People and Passion, not bricks

Earlier this week I was at the farewell party of Liesbeth Jansen, director of The Westergasfabriek (http://westergasfabriek.nl) in Amsterdam. In 18 years Liesbeth turned this 19th century, red brick former gasworks site into the cultural place to be. And this was an area of Amsterdam no one in his right mind would want to go to.

Why did this work, when so many other sites are just buildings with creatives where nothing else happens? Or where you feel you are left out, because you're not cool enough. As far as Liesbeht's concerned, it's focusing on the right people, on passion and always on the content and not on the bricks. "I prefer to work with the people who are madly in love with this place. Because it is their passion that made the Westergasfabriek a success." Temporariness is also a big thing: content moves on - it is there and then it's gone. Movement and change is everyhting. From circus shows for kids, big events for the tech savvy media crowd, low and high culture, creative industries and picnics for the people living in the neighbourhood.

Organize where the passion is and trust people. Letting go of masterplanning and developing as it goes along. Liesbeth knwos it, Jane Jacobs knew it: but who dares?

Why do cities recover so fast (or not at all?)

Business Insider ranks the world's Top 15 of losing cities because of the recession. And the World Top 15 of fast recoveries. Take Istanbul. They were #44 (in growth) before the recession. They sank to #143 during the recession. And now they are the world's #1 in recovery after the recession. Why? Local employment is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, Business Insider says. Most Chinese cities rose, fell and rose again somehwere in the World Top 10. But Istanbul shows incredible resillience. Turkey has a young population, Turks are entrepreneurial, these things would probably matter. But what makes this city work is what most interests me. Should get hold of the report.

Sshh, don't mention the population crash

I met Fred Pearce, author of Peoplequake (Volksbeving in Dutch) yesterday in Utrecht, for an interview. For those who are not familiar with Pearce: he is one of Britain's leading environmental journalists and authors.

In Peoplequake he exams all aspects of demography. I interviewed him mainly on the future of European cities. There's a population crash coming towards us and we're pioneering it in Western Europe.

The fact that the whole global population will reach a tipping point about midcentury and go into a rapid decline isn't mentioned a lot in the media. Pearce tells me why: "Demographic researchers tend to hush it up. They say it would endanger their funding." The population crash is politically incorrect and even taboo as a topic.

As for Europe, Pearce says: "we will have to redesign the whole concept of cities and make them work for a shrinking, greying population."

The main reason for the continuous drop in fertility is the feminist revolution. Pearce: "Women can now choose between a career and children. Increasingly, espcially in countries like Italy and Germany, they go for their careers. Our main goal should be to complete the feminist revolution with adequate facilities that make it possible for women to combine career and children and an attitude that makes it possible that both partners share parents' responsibilities."

Fred Pearce compares the differences between Italy and the Nordic countries. "In Scandinavia these theings have been taken care of. Fertility in the Nordic countries is down only to 1.8 child. This allows for a gradual and copable decline in population. In Italy it's 1.3 child - a catastrophe. You can imagine what this will mean for the sustainability of cities in the long run."

Photo update Dresden

I've just created a series of photos of my recent trip to eastern Germany. I made a Dresden series first, on Flickr. Use the tag Baba Reizen. There's a lot more to this city than its magnificent baroque centre. Check it out.

Stalin built this city

The city of Eisenhüttenstadt ('steel factory city') in the eastern German state of Brandenburg is a strange anachronism. Stalin had it built in the early 50's for the blast furnace workers. A perfect workers' paradise in, well, Stalinist style.

There was no economic reason to have a blast furnace there other than to make a political statement. The furnace cannot run on the brown coal from the region - the cokes had (and have) to be imported from elsewhere. This makes Eisenhüttenstadt (or Stalinstadt as it was once called) a cathedral in the desert.

Ever since the wall is gone, the area is subject to the market economy. Out of the 56.000 inhabitants, only 30.000 remain. The others have gone to get a job somewhere in the west with some future perspective.

The old Stalinist blocks of flats have been restored in a wonderful way. The outside city rings of former soviet style flats are all being demolished and the people move closer to the old centre.

The future of Eisenhüttenstadt may well be that of a shrinking open air museum city, a relic of a different time and age. The city has an interesting museum of everyday GDR life and internet companies sell Ostalgia-products online to communist retro collectors around the world.

They may have been weird times to have lived in, but they make great stories. And out of great stories you could make a new living.

