COMMENT: Patricia Brown outlines a new initiative aiming to take a fresh look at what makes a successful city.
As this global pandemic shreds travel plans, introducing a new definition of hyper-local, I’ve pressed pause on planning a special trip to New York. Slated for July to mark 20 years since we ventured forth on what some know as “that famous New York study trip”, it was also to form part of a new exploration of the future of London – a “London 3.0”.
This time 20 years ago, I was preparing to haul a gaggle of property folk, urbanists and public officials over to London’s twin city with a mission of exploring the Big Apple’s expansive network of business improvement districts.
Would they be a transferable model to focus private sector cash and attention on the much-needed improvement of the capital’s urban spaces? We came back convinced and, aided by a win of around £5m of government seed funding, we made BIDs a reality in London and the UK.
Rethinking the city
BIDs were only part of a wider plan I was shepherding, as chief executive of Central London Partnership, at the start of the new millennium. It was an exciting time to be involved in London; an optimism and appetite to do things differently was palpable. We waved goodbye to the 20th century, set on drawing a line under “London 1.0” – the contemporary city where road space had precedence over people, with public space confined to gaps in between.
CLP was hell bent on putting people and their quality of life at the heart of rethinking our city. We prioritised this because our partners (especially the property sector) believed it was the right thing to do, as well as having the strong sense that staying globally competitive meant reshaping the city to be a place where people chose to be, not had to be.
Since then, even to casual observers, “London 2.0” has sustained its position as one the world’s most successful cities. The capital’s built form is a tangible manifestation of New Labour’s “urban renaissance”. Its global role helped it ride out the financial downturn in pretty good shape, remaining a vessel for overseas investment. The rise of its thriving creative and tech ecosystem helped continue its evolution, rebalancing and redefining not only the economy but its geography and urban form.
Engine trouble
Today’s London looks like a successful, confident city. Yet a peek under its bonnet reveals significant strains. We’ve been complacent about positive change continuing, and in doing so, inadvertently returned to some of the conditions that we had started to resolve, with added challenges and unintended consequences of some apparent gift horses.
Take technology: this “fifth industrial revolution” has brought unimagined positive change – in how we move and shop, live our lives and work. Yet it has created different issues that we’ve not been quick enough to calibrate. The rise of Uber and online shopping has clogged streets, exacerbating congestion and poor air quality, accelerating the dramatic downturn in bricks-and-mortar retail and creating an upswing in insecure gig economy jobs (brought sharply into focus during our current health emergency).
We have much to celebrate and be proud of in our urban change, though it is easy to overlook this, or assume it was part of London’s natural evolution. Some was, but many things we take for granted are because in the late 1990s we took a cold, hard look at the capital and felt it needed attention if it was to move forward in a way that we believed it should.
Today’s London looks like a successful, confident city. Yet a peek under its bonnet reveals significant strains. We’ve been complacent about positive change continuing
Renewed ambition
We’ve reached that stage again. And that is the point of a new initiative, London 3.0, established to take a fresh look at what a successful city means and engender a renewed sense of ambition and common purpose. Again, it brings together the public and private sectors to focus on the needs of the city and – like before – improving Londoners’ quality of life.
Back then, that meant pouring time and investment into shaping walkable streets and places to shop, eat and drink coffee, to watch the world go by; it was the right thing for the right time.
We now need to go much deeper if we are to sustain a city that puts values front and centre and includes, not excludes, everyone; that harnesses the creativity and spirit of smart people, alongside technology, to shape a city that helps people live well, yet sustainably, as we square up to the climate emergency and a post-pandemic reality.
London 3.0 is both an enquiry and a call for action. It is a chance to gather together again, to build the partnerships, and trust, in order to ask and answer the questions that are relevant to the here and now – with an agility that will help us keep pace with extraordinary change.
Patricia Brown is director of Central
