Ideas for the New City.

I discovered Urban Omnibus which is an online project of Architectural League in New York. Their mission is to create a new conversation about design and of NY City. They consult architects, planners, designers, artists and citizens to create a better understanding of cities and how they could be more sustainable, inclusive and beautiful.

One of their projects was the 50 Ideas for the New City. They made it for New York City but it can be a showcase and model for other cities around the world too. I find the list very interesting and each number links to another feature related to the topic (more interesting articles/examples on how to achieve each item).

Here are the their ideas of what cities should be doing:

1. Combat Climate Change by adapting our existing building stock.
2. Support the Arts through asset-building.
3. Capture the energy of people going about their day.
4. Make a small difference in a community you know.
5. Map everything.
6. Use temporary structures to offer amenities to underserved communities.
7. Design for generational diversity.
8. Look for excess capacity everywhere and put it to good use.
9. Listen to you ecosystem
10. Support a diverse economy.
11. Enliven schools to engage children.
12. 
    

Article here.

  13.  Let the city tell you its stories.

  14.  Use theatre to investigate issues of neighbourhood change and development.

  15.  Look at the city through the lens of food.

  16.  Make rules and regulations easy to understand.

  17.  Take care of nature wherever nature is found.

  18.  Encourage the private sector to create public amenities.

  19.  Use natural systems to support the city's infrastructure.

  20   Reconsider where, how and with whom we work.

  21.  Harness renewable energy from tides, not just the sun and the wind.

  22.  Use the city as a classroom.

  23.  Make our city's systems visible to increase understanding of how they work.

  24.  Make subdivisions safe and legal. (as subdivided dwellings in NY are illegal)

  25.  Play with implications of computing embedded in nearly every aspect of daily life.

  26.  Involve city's newest resident.

  27.  Celebrate and activate the city's ecology.

  28.  See city as a software.

  29.  Coordinate like-minded, small-scale initiatives to activate otherwise isolated efforts.

  30.  Create ways for businesses to share space and resources.

  31.  Consider public transport options beyond road and rail.

  32.  Look closely at the diversity of building types we have in the city.

  33.  Learn from the geological material beneath your feet.

  34.  Design recreation space by watching how people play.

  35.  Connect web talent with city governments.

  36.  Stop sewer overflow with creative preventive design.

  37.  

Article here.

  38.  Ask citizens how they want to improve their cities.

  39.  Allow accidents to happen.

  40.  Think beyond shelter to help the homeless.

  41.  Let citizens engage in the maintenance of infrastructure.

  42.  Think of wandering and observing the city's streets as an art form.

  43.  Create easy ways for people to share cab rides.

  44.  Turn toxic land into agriculturally productive lots.

  45.  Share, discuss and tweak proposed works of public art, architecture and urban design.

  46.  Celebrate the urban beauty overlooked.

  47.  Make fire hydrants the anchors of temporary mini-parks.

  48.  Learn from the unbuilt city.

  49.  Interrogate your assumptions about what sustainability means.

  50.  Invite everyone to share good ideas for the future of cities.

While some ideas are more specific to New York, I think Auckland can still get a few ideas from this list. The goal for Auckland is to be a globally competitive city. In order to do so, we need to look at what other global cities are doing. New York is a very popular city that has great examples and we can definitely learn a few tips.