136 places missing and the land is still moving

Just came back from an awesome trip to eastern Germany. The Lausitz region on the German-Polish border is full of stories. Ever since 1924 up to 136 villages and towns have been demolished to make way for brown coal quarries. It started in the Third Reich, went on in communist times and is expected to continue to at least 2030.

The only difference is: in the former GDR you got a notice on your frontdoor saying you have to be out by Monday next. Now, Vattenfall - the giant Swedish energy producer - compensates people for the loss of their homes. Like the town of Horno that fought 30 years against its obliteration from the Lausitz map. They lost. Then they could rebuild their village in the same manner some 20 miles further on, on the outskirts of the town of Forst. What arose there is Neu Horno (new Horno). It is so perfect it looks like the towns my daughter used to construct in The Sims computer game.

At the same time Vattenfall quarries the land for brown coal, creating lunar landscapes everywhere. When the mining stops, these giant craters get turned into articifical lakes for recreation. There will be 23 of them, connected thru canals.

The landscape changes all the time and towns and villages will keep disappearing. It is a difficult thing for the inhabitants: they are economically dependent on an employer who pays for their salaries and demolishes their houses at the same time.

Never doubt that a small group of committed people

Lately I've been combining my work on cities with a process of dialogue tables throughout my university in Arnhem, The Netherlands. We talk about professional culture and our passion for teaching. It was just a new way of doing things. Now, after a few months of dialogue sessions at lunchtime, it is not only the staff that is taking part, but also management, hr and even the board. What I see is that, slowly, the dialogue - introduced to think about the space we have as professionals - is becoming the space. The dialogue ís the change.

So, I thought, why not start a dialogue in your city? So often when I speak about urban creativity at conferences, the creativity seems to end once the conference is over. Mostly the conferences themselves aren't even creative. They are only about creativity. It's just cities talking to other cities. It's like looking at a powerpoint on how to swim.

I invited Peter Senge to my university a few years ago. He gave a presentation for 400 people at our city music hall and made everyone sit around tables and go into dialogue. You know what happened? Many people got angry. They just wanted to look at a managementguru to tell them what to do the next day when they got to the office.

But if you want change and you are not prepared to sit around a table with 3 or 4 others and look eachother in the face, you don't want change. If you want change, real change in your city, you let your people start dialogue tables. Just start with a few and then train the people at your table to become dialogue leaders. And so on.

I know there are cities where they did this. And it is the test. If you want real change, you better start doing things with the people, instead of for the people. 'You can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all of the people all the time'. Now, if a small group can really get this thing going, who knows where it will end. Quote Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Turning malls into greenhouses

Here's a great story. In the US, they are turning partly empty shopping malls into (sub)urban greenhouses. Now this what I call innovation. Growing organic veggies in malls and selling them on the spot. Read the original story on Cleveland's Galleria Mall here: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/02/galleria_has_gardens_now.html.

The people who started the Gardens Under Glass project in Cleveland are thinking of bringing in urban gardeners, starting an education centre and inviting sustainable producers.

Real estate experts predict the decline of the 'single use environment', like the shopping mall. This initiative is turning malls into multi use environments. Great idea

Studiereis Berlijn voor beleidsmakers

Berlijn: identiteit als wapen in de stedenstrijd

Overal in de wereld concurreren steden met elkaar om bewoners, bedrijven, bezoekers en bollebozen. Om als stad aantrekkelijk te zijn, is je identiteit belangrijker dan ooit. Iedere stad dient te kijken naar zijn eigen, onderscheidende identiteit waarmee het kan concurreren. Maar, waar kijk je dan naar in een stad? Hoe ontdek je wat een stad uniek maakt? En, tenslotte: hoe bepaal je vervolgens wat jouw stad uniek maakt?

Berlijn is drie dagen lang onze casus, inspiratiebron, laboratorium en werkplaats. Bij thuiskomst heb je scherpere inzichten en kun je betere keuzes maken in de positionering van je eigen stad of streek.

Deze studiereis wordt georganiseerd vanuit de Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen. Voor meer informatie, neem contact op met Roy van Dalm: 06 - 53 53 72 87 of mail: roy.van.dalm@inter.nl.net of roy.vandalm@han.nl

The Future of Cities

I'd like your ideas on this one. I have an idea that a picture of The Future of Cities may be slowly evolving from a cloud of books and ideas and I'd like to know your views. I've put together some books and articles I've been reading lately and cannot quite figure it out, yet.

