Walk Score has ranked 2,508 neighborhoods in the largest 40 U.S. cities to help people to find a walkable place to live. Walk score is a  web-based service that helps you to find walkable places to live by calculating a Walk Score for any address. They score the walkability of an address on a scale of 1 to 100 based on access to amenities, groceries, transportation display it graphically (the more green, the more walkable, red being the least).

To get their ranking they have a special methodology. They sampled the Walk Score of 1,123,855 locations in the largest 40 U.S. cities to create walkability heat maps and rank 2,508 neighborhoods.

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FDi magazine, a news and foreign direct investment publication owned by The Financial Times Business Group, has a interesting section called “Locations of the future”. In this section they published future predictions for almost every region across the world.

The magazine’s "Cities, Regions and Countries of the Future" competition has been running for five years. Using a process similar to that used by the decision makers who decide the location of large-scale corporate investment projects, fDi magazine has created its own short list of the locations most suited for inward investment. These cities, regions and countries have the basics in place to flourish in the next few years by attracting high levels of inward investment. The magazine creates its short list by asking locations to provide key data and qualitative information in much the same way an investor might approach locations during the screening process used to decide which locations are suitable for new capital investment projects. fDi’s Locations of the Future competition covers each region once every two years.

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According to the MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index™, an annual research initiative designed to evaluate and rank how major cities compare in performing critical functions that connect markets and commerce around the world, London remains the global economy’s most influential city. The future, however, appears to belong to Asia and Eastern Europe, whose cities represent the fastest rising regions within the Index.

In overall rank, Shanghai had the largest jump – moving eight spots from 2007 to 2008 - bringing it into the top 25 of this year’s Index and demonstrating the growing importance of Asian cities to a progressively urbanized global economy. Moscow, a gateway for the fast-growing Eastern European region, showed the greatest improvement in actual Index score and had the most significant gain on London year-over-year. Further confirming the importance of Asia and Europe in the global economy, this year’s study also marks the displacement of Los Angeles from the top 10, making New York and Chicago the sole North American cities in the top grouping. The decline of Los Angeles in rank is due, in part, to factors around its role in the global financial services network, as well as the rise of European cities in the area of knowledge creation.

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Arup, a professional services firm providing engineering, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment, and Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporate, as a client, have planned the world’s first purpose-built eco-city. Dongtan, located on the island of Chongming, near Shanghai, China, is designed not only to be environmentally sustainable, but also socially, economically and culturally sustainable.

Its goal is to be as close to carbon neutral as possible, with city vehicles that produce no carbon or particulate emissions and highly efficient water and energy systems. Dongtan will generate all of its energy needs from renewable sources including bio-fuels, wind farms and photovoltaic panels. A majority of Dongtan’s waste will be reused as biofuel for additional energy production and organic waste will be composted. Even human sewage will be composted and processed for energy and composting, greatly reducing or entirely eliminating landfill waste sites.

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While doing some research for our different factors in the current poll on “Economic Environment”, we found an interesting study on tourism. “City Tourism & Culture: The European Experience” is a report commissioned jointly by the World Tourism Organization (WTO) and European Travel Commission (ETC) and provides insights into the expansion of European cities as cultural tourism destinations.

The study provides a conceptual framework for the analysis of city tourism with a cultural motivation and aims to contribute to the marketing and product development of city tourism by throwing more light on the evolution of cultural tourism in Europe from ‘traditional’ to ‘innovative’. Based on the concepts of ’heritage’, ‘cultural’ and ‘creative’ cities, the study clusters destinations according to their predominant cultural product, and analyses the recent performance and positioning of each cluster - as well as their opportunities for future growth.

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Project data

Project summary

In 1996, a competition was held to develop a masterplan for a former army barracks vacant since the
1990’s. Instead of conventional perimeter block development and rows of housing, it proposes high,
solitaire buildings in a park-like landscape. Playing on heights and densities, an interesting arrangement
of residential blocks is created. Some extant buildings were incorporated in the design and
dedicated to new uses.
OMA realised the “Het Carre” building, three residential blocks linked by a courtyard, with commercial
uses on the ground floor.
The buildings on the campus show variety of housing types, from standard flats to a villa or gallery
houses.
Chassé Campus provides good infrastructure facilities for pedestrians and cyclists, while car traffic
has been reduced to the minimum. From Claudius Prinsenlaan, the main underground car park is
reached. Its roof emerges as a multiple folded surface, an abstract walk-in landscape. Main qaccess
for pedestrians is via Akkerstraat, setting up a visual connection to the city centre, shops and service
facilities.

Project data

Project summary

Tanner Springs Park is the second of three parks envisioned by the City and Peter Walker Partners
in 1999. The park will be a quiet oasis in the dynamically growing neighbourhood. The park was to
incorporate water and a pedestrian boardwalk that was part of the original master plan.

“Peeling back the skin of the city to discover the forgotten wetland” – the design aims at uniting
Portland’s natural and cultural history. A spring emerges from the natural meadow and crosses the
entire terrain into a small lake. This symbolises the Wetlands, a landscape of swamps and bogs.
Bordering off the park from the city, a meandering „Art Wall“ was constructed of vertically positioned
railway tracks, symbolising the skin of the city. Glass panels adorned with reliefs of insects from the
Wetlands are integrated in the wall and allow views of the park. The park is lined by a stepped lawn
as a place to rest. Few furniture was installed since the basic structure offers many functions itself,
such as play or the footbridge doubling as a stage.

Tanner Springs Park is a functioning biotope in itself. Rainwater gets collected and purified in a nonchemical
filter system. Recycled materials were used such as basalt cobblestones for the paths. A
special selection of plants reflects the richness of the Wetlands vegetation.

Megacities… urban phenomenon of 21th century, settlements and homes for huge amount of global population, the places of inspiration and opportunities, of technological development and industrial growth, locations of poverty and urban culture, centers of knowledge and leadership, spots of attracting financial and human resources, engines for economic growth and prosperity … and at the same time creators of huge and complex social, environmental and infrastructural challenges that requires innovative, efficient and rational solutions, and new approaches to governance!

Being interested in those issues, it was my pleasure to attend the World Business Dialogue in Cologne, and together with great people from all around the world - scientists, management leaders, entrepreneurs and international students - to discuss about the population dynamics, the opportunities and challenges of ageing societies and megacities in our today’s world. We were united to share experiences and ideas, with common efforts to find solutions for the future, that will ensure sustainability of our economies, society and environment.

I believe those topics are under the pressure of Your interest and attention as well , therefore responding on the invitation of PerfectCity.net team, it is my pleasure to share with you some of the key issues i found interesting and sensitive when talking about megacities and their urban challenges!

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Now it’s time for dialogue in Cologne: The World Business Dialogue is a platform for distinguished leaders from business, politics, and science who will meet with enthusiastic students from over 70 nations to discuss current issues surrounding relevant topics in business and society. Important aspects this year are visions and scenarios for the perfect city, population dynamics and ageing societies.

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