Cities 1.5 podcast - guests - Xuemei Bai - earth system boundaries downscaled to cities

C40 High Impact Accelerators - sustainable cities - downscaled planetary boundaries

Eine Attributionsstudie von Climate Central ergänzt die Copernicus-Daten für den Februar. In den vergangenen 3 Monaten waren 4,8 Milliarden Menschen von höheren Temperaturen betroffen, für die die globale Erhitzung mitverantwortlich war. Untersucht wurden die Werte von 678 Städten weltweit. Die Luft an der Oberfläche der Ozeane war wärmer als in jedem zuvor erfassten Monat der Geschichte. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/climate/winter-february-heat-wave.html

Copernicus-Bulletin: https://climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-temperature-february-2024

Climate Central-Bericht: https://assets.ctfassets.net/cxgxgstp8r5d/1MIMyO7isC5mLwnx5jvGil/51784bf8aff2c6b18ba166d395fa59ae/Climate_Central_Seasonal_Attribution_Report__Dec_2023_-Feb_2024.pdf

Über 25 Städte haben sich inzwischen dem plant based treaty angeschlossen, darunter Edinburgh Amsterdam und Los Angeles und eine Reihe indischer Städte. Viel ist nicht die völlige Eliminierung von Fleisch und Milch aus der lokalen Küche sondern ihre Klima- und gesundheitsfreundliche konsequente Reduzierung. Vorbild ist die Initiative für den fossil fuel non poliforation pretty. .https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/climate/plant-based-treaty-climate.html

for - urban planning - tools - sustainable cities - Next Generation Cities Institute - TPF - LCE

In Paris hat bei einer Wahlbeteiligung von 5% eine Mehrheit dafür gestimmt, die Parkgebühren für SUVs und andere besonders umweltschädlich Autos zu verdreifachen. Ausgenommen sind Stellplätze in den Nähe der eigenen Wohnung. https://www.liberation.fr/economie/transports/suv-5455-des-votants-parisiens-disent-oui-a-un-triplement-du-tarif-de-stationnement-20240204_DDNUUOBIXNBHPB22OGVHF6ZJOU/

Am Beispiel Hamburgs hat die TAZ ausgerechnet, wieviel städtischer Raum durch die verkehrswende bis 2030 zur Verfügung gestellt werden kann. Wenn der Verkehr weiter so abnimmt wie in den vergangenen Jahren, sind es etwa 2.750.000 Quadratmeter. https://taz.de/Was-Staedte-durch-weniger-Autos-gewinnen/!5986938/

Der Standard informiert über zwei Studien, die unter anderem den Zusammenhang von Stadtentwicklung und globaler Erhitzung betreffen. Vor allem in den USA wird für die Mehrzahl der großen Städte eine Schrumpfung vorausgesagt, verstärkt durch die Folgen der Erhitzung. Die Studie verwendet ist Szenarien des IPCC. Unter anderem ergibt sich daraus die Forderung, die Stadtplanung nicht mehr vor allem an der Vorstellung von wachsenden Städten auszurichten. https://www.derstandard.de/story/3000000203501/tausende-us-staedte-koennten-bis-2100-zu-geisterorten-werden

Bologna hat am 16. Jänner fast überall im Stadtgebiet eine Höchstgeschwindigkeit von 30 Stundenkilometern eingeführt - vor allem, um die Sicherheit im Straßenverkehr zu erhöhen. Der rechtspopulistische Infrastrukturminister Salvini von der Lega versucht diese Maßnahme teilweise rückgängig zu machen. Die Entwicklung in Bologna wird für viele andere italienische Städte Modellcharakter haben. https://www.repubblica.it/green-and-blue/2024/01/22/news/bologna_30_km_ora_proteste_mobilita_limite_velocita-421938294/

for - explainer video - cities adapting to climate change - climate-resilient cities

uses - good explainer video for BEing journeys to demonstrate trending local impacts

Der Standard über die megalomane Dystopie Neom, die der Kashoggi-Mörder Mohammed bin Salman vorantreibt: das materialisierte Greenwashing des ölreichsten Petrostaats. Beteiligt ist auch der in Graz immer noch gefeierte Architekt Peter Cook, der aber in diesem Artikel nicht erwähnt wird. https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000202323/the-line-utopia-auf-sand-wird-mit-blut-bezahlt

