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What can China teach us about growth?II

II

LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dictatorship, democracy andurbanism

Gabriel Metcalf isSPUR'sexecutivedirector

2 Urbanist> August2011

Has any place experienced change as rapid as

China's, growing from 26 to 50 percent urban in just

20 years - a shift of a half a billion people? Thestandard of living has risen equally rapidly: Since

1990 the country's gross domestic product has grown

by more than tenfold.It might be possible to stop people from moving

to cities in search of economic opportunity, but it

would require a system far more authoritarian thancontemporary China. For example, there are 14

mill ion people in Shanghai w ith off icial permanent­

resident permits, but an additional 9 million migrantslive in the municipal region and are partic ipating in its

econom ic expansion.

This year SPUR's annual city trip was to Shanghai.It was the first time we visited a city outside North

America, and it afforded a glimpse into China's

phenomenal urban growth, the most significant

urbanization project in human history. Shanghai is

a modern city. It has high-rise towers, upscale retai l

and restaurants, and a transportation infrastructure(trains, ports, airports, etc.) far better than anything in

the United States. But outside of the historic districts

built before World War II, the development appearedterribly disorganized to us. There is lots of transit and

lots of development but no real relationship between

the two. Development far away from transit is just as

intense as development close to transit. Add to thisa tendency to copy some of the wo rst affectations of

American cities and suburbs - extremely wide roads,towers surrounded by vast, empty lawns, elevated

highways cutt ing through districts - and the result is

a landscape that is profoundly un-walkable, in spiteof being packed with tall buildings as far as the eye

can see. On the SPUR trip, we called it "high-density

sprawl."

There are lots of reasons Chinese urbanization isturning out this way:

1. The grow th is so fast that they don't have timeto plan. They just build as fast as they can, trying to

make sure everyone has a place to live.

2. The officia l growth-management policy empha­

sizes "new towns" rather than directing growth intoalready urbanized areas of Shanghai. In a country that

is experiencing th is much population growth, there

can be no question that new towns are a necessary

part of the solution. But Shanghai could put more

energy into growing its urban core.

3 . China is copying the America n model of car

dependency. If cars are symbols of personal freedom,

I don't want to sound like onemore star-struck Americanraving about the marvelsof modern China. I amrooting for democracy. Butour democracy is very, verytroubled.

imagine how powerful the symbol is in a society

struggling to move from a form of totalitarianism

toward a more open and tolerant model. Shanghai

has taken more aggressive steps to manage cars than

most cit ies in China, but providing lots of traffic lanesand lots of parking is pushing greater Shanghai into a

dispersed pattern.4 . In Shanghai the subways are organized in a grid

to facili tate one transfer to anywhere; there are almost

no central nodes that would warrant the greatestconcentration of density.

5. Local government is funded by selling develop­

ment rights and leasing property, while the nationalgovernment is funded by personal and business

taxes. In order to pay for basic services, local govern­

ment is deeply enmeshed in the business of land

development.6. Bureaucrats in charge of districts, towns or cities

compete with each other to create major places. Toget noticed and advance in their careers, mayors want

to be responsible for a new downtown or a major rail

hub. When a new mayor comes into office, he or shewants to make a mark with something new instead

of implementing another mayor's vision; as a result

the landscape is dotted with partly finished mega­

developments. In some ways, the political structure isthe form-giver.

Despite these problems, it's clear that Shanghai

and China have a lot to teach us. First, the rising

prosperity did not happen by accident. China has anindustrial policy of identifying industries to target for

growth. The job of Chinese mayors is to come up with

a profitable mix of industry in their cit ies, and they

will not get promoted unless they succeed. Mayors

have many, many tools at their disposal to carry out

this task, including direct ing state-owned companies

I

At the ShanghaiUrban PlanningExhibitionCenter, anenormous scalemodel showsall exist ingand plannedbuildings in thecity center ­about one-tenthof Shanghai'stotal area.

and foreign investment companies to desiredlocations; creating new universities; and even

buildin g the factories they want and starting new

companies themselves. As we met with mayors of

fast-growin g new towns, we heard sophist icated

interpretations of the "lessons of Detroit. " They

talked about the need to nurture industries that

are furth er up the value chain and not rely on

manufacturing, w hich w ill flow to areas of least

cost. For example Jiading, a new town specializing

in auto manufacturin g, is working to attract R&D

and aff iliated industries - to design cars rather

than just build them.

The second big lesson from China in general,

and Shanghai in particular, is that the government

is spending heavily on the things the United States

seems unable to affo rd anymore - especially

transportation infrastructure and education. In

the most respected international comparison ofeducational atta inment among high-school stu­

dents (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation

and Development 's Programme for International

Student Assessment), Shanghai came out ahead

of every other place in the world. People who think

China's economic success is only based on cheap

labor are drawin g the wrong conclusion, and are,

frankly, not as worried as they should be. The cost

of labor in China w ill rise - in fact it already has.

What is more challenging to the U.S. economy

is the smart, and massive, investments China is

making in its future productivity.

When confronted with the stories of China's

successes - the grow ing prosperity, the new

high-speed rail lines, the ability to move so

quickly on infrastructure and other large proj ­

ects - Americans tell themselves, "It's easier in

a dictatorship." But let's give the Chinese some

credit: The results they are achieving for their

people far outstrip those of any other dictatorship

I can think of. As I watch California wade into a

th ird decade of trying to build its first high-speed

rail system, with, at best, more than a decade

more to go, I don't want to sound like one more

star-struck American raving about the marvels of

modern China. I am rooting for democracy. But our

democracy is very, very troubled.

This brings us to the third and final lesson

we took away -and it 's a hard one. How does

the United States compete with undemocratic

countries without sacrificing our democracy? Can a

country w ith a rich publi c life and culture of debatestill take on the hard decisions?

What if we continue to deny that spending is

necessary to maintain first-world infrastructure and

publi c services?

What if we are too short-sighted as a people to

invest in the education and opportunity of the next

generation?

What if, in short, our system is not capable of

tacklin g hard problems?

Many of China's mayors, the ones directing

their nation's thr iving economy and building its

supportive infrastructure, were trained as econo­

mists and engineers. If we can characterize China's

political system as governance by experts, then the

challenge it poses to us becomes even more clear.

American politi cal culture is deeply distrustful of

expert ise and deeply wedded to the idea that the

experts are probably w rong. This is w here China ­

dictatorship or not - is more enlightened than we

are. We cast our lot with democracy; with buildin g

a participatory citizenry that combines all our

strengths. But in order for it to work, we must vote

and act according to an intelligent, informed vision

that is bigger than imm ediate self-interest. We have

a lot of work to do to prove that these hopes for

our democracy are more than naive wishes.e

Urbanist > August 2011 3

August 2011

What we're doing

This year has been a wild one forCa lifornia's redevelopmentagencies, which direct financialinvestmentand newdevelopment toward struggl ingareas . Just a few months into histenure, Governor Jerry Brownvowed to abolish redevelopmentagencies and got fairly closetodoing so. Now they'reonce aga inon the chopping block. Whenthe governor signed the statebudget in late June, he passedone trailer bill that eliminates

COASTAL COMMISSION RULESAGAINST OCEAN BEACH ARMORINGOn July 13, the California Coastal Commissionunanimously denied a permit application fromthe City and County of San Francisco thatwould have permitted both existing and newemergency armoring of the coast in responseto ongoing erosion south of Sloat Boulevard.The commissioners protested the ad-hocnature of the city's coastal management andsaid they would not approve additionalarmoring until a long-range plan was in place.SPUR's Ben Grant provided testimony on thestatus of the Ocean Beach Master Plan, amulti-agency effort to find long-term solutionsto erosion and other issues at the beach. Thecommission's demand for a long-range planputs renewed emphasis on the SPU R-Iedmaster plan, which will be released inJanuary. Read more at bit.ly/armoring.

