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way—but it’s still a 10-to-15-mile drive to any of
the multiple centers of Dubai. The metro, valuable
as it is, doesn’t reach the Sustainable City.
Planners are rethinking how people move
around the centers themselves. Janus Rostock,
chief architect at Atkins, the firm that designed
the metro, the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel, and
Dubai Opera, is leading an effort to transform
the area around Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest
building, into a district of ground-floor shops
and restaurants that invites people to stroll. Near
the Mall of the Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed’s
own Dubai Holding has planned a mile-long
mixed-use development, called Jumeirah Central,
where hundreds of buildings will be laid out
on small, walkable blocks. They’ll be linked by
trams to the mall and its metro stop.
All discussions of Dubai’s future lead back to
the Ruler, and from Emiratis and expats alike, I
heard testimonials to the decisive leadership of
Sheikh Mohammed. “We don’t have a lot of formalities,”
says Hussain Lootah, director general
of the municipal government. “Here projects
take days to be done; elsewhere, years.” It’s not
just the lack of red tape—without a free press,
political parties, or free elections, there’s little
68 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC • OCTOBER 2017