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Cities as Happiness Projects - "Happy City" by Charles Montgomery
Cities as Happiness Projects - "Happy City" by Charles Montgomery
Where we went wrong
Public Space
Combating Privitization
Transportation
Cars
"A City can be friendly to people of it can be friendly to cars, but it can't be both"
Dia Sin Carros - Bogota (Mayor Enrique Penalosa)
Lots of Parking = Less Social Connection
Steady drop in life satisfaction after 16 minute commute
Pedestrians
Dangerous with Cars
Roads Designed for Speed
The "Dispersed City"
Resource Intense
Land-Gobbling
Expensive
Unable to fund police, fire, ambulance, maintenance
Polluting
Less Parent Involvement
Late Commutes
Houses so Big - Creating New Layers of Housekeeping
Utility of Square Footage lies almost entirely in its symbolism
Facilitating Increased Solitary / Individualistic Living
Technology
Cars
We can meet almost all of our needs without gathering in public
Home as a vortex of isolation
Lack of Trust / Fear of the "other"
Structural Issues
Powerful Financial Incentives
Strict Zoning Rules (Land and Roads)
Want to keep poor people out? Ban duplexes and apartment buildings
"Because it is illegal to build in a different way, it take an immense amount of time for anyone who wants to do it to get changes in zoning and variance. Time is money for developers, so it rarely happens."
Massive Public Investment - Massive subsidies for Roads
Free Choice
Does not lead us to idea city shape
A Changing Population
5 Billion by 2030 will be Urban
What is Happiness?
1 in 10 Americans Taking Anti-Depressants
Natural Human Tendency to Shift our Expectations along with our Changing Fortunes
Disconnect Between Wealth and Happiness
Simple Contentment or Opposite of Misery?
Disconnect of Perception of Urban Sprawl Development Leading to Pure Happiness
All-Star Eudaimonia Checklist
Self-Acceptance, or how well you know and regard yourself
Environmental Mastery - Your ability to navigate and thrive in the world
Positive relations with others
Personal growth throughout life
Sense of Meaning and Purpose
Feelings of Autonomy and Independence
Metrics for Happiness?
Goals for Cities
Moderate our relationships with others - Strengthen bonds that give life meaning
Trust
Living and Thriving Together - A shared fate
Maximize Joy and Minimize Hardship
Lead us towards Health rather than Sickness
Offer us real freedom to live, move, and build our lives as we wish
Build resilience against economic and environmental shocks
Fairness - In how it apportions space, services, mobility, joys, hardships, costs
JUST
Solutions
Needs of People in a Happy City
Healing Touch of Nature
Achieved through Views
Needs to be part of Everyday Life & at All Scales (Central Park Example)
Retrofit Unused Transportation Infrastructure (Highline Example)
Helping Warmth of Others
Crowding is a design issue (not the same as human density)
Laneway Houses
Sense of Belonging / Trust
Transportation
Banning cars from the core of downtown
CAR2GO
Using cities as an EDUCATION TOOL
Living Examples
Copenhagen, Denmark
Norrebro Park (As a just space)
N Street Co-housing - Outside Stockton, CA
Vancouver City
Bogota, Columbia
The JUST City
Power Dynamics
Respect: "Only a city that respoectes human beings can expect citizens to respect the city in return"
Equality of quality of life and an environment where people don't feel inferior, where people don't feel excluded
Bike Investment: It shows that a citizen on a thirty-dollar bicycle is equally important as one in a thirty-thousand dollar BMW
RESISTANCE from the Status Quo
Reclaiming PUBLIC SPACE
Combating FEAR: That the just city will bring in poor people
Combating the Reverse Boomerang: "In the reversal of the last century's prevailing trend, wealthy people are increasingly colonizing inner cities while poor people and new immigrants are pushed to the suburban fringes.
Role of GOVERNMENT: subsidized social housing, rent controls, initiatives for housing cooperatives, other policy measures.