1. Peoplequake by Fred Pearce: in this brandnew book Pearce describes an emptying Europe due to demographic changes. Sure, we'll be greying but there will also be few of us left in Europe due to a dramatic drop in fertility. A country like Italy will have only 8 mln. inhabitants at the end of the century. And Germany, Spain and Greece are going in the same direction. Pearce foresees a continent run by the elderly - tribal elders.

2. The Matthew Effect: successful cities will keep on growing, less succesful ones will be drained of more people and rural areas will be totally abandoned. 'To those who have will be given even more and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken from them.'

3. The Great Reset by Richard Florida (out April 27). The forming of the Megalopolis - great urban conurbations that will increase in size, talent and importance. If you're not close to a succesful city, you're out of the game. Green cities will have the future. Pearce also writes about this issue- about cities also being the resolution to the environmental problems they themselves have created. The large urban centres will also determine the economy, no longer countries.

4. J.H. Crawford - Carfree Cities and Carfree Design Manual. Attractive pictures of great liveable communities without cars. Interesting utopias.

If you consider all this, also remembering Robert Kaplan's words that the European future will be in city states, then what is the picture you get? What other sources do you have to contradict these ideas or add complementary ones?

Will we be heading for thriving European, green city states surrounded by urban wasteland and deserted countryside and run by tribal elders who have turned to slow living and preserving what we have instead of inventing new things?

The feminization of cities

I am totally amazed by Fred

Pearce's new book Peoplequake. It was published beginning of February and caught my eye because of an article in The Guardian on the population demise of former east German cities. Peoplequake describes the history of eugenetics, family planning and policies and demographic shifts.

Our planet may be crowded today, but by the end of the century many countries will have shrunk dramatically in population. Countries like Italy, Germany or Greece will be practically empty.

Pearce wonders what this demographic population crash will do for the future of European cities. An interesting insight into now is the feminization of cities. Women are taking the lead (also in numbers) in how the economy of cities is being run - from public office to service jobs.

When Richard Florida writes about the creative economy and the economic reset following this present crisis, he hardly takes into account demographics. Greying and aging nations: it all sounds familiar, until you see the naked facts of shrinking populations. I wonder how we could make a creative economy work with fewer and far older people?

Roys PowerPoint Gastcollege Minor Brandmanagement HAN

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Identity as a weapon in the battle between cities

The city is the place where money, products and ideas come together. No wonder cities all around the world compete with eachother for the favours of inhabitants, business, visitors and talent. This calls for urban attraction strategies. And in order to be attractive as a city, your identity in this competition is more important than ever. The future of cities lies in their distinctive character, not in a karaoke strategy copying others.

By Roy van Dalm


Globalisation has created a level playing field for cities. Or so we thought. For, the playingfield may be levelled, but the players are certainly not equally distributed across the turf. Talent and capital have a tendency to concentrate and multiply in some places and be drawn and sucked away from others. In the global competition between cities we get to see what we call the Matthew Effect: to those who have shall be given and in abundance, but from those who do not have anything, even what they have shall be taken.

The effect is a diminishing number of fast growing and flourishing cities, and a growing number of cities on the losing side. On this effect in the US, urban specialist Carol Coletta, from the CEO’s for Cities network, told me that out of the 51 American megaregions only 16 are growing. The other 35 are actually shrinking. This concentration of capital, creativity and talent poses a definite threat to middle-sized cities. Do they have the power and critical mass to withstand the competition? Take the extreme example of the eastern German city of Hoyerswerda. This former socialist model city was the fastest growing city of the German Democratic Republic. Until the wall fell. Now it has shrunk from 70.000 inhabitants to barely 35.000. Everyone with any talent and ambition has long since left. Empty tenement buildings are now being inhabited by wolves, slinking in from across the Polish and Czech borders. And this is Germany, not some third world country.

Stay away from karaoke
In order to be successful in this fierce competition, cities need to have – what Simon Anholt calls – a competitive identity. ‘Dare to be different’ says Carol Coletta. In many cases however, city authorities do not go for distinctive character, but for karaoke. They choose to imitate for instance the concept of the creative city, believing that artists and designers are the cure to all urban ails. But the real point of the creative city is that creativity is used not as and end but as a means to address urban challenges.

