First, ground floor of all sky srcapers should be totally empty. Not even parking. This will help free flow of air. Parking should be on upper floors.
Second, carry as much traffic as possible on flyover and above ground metros/monorails. All flyovers in downtown area should put in sound proof enclosure. This will make city center quieter and with very small amount of visible traffic. Secondly it will be lot efficient to scrubb out CO2 from air within enclosed flyovers.
So, people walking on ground there is nothing much to see at eye-level except pillers of tall buildings.-- VJW, Jan 09 2012 Thus making it easier for the muggers to track their victims...-- prufrax, Jan 09 2012 Detroit-- xenzag, Jan 09 2012 We'd be hobbits except for the ingrained habit of building cities on waterways, thus being limited mostly to aboveground structures.
Anyways, the Idea would provide a much more potent wind-tunnel than even current layouts.-- FlyingToaster, Jan 09 2012 //much more potent wind-tunnel// Yes. I used to work in a building with no first floor (it had about 10 floors above ground, and several levels of sub- basements* but on street level, nothing but pillars and a small elevator vestibule. In winter, the wind, when you walked past, was terrible.
On the other hand, perhaps one could install ground-level wind tubines and harvest the power.
*some with lovely views, but that's another story.-- mouseposture, Jan 09 2012 random, halfbakery