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The Planetizen News Brief - 2/26/09

26 February 2009 - 5:00am
Smart City Radio

The Planetizen News Brief is a weekly rundown of some of the most interesting and important news and issues of the past week.

The Planetizen News Brief airs every week on the nationally-syndicated radio program "Smart City", which is broadcast in cities across the U.S. Learn more about Smart City and listen to archived shows.

Full Transcript

The months leading up to last year’s Summer Olympics in Beijing brought a tidal wave of development to the city, with iconic new architecture popping up all over town. It’s estimated that nearly 500 million square feet of private commercial real estate was developed since 2006. But now that the Olympics are over, the construction boom is starting to look more like a bust. A recent article from the Los Angeles Times reports that almost one-fifth of that space, 100 million square feet, sits empty. Even if growth rates match up to historic highs, it will take more than a decade to fill the empty space. Even Olympic venues are feeling the bust- underused sites are being eyed for demolition or dramatically different reuse. The Bird’s Nest stadium, for instance, has only one event scheduled for 2009. As China struggles with the hangover of this building boom, prospective Olympic host countries should be paying very close attention.

Meanwhile in the states, America’s own bust is being felt in municipalities from coast to coast. Small cities and towns tend to take an especially hard hit when the economy dives, because they often rely on only a handful of industries and businesses, So when those businesses fail, an economic recession can be a death toll for entire communities. A recent article from the website TomDispatch looks at the vulnerability of small cities, and the countless towns around the country on the verge of collapse. As unemployment rises in these small cities, bigger cities may not be far behind. Many worry that the dying small towns of America may be canaries in the coal mine for some of the country’s major metropolises.

But despite the trouble facing many small cities, these places may also represent hope for the future. A recent article in the Boston Review by Catherine Tumber argues that small cities are going to be essential to creating a green and sustainable future. Small cities will be the sites of local agriculture and renewable energy industries, keeping our cities and nation as a whole running. But making sure small cities get there is going to be a challenge going forward. Traditional urban planning models don’t give smaller cities and towns the credit they deserve in contributing to the health of metropolitan regions, Tumber argues. Until small towns and big cities can be thought of as an inter-dependent ecology, the smaller places will continue to struggle.

Stories discussed in this week's Planetizen News Brief

Emptiness in Beijing After Olympic Building Boom

America's Municipal Meltdown

The Small City: Reconsidered, And Ready to Be Sustainable

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