CEOs for Cities launched the US Initiative for one reason: We continue to build too many of our communities – physically, economically, and socially – on an outdated set of beliefs. This is expensive, wasteful and puts us way overdue for a new American dream.
The purpose of the US Initiative is to bring into very clear focus how communities can deliver on five big (very big) ambitions that, together, can define a new American dream.
Those ambitions are:
Opportunity: We can develop all of our talents and put them to use.
Livability: We can have access to beauty, in the form of art, good design and nature every day.
Connectivity: We can meet our daily needs without owning a car.
Community: We can engage in a robust public life. Optimism: We can imagine a better future for everybody.
The US Initiative was born out of two veloCITY sessions held last year in Washington, DC and Grand Rapids. It is made possible with generous support from The Rockefeller Foundation.
In Arabian Desert, a Sustainable City Rises
“What Masdar really represents, in fact, is the crystallization of another global phenomenon: the growing division of the world into refined, high-end enclaves and vast formless ghettos where issues like sustainability have little immediate relevance.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/arts/design/26masdar.html
Related: The PRT for Masdar
http://www.prtconsulting.com/prtprojectvideos02.html