a place where you can walk aimlessly and be assured of finding numerous things of interest. It's got that palpable sense of energy: Street performers pop up all over the city, and dozens of museums and other attractions are concentrated in several downtown neighborhoods. Our meandering path on our first day through the Centro and Retiro neighborhoods leads past museums dedicated to art, crime and forensics, photography, city history, currency, ethnography. Given that entrance fees range from 30 cents to a couple of dollars, you can pop in and out without feeling obligated to absorb every detail of every exhibit.

We've planned our trip so that we'll be free on a Sunday, to take in the San Telmo market. The neighborhood is considered slightly dicey at night, but on Sundays, it feels as if all of Buenos Aires has gathered for a massive street fair.

A brochure we've picked up at a downtown information kiosk lists the addresses of 92 clubs for dancing tango, the sultry heart and most internationally recognized symbol of Buenos Aires. But if your interest in tango is casual and you just want to see a few couples perform, you'll find them here on the streets, dancing for tips.

Classical guitarists are also playing for tips. Miming is a popular art form here, and costumes are elaborate. I didn't know there were so many mimes in the entire world. It's as if they had an international convention here, and everyone stayed.

And of course the main attraction: stuff. The market offers new, used and antique goods of every conceivable variety. I'm tantalized by big things -- garden sculptures, elaborately decorated wrought iron gates, old wooden doors for which I have no use but love anyway, and huge copper pots and pans. I settle on some easily packed handmade jewelry, and vow to return some day for the pots.

For four days and four nights, we walk. Most of the time we have no specific destination in mind but simply explore neighborhoods. The most elegant and most unabashedly European: the adjoining neighborhoods of Recoleta and Palermo.

The French-style mansions in Recoleta date from the early 19th century, testimony to the vast wealth that once poured into Buenos Aires from the nearby pampas, or fertile grasslands. The neighborhood is perhaps most famous abroad for being home to the Recoleta Cemetery. The historic, 10-acre cemetery is crowded with about 7,000 grand mausoleums housing Argentina's elite. With the help of a cemetery groundskeeper, we find the gravesite of Eva Peron. Fifty years after her death, she remains a controversial national figure, but she clearly has her long-enduring fans, judging from the flowers they place in the iron filigree of the mausoleum doors.

Perhaps the greatest testament to the fabled wealth and cultural stature of Buenos Aires: Teatro Colon, the world-renowned, 2,500-seat opera house opened in 1908. Its auditorium, in French baroque style, is lauded by opera and symphony buffs for superb acoustics. The walls of the foyer are made with three kinds of European marble; the floors are mosaics of Venetian tiles; overhead is a Parisian-style stained-glass dome.

The great stars of the opera have all sung here: Maria Callas, Enrico Caruso, Luciano Pavarotti. Mikhail Baryshnikov called it "the most beautiful of the theaters I know," and Baryshnikov knows some theaters.

Open for guided tours, the opera house is also home to the city's ballet and opera companies and three orchestras. A good seat for the opera costs about $35, or you can buy a cheap seat for little more than a dollar.

My favorite spot in the city: the riverside promenade in Puerto Madero, an old warehouse district turned into a modern, hip neighborhood. Hovering over the neighborhood like a giant bird about to take flight is a gleaming white footbridge designed by Santiago Calatrava, the highly lauded Spanish architect whose awards include the 2005 Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects. Calatrava, whose work was chosen for inclusion in the rebuilding at New York's World Trade Center site, has created a bridge that is a poetic vision of a tall ship, with teak flooring, lights reminiscent of portholes, and soaring beams and cables that are like masts and rigging. In the evening, lights from the bridge shimmer on the river. In the day, natural light bounces off the water and plays along the surface of the bridge.

Life on the Estancia

The Estancia La PorteÃ±a, about 90 miles outside Buenos Aires, is a vivid reminder of the great wealth and power once enjoyed by Argentine aristocrats. In the early 20th century, the estancia, or ranch, covered 14,826 acres, or more than 23 square miles.

Today, the ranch occupies about 700 acres. Polo star Manuel Guiraldes, grand-nephew of Argentine writer Ricardo Guiraldes, still trains polo ponies on the estancia, but takes in guests at the colonial-style home on the grounds. It is one of about 1,000 estancias in Argentina that allows guests to experience a taste of the aristocratic life, typically for about $90 per person per night, including meals, alcoholic drinks and horseback riding.

We'll be staying down the road at La Bamba, the first estancia to open its doors to paying guests and one of three just outside the appealing little colonial town of San Antonio de Areco. Totally torn about which of the three we should have chosen, we decide to at least see all three.

Manuel's wife, Queca, meets us outside the stables, where polo ponies are being saddled, and shows us the grounds, including a Parisian-designed garden and stands of sycamore trees, pines and larches. The property is laced with wooded riding trails. Inside, each guest room has a fireplace and is furnished with country antiques. Guests are also welcome to lounge and read in the studio where Guiraldes, who died in 1927, wrote his books about the life of the gauchos (Argentine cowboys), or in the living room where the writer's grand-nephew displays his polo trophies.

I'm filled with envy at the pastoral life lived on a former estate, but Keka tells me somewhat wistfully that life here is very different from that of two generations ago. "They used to live six months in Paris, six months in Argentina," she says. "They sent their children to Switzerland or England to be educated."

We head to our estancia, La Bamba, about 10 miles from La PorteÃ±a. We've hired a driver to take us from Buenos Aires, after numerous people warned us against taking on manic traffic in and just outside the city. He turns up a long lane lined with towering sycamore trees, and we enter the life of country ease. Hammocks hang between trees next to a swimming pool on the property's vast lawn. Hundreds of parrots and parakeets flit through the air, which is filled with the smell of beef roasting over an open wood fire.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On our last day in the city, before an evening flight, I return to a shop near my hotel to try on a leather jacket I've been admiring all week. Turns out it doesn't fit. No problem, says the saleswoman. A seamstress appears, takes my measurements, offers me a selection of leather to choose from and heads to the factory. She promises me a tailored, handmade jacket, for $140, by 4 p.m.

While Pam goes off for a manicure -- $2.50 plus tip -- I settle in for a proper English tea in an elegant tearoom in the Carlton Hotel. The world passes by the window outside my table in the room with mahogany wainscoting as I eat finger sandwiches, scones with cream, and jam and pastries from a tiered silver platter. It costs me about $7. Those on less forgiving budgets are welcome to linger at the table and share the food; the second person simply orders tea. That way, it's tea for two for about $8.50 -- an economy measure that Argentines are enjoying at tables all around me.

Normal life will soon overtake me when I head back home. But at the moment, I am feeling, and perhaps even looking, marvelous.

Details: Buenos Aires

GETTING THERE: United has nonstops to Buenos Aires from Dulles, currently for $1,247, and flights that connect in Miami or Atlanta are offered from all three Washington area airports by American, Delta and Air Canada. One-stop fares are starting at $860 round trip, but Web specials sometimes drop as low as $650.

GETTING AROUND: An extensive bus and subway network offers cheap transport, with tickets starting at about 25 cents. Taxis are also a relative bargain: the meter starts at just over 50 cents. But because of safety concerns, don't flag down street taxis; call or hail radio cabs from reputable companies, including Radio Taxi Sur (011-54-11-463-82000), Radio Taxi 5 Minutos (011-54-11-4523-1200) and Radio Taxi Diez (011-54-11-4585-5007).

To visit an estancia (ranch) near San Antonio de Areco, a car and driver (which can be arranged independently or through the estancia you are visiting) generally costs about $50 each way. There are also comfortable modern buses from the city to San Antonio de Areco, and the estancia owner can pick you up there. My preference: Have a driver pick you up at your hotel the morning of your departure, instead of wasting time finding the bus station. After your estancia stay, ask for a drop-off at the colonial town of San Antonio de Areco, buy a ticket (about $5) for a later bus trip back to the city, and spend a pleasant afternoon visiting the town, its gaucho museum and silver shops. Shops owned by artisans are spread out and can be hard to find. You can arrange a personal tour, for $15 (half-day) or $25 (full day), by contacting Magdalena Ramirez at magdalena@areconet.com.ar .

WHEN TO GO: Buenos Aires has a mild climate. Average temperatures in January, the hottest month: about 74 degrees. June, July and August are the coldest; average temperatures all three months are about 50 degrees. The shoulder seasons -- spring and fall -- are perhaps the best time to visit the city. Of course, if you plan to use the city as a springboard for visiting other parts of the country, plan for temperature variations as drastic as those in the United States.

ESTANCIAS: The three guest estancias in San Antonio de Areco are Estancia la Bamba (011-54-2326-456-293, http://www.la-bamba.com.ar ); El Ombu de Areco (011-54-11-4710- 2795, http://www.estanciaelombu.com ); and Estancia la PorteÃ±a (011-54-2326-453770, http://www.estancialaportenia.com.ar ). Overnight visits -- meals, tea and riding included -- start at about $95 per person in a bedroom or apartment. You can also arrange to visit for the day and have lunch, then stay in the town of San Antonio de Areco, where a double room in the simple but pleasant La Aurora (387 Matheu, 011-54-2326-45-4219) begins at about $30 a night, including breakfast.

AIR/HOTEL PACKAGES: My Web search turned up packages beginning at about $850 for a week's stay, but in some cases required two connections, and in others charged a single supplement for both my friend and me because our trips originated in different cities. Frustrated, I turned to a travel agent. At Travel Place in Potomac (301-299-4850), an agent familiar with Buenos Aires found a $900 six-night package with a nonstop flight from Dulles, and no single supplements. Find other travel agents, who typically do not charge a fee for packages, through the American Society of Travel Agents at http://www.astanet.com .

Check under "Packages" in this week's "What's the Deal?" column (Page P3) for a $649 Buenos Aires package from Miami.

WHERE TO EAT: The average citizen in Argentina consumes 130 pounds of beef a year -- more than twice as much as Americans. One of the most popular steakhouses: La CabaÃ±a Las Lilas (516 Ave. Alicia Moreau de Justo, in Puerto Madero). Entrees begin at about $10. A hip choice: Radioset (1130 Ave. Alicia Moreau de Justo, Puerto Madero), where disc jockeys and radio personalities broadcast live from glassed booths within the restaurant. Entrees begin at about $8.

Posada de 1820 ( 501 Tucuman, in Centro) not only served me a good meal -- beef and pasta are specialties -- but also tracked me down somehow at my hotel to return the credit card I'd left on the table. Entrees begin at about $7. The Italian restaurant Campo dei Fiori (1411 Venezuela) is a bit off the beaten path in an old neighborhood called Montserrat, but a favorite of locals, with a wide selection of pastas and sauces, priced separately. A plate of pasta and sauce starts at about $6. Las Nazarenes (1132 Reconquista, in Retiro) is a high-quality, old-line beef restaurant with an exceptionally friendly staff. Entrees start at about $8. For a proper English tea, try the Claridge Hotel (535 Tucuman, in Centro, 011-54-11-4314-7700), for $7 per person.

If you make it to San Antonio de Areco, you'll find a number of charming but very inexpensive restaurants, including Almacen de Ramos Generales (143 Zapiola, http://www.ramosgeneralesareco.com.ar ), where entrees start at about $5.

WHERE TO STAY: You can't go too wrong if you choose a hotel in the lively, centrally located neighborhoods of Centro, Retiro, Palermo or Recoleta. I was happy at the Reconquista Plaza (602 Tucuman, 011-54-11-4311-4600, http://www.reconquistaplaza.com.ar ), although light sleepers may be bothered by street noise. Prices for a double begin at about $90 a night -- another measure of the value of a package.

For the ultimate in luxury, the newly opened Faena Hotel (445 Martha Salotti in Puerto Madero, 011-54-11-4010-9000, http://www.faenahotelanduniverse.com ) is stunning. Designer Philippe Starck teamed with Argentine clothing designer Alan Faena to turn an old warehouse into a boutique hotel. Double rooms start at $315 a night. Or better yet, sleep cheap and try a day pass to the Faena's luxurious Turkish bath.

INFORMATION: The governments of Buenos Aires and Argentina both have Web sites, at http://www.bue.gov.ar and http://www.turismo.gov.ar ; or call the Argentina Tourism Office at 212-603-0443. -- Cindy Loose

>

GVNY's List of 2005's Most Fascinating Cities!

2007-05-01T12:30:00.001-07:00

Here is the list of GVNY's Most Fascinating Cities 2005!

