It’s hard to believe that only eight weeks ago, we started the CityLab course. Looking back over the last eight weeks, I find that the way I look at cities has fundamentally changed. This shift has been especially illuminated through my various travels this past eight weeks. I've been to five different cities in China, two cities in Malaysia, cities in Canada, Maine, Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. All these places presented different urban challenges ranging from pollution and smog to hunger and food access and anywhere in between. I sat and looked out the window in a number of these cities and thought about how we, as a society, got “here”, with a particular focus on the significant inequality that exists in our world. Even in the US, there is significant over consumption while others go hungry. And I don't think that most people choose to over consume necessarily or that they do to spite those who don't have access to the resources but rather I think that as a society, we have been almost trained to be consumers of goods and resources and when unchecked, we return to our biological past where we want to gather and consume as much as possible because that ensures our survival. However, as we become an increasingly global population, how we manage these resources, especially within cities, will be essential in writing the story of the 21st century. The last module on shared prosperity was the perfect finish. Shared prosperity is the driver for Gateway. It incorporates the business and capitalism system discussed in Module 2, progresses Healthy Habitats from Module 3, addresses many of the social determinants of health from Module 4, increases and expands cohesive communities from Module 5 and serves to better engage citizens from Module 6. To move forwards, Gateway needs to synthesize everything we learned to create shared prosperity that provides benefits for both residents and investors. Broad based ownership in the community, both in an actual business sense but also in a community sense in creating an overarching vision of the community will be key. No ESOPs, credit unions, Co-Ops, socially facing companies, nonprofits, and muni or state-owned companies exist in Gateway but they could provide huge benefits. These business models serve to benefit the community and the corporation. To the community, the these businesses provides economic stability, career education, access to healthy food, community and social interactions, better health outcomes, and more. To the business, they will realize financial gains and generate business from an underserved population and would almost become a monopoly within the greater Gateway resource desert. If successful, there can be a shift in the mindset of other businesses within Gateway from outward focused profit generators that only externalize costs onto Gateway and instead, create wealth for both the community and the corporation. A few pilot businesses could provide the link in convincing businesses that there is a reason and value to invest in Gateway.
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Mark's blogThe process of urban immersion is exciting, new, and a little bit scary. Read about my experiences. ArchivesCategories |