Monocle’s Carlota Rebelo reports from the World Economic Forum’s annual Urban Transformation Summit, which took place in San Francisco this week. We discover the city’s plans to build a resilient waterfront, hear about South Africa’s ambitions to tackle the housing crisis and how the private sector can help deliver urban innovation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello, and welcome to the Urbanist, Monaco's program all about the built environment.
I'm your host, Carlotta Rabello.
Coming up.
Well, what's very clear is that the challenges of climate, the challenges of affordability are here now.
So it's essential that we have the capacities in our cities to manage these challenges.
We're in San Francisco this week as we report from the fourth annual World Economic Forum's Urban Transformation Summit.
Loved for its hilly landscapes and the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, paired with a certain infamy due to high levels of homelessness, San Francisco has become a hotspot in recent years for urban renewal, attracting investment to regenerate its downtown center and development of its waterfront.
So join us as we explore how the city is preparing for the future and what lessons are there from both the private sector and other regions to take back home with us.
That's all coming up over the next 30 minutes right here on the Urbanist with me, Carlotta Rubello.
Cities are at the epicenter of innovation and progress.
So as the world moves to increase urbanization, it is crucial build cities which are resilient, equitable, and that can deliver a better quality of life for all.
This, among other themes was at the center of the World Economic Forum's Urban Transformation Summit, which gathered over 200 attendees from both the public and private sectors to debate what the future of urban living looks like and what lessons are there to be learned from each other.
One of those in attendance was Lauren Sorquignot, who's the executive director of the Resilient Cities Network.
She told me more about the power of the network and where it all started.
100 Resilient Cities was about the why of resilience.
It was about creating the theory, the frameworks and the initial practices after six years of really successful implementation with cities creating strategies and creating a network of over a hundred resilience professionals around the world.
Resilient Cities Network is the next generation.
It's about the how.
So we are an organization that organizes the hundred plus cities now from resilient cities around the world in over 40 countries to actually work together to do to deliver resilient solutions in energy, in water, in heat management, in circularity, and very much about economic opportunity.
Now we've seen over the past couple of years a rise in positions such as chief heat Officers around the world, chief Resilience Officers as well.