REDEVELOPMENT IS DEAD, redeve lopment agencies and aLONG LIVE REDEVELOPMENT second bill that allows them to

continue to exist if they paycertain "voluntary" contributionsto schools and special districts.The Ca lifornia RedevelopmentAssociation and the League ofCal ifornia Cities assert that thenew laws are unconstitutionaland are taking a lawsuit to theCa lifornia Supreme Court. Underthe new laws, the San FranciscoRedevelopment Agency wouldcontinue to stay in business, butsome of its projects (like theHunter's Point Shipyard) would

4 Urbanist> August 20lt

go forward on a slowertimeline,and others may not happen atall. SPUR has been working aspart of a broad coalition tosupport targeted reforms to stateredevelopment law, while at thesame time working on new toolsthat can replacesomeof thegood work that redevelopmentdoes in California. Hear SFRedevelopment AgencyDirector Fred Blackwell explainthe changes at bit.ly/sfredev.

MAYOR APPOINTS GABRIELMETCALF TO TRANSBAYJOINT POWERS AUTHORITYMayor Lee has appointed SPURExecutive Director GabrielMetcalf to the organizationresponsib le for designing andbuilding the Transbay Terminal.It's a critical time for this project,given recent funding challengesfacing Caltrain, high-speed railand the Transbay RedevelopmentArea .

THE FUTURE OF 4TH STREETThe stretch of 4th Streetbetween Market Street and theSan Francisco Caltrain station atKing Street is an important areafor urbanists to be thinkingabout. Why? Because rough ly$1.5 billion will be invested intransit infrastructure here, in theform of the Central Subway. Thisprojectwill ultimately link theT-Third Street Muni line withChinatown. Meanwhile, othersignificant plans will extendCaltrain to downtown and furtherlink the 4th and King Station tothe Transbay Terminal withhigh-speed rail. Recently the SanFrancisco Planning Department

launched the Central CorridorStudy, a new planningeffortfocused on the 4th Streetcorridor. SPUR believes stronglythat plans for 4th Street shouldconsider the substantia l transitimprovements in this area, aswell as the need to extend SanFrancisco's walkable downtowncore. Toget involved emailSarah Karlinsky at skarlinsky@spur.org

SUPPORTIVE HOUSING FORYOUTH PASSES PLANNINGCOMMISSIONThe San Francisco PlanningCommission voted July 14 topass the proposed plan for theEdward II Inn in the Cow Hollowneighborhood. The plan wouldconvert the tourist hostel into a24-unit residence for youth whoare aging out of foster careor areotherwise at risk ofhomelessness. SPUR DeputyDirector Sarah Karlinsky testifiedin support of the project, whichour Project Review Committeehas endorsed as critical toaddressing the needs of anunderserved population.

SPUR RELEASES"ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT"STUDYIn July SPUR teamed with theGlobal Footprint Network, aresearch group based inOakland, to release a study ofSan Francisco's"ecologicalfootprint," a measure of naturalresource consumption as afunction of goods and servicespurchased. Read the completestudy at spur.org/tootprint.e

• l!:'

China is now engaged in thefastest city-building projectin history. One billion peoplewill live in its cities by 2030.By 2025, China will have221 cities with more than amillion inhabitants and 23cities with more than fivemillion.

Shanghai, China's largest city,is ahead of the urbanizationcurve and provides a glimpseinto the country's future- and the world's. For justas the American suburbanexperiment traveled aroundthe world in the 20th century,Chinese urbanism will beadopted and adapted byother nations in the 21st.

Learning from ShanghaiWhat can China's massive urbanizationproject teach us?

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08.11 by Egan Terp lan ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Shanghai's regional economyIn China, decisions about new towns, industries andfinancial centers are made at a regional level. What can theBay Area learn from this ap proach to economic planning? ..

EganTerplanisSPUR's regio nalplann ingdirector.

I PreparingforChina'sUrban Billion, McKinseyGlobal lnstilute, March2009.wW\'/.mckinsey.com/mgi/reports/pdfslchina urban billionlChina- urban- billionfull_reporl.pdf -

6 Urbanist > August2011

Shanghai is the pinnacle of Chinese economicdevelopment and a good reflection of where theentire country is headed if growth continues. Thecity is now middle-income and has a diversifiedservice economy - and, despite wage growth, itsper capita savings rate is decreasing as residentsspend more money on housing, consumer goodsand other services. The city produces 100,000college graduates per year and nearly 30 percent ofits residents have a college degree(double the rateof a decade ago)' . And though the region maintainsa strong, globally competitive manufacturing base(building products like the new eastern spanof the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge), theeconomy is shifting away from export-orientedmanufacturing and toward high-end services likefinance, technology and business services. Severalof the sites SPUR visited were adaptive reuses ofmanufacturing spaces, including a former autoparts factory that now houses the Shanghai officeof architecture firm SOM, among other businesses,and an art deco slaughterhouse currently occupiedby several arts organizations.

These economic changes are giving rise togreater income inequality, rising housing costs,longer commutes and increased car-ownershiprates. There are also more than 8 million migrantsfrom rural China who lack official papers to workin Shanghai yet still need jobs and housing.Maintaining an economy that produces jobs for themasses while simultaneously increasing per capitaincomes and moving local industries to higher-valueactivities (which are often less labor-intensive) is adelicate and risky balancing act.

But this process is made easier by the factthat Shanghai is not just a city but a region, witha mayor who presides over all of the variousdistricts within it. This makesregional coordinationmuch more effective, as it occurs within a singlegovernmental jurisdiction.

To better understand economic development inShanghai and draw lessons for the Bay Area, let'slook at recent changes in two distinct parts of the

Shanghai region: Jiading and Pudong. Jiading isa "new town" (a master-planned city built fromscratch in a previously undeveloped area) 20 milesfrom the center of Shanghai with a focus on theautomotive industry. It is one of nine new towns inthe Shanghai area, each planned for a populationof 800 ,000 to 1 million. Pudong, the easterndistrict of Shanghai, was designated a nationaleconomic zone in 1990 and is renowned for thefuturistic skyscrapers in its Lujiazui District, whichlies directly across the river from Shanghai's famousearly-20th-century promenade, the Bund,

To put these two districts in a Bay Area context,Jiadingwould be like building a totally new cityof 1 million people in the Livermore Valley, withits own district mayor accountable to a regionalmayor. Pudong's Lujiazui District would be as if theU.S. government decided to make the former navalstation at Alameda Point into the country's leadingfinancial center and created a free-trade zone therewith tens of millions of square feet of office spacewhile preserving downtown San Francisco as aquaint, historic employment and retail center.

JIADING: DE CENTRALI ZINGGROWTH TO "N EW TOWN S"

Once a relatively undeveloped area of farmsand small villages, Jiading has been transformedin the past decade with new office and residentialtowers, factories, schools, parks and roads. As adesignated "new town," Jiading reflects Shanghai'spolicy of decentralization, shifting new populationgrowth and existing industry away from the region'scity center (which will remain at 10 million people).Much new growth will be distributed to nine newtowns of up to 1 million people, as well as 60smaller cities of approximately 100,000 people.