Cities
1 Chongqing, China
2 Samarqand, Uzbekistan
3 Istanbul, Turkey
4 Varanasi, India
5 Venice, Italy
6 Bombay, India
7 Alexandria, Egypt
8 Marrakech, Morocco
9 Buenos Aires, Argentina
10 Dakar, Senegal
11 Paris, France
12 Kashgar, China
13 New York City, USA
14 Shanghai, China
15 Cadiz, Spain

Having traveled extensively over the past two years, I have collected a list of the cities that intrigued me the most.>

MLK Dr., St., Blvd, etc in your city?

2007-05-01T12:00:00.001-07:00

Over time I've noticed an interesting trend in many cities that have a thoroughfare designated as MLK something or other. It appears that MLK only runs through "black areas" of a given city. On the surface it might seem reasonable enough as he was highly regarded by many blacks. But he had an impact on all American citizens, not just the blacks ones. Yet, I have never personally seen an MLK street run through a mostly white area. It just seems strange that cities (especially ones using a simple grid pattern) would suddenly change the name of a street once it passes into an area with different demographics. Macon, Georgia is one example. Once MLK reaches the "business district" (if you can call it that), it suddenly changes to Broadway Avenue.

What are your observations?

Japeto>

Which cities surprised you?????

2007-05-01T10:00:00.001-07:00

Following the same line of the thread "Wich cities dissapointed you?" I would like to ask you which cities were better than what you expected??>

North American Suburbs VS. Asian Suburbs

2007-05-01T07:30:00.001-07:00

VS.

>

The Most Liberal City in the U. S.

2007-05-01T06:00:00.001-07:00

Which is the most liberal city in the United States? Somehow San Francisco immediately comes to mind...>

Smog city?

2007-05-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

What city is THE smog city?

You hear many story about Los Angeles air polution. I mean just look at it

And in Mexico City the situation isn't any better.

Another city which has serious air pollution is Venice. During my holiday in Croatia two years ago we decided to go to Venice by boat. When near to Venice so saw a big cloud of smog hanging above the city.

Chinese cities have mostly smog but I also heard of Tbilisi, Georgia have mayor problems with its air quality.

But what city has the worst air quality of the world?>

Your city's biggest population boom period.

2007-05-01T04:30:00.001-07:00

As most of us know all cities had their population boom periods and some still are having them. Some cities had long boom periods, others only for a short time. It would be great if you would share your city's raw and percentage growth during its greatest population boom. For example NYC's greatest population boom took place between 1900-1930. The city's population doubled in that period from 3.4million to 6.9million. It averaged a growth of 2%-4% over 30 years.

1900:3.437m
1910:4.767m
1920:5.620m
1930:6.930m>

Businessman pays record rent for Four Seasons Place (Hong Kong)

2007-05-01T04:00:00.001-07:00

Quote:>

BUSINESSMAN PAYS RECORD RENT FOR FOUR SEASONS FLAT

Serviced suite on Central waterfront fetches close to $500,000 a month

Four Seasons Place has set a new record for the most expensive serviced apartments in Hong Kong, after leasing a penthouse on the waterfront at Central for close to $500,000 a month.

A businessman of an international firm recently signed a contract to lease the 2,800 square foot unit in the 60-storey high-end serviced suite tower, part of the IFC complex in Central, according to Judy Chai, executive director of Sallmanns Residental, who clinched the deal.

The total rent under the one year contract will amount to $6 million, equivalent to a decent flat in Hong Kong's urban area.

"With such a price, you can probably lease a big house of 7,000 to 8,000 square feet in Deep Water Bay or on The Peak," said Ms. Chai.

A 1,490 square foot apartment on the 57th floor of the Four Seasons was rented out at $90,000 a month, she said.

"The tenant is a businessman of a multinational company, who wants his home well serviced, located in Central's CBD and convenient for the airport express," said Ms Chai. "The supply is rare. It is believed to be the only product with such size on the market right now." She declined to unveil the exact rental, but said it would be more than $150 per square foot.

The 2,800 square foot apartment is one of the two penthouses at the 519-room Four Seasons Place. The larger one is 3,600 square feet.

With no new supply expected in Central and growing deman from expatriates amid the improved economy, property consultants believe the occupancy and rental levels of high-end servied apartments will remain firm.

Jane Garnett, director at CB Richard Ellis residental services department, said rental performance of serviced apartments in the second quarter was stable on a quarter-by-quarter basis, but recorded increases compared with last year.

Rentals of premium serviced apartments saw a 0.7 per cent drop from the previous quarter but reaped a 5.7 per cent rise year on year.

Boutique serviced apartments experienced a gain of 2.1 per cent on the previous quarter and 10.9 per cent year on year.

We anticipate that rentals for serviced apartments are likely to increase by 10 per cent to 15 per cent over the course of 2006," Ms Garnett said.

>Source: The South China Morning Post

>

Cool method to dispose of a city's trash!

2007-05-01T03:00:00.001-07:00

Bio-treasure Isle

18 Jul 05

Semakau Landfill, an island where trash is dumped, now open to public to enjoy its rich biodiversity

By Sarah Ng

BY 2045, Singapore will have a brand new island as big as Sentosa - created out of incinerated trash.

But the public won't have to wait that long to enjoy the island. They can now fish, birdwatch and look at the marine life on mangrove mudflats there.

Semakau Landfill is the name of this new island, located 7km from Pasir Panjang Ferry Terminal.

The National Environment Agency is creating it by joining two islands - Pulau Semakau and Pulau Sakeng - with a man-made, saltwater lagoon where the rubbish will be dumped.

It is enclosed by a 7km-long rock bund, which is lined with an impermeable membrane and marine clay to prevent the trash from seeping out. The lagoon is also divided into several ponds, into which the rubbish is dumped.

Water is pumped out of the ponds and trash is compacted into them. As the ponds get filled up with rubbish, they are turfed over with grass and the island takes shape bit by bit.

The landfill took four years to build, and the first phase of construction cost $610 million. The second phase, which will involve building more ponds, will start after the present 11 ponds are filled. With more waste being recycled, the landfill can now last until 2045.

Despite the trash being dumped there, the island is not smelly. That's because only ash and non-organic waste such as construction materials are put in.

It is also home to rich marine life such as barracuda, trevally, sea bass and milk fish. It also has 54 species of birds such as the endangered great-billed heron, the Pacific reef egret and the Malaysian plover. Its mangrove mudflats are bigger than 20 football fields and are rich with seagrass, giant sea anemones and sea urchins.

People can visit the island, but they will have to book their visits through three recreational and nature groups - the Sport Fishing Association Singapore (SFAS), Nature Society Singapore and the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research.

The SFAS will conduct monthly fishing trips that cost $40 per person. The other two groups are still working out schedules for guided tours.

The landfill is an example of how a rubbish dump and environment conservation can co-exist, said Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. He opened it for recreation on Saturday morning.

Speaking to reporters after a tour of the landfill, Dr Yaacob said: 'One possibility is opening this up to schools for excursions. We can build basic facilities for them to spend the night here so that they can do a bit of stargazing and birdwatching.'

About 350 guests visited the scenic and breezy landfill on Saturday, including 150 people from 40 families who used to live on Pulau Sakeng. They moved to the mainland in 1994 to make way for the project.

Mr Teo Yen Eng, 81, who lived on Pulau Sakeng for more than 30 years with his brother Yen Tek, 74, was among them. The two men used to run a provision shop on the island.

'The best thing about this place is the fresh air and lack of pollution. I'm glad it's still the same now, even though it has become a rubbish dump,' said the elder Mr Teo.

Said another former resident, Mr Haji Chani Dualip, 60: 'It's good that it is now open to the public, so more people can come and enjoy its beauty.'

Those keen on visiting the landfill should contact Sport Fishing Association Singapore at www.sfas.net , the Nature Society at membership@nss.org.sg, or the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research at rmbr.nus.edu.sg>

Is Your City Overpriced?

2007-05-01T02:00:00.001-07:00

Is Your City OVERPRICED?
Cost of living -- from housing to the electric bill -- is going up just about everywhere, but these 10 cities have the rest of the country beat. Seattle tops the list. Again. Does your hometown make the cut?
By Forbes.com

Once an overpriced city, always an overpriced city!

That may not be how the old saw goes, but it's one of the things Forbes.com gleaned from the fourth edition of its "Most Overpriced Places" study. A couple of cities fell off the list, and others shuffled places. For the most part, the roster is still made up of metropolitan areas that will suck dollars from your wallet in a flash.

Now: Plenty of places are expensive. You probably think where you live is far too costly, especially since real estate costs keep heading north around the country. Movie tickets used to cost a quarter, and with a million dollars you could get a mansion. In Los Angeles this year, the median home price rose above a half-million dollars, according to the California Association of Realtors. Don't even get us started about the cost of catching a film.

Here's the full list:
1. Seattle
2. New York City
3. Portland, Ore.
4. Chicago
5. San Jose, Calif.
6. Bergen-Passaic, N.J.
7. San Francisco
8. Middlesex, N.J.
9. Denver
10. Los Angeles

You can also see a slideshow with more details.

Still, if jobs are plentiful and incomes are rising, the real effect of increasing costs is small. But when prices go up, when employment is stagnant and when incomes are flat, well, thatÂ's when things are overpriced.

How We Got The List!
To determine the 10 most overpriced places in the country, we started with the 150 cities examined in Forbes' 2005 Best Places for Business and Careers. They were ranked from 1 to 150, with 150 being the worst. We extracted the rankings for job growth, income growth and cost of living (including the cost of housing, utilities, transportation and other expenditures), then added to the mix a housing affordability index from research firm Economy.com.

The index measures how much of a local median-priced home (the price at which half the homes are more expensive and half are less expensive) you can buy if you earn the local median income, given current interest rates. We totaled everything to see which cities come out on top -- or on the bottom -- depending on your perspective.

Seattle in First...Again
Seattle, once again, took the highest spot on our "Overpriced List," because it's still recovering from the dot-com blowout five years ago. New York and San Francisco, which have hard-earned reputations for being super-pricey cities, made the cut, as did a couple of New Jersey locations..

Miami, on the other hand, dropped from the list, but came in at a close no. 12. Job growth there is solid, but the cost of housing is still high. Milwaukee came in just outside the top 10, as well, with its expensive housing.

Housing Costs a Big Factor
In fact, housing costs were a major factor in determining the most-overpriced rankings. Despite all the talk of a bubble soon to burst, real estate continues racing up a steep price hill. The National Association of Realtors expects 2005 to be another record-setting year in the U.S.

If you're unfortunate enough to live in an overpriced city, stop your whining. After all, there must be something keeping you there, whether it's the museums or an easy commute. If you're lucky enough to live outside of the top 10, count your blessings -- and your dollars.>

Big cities with most beautiful scenery in the U.S.

2007-05-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

A lot of the big major cities are often pretty dirty or are just complete concrete jungles for the most part (ala NY)
And a lot of the places that are really "green & clean" and have nice natural settings are tiny and don't offer anything that the major cities do

What are the best of both worlds cities here in the U.S.? Major metropolitan area wraped in nice natural scenery>

Seattle is most overpriced city in US

2007-05-01T00:30:00.001-07:00

Is your city overpriced?
Cost of living -- from housing to the electric bill -- is going up just about everywhere, but these 10 cities have the rest of the country beat. Seattle tops the list. Again. Does your hometown make the cut?

By Forbes.com

Once an overpriced city, always an overpriced city.

That may not be how the old saw goes, but it's one of the things Forbes.com gleaned from the fourth edition of its "Most Overpriced Places" study. A couple of cities fell off the list, and others shuffled places. For the most part, the roster is still made up of metropolitan areas that will suck dollars from your wallet in a flash.

Now: Plenty of places are expensive. You probably think where you live is far too costly, especially since real estate costs keep heading north around the country. Movie tickets used to cost a quarter, and with a million dollars you could get a mansion. In Los Angeles this year, the median home price rose above a half-million dollars, according to the California Association of Realtors. Don't even get us started about the cost of catching a film.
Still, if jobs are plentiful and incomes are rising, the real effect of increasing costs is small. But when prices go up, when employment is stagnant and when incomes are flat, well, thatÂ's when things are overpriced.

How we got the list
To determine the 10 most overpriced places in the country, we started with the 150 cities examined in Forbes' 2005 Best Places for Business and Careers. They were ranked from 1 to 150, with 150 being the worst. We extracted the rankings for job growth, income growth and cost of living (including the cost of housing, utilities, transportation and other expenditures), then added to the mix a housing affordability index from research firm Economy.com.

