What to Look for in a City - Speech #8

Now that vacation is past, it's time to get back into the speeches. This one includes visual aids. This speech is my favorite yet - unfortunately, for a 5-7 minute speech, this one is running about 12-14 minutes. So here's the full preview. (Again, sorry about the lack of formatting.) The scissors come out tomorrow night:

Speech #8
What to Look for in a City
10/4/06

The city of Raleigh is involved in a captivating pursuit to become a recognizable city. Town officials, developers, business owners, and citizens are looking for ways to become a place that thrives and continues to draw people and new businesses.

But, what is a city? How will we know when we've accomplished our goals? What will it take to create the thriving place that we think we want?

Through this speech, I’ll give you a VERY brief outline of what a city needs. A city needs TIME, PEOPLE, and DIVERSITY.

I. Time
a. There’s no magic pill to make a good city. A city takes a lot of time. This is the ingredient that is most necessary to develop all the other ingredients.
i. SLIDE: Chartres
1. begun in 1145, surrounded by modern road construction
2. It’s a small village now, but what will it be in the future?
b. You can see time in the materials and methods of construction that we use. This develops the character of a city.
i. SLIDE: Fayetteville Street Mall
1. Obvious styles chosen in each era – not a good idea to put them all together at the same time.
2. Also note that this was taken before the mall was reopened – another sign of the time.
ii. SLIDE: ROSS store
1. The challenge today is that developers seem to want to design with materials that look old, but which fit their tight budgets.
2. A hundred years ago, this cornice might have been made of stone. Today it’s made of Styrofoam. What will this look like a hundred years from now?
iii. trees
c. Layers - Time creates layers and complexity in a city. One layer becomes obsolete and is overlapped by the new tenant. Property lines change.
i. SLIDE: Jewish Quarter in Cordoba, Spain
1. A 1000 year old fortress wall becomes the backdrop for 400 year old housing which becomes a backdrop for modern shopping and a two year old Vespa
ii. SLIDE: Mill Museum, Minneapolis
1. Even this flour mill that exploded in the 90’s has been renovated into super-modern offices, condominiums, and a museum.

II. People
a. A city needs people. A city needs to be a place where people want to be.
i. SLIDE: Las Ramblas, Barcelona
1. This is a beautiful street, packed with people, vendors, and performers. Tiny roads for auto traffic are on either side. The street is lined with shops.
b. People have to live there
i. SLIDE: Condos in Atlanta
1. You may be surprised by seeing so much housing construction in Raleigh. Housing is essential for a vibrant city. Our city is encouraging developers, and developers see a lot of opportunity.
c. Services have to be provided for the people that live there
i. SLIDE: Blank
1. This is a major problem for downtown Raleigh. With all our restaurants and coffee shops, we have almost no basic services like grocery stores, dry cleaners, bookstores, drugstores
d. Transportation
i. SLIDE: Irun Train
1. We don't have this yet either.
2. Trains connect cities.
3. We can’t rely on cars - cars prevent people from coming to the city: traffic, parking, pollution
e. Culture is local and perpetuating
i. SLIDE: Notre Dame
1. A city needs attractions. What will draw people downtown? What will draw people together?

III. Diversity
a. Economic / Professional / Racial
i. SLIDE: East Cabarrus Street in view of downtown
ii. Diversity is one of Raleigh’s major strengths. Communities of all classes are very close and accessible to each other.
b. Mix of Uses – this is how we keep our cities lively, drawing interest from many areas of people.
i. SLIDE: Madrid at night
1. Mixed-use developments are active during various hours of the day:
a. business = 9-5
b. retail/cafes = 10-6
c. bars/restaurants = 5-9
d. residential = 6pm-9am
c. Better use of resources – streets and parking
i. SLIDE: Paris street

IV. CONCLUSION: Raleigh is on the way to becoming a great city. It will take:
a. TIME - It’s the right time to do it, but it will continue to take time to get where we want to be.
b. PEOPLE - We’re creating destinations for people, but we need places for people to live, more services like grocery stores and transportation, and we need to support culture through city churches and public art.
c. DIVERSITY - And we need to maintain our diversity, welcoming all classes and races, providing resources for a variety of needs.


Cities – Founded:
New York 1609
San Francisco 1776
Atlanta 1837
Raleigh 1788
Moscow 1147
Paris 200BC
Rome 500BC
Tokyo 1457
Shanghai AD400
Berlin 1244
Rio de Janeiro 1568
Sydney 1788
Barcelona AD700
Chicago 1837
Washington DC 1738
London AD43
Cairo / Alexandria AD641
NewDelhi 1400BC
Jerusalem 1800BC
Baghdad AD762