With an economic focus as Shanghai's"Automotive City," Jiading is the largest automotivedistrict in China. Home to the ShanghaiAutomotive Industry Corporation, which partnerswith Volkswagen and General Motors, Jiadingmanufactures hundreds of thousands of cars each

year. Low taxes are key to this success. Profit taxes

are as low as 15 percent for firms that use new

technology, establish an R&D faci lity or are the

regional headquarters for a global company.

But in an attempt to avoid the fate of U.S.manufactur ing centers like Detroi t, Jiading's district

mayor, Sun Jiwei, says the new town is moving

away from a narrow manufactur ing emphasis to

embrace "upstream" activit ies (like research and

design) and "down stream" activities (like marketing

and testing) and capture the broad value chain

of the automotive industry. In addition to the

assembly plants, Jiading has att racted more than

100,000 related companies in industries such as

components manufacturing, logistics and after­

sales services. Its big att ract ion in downstream

activities was the building of a Formula 1 race

track. Jiading's next strategy is to move upstream

to capture auto research and design firms as well

as those in related sectors like industrial design,

electronics, information technology and electric car

batteries.

Jiading's focus on cars reflects a national strategy

to decouple fut ure growt h from exports. Since the

global economy is slowing, China increasingly has

to rely on its internal markets for futur e growth.

While cars provide an engine for job growth, it

is real estate development - led and managed by

local government - that provides the funds to offe r

the lucrative tax breaks. The government, which

owns all property, sells developm ent rights and then

requires developers to sign long-term leases: 70

years for residential, 50 years for industrial and 40

years for commercial. These stable annual revenuesfill local government coffe rs and provide the funds

for a range of investments, f rom infrastructure togovernment-run companies to tax breaks for private

firms.As noted above, real estate development is often

the means to an end, which is to meet a target

for gross domestic product (GOP). Each level of

government contributes toward national, provincial

and local GOP goals. Local off icials (most of whom

are trained as engineers or economists) must

meet these targets or risk losing their jobs. This

provides strong motivation for an effective economic

development strategy.

PUDONG'S LUJIAZUI DISTRICT:RECLAIMING SHANGHAI'S STATUSAS A GLOBAL FINANCIAL CENTER

In the early 20th century, Shanghai was the

world's third-largest financial center afte r New York

and London. But afte r the Chinese Revolut ion,

financial services ceased to be a major industry in

Shanghai. Today, Pudong reflects the city's - and

country's - desire for Shanghai to reclaim a global

role in finance and wrest le the regional title away

from Hong Kong.

In 1990 , the national government declared much

of the land east of the Huangpu River the Shanghai

Pudong New Zone. Firms that locate there pay no

duties or income taxes, and (since 2001) foreign

compan ies can open financial institutions that use

the local currency, the renminbi. The area houses

the Shanghai stock exchange, wh ich comprises

With new townslike Jiading,the Chinesegovernmentis shift ingpopulationgrow th andexist ing industryaway fromShanghai'scity center.Like muchcontemporaryChineseurbanism, theplan for Jiadingemphasizeswide boulevards,mega blocksand towers setback from thestreet.

Urbanist > August 2011 7

Inspired byLa Defense inParis and othermonumentaldistricts, Pudongemerged out ofagricultur al landto become thenation's financ ialcenter and hometo millions.

1 Cushman andWakefield, Ql 2011.httpJ/rightsite.asia/sites/rightsite.asia/file s/shanghai_off_l ql1.pdt

B Urhanist > August 2011

87 percent of China's national stock market. As

a result , Shanghai receives about a quarter of the

entire country 's financial-services investment.

Pudong currently has more than 12 million square

feet of Class A off ice space - more than half of

all such space in Shanghai - and an additiona l 5

mill ion square feet is under construction."

The success of Pudong reflects Shanghai's shift

toward a service economy. In 199 0, 60 percent

of Shanghai's employment was in manufacturin g,

38 percent in services and th e rest in agriculture.

By 20 05 this had reversed: Services now make up

60 percent of the Shanghai region's economy and

as much as 75 percent of the economy in the city

center.

Pudong also reflects the national government's

belief in urbanization and infrastructure

development as the best ways to achieve GOP

grow th. Pudong has the region's international

airpor t , major port facilities and the world's only

com mercially operating Maglev train . (The train

is mostly a disappointment , however, in that it

was intended to link to the city center but in fact

terminates at a distant edge of Pudong, where

travelers sti ll have to t ransfer to taxis or the

metro.) Infrastructure in Shanghai has averaged

approximate ly 10 percent of GOP dur ing the past

decade.

CONC LUDING LESSON SIf Shanghai reflects China's success at economic

growth, what lessons can we app ly to the Bay

Area? Given obvious differences in our cultures and

governments, making comparisons is risky, but a

few lessons emerge:

1. Because the majority of the region is under the

jur isdiction of one governmental entity, Shanghai

municipali ty, there is consensus for where to locate

and how to support targeted industries such as

finance and automotive. This means overall regional

economic growth can happen much faster.

2. Local officials' career success is measured

by their ability to meet regiona l targets, such

as increasing the GOP. This provides a strong

motivation to develop and implement an economic

strategy that actually works.

The struggling Bay Area economy could benefit

from a regionally drafted economic strategy and

elected officials willing to support growth where

it best serves the region (even if that means

some places get greater focus than others). Our

government is not going to set GOP targets for all

elected off icials, but perhaps we could use more

local leaders w ith the political fort itude and regional

perspective to support what is best for the entire

Bay Area, not just for their own community.•

08.11 by Michae l A lexander TRANSPORTATION

Learning from a world-classtransit systemCan Shanghai's vast new network of high-tech subways andhigh -speed trains trump its growing love affair with the car?

Shanghai is China's urban showcase, andtransportation is one of its showpieces of scope,scale and speed. A decade ago, the city had onesubway line. Today it has a grid of 11, covering 260miles and averaging more than 5 million passengertrips a day. By 2020 all those numbers will double.Shanghai is also a hub for the world's largesthigh-speed rail network. After just three years ofconstruction, the 820 -mile Beijing- Shanghai bulletline opened in June - right on schedule.

A year after Shanghai's World Expo, the city'ssprucing for that impress-the-world event was stillevident. Still, public transit is planned for the longterm, and most is world class. It's the only wayto serve the transportation demands of a still­growing megacity of 23 million at an acceptableenergycost - and it's a strident contrast to theshortsighted decision-making that hobbles mostU.S. transportation policy.

RIDING TH E METROIf a trip on a brand-new subway in a foreign city,

to an unfamiliar destination, is navigation's acid test,Shanghai's rapid-transit system, the Metro, passes.Its spotless, functional stations, with their staffedservice counters, feel comfortable. All signs andinstructions are in English and Chinese. Platformmonitors displayarrival times of the next three trains- to the second. Navigating the vast undergroundstations is easy, even when transferring betweenlines. Above each platform a color-coded graphicindicates which station you're in (red), where thetrain is headed (black) and where it's been (gray).On the train, there are next-station displays, andnewer cars have LED route maps above the doors.

Ticketing, which always requires the mostpassenger decisions, is just as seamless. Just findyour destination station and its line on the ticketmachine's touchscreen map, and pay with cashor cred it card. Touch your plastic ticket to the gatereader, and go. Use your added-value ticket ontaxis, buses and ferries. Like BART, Metro charges

by distance: A single trip costs between 45 centsand $1.10, and Metro says it recovers 80 percentof operating costs from fares. (BART receives 65percent of its operating budget from fares, the bestrecovery rate in the Bay Area.)

Meanwhile, Shanghai has not neglected its bussystem. Up at street level a thousand bus linesawait, the biggest network in the world.

