by David Kooris, Associate Planner for Regional Design, RPA
If you're standing in Times Square, even though you might enjoy bathing in the bright lights and the tall towers, you probably feel more remote from the natural environment than any place on earth.
By contrast, if you're standing in the middle of many European cities, including Amsterdam, Barcelona and others, you feel less remote from nature, even as you enjoy a fantastic level of urban life. That's because you know you can actually walk or bicycle from the center of these cities into surrounding forests and farms. The city planners have made a point of connecting the interiors of cities with the surrounding natural areas.
This sense of connection to the natural environment is one example of ways Europeans are reinventing and remolding their metropolitan areas to make them more competitive in a global environment. Although there are many examples, the consistent theme is using environmental stewardship as a tool for economic development in a global marketplace.
Although summarizing these techniques might appear difficult, at a workshop this month at the Fundacion Metropoli in Madrid on planning for the mega-region, European planners had a consistent and simple theme throughout: parks and rails. The economic benefits of parks and open space are comparable to convention centers or tax breaks, they claimed, and longer lasting. High speed rail links between urban areas bring the housing stock of each city into commuting range of one another, reducing development pressure on the land in between. Europeans are protecting agricultural landscapes, forests, wetlands, floodplains, and coastal zones in a pattern of enlightened self-interest, placing these resources' ecological advantages second to their value as economic development tools. The construction of rail lines help this campaign. While American planners debate the leverage a city gains by increasing its cappuccino coefficient versus its gay index, ala the Creative Class, Europeans are taking a more holistic approach to improving quality of life in their metro regions for everyone. Large protected open spaces improve air and water quality and save money in water treatment and mitigating the effects of global warming. These concrete economic advantages are becoming clearer to the American public, but it is the ways in which Europeans draw these large open spaces into their urban areas, turning former industrial spaces into amenities, that is inspiring.
The Arnhem-Nijmegen region in the Netherlands is a perfect example of stitiching natural and urban spaces together to stay competitive. They begin with the dominant landforms, especially those with cultural significance. Rivers, canals, and farmland dotted with windmills form the foundation of the landscape. Preservation starts with the wetlands, floodplains, and forests, saving future generations from the costs of inundation and water filtration. These lands then serve as the backbone of a regional open space system, connecting the natural lands to the region's urban cores along the meandering and man-made water courses. The connection to nature is apparent on any street corner as most public squares and parks can serve as the trail head for a day long hike through the countryside. And the economic benefits have been clear. When a large multi-national corporation recently moved its headquarters to Amsterdam, the back-office employees persuaded them to retain those positions in Arnhem-Nijmegen so these workers didn't have to leave. They preferred the quality of life here, and high speed rail connections to Amsterdam made meetings possible when necessary. Open space amenities influenced office location through labor force desires. The benefits of the green infrastructure are felt by the whole region, and spare municipalities from throwing costly tax breaks to keep companies in place.
In New York City it is easy to feel cut off from the natural; access to wild spaces has never been its selling point. The street grid, gleaming towers, and straight coastline make it feel as though Manhattan Island itself was built from scratch by man. Yet the island stands at the convergence of several natural systems. It is directly connected to the Appalachian Highlands and even the Adirondacks by the Hudson River. Long Island Sound is just a quick paddle up the East River and, if you can make it, across Hell's Gate. And the Atlantic Ocean lies just beyond the Verrazano Narrows and Lower New York Bay. So why does nature feel farther from Times Square than from any other point on earth? Hudson River Park is a step in the right direction, but it still feels both cut off from the island's interior as well as the larger Hudson River system. The riverfront should be a bridge between the urban and the natural, rather than an entity all of its own.
Better physical linkages between Midtown, the riverfront, and subsequently the Highlands can help create mental connections between the city and its hinterland, re-branding New York as the green city that it truly is. New York is the most efficient city in America, but fenced off waterfronts, exposed rail yards, and underutilized industrial space feel straight out of a previous century. We can learn from the Europeans and use open spaces and natural amenities to parallel the region's other efforts to sustain its role in the new economy.
Europe and the United States have similar challenges in reviving old industrial cities, but so far they have taken different paths toward that goal. Industrial cities with no more industry like Glasgow and Barcelona are looking to avoid the evolutionary path of decline already realized by their American counterparts. To do so, city and regional planners across Europe are looking for ways to attract their continent's creative class and entrepreneurs, reinventing themselves in the new economy. Their method is to let open space and regional amenities drive the planning process as an economic development tool.