The index measures how much of a local median-priced home (the price at which half the homes are more expensive and half are less expensive) you can buy if you earn the local median income, given current interest rates. We totaled everything to see which cities come out on top -- or on the bottom -- depending on your perspective.

Seattle in first ... again
Seattle, once again, took the highest spot on our "Overpriced List," because it's still recovering from the dot-com blowout five years ago. New York and San Francisco, which have hard-earned reputations for being super-pricey cities, made the cut, as did a couple of New Jersey locations..

10 Top Most Overpriced Cities
1. Seattle

2. New York

3. Portland

4. Chicago

5. San Jose

6. Bergen-Passaic

7. San Francisco

8. Middlesex

9. Denver

10. Los Angeles
>

What is your next holiday destination city/country?

2007-05-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

I think I'll make my way to Tokyo and the rest of Japan this winter break...>

Which City Will Host the 2018 Games?

2007-04-30T23:00:00.001-07:00

edit: The 2016 Summer Olympics Games
>

Latin American cities

2007-04-30T22:30:00.001-07:00

Which city in Latin America you know the best??
Which city you like the most?
Which will you like to visit?

Here THE cities population , many of them youÂ´ve seen photos before, I hope..

Sao Pablo 16.8 millions
Mexico City 16 millions
Buenos Aires 14.5 millions
Rio de Janeiro 12 millions
Bogota 8 millions
Lima 7.5 millions
Santiago 6 millions
Belo Horizonte 5.8 millions
Caracas, Medellin, Monterrey: 4.5 millions

of course there are many more, this are the biggest one, maybe you know another one?? Salvador, Cordoba, Cuzco, Guadalajara, Panama, Curitiba??>

Barca is not Barcelona. It's a common mistake.

2007-04-30T20:30:00.001-07:00

I have noticed how many people use the term 'Barca' when they want to refer to Barcelona. So I wanted to help clarify this common mistake.

I'm sure this used term 'Barca' comes from the diminutive the main football club in the city has: BarÃ§a. I guess the character 'Ã§' is not available in Anglo-Saxon keyboards, so the people tend to change the 'Ã§' for a 'c', changing the pronunciation as well. Because 'Ã§' is pronounced like an 's', and 'c' before an 'a' is pronounced like a 'k'.

So, if you want to refer to the football team shortly, you may preferably write it like this 'Barsa', not 'Barca'. FYI: 'Barca' means 'Boat', thus it looks quite strange to a Spaniard.

Here's what you have to use instead when you want to refer to Barcelona shortly:
Barna. It's commonly used too the acronym BCN.>

AnCiEnt CiTy Of UxMaL - YuCataN, MeXiCo

2007-04-30T20:00:00.001-07:00

Uxmal is a large Pre-Columbian ruined city of the Maya civilization in the state of YucatÃ¡n, Mexico. It is 78 km south of MÃ©rida, YucatÃ¡n, or 110 km from that city on Highway 261 towards Campeche, Campeche), 15 km south-southeast of the town of Muna.

Uxmal is pronounced "Oosh-mahl". The place name is Pre-Columbian and it is usually assumed to be an archaic Maya language phrase meaning "Built Three Times", although some scholars of the Maya language dispute this derivation.

Maya chronicles say that Uxmal was founded about 500 by Hun Uitzil Chac Tutul Xiu. For generations Uxmal was ruled over by the Xiu family, was the most powerful site in western Yucatan, and for a while in alliance with Chichen Itza dominated all of the northern Maya area. Sometime after about 1200 no new major construction seems to have been made at Uxmal, possibly related to the fall of Uxmal's ally Chichen Itza and the shift of power in Yucatan to Mayapan. The Xiu moved their capital to ManÃ, and the population of Uxmal declined.

After the Spanish conquest of YucatÃ¡n (in which the Xiu allied themselves with the Spanish), early colonial documents suggest that Uxmal was still an inhabited place of some importance into the 1550s, but no Spanish town was built here and Uxmal was soon after largely abandoned

>

Chicago, New York, skyscrapers & density

2007-04-30T19:30:00.001-07:00

No US cities have been more associated with the growth of skylines as are New York and Chicago. And no global cities have had more to do with the devlopment of the high rise than these two.

Surely there are many reasons as for why this occuried, but I'll throw out the one that I think is most responsible: geography & topography.

Both the lower two thirds of Manhattan and downtown Chicago are relatively flat, ideal for high rise development.

Both were greatly affected by water. In Manhattan's case, it is rather obvious. The island is long and narrow. Land was at a premium and the mile-or-two that Manhattan stretche east and west discouraged sprawl. So the city built up, by necessity.

Chicago's Loop, while not surrounded by anything as wide as the Hudson or East river, still was tightly defined by water. Lake Michigan to the east, the Chicago River to the north and west and rail yards to the south, created almost an island of its own where the CBD had nowhere to go but up.

I believe these geographical conditions gave rise to two great skylines.>

Google Suburbia

2007-04-30T19:00:00.001-07:00

Google Earth has really let the cat out of the bag when it comes to showing suburbia at its worst. Here's a collection of Google Earth pics that show suburbia in the USA and Australia. Feel free to post the worst examples of suburbia you can find.

Sydney

Melbourne

Perth

Los Angeles

Los Angeles

Los Angeles

Los Angeles

Miami

Miami

Atlanta

Atlanta

Las Vegas

Las Vegas

Las Vegas

Eeuuugghh! I need a shower, now...>

Free Down Came the Rain Book!!

2007-04-30T18:30:00.001-07:00

Free Down Came the Rain Book!! Link>

what do u think about ISTANBUL?

2007-04-30T18:00:00.001-07:00

i live in istanbul and i wonder what people think and know about istanbul...please make your comments about this city here...if you have been to istanbul what did u see and if you know istanbul only by pictures what do u guess?

EDIT: i'm adding some istanbul pictures to make you remember..

>

Shanghai will be developed in 2010

2007-04-30T17:30:00.001-07:00

the Population contains the floating population,things will be like this.
2002GDP(nominal):65.40billion us dollar
2003:nominal increase rate:15.56% actual gdp increase rate:11.8％
GDP(nominal):75.58billion us dollar---Population:17.00million---GDP per capita:4446 us dollar
2004:nominal increase rate:19.21% actual gdp increase rate:13.6%
GDP(nominal):90.10billion us dollar---Population:17.50million---GDP per capita:5149 us dollar
conjecture
2005:nominal increase rate:16.00% actual gdp increase rate:
GDP(nominal):104.52billion us dollar---Population:18.00million---GDP per capita:5807 us dollar
2006:nominal increase rate:16.00% actual gdp increase rate:
GDP(nominal):121.24billion us dollar---Population:18.40million---GDP per capita:6589 us dollar
2007:nominal increase rate:16.00% actual gdp increase rate:[Shanghai 2007 Special Olympic World Games]
GDP(nominal):140.64billion us dollar---Population:18.80million---GDP per capita:7481 us dollar
2008:nominal increase rate:16.00% actual gdp increase rate:
GDP(nominal):163.14billion us dollar---Population:19.20million---GDP per capita:8497 us dollar
2009:nominal increase rate:16.00% actual gdp increase rate:
GDP(nominal):189.24billion us dollar---Population:19.60million---GDP per capita:9655 us dollar
2010:nominal increase rate:16.00% actual gdp increase rate:[2010 Shanghai EXPO]
GDP(nominal):219.52billion us dollar---Population:20.00million---GDP per capita:10976 us dollar
2011:nominal increase rate:16.00% actual gdp increase rate:
GDP(nominal):254.64billion us dollar---Population:20.40million---GDP per capita:12482 us dollar
2012:nominal increase rate:16.00% actual gdp increase rate:
GDP(nominal):295.38billion us dollar---Population:20.80million---GDP per capita:14201 us dollar
2013:nominal increase rate:16.00% actual gdp increase rate:
GDP(nominal):342.64billion us dollar---Population:21.20million---GDP per capita:16162 us dollar
2014:nominal increase rate:16.00% actual gdp increase rate:
GDP(nominal):397.46billion us dollar---Population:21.60million---GDP per capita:18401 us dollar
2015:nominal increase rate:16.00% actual gdp increase rate:
GDP(nominal):461.05billion us dollar---Population:22.00million---GDP per capita:20957 us dollar>

where is yoru city's "red light district"?

2007-04-30T17:00:00.001-07:00

where prostitution is common, and street workers wander?

lol i actually got this idea from Dubai prostituion thread, Tom Green asked a very interesting question. (where does prostitution happen in Dubai)

we havent done this have we?>

LA 'overdue for major quake'

2007-04-30T16:30:00.001-07:00

Scary stuff...

-------------------------------------------
LA 'overdue for major quake'
21/06/2006

Los Angeles - New earthquake research confirms the southern end of the San Andreas fault near Los Angeles is overdue for a major earthquake.

The lower section of the fault has not produced a major earthquake in more than three centuries. The new study, which analysed 20 years of data and is considered one of the most-detailed analyses yet, found that stress had been building up since then, and that the fault could rupture at any moment.

"The southern section of the fault is fully loaded for the next big event," said geophysicist Yuri Fialko of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.

Predicting exactly when that might happen, however, is beyond scientists' ability.

Could kill thousands

The analysis was published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Experts have estimated that a quake on the southern San Andreas of magnitude 7.6 or greater could kill thousands of people in the densely populated greater Los Angeles area and cause tens of billions of dollars in damage.

It was the 1 300km San Andreas fault, which runs down California like a scar, that caused the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that led to about 3 000 deaths.

But scientists know very little about the 160km dormant southern segment, which slices through Southern California from San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles, to near the Mexican border.

The section last popped in 1690, producing an estimated 7.7-magnitude quake, but caused little injury or damage because hardly anyone lived there at the time.

Using satellite radar and global positioning data, Fialko measured the movement of the southern San Andreas between 1985 and 2005.

Small movements along a fault can relieve strain. Calculating those subtle motions allows scientists to figure out how much strain is building up.

Fialko found that the southern end of the fault had shown little movement and that significant strain was building up.

The fault's slip rate, or average annual movement, was measured to be about 2.5cm a year - similar to previous estimates.

Fault under serious study

Surprisingly, Fialko found the two sides of the southern San Andreas behaved differently, with one side showing more flexibility than the other. This could help scientists understand potential earthquake risks, he said.

Ken Hudnut, a US Geological Survey geophysicist in Pasadena, who had no role in the study, said the latest research reaffirmed the need to study the mysterious southern San Andreas more closely.

In the American autumn, Hudnut will head a $240 000 (about R1.7m) project that will conduct tests on the southern segment to get a better idea of the threat it poses.>

LA 'overdue for major quake'

2007-04-30T16:00:00.001-07:00

Which cities would consist Top 10?

2007-04-30T15:30:00.001-07:00

It seems that we agree that Paris, NYC, Tokyo, and London Top 4 cities. Now let's talk about Top 10: 5th~10th. My candidates are:

East Asia: Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Osaka, Nagoya, Hongkong, Yokohama

South Asia: Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Delhi, Mumbai

Middle East: Riyadh, Cairo

Europe: Madrid, Istanbul, Moscow, Berlin, Rome, Saint Petersburg, Athens

Oceania: Sydney, Melbourne

North America: Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto

Middle & South America: Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires>

WORLDCUP FEVER IN YOUR CITY?!?!?!

2007-04-30T15:00:00.001-07:00

JUST WOULD LIKE TO GET AN IDEA OF HOW HARD OTHER CITIES PARTY DURING WORLDCUP? I KNOW TORONTO THROWS SOME MEAN STREET PARTIES. PICTURES MOST WELCOME!>

Has conventional wisdom on our cities changed?

2007-04-30T14:00:00.001-07:00

Has conventional wisdom regarding our cities changed? Do our old paradigms not work? do we need to rethink what we expect to see in our great cities?

I'll throw out some changes I believe are in place today to see if you agree with them. Also, I'll invite you to throw in some of your own, if you'd like.

Â One major newspaper in town is no longer a sign of being hick: PM newspaers have gone the way of dinosaurs and many daily's have sprung up in suburbia. One city newspaper today just isn't the problem it once was.