H IGH -SPEED RAILShanghai is a hub of China's rapidly expanding

high-speed rail (HSR) lines, which were boughtfrom manufacturers around the world. As part of thedeals, China required technology transfer, so now itcan build and operate its own systems - as well asothers in places like Brazil.

The new Beijing-Shanghai bullet line, whichcuts the nearly lO-hour travel time in half, expectsto carry some 220,000 passengers a day. Atpeak, trains leave every five minutes. It's thelatest addition to the world's largest HSR network,covering more than 5,000 miles today - anddouble that by 2020.

HSR is planned, financed and run by thegovernment, which accelerated construction duringthe 2008 recession. In a country where nearlya billion people don't have toilets, authoritiesjustify such premium-cost (though still subsidized)passenger travel as making China more competitivein the long term, creating jobs (110,000 for Beijing­Shanghai) in the short term and freeing older rail formore profitable freight. The government claims HSRreduces urban sprawl by linking urban centers thathave connecting subway lines, but if those subwaysgo to distant, expensive and lightly populatedsuburbs - as do some of Shanghai's - that benefitis muted.

From 2000 to 2006, national officials debatedwhether to use magnetic levitation technologyorsteel rail for the national passengersystem. Maglevlost. Shanghai's Maglev line takes seven minutesto run 19 miles from Pudong International Airport

Michael Alexanderisanurbanist andco-chair of SPUR'sAdvisoryCounci l.Heencourages SanFranciscotosharethesuccesses ofcities like ShanghaiandVancouver, B.C.

Urbanist > August2011 9

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Since it brokeground in 1990,Shanghai's rapidtransit system ,the Metro, hasopened 11lines and morethan 260 milesof track, thelongest networkin the world.An additional11 lines will becompleted by2020.

to downtown, but weak connections at both endsmakea taxi trip just as fast door-to-door. It's morea legacy demonstration project, like the Disneylandmonorail.

There's another rail anomaly in one of Shanghai'snew towns, Lingang, at Shanghai's coastal tip.Designed by the German firm gmp, the town isoverscaled, autocentric and quite empty today. Butit has a critical function: It 's the logistics center forthe world's largest deep-water port, Yangshan, outin the mists of the East China Sea . Oddly, Lingangand Yangshan are linked across the shallows onlyby the 20-mile-long Donghai Bridge, not by rail,which meansthat millions of cargo containers mustbe carried by trucks.

TO TOO OR NOT TO TOODespite the government's clear focus on building

transit, there is no explicit goal to concentratedevelopment directly adjacent to stations. Butbecause densities are so high, the lack of transit­oriented development may not matter much. There

is in fact lots of transit near new development.One place whereShanghai planners are actively

connecting transit with a plan for deve lopment isHongqiao International Airport, 10 miles west ofdowntown. Abutting the passenger terminal is a railstation with 30 tracks for high-speed trains; two(soon to be three) subway lines to downtown, oneof which continues to Pudong International Airport;four expressways; acresof taxis; and a plannedextension of the Maglev from Pudong. It's a greatintermodal center, but will the empty, hazy fieldssurrounding it really be filled with the planned 6million square meters (65 million square feet) oftransit-oriented development? One SPUR memberwith extensive experience in China observed that "6million square meters" is always the target numberfor such big projects.

AUTO FIX-ATIONChina juggles an industrial policy to grow its

automotive industry (as in the new town of Jiading,see"Shanghai's regional economy," page 6) with

10 Urbanist > August2011

contrast ing environmental and transportation/

urban growth policies. "Capitalism with Chinese

characteristics " may enable top-down planning of

public works, but it also supports the bottom-up

aspirations of the new middle class to own a home

and a car.An industrial policy that encourages an

automobile industry has significant benefits: the

industry is a major consumer of domestically

produced steel, rubber, plastics and electronics;

a foundation for aeronautics, space and defense

industries; a source of industrial innovation andgood jobs to feed Asia's largest auto market, which

grew 10 percent annually while Detroit tanked.

Status car: Audi A4. Superstatus car: Ferrari , which

sells more than half of its output in China.One evening we passed the same Ferrari

multiple times (always in first gear) as we strolled

through the French Concession, but Shanghai, w ith

an estimated 1.7 million cars, isn't as gridlocked

as notorious Beijing. One reason: If you want to

actua lly drive your new status symbol, you must

win one of the month ly auct ions for a license

plate. Just 8 ,000 plates are offered each month,and w inning bids top $6,000. No Shanghai plate?

Traffi c police and highway toll stations will stop

you from driving during rush hours. Beijing recently

copied the strategy.

Shanghai takes its highway strategy largely

from North America: There's an extensive freeway

network consisting of three ring roads and a grid

of expressways spaced roughly every seven miles.

Most are elevated, and limited to cars and trucks.

PEDESTRIANS AND BICYCLESWalking and cycling remain impor tant parts of

the transportation system. Streets are fill ed with

pedestrians. The biggest shopping street is closed

to cars; others have wide sidewalks shaded byplane and camphor trees (festively uplighted at

night) that make warm, humid, smoggy Shanghai

walkable and comfortable.For the 20 10 Expo, Shanghai transformed

the Huangpu River water front along the historic

Bund district , much as San Francisco did when

it removed the Embarcadero Freeway. Shanghai

tunn eled six of the intim idating 10 lanes of

riverfront road, narrowing the surface roadway and

expanding its pedestrian promenade into a major

open space and public amenity with postcard views

of the Pudong skyline across the river.

There are sti ll more than 10 mil lion registered

bicycles in the city. Many streets have bike lanes

separated from car traff ic, and at all hours they're

busier than San Francisco's Market Street at rush

hour. A few years ago, bicycling was considered

a symbol of poverty, and Shanghai wanted to ban

bikes on streets to make room for more cars. Now

the city is starting a bike-sharing program modeled

on the one in Hangzhou, the world's largest, and

Pudong off icials just announced plans to create

a separate pedestrian and bicycle street network

over the next five years. Despite Shanghai's flat

topography, about half the bikes have electric

motors. While gas engines are prohibited, theelectrics have their own down sides - most

electricity comes from burn ing coal, and shoddy

battery facto ries poison nearby residents andworke rs with lead.

Now if China could just translate some of itstransit success to greater environmental protection.•

GROUND TRANSIT:CHINA VS. THE UNITED STATES

On June 30, China opened an 820-mile high­speed rail (HSR) line from Shanghai to Beijing. Thetrip takes five hours. A trip of the same distancein the United States - New York to Atlanta ­takes 18 hours on Amtrak. While we struggle tobreak ground on the first HSR line in the UnitedStates, China is hard at work on a lO ,OOO-mileHSR system that will cover a nation the samegeographic size as ours in just nine years.

What are we missing out on? High-speed railslashes travel time between urban centers, reducespollution and oil dependency, and provides afoundation for future economic competitiveness.The benefits become stark when you compare atrip on China's HSR to current ground travel in theUnited States.

How does a one-day, 220-mile trip through three citieson China's HSR compare to the same length trip usingAmerican transportation options?

HSR I Amt rak I CarlCHINA USA USA

Travel Time 1.4 hours 5 hours 4 hours

Average Speed 157 mph 44 mph 50 mph

Top Legal Speed 213 mph 62 mph 80 mph

tTrip Cost per Mile 15¢ 36¢ 55 .5¢

per mile per mile per mile

Dataderivedfrom current ticket prices and IRSmileage reimbursementrate.

Compiled by Michael Painter.

Urbanist > Augusl2011 11

10 8 .11 I AT A GLANCE

Shanghai Municipality and theBay AreaThe Shanghai Municipality includes 17 districts as well as thecity center. At 23 million people and 2,450 square miles, itis more comparable to the Bay Area than to San Francisco.

