#UrbanChat: ‘What Makes You Comfortable?’ Here’s What You Said…

6 Comments by core-team on 21st Sep 2012

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Wednesday was a huge day for us at Urban Times… We “went .CO” and moved to urbantimes.co, we rolled out our new community comment section and we hosted our first ever tweet chat: #UrbanChat. We teamed up with Philips’ Livable Cities and BMW Guggenheim Lab to talk about what makes us all comfortable in cities and the response was better than we could ever have imagined!

Amongst our brilliant participants was the director at the Philips Center for Health and Well-Being, Koen Joose, who joined the chat to input his expert opinion on comfort for the ageing population in cities. With over 730 tweets posted at the time we had a “potential reach” of over 2 million people at the peak time – we would like to thank everyone for joining in and making it a brilliantly informative and fun evening.

Q1. What do you think are the most important livability indicators in cities? What makes them so important?

#UrbanChat kicked off around liveability indicators in cities which listed plenty of crucial urban comfort factors to formulate ideas for the rest of the tweet chat. Moving away from heavy benchmarks such as GDP became immediately necessary and the tweet chat filled with support for walkability (and replacing car use) as the main priority. Wesley Stockton had a brilliant reasoning for this:

Additional responses flooding in: access to green space, access to culture, access to knowledge and skill pools, access to services, access to transport, social inclusiveness / community-driven indicators, affordability and the act of actually defining “liveable”.

Koen managed to sum some of these up very concisely:

And Greg Hanscom came up with the most outside-of-the-box thinking here:

Q2. Which would make your city more comfortable: More green space/sustainable measures or greater economic opportunities? Why?

The responses for this seemed in strong agreement with the idea that, when it comes to a green vs. economy trade-off, there is no one without the other. It also became apparent that the two need not be mutually exclusive but instead combined to create the best of both worlds:

The debate then developed into strong congruence around the idea that green space and sustainability is an economic driver, something that builds value in real estate and more cost-effective living solutions:

Q3. Does the urban design, visual appeal and condition of your city accommodate comfortable living? How could it be improved?

Urban design is critical to comfort in cities. It is a core experience driver for the city, forms the atmosphere of the area and can be the hurdle or aid to make the city more cohesive as a whole. A problem arises with the status of the urban space, is it public? is it private? is it the hazy in-between? This can cause confusion with the discomfort of not knowing if you are welcome in an area of the city. Removing the obstacles for mobility promotes a better used city. The more adaptive and smart the city design is, the more comfortable it will be for all generations.

Q4. Fast, safe, clean, accessible, cheap: what is the main comfort factor for your work commute? Does your city accommodate this?

The results were mixed on this question as a person’s commute is very personal to them however the overarching desire to get to work quickly and efficiently is a deciding factor in one’s choice. If the transport infrastructure is not adequate in producing timely and accessible routes to work a person is far more likely to use their car above any other method.

It then becomes important to have a comfortable and engaging experience on one’s journey – whether it is the clean air (and cheap and cheerful) feeling of a bike ride or a scenic walk.

Q5. City comfort becomes more critical with age. Which cities recognise this and how do they improve the comfort of the elderly?

Cities have the ability to make distances “smaller” by providing much closer access to vital amenities and services, which is a key concern for the ageing population.

It is also important to reduce the stigma around the elderly especially in cities that are forging a ‘hip’ and ‘youthful’ culture. The ageing population is often marginalised and finding a solution to bringing the two ends of the demographic spectrum together is likely to improve the comfort and inclusiveness of the ageing into the city community. Mark Minkjan tweeted a brilliant example of where this has been made possible:

Lest we forget the simple things too:

Q6. Lighting is crucial for safer environments. Does your city commit to this and what else is necessary for security comfort?

Although the question of what to do about light pollution was left unanswered, lighting clearly has a definitive link to safety on city streets the world over and is unquestionably makes a significant impact on how comfortable life is in the night hours. The provision of lighting across a city can be disparate and can make certain enclaves in a city into hotbeds of criminal activity and discomfort. What else can be done beyond lighting to improve comfort through safer environments? Here are some excellent answers (Jane Jacobs’ words live on!):

Q7. In one or two words, which element of your city makes you most comfortable? (Name the city and as many elements as you want!)

For the final question we wanted to leave it open, fun and light and a chance to tell us what made your own city comfortable for you personally. Here are some of our favourite answers:

We will be hosting another #UrbanChat again soon so be sure to follow us on twitter to receive updates on when and what the next one will comprise of: @theurbantimes. Thanks again to everyone that turned up this time!

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