Gahy humans. Welcome to the safe space for dangerous ideas. Here's an uncomfortable question for you.

Why do some cities thrive and others just kind of suck? How much control does a mayor have over such

things? And can Mr. Mamdani change New York for the better or for the

worse? What is it that makes New York special that Tokyo does or doesn't have, that Paris does or doesn't have,

that Los Angeles does or doesn't have? City planners really need to hit a bullseye on a range of different things. How dense is the building, are the building's going to be? Is it going to be high density or low density? If you go for low density so that people can live in suburbs, then you don't have walkability. So how do you balance the walkability against the fact that people want to live in big houses? What's the balance on law and order? You don't want to be too brutal, but on the other hand,

you don't want people urinating on the subway. How do you balance red tape? The need for

councils to be prudent in what they approve versus the need for the city to be able to get on with doing its thing.

What about congestion pricing and traffic? All of this stuff is being tweaked in the offices of city planners and

academics and property developers. One person who analyzes all of it and in some respects overseas

much of it in Sydney is Aiman Waterford. He's a world expert on what cities get right. He's the

chief executive of a think tank, which is called the Committee

for Sydney. And they basically represent all the big players in the city's economy, not just

property developers, but local councils and banks and architects and consultants and law firms and

universities. So he studies how cities all over the world can evolve into the best version of

themselves. If you want to live in the best version of your city, then listen up. I hope you

enjoy him, the one, the only, Amen Waterford. I mean, one of the interesting things I think when I think about cities is like the density versus, you know, high density versus low density cities are almost a complete different thing.

It's funny that we call both of them cities.

Yeah.

In the sense that, you know, you live in New York City or, you know, in Tokyo versus living in the suburbs of Dallas.

Right.

Totally different experience.

Totally.

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