HOUSING BUILT PER YEAR

400,000

350000

en!::z 300000:::Jt.:lZ 250000Vi:::J0:I: 200000l.L.00:::LiJ 150000lD~:::JZ 100000

50000 -0

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

HOW PEOPLE GET AROUND

Bike 15%

SHANGHAI

Bike 1%I

BAYAREA

12 Urbanist > August 2011

GEOGRAPHY AND POPULATION

SHANGHAI MUNICIPALITYShanghai city center population: 10 millionShanghai Municipality population : 23 million

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREASan Francisco population: 805,000Bay Area population : 7.35 million

GDP PER CAPITA EDUCATION ATTAINMENT

$80,000 100%

Bay Area 90

60,00080

70

US 60

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 CollegeHigh schoolLess thanhigh school

o

10China

/Shanghai

20,000

40,000

. 1

Sources: HOUSING BUILTPER YEAR Shanghai: Shanghai Statistical yearbook 2010. Bay Area: Associated Bay Area Governments, Housing Needs Plan, June 2008.HOW PEOPLEGET AROUND Shanghai: Rail Transit Impacts on Trip Making and Land Developent in Shanghai, China, Haixiao Pan and Ming Zhang, 2010. Bay Area:Metropolitan Transportation Commission, modeling analysis for Sustainable Communities Strategy, 2010. MAPS Courtesy SOM. GDP PER CAPITAShanghai: ShanghaiStatistical Yearbook, 2010. Bay Area: BEAGross Regional Product. EDUCATION: Shanghai: Shanghai 2010 Census. Bay Area: US Census Bureau, 2008, AmericanCommunity Survey.

Urbanist > Au gust 2011 13

____________I_ S_T_R_E_E_T_L_I_F_E ______1 by Go rdon Price10 8 .11

Placemaking in the New andOld CityIs Shanghai the city of the 21st century, like New York in the20th century, Paris in the 19th and Florence in the 15th?

Gordon Price,previous lyasix­term city councillorinVancouver, isdirectorofthe CityProgram atSimonFraser Univers ityandauthor ofthe blogPrice Tags (WIVIV.

pricetags.IVard press.com).

The Shanghainese have built an economic dynamo - and

are proud of it. Last year's World Expo rivaled the BeijingOlympi cs in creating a transformative new infrastructure.

As a region of 23 million spread over 2,45 0 square miles,

Shanghai can be vast and intimidating. But it is not a strangeplace, at least not for visitors from cit ies with 19th -century

roots. Its historic center is still a well-scaled walking city with

great transit, and it is safe, surprisingly green and serviceablybilingual.

Like Paris, Shanghai divides into left and right banks ­

historic Puxi and newly developed Pudong - separated by

the Huangpu River. Don't confuse the whole of Pudong with

its Lujiazui district , a financial center of overwrought towers

and overscaled avenues. Hard to pronounce, harder to wa lk.

The best place to view Lujiazui is from the other side of

the river, along the newly rebuilt embankment of the Bund,

a stunning set piece of colonial classicism and one of the

world's great urban promenades. This is where the British,French and Americans extracted land concessions in the

mid-1 9th century, the best known of which is the French

Concession.

Behind the Bund extends a rough grid of colonial arterials,now crisscrossed w ith elevated freeways. Surprisingly, the

new highways fit in pretty well, w ith their flower boxes,

spectacular lighting and accompanying greenways. All

arterial roads are lined with shops, malls and commercial

buildings; some, like Nanjing and Huaihai roads, are amongthe most famous retail streets in Asia.

The superblocks between the arterials were historically

filled with /i/ongs, a traditional housing sty le that is actually

a blend of two cultures: British terrace row housing andChinese courtyards.

=____ _ _ _ _ "'"- ... <i'

The Bund Lujiazui financial district

14 Urbanist > August 2011

A Iilong between towers and highways

Tianzifang

It's easyfor Westerners to romanticize the Iilong withoutunderstanding what it's like to live in one. Associated withovercrowding and poverty, the Iilongs have been the target ofdemolition, replaced by "towers in the park," high-rise slabs all facingsouth, that may be brutal to our eyes but are a step up for many oftheir residents.

As the low-rise Iilongs become an increasing rarity amongthe concrete canyons, we may see more careful restoration andadaptation of them along with the preservation of other examplesofShanghai's deco heritage from the 20th century.

Shanghai already has two good examples to point to, most notablyXintiandi, which, with its rebuilt shikumen stone-gate houses, is nowa trendy entertainment center for the affluent and international. Sinceits restoration, the less-altered lilong settlement of Tianzifang hasbecome a popular and well-visited arts district where residents rentout the first floors of their homes to boutiques and bistros.

Xintiandi - for which SPUR memberJohn Kriken was themaster planner - has been so successful with its mix of heritage

People's Square

buildings, corporate towers, high-end condos, all in a car-constrainedenvironment, that slavish duplicates have been ordered up for othermetro areas around China.

Thanks to these examples of economically successful heritagepreservation, Shanghai planners are able to use a combination ofbureaucratic insistence and economic appeal to save the past andcreate sophisticated public spaces - as also demonstrated on YongFoo Road, where the old British Consulate is now a private club andthe centerpieceof a new pedestrian-priority district.

The building known as "1933," a surreal abattoir transformedinto an arts center; Bridge 8, a creative cluster in new and oldindustrial spaces; and the Knowledge and Innovation Community inWujiaochang are just three examples among dozens that suggest amore creative vision of Shanghai's future.

Meanwhile, extensive demolition has allowed the city to green upcentral Shanghai with an astonishing number of parks and publicplaces, including People's Square, once the colonial racetrack andnow the major cultural and civic precinct.

Urbanist > August 2011 15

Shanghai's main defect

remains its air quality. Most

days are gray, the air fi lled with

dust from inland deserts and

unaddressed pollutants. Have

Shanghai dwellers ever seen a

star-filled sky?

If not, perhaps they are

compensat ing with manmade

nightti me lighting. Luminationcovers ent ire high-rise facades

on the Pudong side of the river,

while the gold-saturated displays

of the Bund and Nanj ing Road

attract thousands on the historic

side.Where the elevated freeways

cross, the ramps are lined wi th

blue LEDs; along Huaihai Road,the crowns of mature trees are

ornamented with glowing red

lanterns.

Shanghai air quality

Pudong at night

16 Urbanist > August 2011

Huaihai Road

Shanghai sidewalks accommodate many uses

Tree-lined street in the French Concession

Plaza outside the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum in Lujiazui

Away from the primary promenades, Shangha i's sidewalks have to

accommoda te every imaginable use - and every imaginable small

vehicle; seemingly they cannot cope.

One would expect to be frazzled by overstimulation and theclaustrophobia of crowds. And yet, most of the tim e, one is not.

Perhaps it's because of the trees. Has the impact of street trees

ever been more significant? The French Concession overflows with

London plane trees.Cleverly, the Chinese use their expressway rights-of-way as tree

farms, growing the seedlings to a size where they can be transplanted

throughout the region.Which leads to the question that jumps out when the tourist leaves

the center of historic Shanghai for the new town s and development

areas: Why have the Chinese planners, and their international

consultants, learned so littl e from the success of these Shanghai

traditi ons?The question arises again and again, on the vast boulevards

of Lujiazui surrounded by desolate plazas; in the new towns, on

avenues without bike lanes; in a neoclassical college campus without

apparent student life; or at the wor ld's largest skateboard park, whe re

the only occupa nts are those watering the shrubbery.