• for: earth system boundaries - downscaled to cities, earth system boundaries for cities, Xuemei Bai - downscaled earth system boundaries

• comment

  • this paper is currently in review but provides earth system boundaries for cities

• for: downscaled planetary boundaries, planetary boundary cities, ARUP - planetary boundary design

• comment

  • There is no threshold information, just general design methods

• annotate
• for: emissions reduction - net zero cities

• for: resilient cities, living cities, IPCC - cities, future earth - cities, complexity - cities, climate change - clities, Xuemei Bai - IPCC cities report

• for: regenerative cities, living cities, urban permaculture, Pocket hoods, relocalization, Mark Lakeman, Portland villages, people-oriented city-villages, city-village, pocket neighborhood, communititecture, urban planning, urban planning - city villages

• summary

  • Mark gives a tour of his work at his company, Communittecture in applying permaculture principles to redesign communities in urban environments.
  • The central focus is designing based on commons principles of actually creating lived environments where healthy socialization is a primary design objective.
  • The design involves creating common areas that residents can share, from common food gardens to many mini-parks and recreation areas where families can gather.
  • The modern community has alienated socialization, creating groups of juxtapositioned strangers. There are two different design categories:
    • retrofitting existing neighborhoods
    • designing greenfield new neighborhoods

• reference

  • Communititecture home page
    • https://www.communitecture.net/about.html

• for: future cities - Africa, CommuniTgrow, urban planning - Africa, African cities, futures - African cities, 2 Billion Strong, Gita Govin, Richard Rubin, Alistair Rendall

• title:

  • 2 Billion Strong
    • A Regenerative Solution to Building Sustainable African Cities
• author
  • Gita Govin
  • Richard Rubin
  • Alistair Rendall
• date: 2012
• summary
  • This book outlines the vision from sustainable architectural firm CommuniTGrow for a template for a future sustainable African city. The first project launching in 2024 is the Milkwood Development in Cape Town:
    • https://milkwoodcity.co.za/

• for: redistrict cities - based on watersheds, watershed - urban permaculture, urban climate action, climate action - urban scale

• summary

  • old communities were designed around watersheds. New cities are designed around arbitrary grids.
  • creating new districts based around their respective watersheds, an idea called watershed democracy makes sense
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKGvj50r_6w
      • then reservoirs can be customized to each respective watershed
        • neighborhoods can be redesigned around each watershed:
          • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R-fAc0wl10&t=5s

• for: urban development, inequality, just boundaries, safe and just boundaries, climate justice, urban planetary boundaries, livable cities, earth system boundaries, earth system justice
• title: Urban inequalities in the 21st century economy
• author: Jan niman, Yehua Dennis Wei
• date: Apr 2, 2020
• source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7124478/

Die Stadt Hamburg hat ein Klimaschutzgestz vorgelegt, um bis 2045 CO2 neutral zu werden. Umweltverbände halten das Ziel für utopisch, weil die angekündigten Maßnahmen nicht ausreichen, kaum Zwischenschritte angegeben werden und nicht klar ist, wie Fortschritte bei der Dekarbonisierung gemessen werden.

https://taz.de/Hamburger-Klimaschutz-Gesetz/!5953226/

• for: smart cities, doughnut cities, cosmolocal, downscaled planetary boundaries, cross-scale translation of earth system boundaries, TPF, community data, local data, open data, community data ownership, quote, quote - Garth Graham, quote - community owned data
• quote
• paraphrase
  • Innovation in the creation and sustainability of social institutions acts predominantly at the local level.
  • In the Internet of Things, for those capacities to emerge in smart cities, communities need the capacity to own and analyse the data created that models what they are experiencing.
  • Local data needs to be seen as a common, pool resource.
  • Where that occurs, communities will have the capacity to learn or innovate their way forward.
  • So far, smart city systems are being set up to appropriate and commercialize individual and community data.
  • So far, communities are not waking up to the realization that a capacity they need is being stolen from them before they have it.
• author: Garth Graham
  • leader of Telecommunities Canada

