What if you could live in a city, without most of the problems of a city? Everything within walkable

What if you could live in a city, without most of the problems of a city? Everything within walkable distance, no cars (so less grime ), a green space larger than the city itself, access to mass transit, plenty of plazas and parks, serious energy and water conservation, and more. It sounds amazing, but I think I'd be lonely
cheap hotel thailand Not to get all Carrie Bradshaw up in here, but I love my city. It keeps me company. Sure, I have darling friends, but the city is my constant companion: it's constantly fascinating, constantly surprising. And yes, it's definitely a love/hate relationship. I don't like the traffic and the noise and the filth and the close quarters, and sometimes riding the bus is the worst thing ever. But there are Japanese stationery stores and Middle Eastern grocery stores, Indian ice cream shops, amazing corner stores, museums both grand and quirky, ancient mysterious shops where I'm not entirely sure what if anything is for sale, parklets, street cheap hotel thailand art, weird architectural juxtapositions, and thrift stores galore. Even in the New World that is California, there's history, and all the cool odd combinations that have built up over that history.
But I love energy conservation, and I love when people are able to say, "The way we've been living is NOT sustainable. Time to try something new." And then they try to make something new and beautiful. So is it possible for a brand-new city to have personality as well as sustainability? Probably not, but that's the wonderful thing about filling a perfect-on-paper city with people: we'll make it interesting and cool and strange and messy and ours . It will just take a little time.
Great City is designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture near Chengdu, China. It will be home to 80,000 people, and is scheduled to be completed in 8 years. Dezeen Magazine can tell you all the high-tech details better than I ever could. What do you think? Would you want to live there?
I'm not moving to Chengdu just for that. But if they did this here in the US? I'd be on the phone to U-Haul in about three minutes flat. And I wouldn't be lonely for long, because plenty of my friends would head there too!
And why can't this supposedly self sustaining city have things like a "Japanese stationery stores and Middle Eastern grocery stores, Indian ice cream shops, amazing corner stores, museums both grand and quirky, ancient mysterious shops where I'm not entirely sure what — if anything — is for sale, parklets, street art, weird architectural juxtapositions, and thrift stores galore." There doesn't seem to be anything in there that contradicts the self sustaining aspect...
In the UK, Brighton ticks all those design AND personality boxes. A city where you can walk everywhere, with the sea on one side and the countryside cheap hotel thailand on the other. Plus it has the most environmentally friendly population in the UK, as well as the only Green party controlled local government. And it's full of interesting, cheap hotel thailand quirky people and places - it's often called the British San Francisco. (Can you tell I'm moving there soon?)
One thing I know I wouldn't like (and it has nothing to do with the eco-friendliness of the place) is living somewhere that is all brand-new. I love being around old buildings, architecture from different time periods, etc. Even if effort was made to vary the appearance of buildings, it would be hard to achieve the city "feel" that so many of us like.
Only if it came without lousy neighbors. Can you get me a great job in a city where people don't stomp on the floor above other people's heads, crank up the volume on their stereos/earpieces/phones/TVs, blow smoke in each other's faces, spit at each other's feet, urinate in random places, throw elbows at each other trying to get past, and occasionally even utter the words, "Excuse me"? I would live there in a heartbeat.
And let's face it: any city where everything is in walkable distance is either not a large city or requires an in-city public transportation system. Whether that's rails or buses, it's still consuming energy. Of course, I think it's much more eco friendly for people to walk, bike, or take mass transit rather than drive, cheap hotel thailand but a public transportation system would have to be very big to accommodate a city of people, particularly if that city was in a place with harsh winters or harsh summers.
@Pi - from the article: "The distance from any location in the city to any other location will be walkable within about 15 minutes, all but eliminating the need for most automobiles. The city will also be connected to Chengdu and surrounding areas via mass transit to be accessed at a regional transit hub at the Great City center."
Sounds great--and I am sure that any time you have a ton of people living in close qurters--you'll eventually get plenty of local color! Though, hard to take existing cities and transform them...while keeping population and commerce going. Bath UK is a good proxy--simply because there is little room to drive around and the river allows for green space and a natural walking path to all shops and services. cheap hotel thailand Boston has also made some progress cheap hotel thailand with moving cheap hotel thailand transport underground and leaving the surface green(er). Honolulu used to be a lot like this--but really ruined their good looks by embracing cars and sprawl in the 70s. Sigh.