Some att ribute th is lack of energy and urban life to Shanghai's

planning ahead to accommodate expected mill ions of residents. But

too often the scale feels wrong.

It's not without precedent. The Parisians built La Defense, the

Viennese designed Donau City - moderni st megaprojects that even

their creators don't like. It's hard to understand why the Chinese,

scavenging the world for the best examples of urban design, would

choose these sterile models for some of their new town s. Shanghai

mounted a world's fair that washed itself in green, constructed 10

major transit lines simultaneously and filled its streets with greenery

and its bike lanes with the latest electric technologies. Yet the

Shanghainese are saturating their urban environment w ith thousands

of new cars, t rucks and buses, celebrat ing this achievement in car

ads as they elevate the expectations of the rising middle class. And

so now they find themselves in gridlock.

Why? Maybe because they believe they can solve the congest ion,

energy and environmental problems after they catch up w ith us?

Or simply because they believe this is the way to build the city of

the 21st century.•

Shanghai traffic

Urbanist > August20 11 17

10 8 .11 I INSIDE SPUR

New Faces at SPUR

..

Publications and communications managerKaren Steen oversees SPUR's print and onlinecommunications, including our policy reports,website, blog, member emails, social media and, ofcourse, the Urbanist.A journalist specializing in architecture andurban planning, Karen has written for Metropolis,ReadyMade, 1.0 ., Time Out New York and theNew York Times. Her book Crystal Cove Cottages(Chronicle Books), a profile of a historic communityin Southern Ca lifornia, was a Los Angeles Timesbestseller. Karen comes to SPUR from CBSInteractive, where she helped launch the businessnews site BNET.com. Previously, she was aneditor at Metropolis and at the Pulitzer-winningnewspaper Willamette Week. A daily transit rider,she spends her commute writing fiction. Sherecently completed a novel on themes of land useand the environment thanks to her many hourslogged on BART and AC Transit.

1B Urbanist > August 2011

Eli Zigas, food systems and urban agricultureprogram manager, inaugurates a new policy areaat SPUR. He will manage our work on urbanagriculture, regional foodshed planning and creatinga vibrant, accessible food system in San Franciscoand the Bay Area.

Eli hasspent several years managing non-profitprograms. He most recently co-founded CultivateSF, an organization that explored the feasibility ofcommercial urban farming in San Francisco. Beforethat, he was program manager for DC Vote, aneducation and advocacynon-profit organizationin Washington, D.C. In that capacity, he managedfoundation and direct-mail fundraising and assistedwith outreach programs. Prior to working for DCVote, Eli was the communications manager for theUdall Legacy Bus Tour, a cross-country biodieselbus tour promoting public service on environmentaland Native American issues.

A native of Washington, D.C., El i made his wayto San Francisco via Iowa, where he earned hisB.A. in policy studies from Grinnell College. Hecurrently serves as a co-coordinator of the SanFrancisco Urban Agriculture Alliance.

A recent transplant fromSouthern California,Noah Christman hasdesigned and managedplanning and communitydevelopment projectsincluding small-scale infillhousing in California, asustainability-focused

school in rural Tanzania , and monumental newtown developments in China. As part of FUZE ICommunity Design, he has designed branding forUrban Land Institute programs in OrangeCountyand the Inland Empire, including ULI's statewide2010 High-Speed Rail TOD Marketplace. His cat,Tussin, is awesome.

Priorto joining SPUR,Elizabeth Hoehnke workedat the Commission forArchitecture and the BuiltEnvironment in England,where she led affordablehousing and street designprograms. Trained in

." Australia as a landscapearchitect, she completed an M.A. in urban designat the University of Westminster, London. Neverwithout her sketchbook, Liz is a Bikram enthusiastand coffee connoisseur.

Casey Jung is anundergraduate student atBarnard College in NewYork City, where she ismajoring in urban studiesand architecture. As a nativeSan Franciscan, she is eagerto learn from an organizationthat is committed to

improving and preparing the city that she callshome. She hopes to expand on her experiencestudying climatechange in cities and is lookingforward to an exciting summer with SPUR.

Hilary Pedigo likes to thinkof herself as San Francisco'sGirl Friday. She can't helpbut volunteer for those whomake our city and worldwork better, includingSPUR, Architecture 21,Maestro Films, formerSupervisor Gerardo

Sandova l, her local food pantry, and her neighborsin the Inner Sunset. GoGiants!

Cole Armstrong, a SanFrancisco native, hasbeen an urban planningenthusiast since attendinghis first SPUR eventat age 19. He holds aB.A. in political scienceand economics fromSwarthmore College and

the team championship title of SPUR City TriviaNight. His beard (not pictured) hasappeared in adocumentary about the Giants' World Series run.

Justin Baker Rhett is asenior at Amherst College,where he majors in arthistory and history. ASan Francisco native,Justin has spent the pastfour summers workingfor Summerbridge SanFrancisco, teaching

history to eighth graders. He is very interested inurban planning and plans to write a thesis on theexpansion of interstate highways and freeways inthe post-World War II era.

Amanda Bensel comes toSPUR with an architecturedegree from UC Berkeleyand experience workingwith the City of BerkeleyPlanning Department andArchitecture for Humanity.She will continue herstudies in international

environmental policy at the Monterey Institute ofInternational Studies. When not working, Amandacan be found cycling, hiking or dancing ­frequently in costume.

Jillian Burns joins SPURfor the summer beforecompleting her final yearas an environmentalmanagement and protectionmajor at Cal Poly San LuisObispo. Jillian's interestsinclude environmental

J policy, sustainabledevelopment, biology and Spanish. Her favorite dayof the year is Bay to Breakers.

Urbanist > August 20ll 19

URBANFIELD NOTES

Eight eras of the old town:Shanghai's forgotten zones

Anaddit ivearchiveof cultura l landscapes and observationscompiled by SPUR members and friends. Sendyour ideasto Urban Field Notes editor Ruth Keffer at editor@spur.org.

Caseworkers: Katya Knyazeva and AdamSinykin

CASESTUDY #40

Shanghai'sold town - the Chinese City- is today considered a slum. The compactlow-rise neighborhood in downtown occupies1/3,000th of metropolitan Shanghai. Mostlanes are too narrow for cars, and half thehousing stock is makeshift. It's an embarrass­ment to locals and a little baffling to visitors.

For seven hundred years this was all ofShanghai. It was hardly a slum. The city wasa magnet for sea merchants, agribusinessand gentry from throughout eastern China. Asurrounding wall guaranteed Shanghai 's secu­rity and prosperity. In 1843 , Chinese portswere forcibly opened to foreign trade. The oldtown's autonomy set it apart from the risingcolonial city just outside the wall - and thissegregation led to its economic decline asmodern Shanghai flourished.

But cohesion and isolation preserved theold town. Artifacts and architectural stylesfrom the Ming to the present are stillembedded in the fabric of the alleys. The oldtown is authentically mixed-use andpolymorphous: generat ions of residents,art isans, t iny businesses and antiquities areenfolded within the membrane of its lanes.

The old town's rustic character is uniquefor being so central. But its location ishazardous. Government developers haveafinancial stake in evict ing the poor andreintegrating the old town into the traff ic flowof the surrounding city. Success for theplanners will be the death of the old town.

But for the present, one can still meanderacrossthe old Shanghai and experiencedistinct overlapping eras. Our att raction tothis archaic and quirky neighborhood turnedinto an ongoing (or interminable) photograph­ic project.