Â Your city can survive not having a major downtown department store. They're dinosaurs, too, at least in many ways. They take a back seat to so many types of retail outlets. Meanwhile, they no longer are locally owned and the major chains that own them have no need for the huge downtown department stores that were built in an era without branches. Nobody is coming to your town to shop in a department store; they have Macy's back home.

Â Sports franchises are no longer essential: LA seems to be surviving quite well without the NFL, thank you. Meanwhile, you really don't have to build that shiny new baseball or football stadium: they just aren't the draw they used to be and some cities (like Det, Milw, Pgh) never got the spike in attendance expected with their openning (poorly performing teams can have that effect). Small market cities in MLB should avoid new ball parks like the plague....MLB is not set up for success in secondary markets.

Â Don't build downtown buildings in plazas, don't build downtown buildings without retail space at street level, don't build malls downtown: people want a vibrant urban enviornment full of street life with shops and restaurants and cars driving through the streets.>

Combining Cities To Come Up With Your Ideal City/Country

2007-04-30T13:30:00.001-07:00

Following from the thread title: If you could mix up various cities (barring the obviously illogical implications of it all), which cities would you like to mix up together, and why?

As well, if you could add variious cities in the world to make one country, which cities would you opt for, and why?

I have a feeling that most will choose to cover all aspects, historical, cultural, financial, etc. Let's see if that's the case

As for Me:

Amalgamated City: I'd wonder how a combination of Vienna, Prague, and Budapest would look like. A kind of Central European metropolis with 4.7m people and an amazing wealth of historical monuments that would give Europe a central counterpart to Paris and London in the west

Country: I'd have Toronto, Sydney, Vancouver, Chicago, and Melbourne. Not very wow-ish, I must admit, but consider that this would indicate that the country has a high standard of living, and is modern

Ok, so what would you guys choose?

Cheers!>

Most photogenic city from the air?

2007-04-30T13:00:00.001-07:00

With its unique location, snuggled in between the cascading Coastal Mountain range to its North, the Pacific Ocean to its West, its vast greenery and Stanely Park, Vancouver takes it for me. What city takes it for you?

(First pic, courtesy touraccuracy)>

Buenos Aires, Argentina appointed UNESCO 1st City of Design

2007-04-30T12:30:00.001-07:00

The city of Buenos Aires, Argentina was appointed as the first UNESCO City of Design on 24 August 2005.

Through public-private collaboration, the city of Buenos Aires has been able to harness the energy and innovation of its design sector for development initiatives on a local, regional and international level.

Not only has the city diversified its economic growth potential, but it has also engaged a broad array of stakeholders in building one of the most vibrant and dynamic design scenes in Latin America.

As a cross-road of diverse backgrounds, histories, people and ethnicities, the city of Buenos Aires has been capturing the essence of diversity and creativity in order to develop one of the most viable and productive design industries in the South American continent.

Spanning the fields of fashion, architecture, industrial, interior and urban design with a keen focus on incorporating the latest technology and know-how, Buenos Aires is a city that inspires design.

Enjoy some views from this great city:

[IMG]

[IMG]

[IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]>

Derelict London - a great website!

2007-04-30T12:00:00.001-07:00

See the Olympic Village BEFORE the work starts (and why it's deperately needed)!

http://www.derelictlondon.com/derelict_london_com.htm>

Maps & Satellite Photos of Cities

2007-04-30T11:30:00.001-07:00

Is anyone else here completely and totally obsessed with maps? I consider great maps to be like poems: you linger on them, you view them from different perspectives, you try to find patterns, a meaning perhaps (for example, why is a bridge located at that juncture, and not 1 km north of the location?).

Anyways, perhaps we can share some great maps here.

Allow me to start:

NEW YORK CITY

SAN FRANCISCO

Cheers >

Is Seoul Underrated?

2007-04-30T11:00:00.001-07:00

What do you think of when you hear Seoul? i seriously think it is one of the most underrated cities in the world. i find the root of the problem as the recent tremendous growth of south korea, so no one had time to actually take notice...but i do hope citizens of earth find out soon.

>

Cities Climbing/ going down in the hierarchy of your country

2007-04-30T10:00:00.001-07:00

what are the cities that are going to have more and more importance in your country and the ones that are going down?

for example in france, paris is ruling with no contest but the regional capitals with approx 1million are developping very fast.

the south western city of toulouse is growing fast and going up, passing bordeaux and nice. this city has the airbus industry and high tech, a good life quality.

Nantes is on the way to pass bordeaux. im no specialist of the french cities so ill let the other french forumers explain it more.>

Most Beautiful Small City

2007-04-30T08:00:00.001-07:00

Hello,

perhaps we can search for the most beautiful city, or, if you will, cities. Just a heads-up on the defintion: I mean a city with a population of less than 500,000 and/or that is not necessarily the centre of a major metropolitan area (Atlanta has less than 500k people, yet its scarcely a 'small city').

Anyways, allow me to start. Here is what I consider surely one of the prime candidates; that is,

SALZBURG, AU

We need a horse shot! It's a must!

Salzburg, btw, has ~145,000 people, so it's not huge. But goodness, it's gorgeous! Mozart's birthplace, of course.

Cheers >

Racial makeup of your city

2007-04-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

What is the Racial makeup of your city?

For NYC:

44.66% White, 26.59% Black or African American, 0.52% Native American, 9.83% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 13.42% from other races, and 4.92% from two or more races. 26.98% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. 35.9% of the population is foreign born (18.9% born in Latin America, 8.6% Asia, 7.0% Europe). The ethnic makeup is 11.5% African-American, 9.8% Puerto Rican, 8.7% Italian, 5.3% Irish, 5.1% Dominican, and 4.5% Chinese.>

List of first world countries

2007-04-30T05:30:00.001-07:00

Photocopied from a 2004 World Atlas

This seems to be missing quite a bit, countries like Korea, Taiwan, Argentina, Scotland, Czech Rep. etc...What is the exact definition of 1st world, how come it changes so much?

1st World:

Andorra
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Cyprus
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Malta
Monaco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
United Kingdom
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Vatican city>

From rock bottom to sky high

2007-04-30T04:30:00.001-07:00

Quote:>

From rock bottom to sky high
The Financial Times
By Caroline McGhie
Published: November 19 2005

Tour the key cities of the UK today and you might think you had slipped continents. Gleaming new towers fronted by billboards advertising luxury flats fit naturally in New York or Chicago, Tokyo or Kuala Lumpur, not London and Manchester, Swansea and Chatham. However, extraordinary as it may seem, the British are finally breaking away from their low-rise past, peeling off the old industrial cobwebs and erecting - and embracing - modern residential skyscrapers.

Most of the world's great cities have been in love with vertical living for decades, their glamorous high-rise apartment houses standing as expressions of wealth, power and success. Now, with more than 100 new cathedrals of glass and steel in the works, London is coming round to the idea too. Swimming pools at 400 ft? No problem. Bathtubs with views of the London Eye? Even better.

This isn't just a minor craze; it is a serious switch in the national cultural outlook. New, unpublished, research from estate agent Savills shows that 30,466 flats, in 127 towers with more than 20 storeys, are being constructed or are at the planning stage. Pile them up and that makes 3,444 storeys altogether. About 46 per cent of them are climbing out of schemes forged since 2004 and many of the newest are in the north-west, north-east, Yorkshire and Humberside. They are getting taller all the time. Since 2004, according to Savills, the average height of a new residential tower has increased from 24 to 27 storeys.

Next month the wrapping comes off a soaring 50-floor block called Pan Peninsula in London's Docklands, presented as a glittering spear of "world-class architecture" with "signature restaurants" and 700 flats. From the 50th-floor cocktail bar, the lights of the capital sprinkled at its feet will look like diamonds at night. It was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, architects of the Sears Tower in Chicago. Illustrations show it lit at dusk in purples and pinks against the darkening aubergine sky, exuding sex appeal.

In Manchester, work on the 47-storey Beetham Tower began earlier this year. All 219 apartments have been sold, even though buyers can't move in for another two years.

And there are more soaring buildings in the pipeline. The Inacity tower, also in Manchester, would be taller still, at 60 storeys and 400 apartments. Even Edinburgh, that dour Scottish beauty, has hired architects Colin & Moggridge to see how skyscrapers could fit into its skyline, the first time it has looked at the issue seriously since 1968. Everyone is thinking big.

Developers are rubbing their hands in anticipation. They love the bling side of the property market and the age of conspicuous consumption. They thrive on superlatives and wow-factors. For them, the huge new penthouse spaces appearing like glass bubbles in the air represent the highest risk and greatest profit.

Recently I was whisked up 33 floors in Number One West India Quay to see penthouses developed by Marylebone Warwick Balfour and Manhattan Loft - six whopping cloud-huggers selling at Â£1.7m to Â£2.96m each. They seem chiseled from glass, dizzyingly lovely, with the rest of the population reduced to insect-size below.

The lower floors in towers are traditionally reserved for low-income residents (today's quotas can range from 25 to 50 per cent) or sold to buy-to-let investors because prices are lower and the rental yields therefore higher per square foot. Above six floors, according to agents King Sturge, prices rise by as much as Â£7,500 to Â£10,000 per floor as the views get grander. But penthouses are a world all on their own. There have been fistfuls of them for sale across London this year, ranging from Â£1m to Â£16m, but they are notoriously slow to sell - some take up to five years - as the number of potential buyers is self-selectingly small. Investors won't touch them as they come at premium prices and owner-occupiers can always choose a house in Mayfair instead.

But the market for skyline flats has definitely arrived. "Our cities are still very short of high-rise [homes] compared to other world-class cities," says Dominic Grace, head of new developments at Savills. "For decades the very mention of a high rise [home] sent shudders through every one. Now there have been a number of pressure points. The shortage of land, the need to put higher densities into developments and the desire for more glamour have all brought changes. Actually, glamour is one of the main drivers. On a big site you can create an iconic identity that can add to the image of the whole site - and indeed the whole city."

There has certainly been a dramatic change of heart since the middle of the past century. People have forgotten the stigma that once attached to the thousands of dull concrete council housing blocks for low-income residents that sprang up around the country at the time. They have forgotten the awful pictures of Ronan Point, where a gas explosion in 1968 caused part of a 22-storey residential block in London's East End to collapse, killing five people and raising fears about the safety of towers.

Council blocks have gone private. The late-1960s Trellick Tower in Notting Hill, London, designed by Erno Goldfinger, is no longer a ghetto of violence and crime but a Grade II-star- listed haven where property prices have leapt.

So do skyscrapers present a possible solution to the housing crisis? "Well, no," says Grace, "because towers still need a lot of space around them and the initial costs are very high. They aren't ideal for affordable housing because they need glamour, snazzy lifts and huge amounts of glazing to create the right atmosphere."

In fact they represent a huge risk to property developers. "You need to pre-sell and that is a challenge because a tower cannot be phased like an ordinary development," he says. "A huge amount of money goes into the ground, the underground parking and the piling to take the weight of the structure, which means a lot of cash is going out before any comes in. Until completion, all you have is 10 per cent deposits from buyers, which is why there is huge pressure, huge investor hype around city-centre residential high-rise. It is shit or bust when you press the button."

Nor is the market wide open. In Britain, "you [still] can't include people with families. So buyers have to be young, aspirational and affluent enough to afford the prices; or second home buyers; or empty nesters who want to live it up."

But the new love of skyscraper living has grown on the back of huge leaps in technology - as whole vertical communities they can be green, solar-powered and recycle their waste, can be made to respond to different weather conditions, can appear in extraordinary shapes, taper and billow. They have become a powerful regenerative tool and have created a whole galaxy of "starchitects".

And nowhere is the push towards vertical living more apparent than in the UK captial. Pay a visit to the New London Architecture (NLA) exhibition space in London's Store Street and the sheer elasticity of the capital is on show. Stay away from the city too long and it will mutate into something long-time residents wouldn't recognise. Blink and it will have gone vertical.

Commercial towers have led the way, with "the gherkin", Sir Norman Foster's Swiss Re building, in the vanguard. And there are more to come in London: Minerva, by Nicholas Grimshaw at Aldgate, an "iconic tower" of 43 storeys, 217 metres above the pavement with eight elevations arranged like four open books sitting upright on their spines; Heron Tower at Bishopsgate, 183 metres high and billed as "a powerful magnet for attracting foreign tenants"; the "cheese grater" by Richard Rogers at 122 Leadenhall, going up 310 metres and 66 floors; and More London, between London and Tower bridges, the 3m sq ft headquarters of accountants Ernst & Young.

