THE 13th WORLD “LEAD-OFF CITY” CONFERENCE 2005

〜CONSIDERING THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRIAL CITIES〜

  The 13th World “Lead-Off City” Conference was held at the Hitachi Civic Center Concert Hall on October 8th, 2005, under the auspices of the City and Regional Development Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The purpose of the conference was to take a step towards promoting a city planning strategy that could serve as a model around the World. This was achieved through :- 1. looking at case studies from cities in Japan and around the world which are making efforts in this area; and 2. information exchange. The title of this conference was “Enjoy! Industrial cities considering the future of Industrial Cities”. Under the umbrella of this title, the following seven cities participated:
  Chattanooga Tennessee USA, a city proliferating in iron and steel industries.
  New Lanark South Lanarkshire Scotland UK, which was the center of the world’s largest cotton spinning industry in the early 19th Century.
Birmingham Alabama USA, a city specializing in the pharmaceutical industry.
  Suzhou Jeng Su China, primary city of science and technology.
  Minamata, Kumamoto Japan, which experienced the so-called “Minamata Disease” caused by environmental pollution.
  Tsuyama Okayama Japan, which hosted the previous conference.
  Hitachi Ibaraki Japan, the current host of the conference and a city which is the base of a world famous electrical and engineering company.
  Participating city representatives made presentations based on their own cities’ experiences on how to strive toward good city planning. After this, panel discussions were also conducted.
Though the case study presentations were only fifteen minutes in length, they were of immense significance. Much was learnt from them that could be put to use elsewhere.
  For example, Chattanooga, once named the “Rust Belt” of America, has revitalized to such an extent that it won an award for sustainable development from the President of USA in 1966. The city regenerated itself by believing in itself and by listening to the wishes of its own citizens. Various projects were carried out in this way such as the renovation of an old bridge into an overpass, or the remodeling of derelict buildings into restaurants, or the revitalization of the downtown area by planting trees and creating a new, beautiful park, and the building of a state of the art aquarium with private sector funding.
  Another example is Minamata Japan. Through an investment program of ￥48.5 billion over 13 years, the Eco Park Minamata and etc. were developed on land that had formally been polluted with buried mercury. The city also organized a forum called “Let’s investigate the “Minamata Disease” and this has now met over 300 times. The problem of “environmentally friendly town planning” has been tackled head on, and through the painful experience of the Minamata Disease and through their eagerness to understand its sources, the citizens of Minamata have come together. The city is now sharing information about the efforts it has made to become a “Model Environment City” and it welcomes visits from students as well as businesses and representatives from other local governments.
  New Lanark, which once prospered through the Cotton Industry, became a ghost town when the factory closed down in 1968. But now, by utilizing this rich seam of history, it is regenerating itself. It has a tourist facility that enables visitors to experience the Utopian ideals of Robert Owen, and this facility has now been nominated as a World Heritage Site. But it is not only the tourist that has benefited, the town itself has recreated itself with its own citizens’ panel and city administration.
Birmingham Alabama has also been successful in recreating itself as an industrial city, despite the devastation during the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. This was achieved by involving all its citizens actively in the process of redevelopment.
  Suzhou China has also been successful by selling to the world both the old aspects of itself and the new. The old features six world heritage sites of unparalleled historic beauty and magnificence, while the new refers to its high-tech industrial zone.
  As for Hitachi, its task is to develop its town planning through the use of its abundant manufacturing assets (as supplied by the factories around the town).
  We learnt following many things from all these case studies such as: the importance of the active input of citizens in the development process, since they provide unforeseen creativity and a sense of achievability, learning from the past, theme based rather than short term project based development, dialogue between all parties who have a connection to the planning process in order to encourage inclusivity, city administrative backing for such development projects in order to ensure their attainability, and lastly and most obviously, sufficient funding for these projects.
  Thanks to the sharp chairmanship of the well-known NHK chief commentator Mr.Yoshinori Imai, the audience was able to deepen its understanding of the issues involved in the panel discussion. The panelists exchanged their views freely on how urban regeneration should be promoted. During the discussion, it became clear that there were differences in thinking between the cities stressing further future economic development and those concerned with the sustainability of the global environment. However, both sides agreed that in conjunction with the use of the individual strengths of local people, they should continue to discuss further and exchange information on how to make improvements in their cities’ development. We need to employ the knowledge and ideas gained from this conference for the benefit and improvement of our urban environments.

(contents table)    (home)