KatyaKnyazeva isajournalist andphotographer born inSiberia. Adam Sinykin, from New York, haswrittenscenariosforfilm, televisionanddocumentary features.Together they haveproducedillustrated booksintheU.S.andEastAsia. BasedinChinasince2006,theyarenowcompleting abook about Shanghai'soldtown: aphotographicatlas, comprehensivestreet guide andoralhistory ofthecity'soldest and most obscurequarter.

20 Urbanist> August 2011

City labyrinth . Interactionbetween street, trade andsocial network stretches backcenturies. There's a world ofactivity here: produce stalls,snack carts, improvisedmarkets and family stores.Recyclers pedal their carts tothe sound of a cracked bell;neighbors play cards or barterfighting crickets; families chatacross the balconies, washvegetables in the communalsinks or simply lounge in thealleys.

Creeks and lanes.Fuxing Road is a 10­lane highway dividing

the old town. It used tobe a waterway runningacross the city westto east. A tapestry ofcreeks defined theoriginal contours ofShanghai, providingportagefor river tradersand irrigation for farms.As the populationgrew, creeks werefilled and becamelanes. Map courtesyvirtualshanghai.com.

Merchant city of the Qing.Merchants from Canton, Fujianand Ningbo immigrated toShanghai for the exploding rivertrade in the 1800s. They builtcommunity centers (huiguans) thatserved as banquet halls, temples,

brothels, theaters, hotels andgraveyards. Zhening Guild Hall,

1850 , was converted to a factoryin the 1960s.L- ---.J «

Capitalistendgame.Contemporary

plans for the old

town involve

eradicating old

housing, carving

new traffic

channels and

constructing

an antiquity­

flavored theme

park along the

riverside. Current

residents wi ll be

relocated

to tenements in

the suburbs.

Lane houses.Shanghai's

vernacular

residences are

lilongs: two-story

units aligned in

rows branching

out from a main

lane. Originally

built as cheap

tract homes,

lilongs became

Shanghai's most

quintessential

and prized

architecture. They

were intended

for one family,

but today dozens

of people live in

each lane house.

Liberation sheds. Communist Shanghai put the knife in new architecture,

but there was a blizzard of quick modifications. Private houses were opened

to the masses. Large buildings were subdivided and haphazardly expanded.

Here, extra floors are slapped on a wooden tenement.

The Gardens of the Ming. In

the 16th century, Shanghai eclipsed

Suzhou as a trading and cultu ral

center. Landed gentry competed

to build showpiece mansions. The

Secret Library ("Shu Yin Lou") was

part of a famous garden owned

by an imperial scholar. It's the

oldest residence in Shanghai,

sti ll occupied, and it's a ruin. The

government w ill not restore or

maintain the property while it 's in

private hands.

Cultural Revolution (1966­1976). Red Guards scrubbed off

old signs, vandalized homes, burned

wooden temples, razed old gardens

and built pig-iron workshops in their

place. Slogans and red icons were

scrawled on every wall.

Urbanist > August2011 21

URBAN DRIFTcit y newsfrom aroundthe globe

EUROPEAN CITIES PUTPEDESTRIANS FIRSTAcross Europe, planners aretaking an opposite approach totraffic planning from car-orientedAmerican methods. Whilewe synchronize traffic lightsto increase the flow of traffic,European cities like Zurich havestarted spacing lights closelyin an effort to slow cars downand improve the pedestrianenvironment. London andStockholm have implementedcongestion charges on vehiclesentering the central city duringbusiness hours, and other citieshave closed many of their streetsto cars. With the cost of driving inEurope two to three times what itis in the United States, it makessensefor European cities to makelife easier for pedestrians, cyclistsand transit users. And with halfthe world's transport emissionscoming from private cars,European countries are compelledto act by the Kyoto Treaty, whichthe U.S. did not sign."Across Europe, irkingdrivers isurbanpolicy,"Elisabeth Rosenthal,TheNew York Times, 6/26/2011

ACITY OF PROTEST ERUPTSIN YEMENIn the five months since anti­government protests began inSana'a, the capital of Yemen,protesters have descended on theUniversity District and createda city-within-a-city of 3,000to 4,000 tents. It has streetnames, Internet connections,pharmacies, multiple newspapersand memorials to those whohave died. The tent city aroseas much of the other activity inthe surrounding city ground toa halt. Many businesses and

22 Urbanist > August 20 11

schools have been closed, andpublic activity has shifted tothe tents. Citizens teach classesand give speeches, and womenspeak freely in public in frontof crowds for the first time intheir lives. Supporters of thegovernment have their own tentcity, a smaller compound nearthe Ministry of Culturewherethey dispense free food. It seemsas if the momentum is on theanti-government side, however,as many business people havehelped fund the unofficial tentcity, and former governmentofficials have started to defect tothe side of the protesters. Whilethe country has not yet beenreformed, many of the peoplehave already had a tasteoffreedom in the city of protest."Thetent dwellersof Sana'a," AlexanderSmoltczyk,Spiegel Online, 6/30/2011

CHINA COPIES AUSTRIANTOWNHallstatt is, by any measure, abeautiful town. Built at the edgeof a lake in a popular tourist areaof Austria, it has been chosen asa UNESCO World Heritage Site.A state-owned Chinese companyadmires Hallstatt so much that ithaschosen the town as a modelfor a new village in the southernChinese province of Guangdong.China Minmetals Corp. mostlikely wanted to keep the plannedforgery a secret; the companyhas spent years quietly visitingand drawing the city. But recentlyone of the secret sketchersrevealed drawings for a numberof the town's buildings. The U.N,cultural agency is studying thelegal ramifications."ChinasfauxHallstatt?Theoutrage!" DavidBrussat.TheProvidenceJournal, 6/23/2011

JAPAN'S MAGNETICAMBITIONSThe Japan Central Railway hasreceived permission to moveforward with a $112 billionplan to build a high-speedmagnetically levitated trainbetween Osaka and Tokyo.Powered by electricity, the trainwill take 16 years to build andwill turn the 225 mile trip - thesame distance New York is fromD.C.- into a 45-minute jaunt.This line is particularly expensivebecause, in addition to the highcost of installing new rails thatwill allow the train to hover abovethem, its designers opted to makethe line as straight as possibleby tunneling under mountains.The only mag-lev line everconsidered in the United Stateswould connect Las Vegas andLos Angeles, but has not receivedsignificant funding."JapanW,II BuildBlazinglyFastTokyotoOsakaMaglevTrain,"Sarah laskow,GOOD, 6/21/2011

REGENERATION'S DARK SIDE:LONDON AND THE OLYMPICSBritish author lain Sinclair's newbook, Ghost Milk, is an assault onLondon's construction programfor the 2012 Olympics, and abroader assault on the cultureof urban revitalization. Sinclairasserts that the supposed goalsof the games' planners are fornought, because much of whatthey seek to create already existedon the site. The worst part of thedevelopment is that many existingcommunities have been tornapart by the construction; Sinclairsees the legacy consisting mainlyof a massive shopping mall filledwith chain stores."lainSinclaironexposing thedarksideof east London'sredevelopment," ClaireAllfree,Mefro, 6/7/2011

SPUR Board of Directors Chairs and committees Welcome to our new members!