Then there is the exquisite shard of glass" by Renzo Piano, designed to pierce the sky south of London Bridge. At 310 metres, rising from a lobby to offices, to a mid-level piazza, to a hotel, to apartments, to an art gallery, it would be the tallest building in Europe. On a clear day upper-storey residents are expected to be able to see the south coast of England.

It quite takes your breath away - the scope of these projects and the speed with which they're being approved. But there are detractors with powerful voices and good arguments. In August John Prescott, the UK's Deputy Prime Minister, granted planning permission for the Vauxhall Tower, next to the city's Vauxhall Bridge - at 180 metres and 49 storeys, hailed as the tallest block of flats in Europe. He overruled the planning inspector who had refused permission when the developer St George took the application to appeal. With one stroke he enraged members of Parliament, local residents and heritage groups. The architecture correspondent of London's Evening Standard newspaper described the decision as "epic in its dumbness".

Even supporters of high-rise buildings were appalled. Peter Murray, NLA's founding curator, keen to celebrate the Â£100bn worth of new development taking place in the city, could find nothing good to say for what the headlines called "Prescott's monster".

"I don't like Vauxhall," he says. "After the war the general policy was to spread out the tall buildings around the skyline, like dragon's teeth. But now clusters are the way forward. We are looking at creating higher density urban centres." Vauxhall Tower is out on a limb and looms too close to the Houses of Parliament. Prescott's controversial decision rips holes through the conservatism of decades.

But the grounds for high-rise working and living are in place, prepared by a searing report from the London School Economics called Tall Buildings: Vision of the Future or Victims of the Past. To remain a "world city", it said, London needed to "accommodate or die". It had to get over its neurosis about mistakes in the 1960s and "grow up".

The LSE gave powerful economic reasons for looking skywards. By 2016, it said, the capital would accumulate a number of new residents equal to the population of Liverpool and would need five to seven times the amount of extra office space provided by Canary Wharf, the new business district built in the 1990s, over the next 25 years.

It scorned London's negative and erratic approach to planning, which had led to a "messy skyline". While New York, Paris, Frankfurt and Berlin had proactive planning policies, London, in a very British way, remained purely reactive.

Ken Livingstone, mayor of London, standing at the window of his 8th-floor office in County Hall - another block of intriguing shape known as "the testicle" - could see it all, looking across Tower Bridge to the capital's financial centre, the City. By February 2004 he had drawn up and published The London Plan, the first proactive planning strategy in more than 30 years, which actively encouraged both residential and commercial skyscrapers in the face of a rapidly rising population and shortage of land.

Canary Wharf, Stratford and Croydon were mentioned as areas that might swallow the new architectural Viagra. And Livingstone was clearly taken with notions of grandeur. "I find the vision of a city filled with mediocre, depressing, medium-rise slabs - far too many of which have been approved by local councils without a second thought - much less inspiring than a city with a skyline of innovative, graceful towers and spires."

Like an adolescent with a sudden growth spurt, the whole of the UK is getting taller. London leads the way but the trend is spreading across the country. The British, for so long huddled in terraces, wedded to front doors and lawns to mow, have belatedly discovered that vertiginous views are a good swap. Living close to the clouds is now considered thrilling and the mile-high club is the one to join.

>Great Article >

Megalopolis

2007-04-30T04:00:00.001-07:00

In a pervious post, now closed, people were disscussing how Philly and New York are now considered one metro area. Well acutally the term Megalopolis has been used since the 80's describing the area from Boston to Washington DC (Therefore including Boston, Conn., New York, Newark, Trenton, Philly, Balitmore, and DC). The Term reffers to this area as one large metro area. So if you want to get technical you have some 55 million in this metro area.>

Megalopolis

2007-04-30T03:30:00.001-07:00

Destruction of Tokyo in the next 50 years?

2007-04-30T03:00:00.001-07:00

Do you think an eartquake will destroy Tokyo in the next 50 years ?

The resaon for me making this thread is New Orleans. I watched some docus about the flooding of the New Orleans because of a hurricane. I always thought that something like this will never happen,......
I saw many docus about Tokyo,too. They said that the next big eartquake is not so far away.

What do you think?

I believe this would have a big impact on the world economy.>

Which City's Absence Would be Felt the Most?

2007-04-30T02:30:00.001-07:00

Pure hypothetical situation, of course, but just imagine if a city disappeared overnight, just completely disappeared. Which city's loss would be most deeply felt?

I'd say Paris, just off the top of my head. It's not simply it's current importance, bust historic and cultural as well.

How about you?>

Cairo Urban Farms May Disappear Due to Bird Flu

2007-04-30T02:00:00.001-07:00

Avian flu could doom Cairo rooftop farmyards

CAIRO, Feb 18, 2006 (AFP) - A feature of Cairene folklore but also a means of subsistence for many Egyptians, rooftop farmyards have been singled out as a major health hazard since the first outbreak of avian influenza was confirmed.

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif on Saturday urged all Egyptians to put an end to rooftop farming. Four out of six birds found to have been infected by the deadly H5N1 strain in Cairo came from such installations.

While no human cases have yet been reported, Health Minister Hatem Gebali gave several interviews on television Friday night, urging families to keep children away from the rooftops.

Above the commotion of Cairo's teeming streets lies an equally crowded rooftop city where the destitute fight for living space with millions of chickens, ducks and pigeons.

In Cairo's teeming neighbourhood of Bulaq Dakrur, Ismail Mahmud Mohammed's roof houses some 50 cackling ducks and hens, two satellite dishes, several families' laundry lines and a playground for the building's children.

"When there's no money to rent a bigger place, there's always space on the roof," said the 45-year-old.

"They said on television that it's dangerous to mix with the birds but they are my only source of income. Thanks to God, my birds are okay so we will eat those and then we will stop but what other job will I find?"

While the government has not yet issued an official ban on backyard and rooftop poultry rearing, the current avian flu crisis could have a drastic impact on the Cairo skyline.

"In most Egyptians farms, the level of hygiene is good. The problem is with urban yards where poultry and humans share the same living space," said Talaat Khatib, a professor at Assiut University's faculty of veterinary medicine.

"The situation is bad in these places and the threat of disease is higher. We need a huge campaign of awareness," he told AFP.

"To tackle this sanitary issue we have to change a certain lifestyle, all these rooftop cages should be removed," Khatib said.

In the streets of Bulaq Dakrur, animals and people mingle in one chaotic cluster of dirt alleys where barefoot children play and sheep graze on rubbish amidst a huge traffic jam of donkey carts, mini-buses, grocery stalls and chicken hutches.

Unfazed by the latest reports, an old woman wrapped in a white veil squeezes the neck of one of her pigeons and drop feeds water directly from her mouth to the bird's open beak in order to keep him hydrated.

Since the bird flu scare, impoverished Egyptians have been eating even more chicken than usual, as the prices of fish and other meats have doubled.

But many residents are aware that the measures promised by the authorities could spell the end of the era of unregulated urban farming.

Rooftop farms are particularly exposed "because of the sand carried in the air and because the water can be contaminated by migratory birds such as ducks," the health minister explained on the MBC channel Friday night.

"Some things never change in Cairo but I think now a lot of people are scared or understand that breeding animals on roofs and balconies is insalubrious," said Gamal Abdel Sattah, a young pharmacist from Bulaq Dakrur.

On his father's roof, a few dozen ducks and roosters squawk and flutter around the satellite dish amid children's plastic toys and cabbage leaves strewn on a thick bed of droppings.

"I will convince my father to destroy all this. We only use the birds for our personal consumption. This is probably the end of a tradition," said Gamal.>

Climate in your city - do you like it?

2007-04-30T01:30:00.001-07:00

I'm not that much interested in statistical data, as it can not truly capture the weather, but more in your personal impression of it.

Zagreb, Croatia, Europe

We have all 4 seasons which I like, from hot summers (with temperatures often reaching over 30 degrees C) to snowy winters (which can go for too long and become depressing).

Overall weather is fine, we would be better without foggy days in the autumn and miserable cloudy damp days in february but it just makes the spring feels better.>

Your favourite spot/building in NYC

2007-04-30T01:00:00.001-07:00

I'm sure enough people here have visited NYC at least once (thus why this isn't in the NYC forum). What is your favourite spot in the city? Any memories? What is your favourite building?

I was charmed by many places in Manhattan... exploring the financial district, central park, upper west side, etc. My favourite spot however is Bryant Park, right behind the library. It's a quiet place right in the heart of the city, and one of my favourite scrapers is there: the American Radiator Building.

For those who don't know, the New York Public Library is on the left, and the ARB is on the right.

>

Your favourite spot/building in NYC

2007-04-30T00:30:00.001-07:00

ASIAN CITY OF THE FUTURE: HK

2007-04-30T00:00:00.001-07:00

ASIAN CITIES & REGIONS OF THE FUTURE 2005/06
December 12, 2005

Hong Kong earns the title of Asian city of the future with India and Australia picking up the regional honours. Courtney Fingar reports on whoÂ's doing most to attract foreign direct investment.

ASIAN CITY OF THE FUTURE:

Winner: Hong Kong

A member of the elite group of truly world-class cities on a par with London, New York and Paris, Hong Kong continues to fend off pretenders to its Asian throne. While Sydney is stunning, Singapore is serene and Shanghai is sizzling, there is still only one Hong Kong. Its status of being Chinese, yet at the same time not entirely, allows it to benefit from ChinaÂ's ascendance without being steamrollered by it.

This is, in turn, the unique advantage that Hong Kong provides to its foreign investors, and it is one not to be underestimated: come and get a piece of the Chinese action, the city says, but from a safe, stable, somewhat familiar base camp. It is an alluring pitch that will ensure Hong KongÂ's spot near the top of the FDI league tables for many years to come.

On quality of life, Hong Kong is tough to beat, as the judges in fDiÂ's first ever Asian Cities & Regions of the Future competition concluded. But, as much fun as it is to play in this exotic, cosmopolitan city, it is primarily a place for doing business Â and on that front there is also much to applaud.

In addition to its first place ranking in the quality of life category, the former British colony and now Chinese special administrative region also came top in transport, IT and telecommunications, and FDI potential. It came in second place, after Sydney, in human resources.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Runner up: Sydney

Although Hong KongÂ's lead in fDiÂ's competition was comfortable, overall runner up Sydney did manage to better it in the human resources category, proving that the Australian cityÂ's primary competitive strength is to be found in sheer people power.

SydneyÂ's quality of life was deemed second only to Hong KongÂ's, impressing our judges with its high-calibre housing and excellent schools, not to mention its array of cultural offerings. Situated on beautiful Sydney Harbour, anchored by the world-famous Sydney Opera House, the capital of New South Wales boasts a culturally diverse and highly educated population, magnificent scenery and an Antipodean friendliness Â all of which make it an exceedingly enticing place in which to live and work.>

Taipei101 2006 New Year Fireworks Show

2007-04-29T23:30:00.001-07:00

Download(YSI Free Space)

Oirginal : http://www.dvworld.com.tw

Enjoy it!

It spent about 700,000 USD to perform this 128 seconds show.>

Name all the major cities in your time zone form pole to pole..

2007-04-29T23:00:00.001-07:00

with a decent sized population and skyline
in the Eastern TZ (Philadelphia) here goes.

Detroit
Cleveland
Columbus
Cincinatti
Louisville
Indianapolis
Quebec City (not big but fairly famous)
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
Hamilton
London
Buffalo
Rochester
Syracuse
Portland
Boston
Fall River
New Bedford
Worcester
Springfield
Albany
Providence
Hartford
Waterbury
New Haven
Bridgeport
Stamford
Yonkers
White Plains
New York City
Newark
Jersey City
Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton/
Philadelphia (1.5 mil)
Atlantic City (not big but fairly famous)
Reading
Harrisburg
Pittsburgh
Baltimore
Washington DC
Richmond
Charlotte
Raleigh
Greensboro
Durham
Charleston (not big but fairly famous)
Savannah (not big but fairly famous)
Atlanta
Jacksonville
Tampa/St Pete
Orlando
Ft. Lauderdale
Miami
Panama City
Bogota
Cartagena
Cali
Lima>

Who made the great cities great?

2007-04-29T22:30:00.001-07:00

Who made our great cities great? Who was more responsible? If you have the following choices, which of the two do you think is more responsible for why great cities rise:

Â the cities hinterland. it is the needs of the area around the city that made the city great since the city serves functions for its region. Great cities rise in great regions.

