“The world’s most sustainable city” is quite the title to hold, if not a bit arrogant for my taste. But in a society where bigger is always better and people always want more, the amount of times the word “zero” is used is pretty refreshing, Zero carbon, zero waste, zero cars. Sounds a bit too much like the perfect world and my dad always taught me not to trust things that look too good. I’m pretty sure he was talking about guys, BUT I still think it’s applicable here. So what is going on???
I agree when the writer said that building a city in the middle of a dessert isn’t exactly the best way to go about things. I read their extensive section on agriculture and green belts, but what happens if those get wiped out in some freak storm? Also, I think it’s much easier to have such an environmentally friendly city when you’re literally building it from scratch. Cities around the world, cities like ours, don’t exactly have that advantage. We can only really improve on the things we have rather than create a new city. I’m a little concerned that Masdar is mostly just going to be a money maker for Abu Dhabi’s economy and if it fails to make them profit, they’ll discard it. But what do I know about business? (ZERO)
On a positive note, I think it’s pretty dope that 100% of it’s energy is renewable! Solar panels were one of my favorite things to implement when I had to plan an environmentally friendly home. Seriously, they may start off being costly but they end up reducing your energy bills so much within the first 10 years. I wish I had money for them. The thing about the mirrors and solar thermal power was also very interesting. With the wind turbines, as long as they don’t get in the way of bird migration patterns, I say go for it. Also, maybe to increase exercise do that thing with stationary bikes to generate electricity. I did that at this energy thing in the city and apparently my 15 minutes of biking generated electricity that went to Long Island City. That would be a fun thing for urbanites to do.
I love how it said the streets were made to “encourage human interaction.” No offense, but if you’ve ever seen me walking around the city, I think you can tell by my face that I do NOT want to “interact” with anyone. But I do see its merits in making the city unified. The light rail proposed sounds a bit like Holden’s trolley car idea too. The PRT reminds me of that shuttle thing from Kingsmen. Great movie. While I don’t think the thing will really work, I do believe that parts of their innovations should be implemented in NYC.