Co-Chairs Board Memb ers John Madden PROGRAM COMMITTEES Board INDIVIDUALS Tamara Diamond Russell Kalmacoff Charry Nelson CathleenTandy

DevelopmentBodhiA. Harnish Julianne Donohoe Nira) Kapadia Steph A. Nelson Rial Taplin

Linda Jo Fitz Carl Anthony Gordon Mar Carlos Abreu John Doremus Angel~a Karrer AlicraV Neumann TishaATasa ":i

Ballot Analysis LeeBlitch Justin Ackerman Deborah A Dory SnrutiKasarekar Stephen Newhouse Marc Teue.ra

Lee Blitch Alexa Arena Jacinta McCann Bob Gamble DanAI/leek Douglas Drummond Jennifer «een Kathenne Anne Nguyen tzereoun teonent

Tomiquia Moss Building P. Steven Aiello Conna S. Durnilrescu Kate Keating Lily Nguyen l aura Tepper

Fred Blackwell Chris Meany Peter Aimne AngelaEaton MichaetK eating Janice Nrcol r.~ a r y Henken

Co-Vice Chairs Chris Block Ezra MerseyManagement Deventoert JrrnEhas Anthony King Ron Niem il rO'll ski Jeffrey Till

Disaster Planning Larry Burnett Sara Amaral Greg M Endom Steven King Adam Noemng Wylie Timmerman

Emilio Cruz Larry Burnett Terry Micheau Jacinta McCann David Anderson Cameryn Erickson Nancy Kuschner David Nolley ~I.ark t ooetcner

Business Mason Austin Susan Exline Rodriguez Mattia Nuzzo Joaquin Nave Torres

David Friedman MichaelaCassidy Mary Murphy Dick MortenMembership

Renee Azerbegi George Felger KnnantheKitr nka Luis FehpeObandn ~l.atthewTovar

Chris Poland Alonso A Barahona Robert Feldman AnsaKtevens Daniel G. OConn or Holly Trytten

Mary McCue Madeline Chun Jeanne Myerson Tom Hart Christopher Barkley NicoleFb'e tta Vicky Knoop LizOgbu Jonathan Tsang

Michael Cohen Brad Paul Housing Terry MicheauNorm Barnes Thomas Fortier YekangKO vrcao'os Andy Turner

Bill Rosetti Lindsey Barnhart Jenn Fox 1000nna korneeva EroPaoma MoilyS Turner

V. Fei Tsen Charmaine Curtis Chris Poland Ezra Mersey Robert aattano Mark Fnend jacob kraemer Gretchen Parker Taylor KrrbyUng

Lydia TanFacility Rental Brandon Bauoach John & Cheryl Arnold Chris Krahn Daniel Parotek Bernardo Urqureta AlA

Gia Daniller-Katz Teresa Rea Bill Stotler Markley Bavinger Frykman Gina M Kuhlenkamp Joshen Paybarah Jessica Viramontes

Peter Bejger KayaFujrwara Brendan Lange Kurt Pelzer Dentrre vrsser

Secret ar y OscarDe La Torre Byron Rhett Project ReviewExecutive

Todd Bennett vmny Fung Angela Leu Lori Perlman enno vueie.J.

Kelly Dearman Wade Rose Charmaine Curtis Lisa Beyer Rene I. Gamboa, Richard Lee Anne Peskoo Jul ie Vogel

Tomiquia Moss LeeBlitch Neelu Bhuman LEEDAP Debra Lehtone Sylvia Pella Dmylro Voytenko

Shelley Doran Victor Seeto Mary Beth SandersLinda Jo Fitz

SheneyBraofcrdaeu Christian James Geopel steve teueuv Emfty Prrnentet Susannan vokosa

Reuben Schwartz J. Richard Braogh ceaevmnson Christen Leung Natalie Popovich Charity Wagner

Tre asurer Oz Erickson Elizabeth (Libby) RobertBregott oe-ocn Kendra Levme Ryan Potvin Hilary Wall

SustainableFinance Mcnlewaro Brcvn Owen Goldstrom Jake t evuas Michelle Railsback Tonia Wall

BobGamble Manny Flores Seifel Bob Gamble Andrew Bryant lan C Grilli lhs life frames, Inc Leena Randbawa Tracy N Wang

Norman Fong Chi-Hsin Shao Development Paula Bungen MohilGupta PontusLmdberg Arlene Reiff Carol Watson

Paul Okamoto Human ResourcesIan Burgess Ehzabeth Guzman Bons Lrpkm Alexa Rhoads Ian White

Im m ed iat e Gillian Gillett Ontario Smith Catriona Burns Erin Hatkeoscner QiaoLiu Ellen Richard Joshua Wiese

Bry Sarte Lydia Tan CindyBustamante RobertW .Hanley SpringVenluresLLC John Riley DavidWrns low

Past Co -Cha ir Chris Gruwell Bill Stotler Kaittm Carrnody Dana Hamson Donald Luu Kevm Roberts Andrew Wolfram

Transportation Individual Simon Casey Thomas Hart Briggs MacDonald Clare Robmscn WoodS Bagot Architects

Andy Barnes Anne Halsted Stuart SunshineMembership Jane ceo Emunah Hauser Matt Macko LursRodriguez Jing Xiao

MichaelTeitzEmilio Cruz Kyungno Cha W DeanHenry Doug MacLean mark rogers

Dave HartleyAnthony Bruzzone Bill Stotler Mei fl.eiChan Jesse Herzog ruounMarernut Apol lo Rojas BUSINESSES

Advisory Mary Huss JamesTracy Dylan Charles Tim Hickey Dane t Marroqum Les Rcbenstem Avila and Associates

TASK FORCES Investment Amy Chastain Cla:reH IIi Richard Marshall Dana Sack Consuttrng

Council Chris Iglesias Will Travis Shirley Chen Shane Hi!1 Kathenne Martmez Lynda Lawrence Salinger Engineers.fnc.Ann Lazarus BeverlyCh oi Gretchen Hilyard Daniel Matl hres Jettrey J Seastrom C~G Landscape

Co -Cha irs Laurie Johnson SteveVettel Climate Adaptation Pat Chnstensen Zachary Hrrscnte'd Adam Stuart Mayberry Bonnie Ora Sherk Architects

Ken Kirkey Debra Walker Will Travis Major Donors Kevin Clark Jenny Hoang Gree Mayer Daniel Sherman IDEO

Michael Alexander Linda Jo Fitz JoeuezaC oicsr Mark Hotme'mer Nancy McClure Le.ghSnimamcto San ~I.aleo County

Paul Sedway Florence Kong Cynthia Wilusz- Regional PlanningJett Conurt Walter Horstog Dan:el McHugh AmuShirarn Health System

Anne Halsted Sean Connor Mark HOl ton JennfMcNulty Robert Cartier Snuren s onng ventures u. C

Dick Lonergan Lovell Larry Burnett Chrtstme Conway Obne J Hostetter John t.~eans DavidSiegel

Cindy Wu Libby Seifel Planned Giving Anne Cook xamerme Ho.....e Van I,~ei Jonathan Sitverman

Ellen Lou use c order» Melissa T Hung Brian Me:nrath RobertSnc erar

Janis MackenzieMichaela Cassidy MeganC orn:ng Sayexalnoue Deb ~.~ eisel Josh Smith

OPERATINGCOM MITTEESMrchaelCosta Mlchaellsaa:s Jonathan I.~ endoza Juhana CnoySornmer

Silver SPUR John V Covington Josh Jackson Alex C. Meyer Janna Stacey

Audit Dave Hartley Lindsay D'Andrea BruceJe tt DanielMoberly Emily Stapleton

Nathan Dahl RebecceJeweu Gretchen Mokry Stephanie SternPeter Mezey

Teresa Rea Taylor Darton Doug Johnson Aoife Moffis GaryStevens

Alessandra Davidson Susan Jordan amirmortazavi Richard A, Sucre

Judith Lynn Rulh S Kadish ~I.ark Murphy ta ra suthvan-lena ne

dekeus-Orsjrn Keney Kahn EdwIf1C. Nagel RemiTan

Urbanist> August 2011 23

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