• for: beautiful cities - qualities, comparison - American vs European cities
• paraphrase
  • qualities of a beautiful city
    • orderly, but not homogenous
    • they have visible life
    • they are compact, not sprawling
    • have both orientation and mystery
    • appealing scale with ideal height of 5 stories

• for: earth system boundaries, cosmolocal, local movement, transition town, circular cities, TPF
• comment
  • integrating science with local communities
  • this statement is key, to bring extra capacity to communities that are handicapped and don't have scientific, technological and engineering capacity -paraphrase
• This project is a collaboration between the global scientific community and local communities to improve societal systems. It's not a one-size-fits-all process, but many different experiments.
• TPF and SRG strategy is well aligned with Science-driven societal transformation ethos:
  • second order science combined with local communities as the building block of civilization
  • AND cosmolocal networking (https://clreader.net)
    • via Indyweb interpersonal computing.
    • https://opencollective.com/open-learning-commons/projects/indy-learning-commons

• for: regenerative cities, sustainable cities, doughnut cities, earth system boundaries, urban planetary boundaries, circular cities
• comment
  • if they are envisioning a lot of cities, they need to carefully think about earth system boundaries for each city, otherwise, they will simply be adding to the problem of cascading tipping points.
  • They also have to be designed to be climate resilient as extreme weather will make any human settlement of the future very challenging

• for: intentional community, intentional communities, DAO community, decentralized cities, Jonathan Hillis, Nora Bateson, intentional communities - failure
• comment
  • this is a critical question
  • unfortunately, many people have tried living in intentional communities over many decades and the success rate is not high
  • listen to what Nora Bateson has to say about her experience of living in idealistic intentional communities and why they fail
    • https://hyp.is/ISC75i5JEe6lgW93D0Ye_A/docdrop.org/video/GE39xfNRRyw/

and

https://hyp.is/ISC75i5JEe6lgW93D0Ye_A/docdrop.org/video/GE39xfNRRyw/

• for: decentralized cities, DAO city, intentional community, intentional communities
• Description
  • Jonathan Hillis is interviewed about his decentralized cities project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1_RKu-ESCY

Lots of controversy over this music video this past week or so.

In addition to some of the double entendre meanings of "we take care of our own", I'm most appalled about the tacit support of the mythology that small towns are "good" and large cities are "bad" (or otherwise scary, crime-ridden, or dangerous).

What are the crime statistics per capita about the safety of small versus large?

Availability bias of violence and crime in the big cities are overly sampled by most media (newspapers, radio, and television). This video plays heavily into this bias.

There's also an opposing availability bias going on with respect to the positive aspects of small communities "taking care of their own" when in general, from an institutional perspective small towns are patently not taking care of each other or when they do its very selective and/or in-crowd based rather than across the board.

Note also that all the news clips and chyrons are from Fox News in this piece.

Alternately where are the musicians singing about and focusing on the positive aspects of cities and their cultures.

Bei einem von der Firma ABB organisierten Event haben Urbanismus-Fachleute Konzepte für eine nachhaltige urbane Infrrastruktur vorgelegt. Stefano Boeri sprach sich für Städte als Archipele von energieunabhängigen „Inseln“ aus, Entscheidende Faktoren seien Energie-Gemeinschaften und Smart Grids.

ABB-Broschüre zu nachhaltiger städtischer Infrastruktur:https://cataloghi.it.abb.com/view/522012665/

https://www.repubblica.it/green-and-blue/dossier-native/essere-protagonisti-della-sostenibilita/2023/07/11/news/una_citta_sostenibile_e_possibile_e_necessaria-407273267/

In der Liberation bezweifelt der Architekt Albert Levi, dass der Plan der Stadt Paris für die Klimaanpassung ausreichend sein wird, um eine unerträgliche Erhitzung und insbesondere die Bildung von Urbanen Hitze-Inseln zu verhindern. Geplant sind 60 Hektar zusätzlicher grünräume, die Entsiegelung von 30 bis 65% aller Parzellen, ein Verbot von Hochhäusern und des Fans von Bäumen. Levi kritisiert, dass die Verdichtungspolitik der vergangenen Jahre nicht gestoppt wird und eine Intensivierung des Tourismus geplant ist. Der Artikel verweist auf wichtige Dokumente zur Vorbereitung der Klimaanpassung in Paris. https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/tribunes/paris-face-au-rechauffement-climatique-mauvais-plan-20230630_FEFN6PDVJJCXJK2NYAFIE2YZFU/