Corbusier proposed cheap hotel thailand a similar idea back in the 1930's but it was never implemented due to many factors that could be overridden because the Chinese control everything and will not require committee's to get things done.
I'd be curious on how well it works too...numerous architects have proposed similar ideas but they're impossible to achieve in a free-market society...they'll only get implemented in a country where no one has a say except the government.
I think it's an awesome concept and in a country such as China where a history of lax environmental laws has caused it to be one of the most polluted in the world, necessary. I think it could be very successful here in the US, and the idea that a planned community can't have color is, to me, really short sighted. Almost all of our now-major cities were in "planning stages" at some point. Much of that "local color" comes from a history of racial segregation cheap hotel thailand as well. I think it would be interesting to see a city develop and grow over time through positive changes and forces instead of the way many already have, which was through class and racial struggle.
@Pi Walkable does't just mean that you can get from one end of the city to the other in a short amount of time on foot. It can also mean that the streets are walker friendly. NYC for example is a walkable city, lots of wide sidewalks and timely cheap hotel thailand crosswalk light. Buildings are also close together. LA on the other hand has stretches of space between buildings, a lack of well maintained sidewalks and it's often difficult cheap hotel thailand to cross the road. You can have a walkable city that still has use for a monorail to get from one end to the other and public transportation is great when you have a lot to carry from Point A to Point B.
I have mixed feelings about this ... also "sustainable" has become somewhat corrupted these days. In the strictest sense of the word, it means totally self-renewing. I don't think any city could be totally self-renewing in that it will always require the input of resources of some type from outside of its boundary- food, water, energy, raw materials for construction and manufacturing, etc. It's a nice idea, however, I don't think we will see a truly "sustainable" city in our lifetimes. I am not sure I would live there, anyway (I certainly would not move to China to live in the city featured here). I don't want to live in an apartment building with dozens/hundreds of other people (I did that in my youth and I've grown up since then).
You know those shiny silver cities a midst a sea of green you see in futuristic sci-fi films? That's what this reminds me of. No cars? PLEASE!!! They are a necessary evil and if I could live in a city where they were UNnecessary I would. Everything new and shiny and ready to make a fresh start to make the EARTH a better place? PLEASE!! You can't really stop progress--buildings will be built and people are going to live their their normal cheap hotel thailand lives, but we have the opportunity to do so and have less harmful impact on our lovely planet, then yes please. I think the people who would live there would be people wanting to live there, so everyone would have that idea in common. cheap hotel thailand And I don't see how Big Brother cheap hotel thailand would be an issue. Did the article say there were cameras everywhere?? A city can be beautiful without so much history. People can make it beautiful.
@TinaO - I know what "walkable" can refer to, but for the purposes of this article, cheap hotel thailand we're not talking about sidewalks and grid patterns. The planners actually mean, literally, 15 minute walk from Point A to Point B.
I'd live here in a second. Unfortunately, my young life is in my current city and can't imagine parting from it... not at this moment, anyway. The whole speaking Mandarin/Cantonese cheap hotel thailand is a turn-off, too. But I digress, this is a fantastic idea and I truly hope it succeeds in a way that can be re-created. I can't think of any major trade-offs, other than needing to commute rather far to have access cheap hotel thailand to a car/plane to travel or to visit other outdoor areas.
The ancient cheap hotel thailand Romans did something similar: they planned every city to be a single square mile. The surrounding farms fed the city dwellers, and even those living in the center only had a half-mile cheap hotel thailand walk to get to the countryside.
You asked for a city where cars are not necessary - I give you Copenhagen. It's not like we don't have them but so far I'm 32 and I can't drive a car. I get around by bike or public transport. Oh and the city is roughly 1200 years old.
I was about to comment with the same exact thing. While on the train yesterday I also discovered that Copenhagen is actually building several green neighborhoods (or "boroughs" seems more appropriate) that