Columbia University’s Journal of International Affairs held its signature Thought Leadership Forum on Monday, April 23rd, 2012 at SIPA to launch its 65th anniversary issue: “The Future of the City,” an exploration of pressing global challenges through an urban lens. 

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer was the keynote speaker. He laid out his vision for the future of New York City.

“Successful cities are those who will meet the needs of an increasingly mobile and knowledge-based workforce,” said Stringer.

He stated three objectives for New York: first, create strong neighborhood-based governments; second, increase transparency; and third, focus on both hard and soft infrastructure, especially human capital. 

“In our increasingly mobile world,” he added. “It’s no longer about having the fastest trains or best housing.”

Stringer’s address was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Professor Ester Fuchs, Director of SIPA’s Urban and Social Policy Program.

Left to right: Alexander Garvin, Jeffrey Inaba, Greg Lindsay, Ester Fuchs, Kavitha Rajagopalan, Carne Ross, Saskia Sassen and Jesse Keenan. 

The diverse panel of thought leaders discussed various aspects of the city from urban planning to technology, immigration to democracy.

Professor Saskia Sassen, selected as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2011 by Foreign Policy magazine and a contributor to the Journal’s new issue, closed the discussion with general thoughts on cities.

“The city serves as a lens to understand enormously complex events,” she said.

“What makes a space a city? Cities are, one, a complex system, two, an incomplete system—and in that incompleteness lies the ability to outlive empires, multinational corporations… Third, in cities, norms are made.”

Sassen added that there is no perfect global city that can do it all, nor is there an idea about the perfect imperial capital city any longer. Rather, there is now a network of global cities. She ended with a call to listen to and learn from the city itself.

“Cities have speech,” said Sassen. “It’s a speech that’s been forgotten. If we begin to think that cities talk back to us… that opens possibilities.”

This event was live tweeted. For more highlights and quotes from the keynote speaker and panelists, click here: 

http://storify.com/ColumbiaSIPA/the-future-of-the-city

“The Future of the City” is now on sale at select Barnes & Noble bookstores, online at the Journal’s website and as a Kindle e-book at Amazon.com. 

- Michelle Chahine 

Managing New York City

New York City Deputy Mayor of Operations Caswell Holloway visited SIPA on Thursday, February 23, 2012 as part of the Urban and Social Policy Speaker Series. He discussed a wide range of topics related to running “the world’s best city,” including the budget, public service, water, energy and sustainability. 

Holloway began his address by saying that overall, his job is to draw as little attention to himself as possible.

“No one notices operations unless something goes wrong,” he said.

He then explained his goals for long term planning and management, focusing on four reasons people want to live in New York City: public service and customer service, infrastructure and human capital, sustainability, and innovation and efficiency.

“It’s about shifting the burden,” he said. “It’s up to the city to get our act together.”

Holloway described various initiatives the city government is planning to push through before Mayor Bloomberg leaves office in 2013, including improving customer service, especially for entrepreneurs, repairing the Delaware Aqueduct, and fixing the city’s sewage system because it gets overwhelmed when it rains.

“It’s not just about coming up with something innovative,” he said, “but implementing it requires structural changes and a degree of planning that gets right down to the lot level. 

Holloway also discussed various energy and sustainability projects, such as breaking ground for a new natural gas pipeline running through the Rockaways, decreasing energy demand, and increasing recycling and composting.

“How do you make sustainability into the DNA of New York City?” Holloway asked the audience. “By integrating it into the budget… Probably the most important question is, how do we ensure this stuff [continues]? It’s very easy to undo things. The candidates in the upcoming elections have to be asked point blank: what are you going to do to address this or that?”

He ended with a warning to New Yorkers:

“Don’t get complacent,” he said. “You can be sure that a small group of people who have their own interests will be very involved in who the next mayor is. The question is, will that include you?” 

This event was live-tweeted. For more highlights and quotes from Holloway’s address, click here.

- Michelle Chahine