Henry Grabar schillert in einem neuen Buch ausführlich die Folgen des parkens für amerikanische Städte. In den USA wird mehr Fläche für das Parken als für das wohnen verwendet. Allein um Houston in Texas herum wurde in den letzten Jahrzehnten eine Fläche, die dem Land Belgien entspricht, versiegelt. Die verkehrsemissionen sind der größte Teil des enormen amerikanischen treibhausgasausstoßes. Das Buch behandelt gründlich alle Aspekte des Themas und stellt Alternativen vor.https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/26/paved-paradise-book-americans-cars-climate-crisis

Interview mit Carlos Moreno, dem Erfinder des Konzepts der 15Minuten-Stadt und inzwischenerritoriums auf dem Land. Transportwege zu vermeiden und Services in unmittelbarer Nähe zu den Menschen anzubieten ist, wie Moreno bestätigt, notwendig, um die Klimakrise einzugrenzen. https://www.repubblica.it/green-and-blue/2023/05/21/news/carlos_moreno_citta_da_15_minuti_circonomia_il_festival_delleconomia_circolare-401044919/

TED-Talk von Moreno zur 15 Minuten-Stadt: https://www.ted.com/talks/carlos_moreno_the_15_minute_city

Eine Studie zum Wasserverbrauch im als Beispiel untersuchen Kapstadt ergibt, dass die reichsten 14% fast 50% der Ressourcen verbrauchen. Gegen den zunehmenden Wassermangel sind vor allem Maßnahmen wirksam, die Ungerechtigkeit und Verschwendung reduzieren. Verbesserungen der Infrastruktur können die Probleme nicht lösen. https://www.repubblica.it/green-and-blue/dossier/siccita--gestione-acqua/2023/04/17/news/consumo_eccessivo_acqua_paesi_ricchi_poveri-396442500/

• Comment
• large cities are often linked to large corporate headquarters.
• depending on accounting techniques, this could bring a larger share of ESBs to a city

• Paraphrase
• Few cities currently have science-based targets (SBT)
• Only 22 of 500 top greenhouse gas emitting companies set targets in line with SBT (Bloomberg Terminal)
• Only 110 of the top 200 cities with the highest emissions had "net zero" pledges aligned with Paris Agreement.
• Numbers are lower or missing for biodversity or other ESBs.
• Comment
• Setting such SBTs for cities is in effect downscaling Planetary Boundaries.

• Comment
• In fact, Johan Rockstrom, one of the principal founders of the concept of planetary boundaries is currently working with the Earth Commission to effectively downscale fair share planetary boundaries to cities.
• reference: https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?max=100&expanded=true&user=stopresetgo&exactTagSearch=true&any=SBT+for+cities

!- claim : coordinated action among cities and their citizens may be our best last hope for effective climate and other action at global scale

!- cities actions : can be done without eliciting ire of nation state - bike shares - pedestrian zones - insulated buildings - renovated ports - congestion fees - car emission limits - furnace specifications - fuel upgrades - white paint roofs - cities are the right level for focusing on effective global climate action

!- claim : cities can mitigate corrupted democracy and foster global cooperation - ie. C40 or ICLEI (also Covenant of Mayors) - cities are not plagued by the problems of state actors who cannot reach any meaningful agreement at COP conferences

!- Key concept : deliberative democracy of competent, participative citizens driving long term policy decisions is ideal for confronting climate change - transform self-centered individual to group-centered - shift from Me to We (invert the M) - shift from short term to long term thinking - intersubjective scientific knowledge

!- Title: Democracy and Climate Change: How Cities Can Do What States Can't !- Author: Benjamin Barber

!- Futures Thinking : Maslow's Hierarchy framing for Food - may need to break up large cities to a network of smaller, decentralized communities, each responsible for their own food production

Sehenswerte interaktive Reportage über die Folgen der Erhitzung für das Alltagsleben in Basra und Kuwait City. Die Reportage demonstriert deutlich, dass Reiche und Arne sehr unterschiedlich betroffen sind, und dass die Hitze den gesamten Alltag verändert. Gezeigt werden auch die dramatische Zerstörung der Natur in südlichen Irak.

