Dome City Blog 1 - An Idea For Higher Density Cities

Dome City Blog 1 - An idea for higher density cities

I have been thinking a lot about what we need for new housing and cities. I have been thinking about this for a number of reasons. One reason is that the UK is critically short of housing. The government and others are keen to see a large number of new homes built. Personally I support this idea. Another reason was my recent visit to Changchun, China. This is a very large city by UK standards. The greater metro area has a population of 7.6 million while the city itself has a population of 3.9 million based on 2010 data. That was the 5th tiime I’ve been to Changchun and I always enjoy my time there. However, I think this is a city ruined by the car. I like to walk or cycle whenever I can. Modern cities, for the most part, make this difficult and unpleasant. It is difficult because of the distances involved and it is unpleasant because cars and pedestrians/cyclists don’t mix so well. In brief here is the questions I am thinking about and some of the answers that I am arriving at. What if we built a city that was housed in a geodesic dome with a diameter of 1km at the base? A geodesic dome has the shape of a half-sphere. It was popopularizedy R. Buckminster Fuller. I have chosen this structural form because I understand that it is very efficient from a structural engineering point of view. I have some simple back of the envelope type calculations to see how many people this city in a dome could house. Assume that we made the thickness of the floors separating levels as 1.5m (5 feet) and that we had clear space of 9m (29.5 feet) between levels. This would provide 48 levels for constructing our city. The land area at the base of this dome is 0.785 square kilometers (194 acres, 78.5 hectares). With the 48 levels as described above the land area available within the dome is 25.3 square kilometers (6250 acres, 2530 hectares). The population density of the the dome were the same as New York City at 27,778 people per square mile (10,716 people per square km) then it could house 271,000 people. With a lower density of say, 10,000 people per square mile (3860 people per square km) then it could house 97,700 people. This lower population density figure of 10000 people per square mile is the almost the same value as for population densities of Miami,Florida and Birmingham, England. I would suggest that there should be a significant green belt around this dome city. I would like to suggest at least 500m of park and wild lands around the base (excepting transport links). I will continue these ideas in my next blog. Dome City - Blog 1 5 October 2014 Joe Heffernan

My thoughts on the summer budget

I read the full Budget speech that George Osborne gave today.

I think that from a public relations point of view it has been a good budget for the Chancellor. I found myself thinking, "I agree with that" when watching the news and hearing the headlines.

Now that I have read the budget I am less pleased.

I am disappointed in his Infrastructure plans to increase productivity.

He said -

“Four fifths of all journeys in this country are by road, yet we rank behind Puerto Rico and Namibia in the quality of our network. In the last 25 years, France has built more than two and a half thousand miles of motorway – and we’ve built just 300. In the last Parliament I increased road spending, even in difficult times, and set out a plan for £15bn of new roads for the rest of this decade.”

I was disappointed in this because it makes no mention of public transport, it makes no mention of improving streets and paths to allow and encourage people to walk and cycle. Roads and streets are important and are a good place for investment, but I am concerned that the Governments plans will see more roads built, which will then fill up with cars and lorries, leading to no net improvement in productivity or happieness.

At one point in his speech he said -

For Britain is home to 1% of the world’s population; generates 4% of the world’s income; and yet pays out 7% of the world’s welfare spending.

What a meaningless statement!!! It may be factually correct but it is not illuminating. We should really be proud that we spend 7% of the world's welfare spending because there are lots of places that spend zero.

I was disappointed that the budget didn't set out any proposals to increase the affordability of housing or energy by increasing supply. This is the other side of the tax cut coin, making peoples money go further.

A search through the budget statement shows that equality or inequality was only mentioned once. He stated that - "In the last fortnight we’ve seen independent statistics showing that since 2010, child poverty is down and so is inequality." I do not see this as a strong budget to reduce inequality.

I was pleased to see that non-dom status is to be phased out.

I see that corporation tax will be reduced to 18% by 2020. I would have liked to see that a reduced tax rate associated with less unequal pay structure within corporations. Rather than just taxing high earners companies should pay more tax if they have highly unequal wage structures. One way to assess wage structues within a company would be through the use of the Gini Coefficient.

I understand that there is going to be further tightening of the rules concerning taxation to close loopholes and I support this.

I find that the discussion of tax credit and minimum wage confusing. I see that Ian Duncan Smith was cheering the increase in the minimum wage and I am prepared to trust his judgement.

In conclusion, I see this as a budget that was well crafted from the political point of view for middle England. I think the Budget will not play so well in Scotland. I am disappointed because I do not see this budget as making Britain a happier place to live. The Chancellor and the Government don't seem to want to promote more equality, or if they do, they are limiting themselves to only a few tools. The Budget will not improve affordability which is the other side of the tax coin when it comes to improving peoples lives.

I hope you find these views interesting.

If you want to read the full budget statement for yourself the reference is:

Osborne, G. and HM Treasury, (2015). Chancellor George Osborne's Summer Budget 2015 speech - Speeches - GOV.UK. [online] Gov.uk. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chancellor-george-osbornes-summer-budget-2015-speech [Accessed 8 Jul. 2015].

Dome City Blog 1 - An Idea For Higher Density Cities

Dome City Blog 1 - An idea for higher density cities

More Posts from Jbheffernan and Others

My thoughts on the summer budget