Â the city is more responsible for its own rise than is the region it serves>

Best Park Attraction

2007-04-29T22:00:00.001-07:00

Hey,

I was wondering if any of you guys knew of any cool attractions at your local park. You know the wierd things that people travel from all over the city every weekend to see or do?

Love to know if there is anything wierd out there.>

List of some notable CBDs and downtowns

2007-04-29T21:30:00.001-07:00

It's the list from wikipedia.org (CBD)

Africa & the Middle East

Johannesburg--Central Business District & Sandton
Lagos--Victoria Island
Nairobi--Central Business District
Tel Aviv--Central Business District

Asia

Beijing--Central Business District
Hong Kong--Central and Tsim Sha Tsui
Shanghai--Pudong District
Tokyo--Marunouchi and Otemachi wards
Kuala Lumpur--Daerah Sentral Johor Bahru (Central District of Johor Bahru), Golden Triangle of Kuala Lumpur, and Kuala Lumpur City Centre
Manila--Makati City
Singapore--the Central Area, Raffles Place, Orchard Road, Shenton Way and Marina Centre, Marina Bay

Australia

Melbourne--Melbourne central business district
Sydney--Sydney central business district
Brisbane--Brisbane central business district, Queensland

Europe

Dublin--Dublin City Centre: central area of Greater Dublin Area, including docklands and city core.
Frankfurt--the Innenstadt
Istanbul--the Levent District.
London--the City of London and the West End as well as the newly built Canary Wharf.
Madrid--AZCA / Nuevos Ministerios
Paris--La Defense
Warsaw--ŚrÃ³dmieście

North America

Downtown Anchorage, Alaska
Loda, Downtown Mobile, Alabama
Downtown Boston, Massachusetts
Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina
Chicago Loop, Illinois
Downtown Cleveland, Ohio
Downtown Dallas, Texas
Downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Downtown Honolulu, Hawaii
Downtown Houston, Texas
Downtown Kansas City, Missouri
Downtown Los Angeles, California
San Francisco Financial District, California
Downtown Manhattan, New York City (the Lower Manhattan CBD)
Midtown Manhattan, New York City (the largest CBD in the country)
Downtown Miami, Florida
Downtown Montreal, Quebec
Downtown Nashville, Tennessee
Downtown New Haven, Connecticut
Central Business District, New Orleans, Louisiana
Downtown Orlando, Florida
Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Downtown Phoenix, Arizona
Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Downtown Portland, Oregon
Downtown Richmond, Virginia
Downtown Salt Lake City, Utah
Downtown San Jose, California
Downtown Tampa and Westshore, Tampa, Florida
Downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Downtown Seattle, Washington
Downtown Syracuse, New York
Downtown Youngstown, Ohio
Downtown - Columbus, Ohio
The District - Downtown Columbia, Missouri
El Centro, Mexico City, Mexico
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Panama City, Panama

The list seems to be a bit weird....>

When cities are dying...

2007-04-29T21:00:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I have been reading quite enough about all that pretty, booming, spreading, expanding and all-crystal-clear cities.

But life is not even close to this. Urban growth is being achieved at the great expense of those left behind. Of those who oppose the change.

I want to see all urban contrasts - both in the large and small scale: I want to see the dying neighborhoods and whole cities. Places which had not seen any building equipment for ages or any business activity, where no sane person would come into without personal army.

You probably know what I am talking about, since it's (unfortunately) not that difficult to find them.>

US Cleanest city: Portland, Chicago is worst

2007-04-29T20:30:00.001-07:00

The list of the 50 largest U.S. cities and score breakdown
http://www.rd.com/content/openConten...ontentId=15115

America's cleanest city

#1 Portland, Oregon (44)
#2 San Jose, California
#3 Buffalo, New York
#4 Columbus, Ohio
#5 San Francisco

Dirtiest

#1 Chicago, Illinois (6.71)
#2 New York, New York
#3 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
#4 St. Louis, Missouri
#5 Birmingham, Alabama>

Does your city have any floating restaurants?

2007-04-29T20:00:00.001-07:00

Does your city have any floating restaurants? Here's one in HK

Aberdeen floating restaurants

Jumbo
>

The most impressive city of these cities for you

2007-04-29T19:30:00.001-07:00

Chicago

Frank Furt

Hong Kong

London

Los Angeles

Madrid

Milan

Moscow

New York City

Paris

Seoul

Sydney

Singapore

Tokyo

Toronto

Have you been to one or more of these cities ?
if so, which city is most awesome and impressive for you?>

Which side of the Mississippi is New Orleans on?

2007-04-29T18:00:00.001-07:00

Is it on the same side as Memphis or St. Louis? What do you think? I know the answer..just seeking what you guys think.>

Public vs Private space

2007-04-29T17:00:00.001-07:00

Hello all, I am wondering if anybody knows of any good articles that deals with public and private space in cities. Thank you!>

High rise clusters, not CBD

2007-04-29T16:30:00.001-07:00

This is the place to share information and pictures about high rise clusters that are not part of your central business district or even connected to it.

(as examples, the greater downtown area in Chicago would be eliminated in the sense that it is one continuous high rise district: Loop, Mag Mile, River North, South Loop, Gold Coast, etc.. In Manhattan, both Downtown and Midtown would count separately since they are not attached by high rises straight through.)

where are the major clusters located away from downtown and is their purpose more residential high rise? commerical? true mix of purposes (i.e. Century City). How important are they to the city and how well tied in with the city's transporation system?

While in-city/non CBD is the intention, edge cities part of the metro area (i.e. Tyson in VA) or suburbs with extensive skylines (i.e. Clayton, MO) can be included. And metros like the Bay Area can certainly be looked at has having non-main downtown (in this case: SF) clusters in the downtowns of Oakland and San Jose, as would be any major cluster in NYC's outer boroughs.>

The Big Mac Index

2007-04-29T16:00:00.001-07:00

Fast food and strong currencies
Jun 9th 2005
From The Economist print edition

How much burger do you get for your euro, yuan or Swiss franc?

ITALIANS like their coffee strong and their currencies weak. That, at least, is the conclusion one can draw from their latest round of grumbles about Europe's single currency. But are the Italians right to moan? Is the euro overvalued?

Our annual Big Mac index suggests they have a case: the euro is overvalued by 17% against the dollar. How come? The euro is worth about $1.22 on the foreign-exchange markets. A Big Mac costs Â2.92, on average, in the euro zone and $3.06 in the United States. The rate needed to equalise the burger's price in the two regions is just $1.05. To patrons of McDonald's, at least, the single currency is overpriced.

The Big Mac index, which we have compiled since 1986, is based on the notion that a currency's price should reflect its purchasing power. According to the late, great economist Rudiger Dornbusch, this idea can be traced back to the Salamanca school in 16th-century Spain. Since then, he wrote, the doctrine of purchasing-power parity (PPP) has been variously seen as a Â"truism, an empirical regularity or a grossly misleading simplification.Â"

Economists lost some faith in PPP as a guide to exchange rates in the 1970s, after the world's currencies abandoned their anchors to the dollar. By the end of the decade, exchange rates seemed to be drifting without chart or compass. Later studies showed that a currency's purchasing power does assert itself over the long run. But it might take three to five years for a misaligned exchange rate to move even halfway back into line.

Our index shows that burger prices can certainly fall out of line with each other. If he could keep the burgers fresh, an ingenious arbitrageur could buy Big Macs for the equivalent of $1.27 in China, whose yuan is the most undervalued currency in our table, and sell them for $5.05 in Switzerland, whose franc is the most overvalued currency. The impracticality of such a trade highlights some of the flaws in the PPP idea. Trade barriers, transport costs and differences in taxes drive a wedge between prices in different countries.

More important, the $5.05 charged for a Swiss Big Mac helps to pay for the retail space in which it is served, and for the labour that serves it. Neither of these two crucial ingredients can be easily traded across borders. David Parsley, of Vanderbilt University, and Shang-Jin Wei, of the International Monetary Fund, estimate that non-traded inputs, such as labour, rent and electricity, account for between 55% and 64% of the price of a Big Mac*.

The two economists disassemble the Big Mac into its separate ingredients. They find that the parts of the burger that are traded internationally converge towards purchasing-power parity quite quickly. Any disparity in onion prices will be halved in less than nine months, for example. But the non-traded bits converge much more slowly: a wage gap between countries has a Â"half-lifeÂ" of almost 29 months.

Seen in this light, our index provides little comfort to Italian critics of the single currency. If the euro buys less burger than it should, perhaps inflexible wages, not a strong currency, are to blame.>

Shanghai Housing Market Bubble Bursts

2007-04-29T15:30:00.001-07:00

Flats bubble bursts in Shanghai

City's housing market caves in after a doubling of prices and a run-up fueled by speculation, writes Don Lee

Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Los Angeles Times

Once one of the hottest property markets in the world, Shanghai has seen sales of homes virtually halt in some areas, prompting developers to slash prices and real estate brokerages to shutter thousands of offices.

For the first time, Shanghai homeowners are learning what it means to have an upside-down mortgage, when the value of a home falls below the amount of debt on the property. Recent homebuyers are suing to get their money back. Banks are fretting about a wave of default loans.

"The industry is scaling back," said Mu Wijie, regional manager at Century 21 China, who estimated that 3,000 brokerage offices had closed since spring. Real estate agents, whose phones would not stop ringing a year ago, say their incomes have plunged 67 percent.

Shanghai's housing slump is only going to worsen and imperil a significant part of the mainland economy, said Andy Xie, Morgan Stanley's chief Asia economist in Hong Kong.

Although the city's 20 million residents represent less than 2 percent of China's population of 1.3 billion, Xie said, Shanghai accounts for an astounding 20 percent of the country's property value. One million homes in Shanghai alone are under construction.

"They'll remain empty for years," Xie said, adding a jolting comedown also is in store for other cities with building booms, including Beijing, Chongqing and Chengdu, though other analysts say the problem is largely confined to Shanghai.

Shanghai's housing bust comes after a doubling of prices in the previous three years, a run-up fueled by massive speculation.

With the economy booming and Shanghai at the center of worldwide attention, investors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and elsewhere were buying as fast as buildings were going up.

At least 30 percent to 40 percent of homes sold were bought by speculators, said Zhang Zhijie, a real estate analyst at Soufun.com Academy, a research group in Shanghai.

"Ordinary people had no option but to follow the trend. Worrying that prices would be even more unaffordable tomorrow, many of them borrowed from relatives and banks to buy as soon as possible," Zhang said.

The government only pushed the market higher, he added. "Many of the officials said Shanghai's property market was healthy and wouldn't drop before the World Expo" in 2010.

For Wang Suxian, a tale of two lines illustrates how the bubble has burst.

When home prices were at the tail end of the boom in March, Wang hired two migrant workers to stand in line for a chance to buy units in what the developer said was modeled after an apartment community on New York's Park Avenue.

The workers waited 72 hours, and came away with two apartments, one for US$110,000 (HK$858,000), about the average price for a new home in Shanghai, and another for US$170,000.

And for a short period, Wang believed she was raking in hundreds of dollars a day for doing nothing, as property prices in the city kept soaring.

But today, prices at the complex have fallen by 33 percent, and the lines of frenzied buyers are gone. Wang is among dozens who are fighting the developer to take the apartments back.

She stood in a line herself with about 40 other buyers outside the builder's headquarters, demanding that it negotiate a deal to return their money. "This is ridiculous," Wang said.

The company, Da Hua Group, invited the homeowners inside, served them hot tea, then told them to forget it.

"I think it'll take at least three years before the property market becomes healthy again," said Zhu Delin, a finance professor at Shanghai University and former head of the Shanghai Banking Association.

The typical home being built is in a high-rise complex, with two bedrooms and 850 square feet of living space. Developers say many of Shanghai's homes are valued at about US$70,000 or less, and price drops have not been as steep for those units.

Some still see promise in the Shanghai market. Incomes are rising and people are relocating from the inner city to outlying areas, said Richard David of Macquarie Property Investment Banking China in Shanghai.

What's more, he says, the Shanghai government which owns all the land has auctioned off few lots in the past two years, which will limit the number of housing units in the future.

But that's little solace for homeowners who have seen inventories rise even as buyers show no hurry to come back into the market.

People are blaming the popping of the housing bubble on the central government, which has applied one measure after another in the last year to quash excessive speculation and price increases.

