A city having ugly parts could be be down to the culture or it could be population pressure. If the problem truly needs less people to clean up and flourish, I propose a united nations, designed city.
Each country could put up resources they have such as money, technology, expertise, workforce. Of course, one country would have to stump up with the land but because of the other resources, a lot can be done with a lesser grade of site now.
Each countries input would proportion out the mix of emigrants allowed to populate this brand new attempt to design a city from the ground up. Without any baggage of past design to hinder creativity, the city can express humanity as a whole.
I suppose, because of the infrastructure built , the Olympic games is a poor attempt at this in each hosting country.This city would be a vastly bigger entity and would be an experimental showcase of humanity getting on, for our childrens' children.-- wjt, Oct 05 2019 Meteor Seamount https://en.wikipedi...eat_Meteor_SeamountHow about building it here? [Frankx, Oct 06 2019] // one country would have to stump up with the land //
No. Use Antarctica.
Thus could then function as a "'B' Ark" as per Douglas Adams, allowing the permanent export of the non-productive portion of existing nations. .
The exportees will of course rapidly freeze and/or starve, so that's a bonus.
// an experimental showcase of humanity //
... all neatly frozen in blocks of glacial ice and moving slowly towards the sea, like a sort of surreal and disturbing travellator ...-- 8th of 7, Oct 05 2019 True, there's a lot of open ocean if the city had the battlements.-- wjt, Oct 06 2019 So this wold be a model society representing every nation? It’s a nice idea...
There’s quite a few challenges there.
Floating megastructure anchored to a seamount? [link]-- Frankx, Oct 06 2019 Excelenent!
Sounds like you've come up with a good cover story for our version of the Golgafrincham Ark Fleet Ship B. So what are you really going to do with everyone once we've got them in it, float it out over the the Challenger Deep & sink it?-- Skewed, Oct 07 2019 //Thus could then function as a "'B' Ark"//
Oh balls! you beat me [8th], should have read the anno's in full.-- Skewed, Oct 07 2019 Do you really want to risk all those telephone sanitizers, account executives and security guards getting entrained in the North Pacific Gyre ? [xenzag] will burst an artery in fury at the pollution.
OK, good idea, go ahead.-- 8th of 7, Oct 07 2019 //non-productive//
The fate of the planet Golgafrincham is a cautionary tale, be careful with the criteria.-- Skewed, Oct 07 2019 Well, how about by pulling letters from a Scrabble bag ?-- 8th of 7, Oct 07 2019 [Surreptitiously removes all the S's from the scramble bag while no one's looking]
Sounds good, would you like to pick first?-- Skewed, Oct 07 2019 <Tries to calculate odds of getting "QUIXOTIC" on a Triple Word Score without needing a blank/>
No, go ahead, you first ...-- 8th of 7, Oct 07 2019 You could actually run it across two triple word scores, assuming someone had already placed one of the letters.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 07 2019 Shhhhh. It's his go ...-- 8th of 7, Oct 07 2019 Every seven letter word you have to take a shot of tequila.It's a rule.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 07 2019 "Tequila": Score 16 (not including grid bonuses).-- neutrinos_shadow, Oct 08 2019 Drink!-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 08 2019 //Meteor Seamount// I suppose a city on top of mountain would be an engineering pinnacle.
You are all right, it would be drawn luck. What would the ideals be for a city to be , nurturing? thriving? a financial pedestal?-- wjt, Oct 08 2019 //a financial pedestal//
Seems an awful waste of coins but OK..
[Stacks all his pound coins up]
[Considers the disappointingly short resulting pedestal glumly]
OK now what?-- Skewed, Oct 08 2019 //It's his go//
So how are we doing this?
Everyone whose name starts with the letter drawn goes into the city & we just keep drawing letters until we have enough people in it OK by you?
[Nudges the pile of S's he removed from the bag earlier under the carpet with his toe]-- Skewed, Oct 08 2019 "By occupation" seems a better selection criterion.-- 8th of 7, Oct 08 2019 //"By occupation" seems a better//
I thought we'd agreed not to follow the example of Golgafrincham.
Make a mistake with the criteria for selecting 'occupations' & the law of unintended consequence bites you on the arse.-- Skewed, Oct 08 2019 Well, as all the 'S's seem to have mysteriously disappeared <peers around in puzzlement/>, it looks like the arse-biters are staying - as far as we can tell there's no such job or profession as "are-biter".
The nearest seems to be "arbiter" or "arbitrator" which seems to be some sort of lawyer; since they're all scheduled for summary execution without trial, it's a non-issue.-- 8th of 7, Oct 08 2019 //how are we doing this//
It would be down to the Governments that used country resources to buy a share. Which is down to how good is the public is at making decisions.
Cities don't really self support but it is worth trying for the future.-- wjt, Oct 11 2019 // Which is down to how good is the public is at making decisions. //
Have you ever considered a career in stand-up comedy ?-- 8th of 7, Oct 11 2019 //Cities don't really self support//
Well that works then, even if for some obscure reason it fails to sink.-- Skewed, Oct 11 2019 We could try it out right now without having to build a new city.
All it needs is a ring of barbed wire, automated sniper towers & landmines around london.
A string of automated drone charge points & small radar towers a bit further out should deal with any attempt to get out by plane, just have them fly into the engines or propellers.-- Skewed, Oct 11 2019 By what jaded pathway did we get from the lofty aspirations of building a modern progressive utopia to erecting barb-wire barricades and sniper- towers around London?
Sorry [wjt], I think it's a fine idea - perhaps rather than Antarctica, an alternate location might be in orbit, on the Moon, or yet out further sill? Somewhere where there's an opportunity to make use of some hitherto unexploited natural resource - you do need a real, tangible draw, otherwise people will end up twiddling their thumbs - and thumb twiddling is often a finite number of steps from trouble.
Though, I don't think it's necessarily the case that ugly parts of a city correlate with over population. Anywhere East of The City (Docklands and surrounds) since before 1990 used to be pretty sketchy back in a time when it was far less populated than today, where regeneration has come hand in hand with more people moving in.
You see the same pattern in other cities too - when local economies dry up, people move away, leaving decay and allowing neighborhoods to fall into disrepair. But given plenty to do, people move in, areas regenerate, and - as long as you provide appropriate utilities along the way, all should be well.
That last part is the key I suppose - where around the world, things have gone wrong, it's where unplanned favellas have established themselves spontaneously, without the necessary fire, police, sanitation, schools and other services needed to support higher levels of population density.-- zen_tom, Oct 11 2019 // alternate location might be in orbit, on the Moon, or yet out further sill? //
Aren't you crossing a threshold there ...?
<PA voice>
"A new life awaits you in the Off-world colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure... A new life awaits you in the Off-world colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure... "
</PA voice>
You never know, you might even get to see things other people won't believe ... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion ... C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate ...-- 8th of 7, Oct 11 2019 ...Hullaballoons silhouetted against a red-dwarf sunset.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 11 2019 That's all we can really ask, that our children have really big dreams.-- wjt, Oct 12 2019 random, halfbakery