Only 10 to 15 percent of people who live in poverty live in high-poverty, inner-city neighborhoods.

Bericht über den Auftritt von Simon Tschannett in der ZIb2. In verschiedene Hinsicht sehr interessant, z.B. was Governance, Stadtklimatologie, Boden und die Grenzen der Anpassung angeht.

I feel like if you're trying to get youth engaged with energy reduction/mindful energy use, you should make it a community thing (especially in social housing??!!). Trusted adults, mentors, and community leaders should be heading these education initiatives, not isolating games, however "empowering" they may be.

This reminds me of various criticisms of smart cities' reliance on data for both operation and evaluation, as there are ways of knowing that data completely overlooks and, perhaps, can never truly see.

See The City is Not a Computer.

Can we pivot our approach to smart city initiatives away from this? Is it possible to sustain a development model that prioritizes the lived experiences and vocalized needs of a community rather than the assessments of project leaders?

What is preferable? I feel like we should start with the well-being of the whole and individuate from there; technosocial urbanism emphasizes applying tech to social issues, but why don't we set the bone before providing a crutch?

I'm hearing crypto whispering on the wind...

... act rather as a magnet for the in-flow and retention of ‘creative classes’ and as gateways for gentrification."

I agree. There needs to be a focus on pursuing smart city initiatives with the help of local talent and in harmony with the existing community rather than bringing in outside actors, who run the risk of trying to effect change without a thorough understanding of the city as it stands.

If house flipping is viewed as a driver of inequality in crowded housing markets in larger cities, what spurs it on? What do the economics look like and how can the trend be combatted?

What effect does economic speculation have?

Have they considered consolidation? Abandon three or four cities to aggregate into one?

This sounds great, but what are the "costs" on the other side? How does one balance out the economics of this sort of housing situation versus amenities supplied by a community in terms of culture, health, health care, interaction, etc.? Is there a maximum on a curve to be found here? Certainly in some places one is going to overpay for this basket of goods (perhaps San Francisco?) where in others one may underpay. Does it have anything to do with the lifecycle of cities and their governments? If so, how much?

The sentiment that it is impossible to think without writing is patently wrong. While it's an excellent tool, it takes an overly textual perspective and completely ignores the value of orality an memory in prehistory.

Modern culture has lost so many of our valuable cultural resources that we have completely forgotten that they even existed.

Oral cultures certainly had networked thought, Luhmann and others simply can't imagine how it may have worked. We're also blinded by the imagined size of societies in pre-agricultural contexts. The size and scope of cities and city networks makes the history of writing have an outsized appearance.

Further, we don't have solid records of these older netowrks, a major drawback of oral cultures which aren't properly maintained, but this doesn't mean that they didn not exist.

Shared by Curt McNamara with the Trimtab Book Club

Monks, Michael. ‘The Importance Of Public Space Under The Pandemic And Protests’. Accessed 14 February 2021. https://www.wvxu.org/post/importance-public-space-under-pandemic-and-protests.

Mueller, J. Tom, Kathryn McConnell, Paul Berne Burow, Katie Pofahl, Alexis A. Merdjanoff, and Justin Farrell. ‘Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Rural America’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 1 (5 January 2021). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2019378118.

Plosz. J., (2020/06/22)., How the Coronavirus Recovery Is Changing Cities. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-city-in-recovery/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=citylab

Orlando. M. J. (2020) Agglomeration in a Time of Coronavirus: Will Working-From-Home Close the Mega City / Outland Divide? Linked in

‘What Happens to Cities When the Arts Go Dark?’ Accessed 1 October 2020. https://www.governing.com/now/What-Happens-to-Cities-When-the-Arts-Go-Dark.html.

Yeah, that sentence was written in 2017 and especially pertinent to Americans. 2020 has changed things a fair bit.

Cho, S. J., Lee, J. Y., & Winters, J. V. (2020). Employment Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic across Metropolitan Status and Size. IZA Discussion Paper, 13468.