Banks were ordered to raise their best rate on home loans to 5.5 percent from 5 percent. Homebuyers were required to make down payments of at least 30 percent, up from 20 percent. A 5.5 percent capital gains tax on sellers' profits was imposed.

Beijing also levied a 5 percent tax on the sale price of homes sold before two years of ownership.

"It's killed the speculators," said David Pitcher, the former head of CB Richard Ellis' office in Shanghai.

Before the market swooned, buses would bring investors from the southeastern coastal city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province on home-buying missions. They no longer come.

Wang, the woman battling Da Hua, is one of tens of thousands of Shanghai homebuyers from Wenzhou, known for its wealth and business prowess.

But it's not just speculators who have bailed out of the market. A lot of potential Shanghai buyers have been scared off by numerous reports of sinking home prices and desperate action by some owners.

Internet chat rooms recently were abuzz with a story that a Taiwanese man had jumped from the 33rd floor of an apartment tower. Many people suspect that he killed himself because he was drowning in debt after his home investments went sour.

Managers at the complex refused to comment, but brokers indicated the price of some units in Shanghai have plummeted by more than 50 percent since March, when a home fetched as much as US$250 a square foot.

Zhang Wei, an editor at Imagine China, a photography agency, was close to buying an apartment in the new Pudong development area last year. He planned to use his US$1,250 in savings, and his parents - a policeman and a doctor - agreed to contribute about US$30,000.

The family of three currently lives in a 550 sqft apartment in an industrial district that was provided by his father's employer, the Police Bureau.

Zhang walked away from the deal after the central government stepped up its campaign to cool Shanghai's market. He noticed prices beginning to drop.

"When two of the four real estate agencies near our home finally closed, I decided not to buy for at least two years," he said. "Even a 1 percent drop in prices is a lot of money for us."

For Shanghai, prolonged weakness in the housing market could be very painful. It relies heavily on real estate to drive its economy. Morgan Stanley's Xie says property sales directly accounted for about half of US$31 billion of the growth in Shanghai's annual economic output from 2001 to 2004.

Construction cranes still fill the skyline of Shanghai, an area of about 5, 700 square kilometers. But there's sparse development in the center of the city, where strong sales of high-end homes and luxury office suites, in large part by foreigners, belie the losses around it.

Shanghai's government is relocating inner-city residents to new suburban areas, where entire towns are going up as part of a plan to build distinct industries that ring the city.

It's unclear how many of these new homes are sitting empty. Sales and inventory figures aren't provided by the government. But analysts say they can see the surplus of housing when they drive past housing complexes and there are few lights on at night.

Few analysts are betting on a quick turnaround. Yin Zhongli, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, says a housing crash takes time to clean up. He worries that the financial sector will be crippled by the real estate fallout.

Last year, he said, 76 percent of all bank loans in Shanghai were in real estate. "Now is the time to swallow a bitter pill," Yin said.

That's what Huang Xiaolei is doing. The Shanghai native nabbed a 1,700 sqft apartment from Da Hua during the heady times last spring. The unit would not be completed until the end of the year, but as is customary in China, Huang had to secure a loan and make the down payment right away.

She and her parents pooled their life savings of about US$80,000 and put 30 percent down on the US$270,000 flat.

In April, they began making monthly mortgage payments of US$1,100 on a 30-year loan with a 5.5 percent interest rate.

In November, Huang stopped the monthly payment, and this month she filed a lawsuit against Da Hua, claiming her contract allowed her to rescind the purchase before the house was completed under special circumstances, with a 3 percent fee.

"We have over 40 cases like this at our firm," said Du Yuping, Huang's lawyer.

Huang regrets that she got caught up in the frenzied market, and says that even if she wins the lawsuit, she'll suffer a hard financial loss.

"I was cheated," she said.>

What do you hate about your city???

2007-04-29T15:00:00.001-07:00

I personally don't like bashing cities, but it's a part of our urban life, nontheless. I can give you lots, lots, and lots of shortcomings about my hometown, Philadelphia, as well as other cities (http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=272645) I have traveled in. Please share some of your shortcomings about your city and others.>

world's oldest skyscraper city!

2007-04-29T14:30:00.001-07:00

world's oldest/first skyscraper city - Shibam, Yemen
Shiban, Yemen (called 'the Manhattan of the DesertÂ", and Â"town with the worldÂ's first skyscrapers)
is thought to have been in existence since the second century AD,
and the skyscrapers themselves (more than 500 buildings over 30 meters) date back to 8th century AD.

UNESCO World Heritage, Shibam
http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=192

Have any forumers been there?>

Google Earth Images

2007-04-29T14:00:00.001-07:00

Could someone please post a Google Earth Image of Downtown Minneapolis for me. I do not have the program and am very curious to see its view. Thanks alot.>

Cities with most Africans outside of Africa.

2007-04-29T13:30:00.001-07:00

Here are all US cities with at least 100,000 African Americans and their share of the city's total population:

New York City, NY--1,962,154--(24.5%)
Chicago, IL--1,053,739--(36.4%)
Detroit, MI--771,966--(81.2%)
Philadelphia, PA--646,123--(42.6%)
Houston, TX--487,851--(25.0%)
Baltimore, MD--417,099--(64.0%)
Los Angeles, CA--401,986--(10.9%)
Memphis, TN--397,732--(61.2%)
Washington, DC--340,088--(59.4%)
New Orleans, LA--323,392--(66.7%)
Dallas, TX--304,824--(25.6%)
Atlanta, GA--254,062--(61.0%)
Cleveland, OH--241,512--(50.5%)
Milwaukee, WI--220,432--(36.9%)
Jacksonville,FL--211,252--(28.7%)
Indianapolis,IN--198,252--(25.4%)
Birmingham, AL--177,709--(73.2%)
St. Louis, MO--177,446--(51.0%)
Charlotte, NC--175,661--(32.5%)
Columbus, OH--172,750--(24.3%)
Boston, MA--140,305--(23.8%)
Newark, NJ--142,083--(51.9%)
Nashville, TN--145,483--(26.7%)
Oakland, CA--140,139--(35.1%)
Cincinnati, OH--141,534--(42.7%)
Kansas City, MO--136,921--(31.0%)
Jackson, MS--129,609--(70.3%)
Baton Rouge, LA--113,478--(49.8%)
Richmond, VA--112,455--(56.9%)
Buffalo, NY--107,066--(36.6%)
Fort Worth, TX--106,988--(20.0%)
Norfolk, VA--102,268--(43.6%)
Shreveport, LA--101,218--(50.6%)

Please post data for other cities that you know have more than 100,000 Africans. There is probably plenty of them in Western Europe and Brazil.>

Exagerrating the Population of Metro's in North America

2007-04-29T13:00:00.001-07:00

Populations are in units of 1000. They are all compiled from the United Nations stats on urban regions. Enjoy...

1 18934 Mexico
2 17147 New York
3 13766 Los Angeles
4 7181 Chicago
5 5157 Toronto
6 4571 Philadelphia
7 4253 San Francisco
8 4163 Dallas
9 4151 Washington
10 3927 Detroit
11 3889 Guadalajara
12 3566 Montreal
13 3556 Houston
14 3502 Monterrey
15 3197 San Diego
16 3039 Boston
17 2804 Phoenix
18 2674 Atlanta
19 2494 Minneapolis
20 2339 Miami
21 2247 Vancouver
22 2217 Seattle
23 2184 Tampa
24 2166 St Louis
25 2140 Baltimore
26 2140 Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News
27 1979 Toluca
28 1888 Puebla
29 1848 Riverside-San Bernardino
30 1796 Cleveland
31 1796 Pittsburgh
32 1778 Denver
33 1717 San Jose
34 1564 Tijuana
35 1555 Fort Lauderdale
36 1536 Kansas City
37 1506 Sacremento
38 1462 Juarez
39 1432 Leon
40 1395 Portland-Vancouver
41 1391 San Antonio
42 1382 Cincinatti
43 1335 Milwaukee
44 1326 Orlando
45 1244 West Palm Beach
46 1135 Ottawa
47 1121 Columbus
48 1120 New Orleans
49 1083 Las Vegas
50 1070 Calgary
51 1056 Indianapolis
52 1053 Torreon
53 1028 Buffalo
54 1004 Edmonton>

Dubai: When will it be a Gamma city

2007-04-29T12:30:00.001-07:00

Dubai is obviously determined to become a world class city, but officialy it has "some evidence of world city formation". When will Dubai finally hit world class level?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to the bottom of this page>

Advertising in U/C buildings!!!

2007-04-29T12:00:00.001-07:00

Hello... I have seen sometimes in this forum, pictures of cities, mainly in US, where sometimes you see buildings under construction, and it seems the advertising companies use the "fences, walls" around the construction area to advertise stuff, as if they were outdoors! Do you guys know what I am talking about?

Please, I am an advertising student. If you have pictures of this kind of thing, post here! I am very grateful!>

International kinship of Cities

2007-04-29T11:00:00.001-07:00

What cities are you close to on the border to another country? With couple has the closest kinship?
EXAMPLE: detroit(USA)--windsor(CANADA)>

What building do you think is going to reach 492 m first? SWFC, Burj Dubai, ICC?

2007-04-29T10:30:00.001-07:00

ok i posted this question on the SWFC construction forum but i think i should get more people's opinions. so, What building do you think is going to reach 492 m first? SWFC, Burj Dubai, or Union Square 7??>

Portland Pearl and Buffalo Cobblestone

2007-04-29T09:00:00.001-07:00

Hi Forumers-

Thought I'd share this site where the Pearl is being used as a model for a former industrial area of downtown Buffalo, NY. It has great bones, but is slowly allowing demolition of historical industrial buildings even as the area starts to catch the loft boom.

Here is the complex coming down in the name of 'progress':

http://www.buffalorising.com/city/ar...appointing.php

http://www.buffalorising.com/city/ar...ony_set_fo.php

Here is the Pearl slide show:

http://www.buffalorising.com/city/ar..._cobbles_1.php

Unfortunately a historic grain silo is being torn down for a casino complex. It has many of us howling in protest to deaf ears. Portland any many other cities have shown that development and preservation are not only compatible, but create a much more interesting neighborhood. Anyone wishing to share why this is a bad idea on the site, please feel free. Buffalonians need to start "getting it.">

What building do you think is going to reach 492 m first? SWFC or Burj Dubai?

2007-04-29T08:30:00.001-07:00

ok i posted this question on the SWFC construction forum but i think i should get more people's opinions. so, What building do you think is going to reach 492 m first? SWFC Or Burj Dubai??>

Most improved skyline in the last 10 years?

2007-04-29T07:00:00.001-07:00

What city is it? >

Dubai is a FAKE CITY

2007-04-29T06:30:00.001-07:00

All of you guys are right, you have outed us. It isn't a real city, in fact none of us actually live here. We are bussed in from Oman and Qatar by the Tourism Board and made to stand in poses and take photos which are plastered all over magazines world wide. The police don't less us walk around the streets so it looks as picture perfect as possible. We don't really live in Dubai, but please dont tell the rest of the world our secret >

Amount of skyscrapers in Shanghai under construction?

2007-04-29T06:00:00.001-07:00

The best source for skyscrapers (emporis) say that Shanghai has 37 skyscrapers under construction. I don`t really believe this.

How many skyscrapers (12floors or over 35m) are right now in Shanghai under construction? What do you believe?

Maybe someone has more information about this. I would really like to know the amount.>

City Brand Index

2007-04-29T05:30:00.001-07:00

City Brand Index

At www.citybrandsindex.com there is a list which measures the brand identity of cities.
The list is made by the following properties:

Quote:>

The Presence
This point of the City Brands Hexagon is all about the cityÂ's international status and standing. In this section, we ask
how familiar people are with each of the 30 cities in the survey, whether they have actually visited them or not, and
ask what the cities are famous for. We also ask whether each city has made an important contribution to the world
in culture, science, or in the way cities are governed, during the last 30 years.

The Place
Here, we explore peopleÂ's perceptions about the physical aspect of each city: how pleasant or unpleasant they
imagine it is to be outdoors and to travel around the city, how beautiful it is, and what the climate is like.

The Potential
This point of the City Brand Hexagon considers the economic and educational opportunities that each city is
believed to offer visitors, businesses and immigrants. We ask our panels how easy they think it would be to find
a job in the city, and, if they had a business, how good a place they think it would be to do business in. Finally,
we ask whether each city would be a good place for them or other family members to get a higher educational
qualification.