If you're standing in Times Square, even though you might enjoy bathing in the bright lights and the tall towers, you probably feel more remote from the natural environment than any place on earth.
By contrast, if you're standing in the middle of many European cities, including Amsterdam, Barcelona and others, you feel less remote from nature, even as you enjoy a fantastic level of urban life. That's because you know you can actually walk or bicycle from the center of these cities into surrounding forests and farms. The city planners have made a point of connecting the interiors of cities with the surrounding natural areas.
This sense of connection to the natural environment is one example of ways Europeans are reinventing and remolding their metropolitan areas to make them more competitive in a global environment. Although there are many examples, the consistent theme is using environmental stewardship as a tool for economic development in a global marketplace.
Although summarizing these techniques might appear difficult, at a workshop this month at the Fundacion Metropoli in Madrid on planning for the mega-region, European planners had a consistent and simple theme throughout: parks and rails. The economic benefits of parks and open space are comparable to convention centers or tax breaks, they claimed, and longer lasting. High speed rail links between urban areas bring the housing stock of each city into commuting range of one another, reducing development pressure on the land in between. Europeans are protecting agricultural landscapes, forests, wetlands, floodplains, and coastal zones in a pattern of enlightened self-interest, placing these resources' ecological advantages second to their value as economic development tools. The construction of rail lines help this campaign. While American planners debate the leverage a city gains by increasing its cappuccino coefficient versus its gay index, ala the Creative Class, Europeans are taking a more holistic approach to improving quality of life in their metro regions for everyone. Large protected open spaces improve air and water quality and save money in water treatment and mitigating the effects of global warming. These concrete economic advantages are becoming clearer to the American public, but it is the ways in which Europeans draw these large open spaces into their urban areas, turning former industrial spaces into amenities, that is inspiring.
The Arnhem-Nijmegen region in the Netherlands is a perfect example of stitiching natural and urban spaces together to stay competitive. They begin with the dominant landforms, especially those with cultural significance. Rivers, canals, and farmland dotted with windmills form the foundation of the landscape. Preservation starts with the wetlands, floodplains, and forests, saving future generations from the costs of inundation and water filtration. These lands then serve as the backbone of a regional open space system, connecting the natural lands to the region's urban cores along the meandering and man-made water courses. The connection to nature is apparent on any street corner as most public squares and parks can serve as the trail head for a day long hike through the countryside. And the economic benefits have been clear. When a large multi-national corporation recently moved its headquarters to Amsterdam, the back-office employees persuaded them to retain those positions in Arnhem-Nijmegen so these workers didn't have to leave. They preferred the quality of life here, and high speed rail connections to Amsterdam made meetings possible when necessary. Open space amenities influenced office location through labor force desires. The benefits of the green infrastructure are felt by the whole region, and spare municipalities from throwing costly tax breaks to keep companies in place.
In New York City it is easy to feel cut off from the natural; access to wild spaces has never been its selling point. The street grid, gleaming towers, and straight coastline make it feel as though Manhattan Island itself was built from scratch by man. Yet the island stands at the convergence of several natural systems. It is directly connected to the Appalachian Highlands and even the Adirondacks by the Hudson River. Long Island Sound is just a quick paddle up the East River and, if you can make it, across Hell's Gate. And the Atlantic Ocean lies just beyond the Verrazano Narrows and Lower New York Bay. So why does nature feel farther from Times Square than from any other point on earth? Hudson River Park is a step in the right direction, but it still feels both cut off from the island's interior as well as the larger Hudson River system. The riverfront should be a bridge between the urban and the natural, rather than an entity all of its own.
Better physical linkages between Midtown, the riverfront, and subsequently the Highlands can help create mental connections between the city and its hinterland, re-branding New York as the green city that it truly is. New York is the most efficient city in America, but fenced off waterfronts, exposed rail yards, and underutilized industrial space feel straight out of a previous century. We can learn from the Europeans and use open spaces and natural amenities to parallel the region's other efforts to sustain its role in the new economy.
Europe and the United States have similar challenges in reviving old industrial cities, but so far they have taken different paths toward that goal. Industrial cities with no more industry like Glasgow and Barcelona are looking to avoid the evolutionary path of decline already realized by their American counterparts. To do so, city and regional planners across Europe are looking for ways to attract their continent's creative class and entrepreneurs, reinventing themselves in the new economy. Their method is to let open space and regional amenities drive the planning process as an economic development tool.
@RegionalPlan