Wilson, Henry Grabar, Chris. ‘Cities Are Running Out of Money’. Slate Magazine, 17 July 2020. https://slate.com/podcasts/what-next-tbd/2020/07/pandemic-is-draining-city-budgets.

Robinson, A. (2020). How did ancient cities weather crises? Nature, 583(7816), 349–350. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02070-5

Davies. S., (2020/06/12). Architects are redesigning cities to help with social distancing. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/architects-covid19-urban-infrastructure-cities-social-distancing

Coronavirus won’t be the end of big cities. (n.d.). Retrieved June 4, 2020, from https://www.centreforlondon.org/blog/the-city-isnt-dead/

amymackinnon2. ‘Don’t Touch Your Face: Our Cities May Never Be the Same Again’. Foreign Policy (blog). Accessed 3 June 2020. https://foreignpolicy.com/podcasts/dont-touch-your-face-coronavirus-podcast/post-coronavirus-our-cities-may-never-same-again/.

This only emphasizes the fact that literally everybody was looking at him

Maybe the shoemaker had forgotten his name from prison?

does this symbolize something?

rags is a reoccuring image

Conversationing, mini CBDs to support a big CBD. City spatial structure.

Woah tall and skinny much!

Largely agree. It's all very controlled, with a bit of decent archi. But it certainly doesn't feel 'real', tactile.. like there is any ownership. It belongs to ritzy people, ritzy gov, and ritzy gov-corporate relationships. Yerp.

Good facade articulation to breakdown the mass of the building.

Is alrightish. I like the two-volume articulation.

Nice normal stuff.

BAN dumb names. Just "123 Main Street" allowable.

These sort of renders have a lot to answer for.

The problems of modern urbanism. Urbanism for birds.

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia

In order for Alex McDowell to think of the asthetics of a possible future city, he had to use a reference project in saudi arabia. Offering options to make a rural community in a village in Saudi Arabia more efficient in different ways made it possible for him to create a (better) future Detroit.

working group for NYU Institute for public knowledge

Interesting link.

ubiquity - n.

the state or capacity of being everywhere, especially at the same time

aggression is everywhere and its just something that comes with living in a city?

The ‘Wheel’ represents the circle in which the whole world moves on. The process, how it seems to be presented by unreal cities is nothing but an illusion. Eliot shows that there is no progress, only change that nonetheless does not change anything. ‘Crowds of people, walking round in a ring’ alludes to ghostly figures created by an unreal city. For example in an industrialized world, in big cities, where people go to work every day and just follow the crowd. Cities, civilization and culture pretend to lead people somewhere and to make them move on. They think they have a destination. However, they do not move on, but stay in that circle. The ‘Wheel’ capitalized stands for a higher power that makes the system move. A wheel standing for a new invention and for progress does not apply in this context, because it is personified as God. The clairvoyante could therefore just stand for mankind’s predetermined destiny. The ‘one-eyed merchant’ stands for another aspect of an unreal city. In the modern world, due to the consequences of the industrialization, there is a big difference between rural and urban areas. Cities stand for agglomeration of people, capital and products. The ‘one-eyed merchant’ however, seems not to see the ‘whole thing’. He seems to be blinded by the illusion of the unreal cities and the modern world. This also refers to Eliot’s rejection of a modern world. In a city, people just follow the mainstream and believe in non-existing things, they are not alive and conscious, but just ghostly figures. Furthermore, the ‘one-eyed merchant’ carries something on his back, which the clairvoyante cannot see. It is a blank card. It seems like a burden for humanity that men must carry, especially the one-eyed merchant, as a representative of a ‘modern urban man’. If the clairvoyante cannot see it, it might contradict the fact that the future is pre-determined and hence the ‘Wheel’ can be interpreted differently. The blank card could mean that there is still a possibility to change the future and that people are able to act. The ‘Wheel’ itself is just turning around its center, but seen as a whole the ‘Wheel’ could be moving on.

I found the translation "peace" for shantih, which could mean that there will be peace when the cities haven fallen down. When the 'frame of civilization' collapses, when mankind is closer to nature again, then there could be peace.

Tension because all these cities are real places yet he has paired them with the word 'unreal'

It's strange how he sees this crazy-well-designed city happening but not a transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor.