where things happen
In state administrations, things are ordered; but in the cities is where things happen. Some order from top to bottom in the ministries, but it is in the streets of the city, in a face-to-face and online, where we turn the order into a farce or success. And in the big cities is where the big things happen… if they know how to be. Knowing is agreeing on objectives above parties, ideologies and classes. For all this, today our city identifies us more than our state. And for this reason, the new localism of Bruce Katz, a planner with Clinton and Obama and co-author of The New Localism, inspires the agenda of thousands of leaders from all sectors and ideologies who know how to reinvent themselves with his city. Because the city that does not come together to be reborn disjoins to die. And great civilizations have always been networks of cities.
Which global cities can Barcelona learn from?
Their leaders like to compare themselves to Boston….
Is it too much to vacuum?
Boston has Harvard, MIT, hospitals…
Is it regarding having a world university?
If you want a prosperous and universal city, found a great university in it and wait 200 years…
Largo trusts me.
Senator Moynihan said it, but I think it can be done sooner… with agreements.
Barcelona already has Iese and Esade.
Of global prestige, yes, but they are entrepreneurial and I am talking regarding engineering, technology and scaling their innovation until they become companies and benefits that attract more investment, talent and quality employment.
And why does Barcelona look like Miami?
Because Miami has the will and capacity to be a global city, but it doesn’t have Stanford, MIT or Carnegie Mellon…
Don’t you think Barcelona is trying?
Something similar to Miami is happening to Barcelona: it lacks that great institution of innovation with world prestige, but it has the will and the capacity to play in the global league. And you can take advantage of the opportunity of telecommuting.
What do we have and what do we also lack?
Barcelona stands out in digitization, creativity, industry 4.0 (such as big data and 3D), biopharmaceutical, biotech proximity economy (retail trade), medical services…
Don’t you see it as the capital of design and innovation?
Also, and it might be from any other global industry, because it attracts global talent for its quality of life. And it has already innovated in concepts such as the innovation district, of which 22@ is a great example.
See us at a bad time?
For a great city to be, to begin with, it must have the will to be. And Tel Aviv has achieved it with that combination of ubiquity and will to be. And look at New York, it also had years of depression…
The Big Apple, they said, rotten.
But Bloomberg knew how to lead a network of enthusiasts newyorkers entrepreneurs from hospitals, universities, investors, and citizen leaders from all districts…
For what?
They offered, for example, Stanford to settle on Roosevelt Island. And that showed that they were serious. And it is the question for Barcelona: what is going to be your Stanford?
Isn’t a good technical plan better?
It is necessary, but not sufficient. It is not enough to put numbers, graphs and maps on the computer, you must turn it into the plan of the people of Barcelona: what is a great city?
You are a specialist.
In the government and the state things are decided, but it is in the cities where things happen. And it is in the big cities where the big things happen, where the plans become realities or fail, where the big budgets and State policies reach –or don’t– the people.
Where did you learn it?
In the Senate and when I worked with Clinton and Obama: we had big plans, but you had to walk the streets of the city to find out if they worked. The state administration is vertical and hierarchical; the city is a horizontal network.
How much depends on money and how much on ideas and citizens?
A city is a state of mind and a concert of complicity. And on this network of mutual trust, prosperity is generated. If we are divided, we become poorer. If we work together, we prosper, and not just in each city, but in networks of cities like the Hanseatic League or the Peloponnesian League.
Are we not experiencing a return to the warlike, subsidizing, all-powerful State?
But the real things that come to our day to day still only happen when a hundred people committed to a great city like Barcelona commit themselves beyond their own interests.
Why would we all unite now?
Find a measurable goal shared by all: zero pollution, affordable housing, equity, safety, cleanliness…And measure your success day by day. And plan.
You say that you are a planner.
Failing to plan is planning to fail. And the worst plan is the one that doesn’t exist. When planning, you begin to carry out and involve networks, leaders, entities, citizens in carrying out.
Why does the city need goals?
Because the city that does not come together to be reborn disjoins to die. I think they saw it here at the Olympics. and when other things separated them, as has happened to us in the US.
Should I unite with my adversaries?
Bloomberg knew how to unite left and right, rich and poor, businessmen and officials, to regenerate New York.
Well, you are a Democrat, and Bloomberg is a Republican and a billionaire.
I’m from Brooklyn and we put New York above everything else. This is how great cities are forged.
