A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only.
www.brucenixon.com
His superbly illustrated CitiesPeoplePlanet - Liveable Cities for a Sustainable World is a “must read” for
anyone wishing to help create a sustainable city, town, district, village, neighbourhood or community.
Another inspiration is Richard Rogers’s vision, abbreviated here:
The Sustainable City
A Just City
A Beautiful City
A Creative City
An Ecological City
A City of Easy Contact and Mobility
A Compact and Polycentric City
A Diverse City
Adapted from Rogers, R, 1998, Cities for a Small Planet
A Polycentric City is one with multiple centres - main centres or sub centres or both. That is one of the
attractions of London with its villages. The same principle needs to apply to towns beyond a certain size, i.e.
beyond what is a comfortable walking distance for people of most if not all ages.
We know intuitively what a sustainable city is. We sense “spirit of place.” Sustainable cities and towns are
the places we want to live in, be young in, bring up our family in, create a business in, work in, retire to, visit
or go to for a holiday. Some, like Ludlow, are expensive because of their desirability. Incidentally, despite
many protests, Ludlow citizens were unable to stop Tesco from spoiling part of their town, endangering what
makes it attractive. Others like Llandidloes in Wales are not expensive, particularly if they do not have a
railway station. Living in such places often means a lot of driving. They are communities offering the
characteristics mentioned in Happy Planet indexes. They give a sense of well-being, partly because so much is
uniquely local; partly because they are places people are proud of, where they are aware of their roots and
their past. The scale is human and there is texture, craftsmanship and art in buildings and pride in manual
achievements. Local materials and traditions add to their uniqueness.
People want to live in places that are alive and good for people of all ages, not ghettos for any group in
society, where there is an exciting variety of good building from various periods including modern. Such cities
are very much lived in, not full of great ugly blocks resembling fortresses built to exploit the location and
make the maximum profit, not dreadful ugly areas from which nature has been excluded and people feel
alienated. There are individual shops and places to eat, rather than international chains, contributing to,
rather than extracting wealth from, the local economy. They are cities for people, not for cars and big noisy
vehicles. You can tell: people look happier. You can see it in their faces.
Amongst many examples are Brighton, Barcelona, Edinburgh and Montpellier. People enjoy themselves
outside, sometimes in gardens in the middle of wide streets or tucked into unexpected corners. Fitness
classes are held in the central square of Montpellier. They have sustainable transport systems, trams in
Montpellier, cycle lanes and cycles to borrow or hire in Bristol and Barcelona. They are good to walk and live
in. They have markets, good local food, mixtures of old and new. I think of smaller places in Italy like Lucca
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