Cities

Many months ago, I tried applying for a PhD programme on future cities. I got so engrossed in the concept that I started researching more on the subject. I discovered that deep inside me, a private enterprise human capital professional, I have a deep passion city structuring (is there such a term?).

I did not get admitted into the programme but began reading articles on the future of cities. This is a broad subject encompassing architecture (a subject close to my heart), energy (another favourite), water, transport, waste management, food supply, land-use and so on.

Driving to work one day, I thought of my conceptualisation of cities along 4 notions. I will explain my conceptualisation as four Cs:

1.     Commerce

2.     Convenience

3.     Cleanliness

4.     Co-ordinated

The reader will bear in mind that I am not an urban-planning expert. My day job centres on people issues, occupational health and elements of environmental management. I realise too, that there are major intersections between my job and the notion of cities. Cities are laid out and set-up to house employees and businesspeople. True, there are some designed for other purposes like recreation and so on. But these are not many and still require a format like cities set up to serve populations with industrial roles.

Commerce

A city must be a centre of transactions.

There must be facilities for the exchange of value and the security and regulations that go with it. Cities are flourished on that function.

The various players in the capital game dwell in cities permanently, pass through or visit. Because of this there must be comfortable shelter to facilitate their rest and bargains. These actors will exchange some value for that comfort at levels determined by their worth. Call this rent or rates. Whatever it is, an authority receives it and has an obligation to plough those returns back into the facilities for their improvement. It is also a responsibility: if there is stagnation, commerce will happen elsewhere.

Cities have money on axles.

Convenience

A city entails access to amenities like water, electricity, communication networks and so on. Within easy reach. There is economics at play to this though: those facilities must be utilised enough to realise returns for the service suppliers. But it is a two-way street: Those who derive benefit from the services do so for a reward enough to sustain or exceed the expense at which they use the services.

These services may be brought to the users as on-call service. To their doorstep. So, the services are accessed in two forms:

1.     On-call, and

2.     Within-reach

In passing, when we discuss efficient execution of services, we must put it in the context of the competition that exists in delivering it. That competition heightens the efficiency and differentiates cities from other places. 

Cleanliness

Cities should be synonymous with cleanliness. And cleanliness is linked with good health. It is an attractor. There are various notions around this, and this is sometimes referred to as environmental hygiene.

1.     There is provision of clean water potable enough and clean enough to wash with.

2.     There are efficient waste disposal systems for solid and liquid waste.

The irony, perhaps a challenge that most cities face, is their proximity to industrial areas and pollution sources. We must fund how cities are managed and maintained. The biggest source of this funding comes from those that produce waste and emit pollution. This is a paradox and an opportunity. Some waste is generated to deliver efficiency and convenience. The trick is in managing the trade-offs.

Co-ordinated

We cannot talk about cities and not view them as systems, each service or amenity is executed in consideration of others. The city phenomenon draws from various fields: agriculture, engineering, economics, law, logistics management, human resources, medical and health sciences, environmental sciences, forestry and so on.

Coordination also signals designation of zones. Seperate but connected.

Cities also function as extensions of central or federal governments, in relation to other authorities and municipalities and as agencies for functional departments or entities like those for tourism, water management, law enforcement, animal rights and so on.

Cities are therefore systems that entail coordination, organisation and networks.

A city considers its water sources, its watershed, its ecology, resources, economic activity, transit routes, other cities and aspects.