Cross Urban Creativity

On Wednesday February 24 USC’s Visions and Voices program along with the School of Architecture hosted a panel of planning department heads from cities around the world. The purpose of the lecture was to explore cross cultural urbanism and the effects of globalization on cities growth.
Dean Ma’s introduction was genuine and inspiring starting with a saying from his home “a stone from one mountain can hit a jade in another”, meaning a wise man can learn from others mistake, I also understand it as: what might work in one city may not work in another. How can we restructure and rethink urbanism? More than half the world’s population is in living in cities. The panelists represented Shanghai, London, Mexico City, and Los Angeles; Dean Ma described them as four axis cities, and they were chosen because of their location and current urban design strategies.

Scott Lash, the director of the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London acted as moderator. Each of the panelists had a 15 min presentation of their cities. All of the presentations were interesting, concise and were a lighthearted display of the plans and newly implicated programs receiving many laughs and ovations from the audience during the presentations

Jiang Wu, former deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Urban Planning Administration Bureau proud of his city, he explained the growth of the city and what made it the most unique in China. A place east meets west, past meets future. Talked about the unusual growth of the city. The city unlike other cities in China did not start with square walls but a circular one, and had now main building or site to anchor an axis point. Immersion into western culture from 1843-1900 shaped the city into what it is today; it is the only city in China with a Chinatown. How do we plan the city? Must keep the city always running rich with history and culture. The 2010 world expo and their motto “better city, better life”.

Richard Cohen, head of Planning and Strategy at the London Development Agency Olympics explained the cities plan to reduce the car use' The evolution of the city and why East London has become an undesirable area, why they desperately need the Olympics to restore the area and generate new growth.

Felipe Leal, secretary of urban development and housing, Mexico City explained their program of pedestrian increase and the problems they have with the daytime population of the city being 3 million more than the resident populations, these people do not pay taxes for the city yet use it 8-10 hours a day. They implement artistic installations and “plays’ and programs to promote pedestrians.

Gail Goldberg, director of the Los Angeles City planning department had no need for images and blew the other panelists away by her witty, smart and down right impressive, this lady has what it takes to make this city great.

At the end I asked the panel how they all relate, what is the big theory or practice? I was interested in seeing if each cities development strategy and theory could be if implemented into other cities. The panel did not answer. I thought the point of this lecture was to show the cross- urbanism but this idea never appeared.