If a city wants to succeed, it should follow the concept of what I call the Triple A City: Authentic, Activating, All-inclusive. It has to be authentic in the stories it tells about itself. It has to stimulate people to be actively participating. And it should include all people. In the end this means that every city eventually can only succeed by being itself.

Written for: Future Cities Forum Ostrava

Bottom up citymarketing

I advised the Dutch city of Venlo on their economic profile. They are struggling with their image as a city for drug tourists. And they're the city of Geert Wilders, the Dutch right-wing populist politician who leads the polls at present. But, there's a lot of creative energy in Venlo as well. One of Venlo's most creative entrepreneurs is Marcel Tabbers, active in the creative Q4 inner city neighborhood. Usually it's the authorities that start a positive promotion campaign to put their city in a favourable light. Usually this doesn't work. People see it - in the end - as propaganda. Marcel and his colleague Miel Theeuwen started a bottom up citymarketing campaign called 5x5x5. With 3 other people they had 5 to start with. Each one approached 5 other Venlo-citizens who in their turn approached 5 'Venlonaren' each. Everyone makes a webcam statement about something they personally like about Venlo. Tabbers and Theeuwen thought that it must be possible to find at least 100 people in Venlo who are positive about their city. The promo movies will be put on YouTube and on a special site www.5x5x5.nl. The 5x5x5 initiative has been nominated for the Dutch Citymarketing Innovation Award

10 most walkable cities

The Daily Green (http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/most-walkable-cities-460708) lists America's 10 most walkable cities. You can argue about the selection, but here it is anyway: San Francisco, New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington, Long Beach, Los Angeles and Portland. I mean, there's a lot of other things you can say of LA. But here it is a case of potentially walkable neighborhoods when people take the car.

Walkability strongly increases the liveability of a city. Some of the cities have a real trackrecord in Walkers Paradise scores. The ranking was made by Walk Score (www.walkscore.com) which ranks neighborhoods in 40 US cities as to their walkability. Very Jane Jacobs - this is the street ballet. With a walkability score of over 90, you're a walker's paradise. New York city has 38 walker's paradises. 3 NY neighborhoods have 100% score: Tribeca, Little Italy and Soho.

Walk Score is a recommendable site.

Creative Detroit

Small creative businesses are budding in Detroit. Recession, empty spaces and nothing to lose make a lot of people creative in former Motown. An interesting article in The New Yor Times. This is both about new business concepts and community building

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/us/10startup.html?src=twt&twt=nytimes

Economics of Happiness

An interesting article by Carol Graham of the Brookings Institute on measuring happiness for economic reasons. Compare this to the chapter on the geography of happiness (Shiny Happy Places) in Richard Florida's Who's your city?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123101153.html

Perm: uniquely hidden, formerly forbidden

I spoke at the 5th Perm Economic Forum last september, months before the fateful nightclub fire. 700 people are invited each year to speak on the economic future of the city and the region.

Perm is a strange city. 1.1 million people and Russia's 3rd city. It is the last European city before the Ural mountains and Asia. Boris Pasternak wrote Dr Zhivago in Perm and the city was an important crossroads in the vastness that is Russia - it is 4 timezones from Western Europe to Perm. And there's another 7 east of Perm in Russia.

In Soviet times, the city was a no go area. Foreigners were not allowed there due to the defense industries. This explains why so few people speak English in Perm. There was no reason to learn anay other language than Russian. Now it it open, but way out there anyway.

Perm wants to be a creative city. But talent only is attracted by quality of place. So, what's the quality of Perm? It is not a buzzing city with a bustling nightlife. Perm can only be Perm and what makes Perm unique is this hidden, forbidden, outback quality. A place out there with excellent research and a world renowned ballet.

The adventure is outside of Perm, in the vast openness of the landscape. The wide and lazy Kama river meanders thru a landscape with wilderness and great stories. If Finland can combine this quality of outback research and wild nature, why couldn't Perm? Why not combine research quality and adventure trips?

The big point to make is the element of trust and safety. Changes should involve the people themselves and this is not the Russian way. There is a great income gap between those working in the oil and gasindustries and those unfortunate ones that don't. And the terrible tragedy at the Cripple Horse nightclub is not comforting that things will change for the better.

Building trust and building on the pride of the great history of Perm is the way to start. What makes Perm really different is this unique background and soviet atmosphere, but quality of place and quality of opportunities should be improved first before anyone other than participants to the 6th Perm Economic Forum will make the trip far out to thus intriguing place.