another intellectual icon passes

Last week's passing of famed and beloved urbanist Jane Jacobs, whose words and actions will continue to reverberate for many years to come, has been widely discussed. This weekend, we lost another of the 20th century's great writers and thinkers, Berkeley-trained Harvard University economist John Kenneth Galbraith. Professor Galbraith was a gifted and prolific writer and books of his that are decades old remain very worthwhile to read today. For me personally, I began my higher education as an Econ major, not a geographer. There is a very good chance that had the field of Economics remained more "Galbraithian" with a qualitative, historical interest in broad issues of social-political economy, rather than the super-quantified, abstract world of calculus, econometrics, and timeless/placeless "models", I would have remained in Econ. Anyways, the New York Times today contains a pretty good obituary.

globalization and the two chinas

From the perspective of the United States, circa 2006, the central storyline of the 21st century involves the confrontation between a (mostly) Judeo-Christian, secular-leaning "West", and a less-secular, (mostly) Muslim "Middle East". Keep in mind that this is not a simple "clash of civilizations" but rather a multi-layered and very complicated collection of issues and relationships. Obviously, terrorism/security and oil/energy/environment are at the top of the list. From a less U.S.-centric point of view, however, I'm inclined to believe that an even bigger storyline will unfold this century: the globalization and urbanization and modernization of China. Already the world's biggest country demographically, its rapid economic growth the last quarter century is fast making it the world's biggest country economically as well. While much of this very old and proud civilization remains quite traditional (which also means rural and not "developed"), and will remain so for a pretty long time, there is another China--mostly urban and on/near the coast--that already belongs firmly to the modern, global world, so much so that it already is largely indistinguishable from the likes of Europe, Japan, or the United States. For a glimpse of this "new" China, check out the following pop-culture, Internet-age phenomenon: the "Back Dorm Boys", who in the last year have become true international celebrities. Wikipedia Entry Video #1 Video #2 One final comment: while they initially rose to fame on the strength of the Back Street Boys, thus suggesting that globalization is basically "westernization", their subsequent videos have covered the work of East Asian pop stars. This says to me that in the long run, there will be no single "hearth" of global culture that the rest of the world simply marches behind--not Europe, not the USA. Instead, people all over the globe, as long as they are willing and able to participate, will be both leading and following us in all sorts of new directions. If you're open to diversity and change, this promises to be a very exciting future; if you're more into things staying the same, you're going to have a harder and harder time finding a place of comfort and refuge.

bike-friendly amsterdam?

It's a common theme among bike advocates in the U.S. to celebrate Amsterdam, and the Netherlands more generally, as an especially bike-friendly place. If Davis, California, sets the official "platinum" standard here in the states, then Amsterdam--or so the conventional wisdom goes--must be at least double platinum. Amsterdam, after all, is famously home to double-tiered bike racks, a "white bikes" program for borrowing public bicycles a la books in a library, and Velo Mondial, a global organization devoted to promoting a more "bicycle friendly" world. More importantly, it seems--at least to visiting Americans--that everyone rides a bike there, everywhere, and they do so not all kitted out for a weekend club ride but just as a part of their daily routine. The following links are but two recent examples of American visitors enamored with Amsterdam's ubiquitous bike culture:

• an American photographer discussing her new album of everyday Amsterdam on bikes
• an article detailing a Portland, Oregon, delegation's visit last year (and an accompanying blog report)

This Amsterdam love-fest has recently appeared on an urban-geography e-mail list to which I subscribe. The discussion continues as I write, but it has basically boiled down to Americans claiming that Amsterdam is the most livable city ever--especially for bicyclists--while Dutch commentators respond by raining some "truth" on their parade. As Marco Bontje of the Universiteit van Amsterdam wrote: "Once again I am stunned about the indestructible tendency among foreign urbanists to see my country and my city as heaven on earth!". Dr. Bontje went on to dispel a number of common myths. To summarize, while comparing favorably perhaps to the United States, Amsterdam and the Netherlands are not fundamentally different: the Dutch love their cars, they drive their cars wherever/whenever practical, they get fatter and fatter with each passing year, and politically they demand ever more parking with each new development. In short, as Bontje writes, "Car-free cities do not exist here, at least not that I'm aware of. We only have pedestrian zones that usually are not bigger than a few streets, and one 'car-free Sunday'’ a year, a grassroots initiative which unfortunately only a few cities really take seriously." In a parallel discussion now occurring on the H-URBAN e-mail list, a Dutch urban historian Frank Suurenbroek has recently responded with a similar corrective. So what are to make of this trans-Atlantic disconnect? I suspect there are two things working. First, there undoubtedly are real differences between the conditions for bicyclists in Dutch vs. American cities--differences that are particularly visible to American eyes. What the Dutch take for granted, Americans see as an attractive and very salient difference. Second, I also suspect that Americans are guilty of a rather rose-tinted view. As they say, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence (ocean), and while Dutch commentators are understandably focused on the problems their cities have, an outsider will often only see the good stuff because problems, after all, only exist back home. Travel can be a tremendous mind-opener, but only if we let it be. We need to be willing to see the good and the bad both in the places we visit, and upon reflection, the places back home as well.