The Pulse
The appeal of a vibrant urban lifestyle is an important part of each cityÂ's brand image. In this section, we explore
how exciting people think the cities are, and we ask how easy people think it would be to find interesting things
to do, both as a short term visitor and as a long term resident.

The People
The people make the city, and in this point of the hexagon we ask whether our respondents think the inhabitants
would be warm and friendly, or cold and prejudiced against outsiders. We ask whether they think it would be easy
for them to find and fit into a community which shares their language and culture. Finally, and very importantly,
we ask how safe our panellists think they would feel in the city.

The Prerequisites
This is the section where we ask people about how they perceive the basic qualities of the city: what they think it
would be like to live there, how easy they think it would be to find satisfactory, affordable accommodation, and
what they believe the general standard of public amenities is like Â schools, hospitals, public transport, sports
facilities, and so on.

Overall Rankings Rank
London 1
Paris 2
Sydney 3
Rome 4
Barcelona 5
Amsterdam 6
New York 7
Los Angeles 8
Madrid 9
Berlin 10
San Francisco 11
Toronto 12
Geneva 13
Washington 14
Brussels 15
Milan 16
Stockholm 17
Edinburgh 18
Tokyo 19
Prague 20
Hong Kong 21
Singapore 22
Rio de Janeiro 23
Beijing 24
Mexico City 25
Moscow 26
Johannesburg 27
Cairo 28
Mumbai 29
Lagos 30

R&D Scorecard Global Top 1,000 Companies: US firms dominate

2007-04-29T05:00:00.001-07:00

R&D Scorecard Global Top 1,000 Companies: US firms dominate; 86% of total R&D comes from just 6 countries out of 36

By Finfacts Team

The increase in corporate R&D investment for 2004-05 was 2 per cent in Europe but 7 per cent in the US and Asia, according to the International R&D Scoreboard, produced by the UK's Department of Trade and Industry.

There are two Irish companies among the top 1,000 global companies: Kerry Group has a 416th ranking and Elan Pharmaceuticals has a 806th rank ( Download Excel file at bottom of page).

The USA has 6 of the 15 largest companies by R&D (see figure ES3) but 6 of the top 10 larger companies by growth of R&D and 11 of the top 15 by R&D intensity. Europe has 6 of the top 15 by R&D but 1 of the top 10 by growth and 4 of the top 15 by R&D intensity. Amongst R&D-intensive middle-sized companies (sales up to Â£500m and R&D intensity over 4.5%) in the Global 1000, the USA has the largest proportion (38%) of its Scoreboard companies in this category. However, the UK is second of the 6 major countries by proportion with 22% of its companies in the middle Â sized category. Using the US, EU and UK Scoreboards, the proportions of sizeable companies (R&D over Â£6.4m) in each R&D intensity band can be displayed. For the highest R&D intensity bands above 10%, the UK has a higher proportion than the EU ex UK although less than the USA (see figure ES4). The UKÂ's number of companies in this category has increased by 77% between the 2001 and 2005 Scoreboards.

The Scorecard of the the world's top 1,000 companies by R&D spending, shows that European companies as a whole have not increased R&D investment over the past four years, while US companies are spending 12 per cent more on R&D than their four-year average.

The European-US DaimlerChrysler car group, tops the R&D spending league, with an investment of $7.69bn - just ahead of Pfizer of the US with $7.684bn.

The US continues to score highly when "R&D intensity" - R&D in relation to sales - is measured. American companies invested 4.5 per cent of sales revenues in R&D, compared with 4.0 per cent for Japanese and 3.3 per cent for European companies.

This partly reflects the fact that the US is strongly represented in the three big R&D-intensive sectors of industry: pharmaceuticals, IT hardware and software. Europe is relatively weak in IT and related fields, while Asia lacks a vibrant pharmaceutical sector.

The business climate for R&D-active companies continued to improve in the period covered by the Scoreboard, with increases in overall sales growth, profitability and R&D levels for the top 1000 companies across the world. Growth in all three measures was stronger in the Americas than in the Asia-Pacific region or Europe. The United States continues to be the strongest R&D nation with 6 of the top 15 biggest R&D investing companies; Europe collectively has 5. The USA also has 11 of the top 15 larger companies by R&D intensity (R&D as % sales); Europe has the remaining 4.>

Nightlife in your city :)

2007-04-29T04:00:00.001-07:00

Hi there. .......Give us a highlight of a hot Saturday night in your city. Tell us where to go, the best clubs, undiscovered gems, and the best party spots in town!

For the lovely city of Albuquerque-

After work, head out to the cool Q-Bar in historic Old Town, for martinis. Grab a quick snack at Ambrozia on Mountain Boulevard, before heading down 8th Street to catch the Albuquerque Symphony Orchestra perform at the bandshell on the lake in the Zoological Gardens. Take Central Boulevard into downtowns thumping Entertainment District, walk the 4th Street Mall and check out-

Burts Tiki Club
Banana Joes
The Billiards Club
Shank
New York Pizza Co.
Sauce
the Hole
Grab a beer at the Library, where the waitresses dance on the bartops
or bang your head in any of the other 29 clubs, discos and bars in downtown.

Head up to Civic Plaza, to watch hot local bands perform, or gawk at the fire-breathers and Turkish Belly Dancers, or trance with thousands of hot bodies at the Summerfest.

A MUST-see for any Albuquerque Saturday is OPM.......one of the hottest and best clubs in the Southwest, home for reknowned DJ Kike, DJ Irene, and Bad Boy Carlos.

Check out a play at one of downtowns 6 Independant theaters, ranging from alternative, to classic Shakespeare, to Independant Poetry readings.

Attend a party at the rooftop pool at the Hyatt Regency, and head into the Warehouse District in Edo to find some hot jazz clubs and Salsa Venues.

Dont forget to head out to the heights, and flirt in the jungle club of Assets, Sandiagos, or if your down by the river, take a few shots at Neds on the Rio Grande. South African, British and Aussie expats should check out the White Lion Pub or the Mama Afrika, both in Los Ranchos. Japanese looking for a taste of home should check out Hima-Hima Club in Uptown. Or go wine tasting in Casa Bordeax in Corrales.

For a real fancy meal with an equally fancy price tag.....Corn Maiden on the north-end is the place.....and of course, Petro pumps out decent (sometimes) tracks, or a decent( sometimes) pianist will play, on the 18th floor of BOW Bldg.

All the big hotels have "chic" bars and discos.............right now, Tamaya at Hyatt Regency Tamaya, or Waters at the Doubletree....are the best.

Metro Albuquerque has 4 casinos.....all of which offer Las Vegas style gambling, Las Vegas style shows...nightclubs, and usually big name concerts. The only one worth going to is the Sandia Casino..........which just completed its new high-rise hotel tower.

Of course we have Opera, Ballet and Symphony.

And the best concerts (BIG names) are held at the Journal Pavilion and Tingley Coliseum.

Make your way into Nob Hill, get a tatoo, or take the tour of Albuquerques 9 Gay Clubs (all in Nob Hill), and dont miss Pulse and Blu........two of the city's hottest places to party.

While in Nob Hill, check out Kellys Brew Pub, and watch sexy dancers partake in HOT Tango and Rumba (to which I belong )

Before calling the night over, visit Graham Central Station in Midtown, and dance a few hours away in one of its 4 superclubs......Miami Beach, Swing, the Barn and Cats.

After your too drunk to dance anymore, catch a famous green-chile burrito at the Frontier (personally, I hate the place)....its open 24/7.

And the whole night long...take the Express Line,a buck fifty will get you unlimited trips all along Central Avenue corridor until 4 am. Its safe, its reliable, and it keeps you and your friends from driving drunk.

Enjoy! >

can you tell a city's importance in the suburbs it spawns?

2007-04-29T03:30:00.001-07:00

Some of us would like to think that suburbia everywhere is homogenized and indistinguishable from metro area to metro area, but is that truly the case?

Doesn't the appearance of a city's suburban area depend on the importance of that city and that city's wealth, as well? Is a city's persona reflected onto its suburbs?

Here's the question:

CAN YOU TELL THE IMPORTANCE OF A MAJOR AMERICAN CITY BY NEVER STEPPING FOOT IN THAT CITY, BUT JUST DRIVING THORUGH ITS SUBURBS?

To clarify, do the suburbs of Top Tier cities look different than the suburbs of lower tier cities....be that in transportation, housing costs (obvious one), density, shopping, education, culture, diversity, restaurants, enterainment, traffic, amenities,attractions, etc.?

Is suburban Baltimore fundamentally different from suburban NYC?
Suburban Cleveland from suburban Chicago?
Suburban San Diego from suburban LA?
etc.

Can you get a sense of how major a city is just by viewing and analyzing its suburbs?>

Would you live in Miami, FL?

2007-04-29T03:00:00.001-07:00

It's last thread for this topic. I wondering that would you rather to live in Miami because of sun, beaches, nice sky and other everything. Just discussion there.

PS: That's not including in Broward and Palm Beach County. Its only in Miami-Dade County.>

connections between world cities and other world cities

2007-04-29T02:30:00.001-07:00

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/visual/hwatlas.html

New York

Tokyo

London

Paris

Hong Kong
>

Australian Military

2007-04-29T02:00:00.001-07:00

Haha jokes, this isnt what is being posted here , here's the real thing
__

NAVY

ARMY

AIR FORCE

>

Global cities and networking

2007-04-29T01:30:00.001-07:00

While on the fast track, globalization has a long way to go. And many of its question marks involve cities in places like China, India, Africa, former Soviet block, Latin America, etc., as these cities try to catch up with North America, western Europe, Japan, etc.

But catch up they will. And the global economy is being based on certain major cities plugged in with each other, networked so to speak.

Here's the question: When the network is relatively in place globally, do this list of global cities stay relatively static, unchanging, as the infrastructure that allowed them to become global is in place and the network has no desire to change the hubs that are firmly set for it to function?>

OMG ... Dubai really is fake and plastic afterall !

2007-04-29T00:30:00.001-07:00

Pictures by Dubai_Lover

My god its so fake , has no soul , and it looks exactly like las vegas , the similarities are incredible !!

>

SF: the only city that could fit into US's N.E. quadrant?

2007-04-29T00:00:00.001-07:00

Is San Francisco unique in its relationship to other US cities?

Personally, I think it is.

If you separate the US into quadrants and look at the northeast quadrant (the New England, Middle Atlantic and Great Lakes region), no other city out of that quadrant shares the urban characteristics of the region as San Francisco.

After the Gold Rush, SF became "The City" in the west. It has developed its long and lusty history over a period of time that no western city can match. SF's late 19th/early 20th century growth paralleled the same growth in eastern and midwestern cities, with immigrant groups from Europe (and, in the case of SF, Asia) adding to the mix.

SF density is unique outside of the northeast quadrant of the country. It is a city that always depended on public transit. Surrounded on three sides by water, the city has never sprawled like other western cities.

The South, of course, is very old. But until after WWII and the introduction of air conditioning, southern cities just didn't grow that fast or felt that densely urban as the cities of the Northeast , Midwest, and SF. Southern cities, like Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas, have come of age far later than San Francisco. And older ones like New Orleans never followed the n.e. quadrant model.

Out west, LA grew using a model completely alien to the Northeast/Midwest/SF model. Seattle's growth has been largely since WWII and it, too, lacks the sense of density that SF has.

Culturally, SF is Far West and is different from the eastern and midwestern cities, but its urbanization, its sense of place, and the way it experienced the course of US history from mid-19th century is similiar.

I can't think that comes close to the eastern/midwestern model than San Francisco.>

SOME SHANGHAI PIC

2007-04-28T23:30:00.001-07:00

[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!

2007-04-28T23:00:00.001-07:00

main features:put everything in order,identical commie blocks and GRIDED

a Northern Chinese city from the air!

suburb

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Anyone ever think Taipei is most underrated city in Asia?

2007-04-28T22:00:00.001-07:00

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 >

What's the reason Korea has divided in two.

2007-04-28T21:30:00.001-07:00

Whose fault is it? >

Cities with two names?

2007-04-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

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 AthÃ¡ Cliath, Brussels is Brussel in Flamish, Bruxelles in French and BrÃ¼ssel 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

2007-04-28T20:00:00.001-07:00

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.>

Mauritius Ventures into Duty-Free Tourism

2007-04-28T19:00:00.001-07:00

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 RÃ©union, 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 RÃ©union 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.>