cjrane:

You are 100% correct!
Those that are putting up all these "artist impression" NOT REAL actually built cities, are just talking without thinking.

Abagworo summed it by saying it will not be feasible to lay out such contruction in Enugu if it were not a federal capital or hold some importance. So that means, he has realized the impracticability of the suggestion for Enugu.

The other guy just loves to spam the thread and post more and more rendition for the sake of it. Without asking himself the critical question why an investor would sink billions of dollars in Lagos or Abuja but not in Enugu. Even an elementary 1 pupil knows the answer! They are federal capitals and commercial centers of Nigeria!

Anyway,he self confessed to have been educated in the north. No wonder.
Try reasoning with Shekau

londoner:

I agree, I am also against unchecked anything, especially when it comes to cities or town planning.

There are only two options, either build up, or across/out. I'm not advocating an ugly sprawl and incohesive development either. London is one city that regenerates areas across itself and outwards at a steady, planned pace. At the same time there is investment and development in transport. The key is to create a situation where people are not really disadvataged to any unbearable length, by living on the outskirts, because there is more than one centre both within and outside the dominant centre.

There is not just one dominant administration, but many local authorities that are equipped and knowledgeable about specific needs of their locality, but also the collective/wider need and vision. I agree that ALL cities town of the SE should be developed with this in mind.

If we can think collectively, we can act in a manner that supports our population, commerce and industries in each state that make up the REGION.

But, will our political and economic leaders come to together for long enough to see the bigger picture though, or will it degenerate into the usual egotistical clashes of "my state versus your state" ?

londoner:

Please dont do that. We should not be attacking people here.

Ikengawo:

Europe has done a better job than the US. The US has several sprawl cities. The end result is the city of all cities are just giant ghettos and the wealth flees to the outskirts. By the time more sprawl is added, that nice house you bought 10 years ago is now considered ghetto and you can't sell it for a better one because everyone wants to buy something brand new further away from the ghetto in the city center.


Eastern cities just be like this.
1. Limit expansion for a 15 year period
2. Conserve land (natural parks, historic cites, forests, gardens, valleys etc). In fact surround cities with land reserves so that the cities stop sprawling
3. Enforce a building code within the city that says buildings can't be older than 70 years, must be a certain height, and a certain quality.

You will see people transform their own neighborhoods into modern cities over night. Tax violators and use the penalty tax to buy old or abandoned properties and turn them into something viable and modern. The ones living in bungalows that are occupying valuable land will be able to sell their bungalow for a great price because the supply of land being limited increases the value. The person that buys that land from them will by nature be wealthy due to the ability to buy the land and will demolish the unfit bungalow and replace it with a multi-story.

These multi-stories will not only house businesses, but people and serve as storage or parking spaces. You'll get a city that runs cleaner and smart and is more economically robust.


If you wake 10 businesses and stack 2 on top of each other, it requires less roads to link them, less cable and power to electrify them, less water to nourish them, and the end result is the government budget can literally drop in half in that 15 years while serving the same amount or more people. If you have 10 business, all of them with 10 buildings, you need double and amenities to facilitate them.

You can limit the height of buildings so that property prices are stable for everyone across the board and this also discourages sprawl because spread will be slow and steady.

If you stack buildings, you can fit more economic activity and people into a smaller space, economies will double, budgets will shrink, and the quality of life will skyrocket. We will then be able to consider things like light rail, water ways etc. When PH said they wanted to build a light rail i laughed. Sprawl has turned PH into a giant slum and the cost of putting light rail from one end to another is enough to build a regular rail to lagos.

Ikengawo:


I DESPISE the single city idea for the SE

1. Bigger is not always better: Just because a city is bigger doesn't make it better. Example Abuja and Lagos. A Single city for what will be 50 million people by 2020 is madness, though I understand the incentives. Think about pollution, traffic, amenities, cost of living etc.

2. Germany: Germany follows a model where there are several cities that can sustain and support themselves and are almost essentially on equal standing. All of them offer what the other offers and because of this the next step for them economically is to export to the rest of the world. This is why Germany per capita leads the world in exports, and this is the model of Igbo land. an Igbo man from Owerri has no loyalty to Enugu. This is a strength not a weakness because he will strive to develop his home even if it's a village and not abandon it to start claiming something else like we see with Yorubas and hausa. This is the same as a German.

3. We're already moving in a multi city direction: There's no reason to reverse the natural tide of development we're already taking. People aren't abandoning Onitcha for Awka; they're both moving. Same with Umuahia and Aba, Owerri and Orlu, Enugu and Nsukka etc. In times of war and for general economic productivity, this is the best model to follow because we're safer with multiple heads as opposed to one. Besides, it's already our nature.







I'm also against unchecked outward sprawl. I live in a US city that sprawls almost endlessly. It makes for 45 minutes to get to work, almost an hour with traffic. As the city expands, the older parts are abandoned and rotted. Would you want to live in an 'older' part of town when a newer shinier part is added monthly? Property prices keep plummeting for the people that already own a home and increasing for those looking to buy one so owning a home is a bad investment now. Plus you can't convince investors to buy the old properties at the center of town and rebuild them or add something new when all of the economic activity is sprawling outwards.

Sprawl is horrible We don't want that in the SE nor do we have enough land. [size=15pt]I believe that every village and city should have an urban planning blueprint[/size] because all of our communities will be urban or semi-urban centers by 2050. This plan should heed land conservation by encouraging home and business builders to build at no less that 3 stories, 4 stories in CBD.

This will allow government and investors to buy businesses in the center of town that can afford renovation, and build something more deserving of a CBD.

cjrane:

Yes, status does matter.
The only way to get around that is to decentralize the powers of the FG.
For example, if Akwa Ibom builds an international airport, they only need to convince major airlines to fly the route and not FG. In the case of Nigeria,the FG micro-manages everything, so they will block international access to Uyo, even if it is a viable route. No matter what is built in Uyo, investors will still troop to Abuja and Lagos!

cjrane:

Yes, status does matter.
The only way to get around that is to decentralize the powers of the FG.
For example, if Akwa Ibom builds an international airport, they only need to convince major airlines to fly the route and not FG. In the case of Nigeria,the FG micro-manages everything, so they will block international access to Uyo, even if it is a viable route. No matter what is built in Uyo, investors will still troop to Abuja and Lagos!

Bishop42: Enugu @ night

Ikengawo:

Investors troop to PH and Lagos, not Abuja and Lagos. Reason is the PH is the second largest economy and Lagos is the first. I can be the capital and lower case city it doesn't matter, where the money is at is where the money is at.

The federal budget is a tiny portion of the Nigerian economy. How many businesses in Nigeria conduct a single transaction with the federal government? less that 1%. Why then does 'decentralizing' matter? We act like government is the only source of money in the country. If they build something in Uyo conducive of business, OR the economy in Uyo is large and active, business will come. What did the federal government build in Aba and Onitsha that made their economies strong and filled their boarders with businesses local and foreign?

Abuja has infrastructure, Lagos has market and PH has oil. Status is not the only means to development.

kmariko: A city is a living organism and like any living organism it needs to have a means of livelihood to survive. Therefore its survivability depends on its ability to go out there and bring home the bacon so to speak.

Enugu really does not have to reinvent the wheel nor does it have to look like other cities to be recognized. No two cities are same just like identical twins still have character differences with each individual cultures and idiosyncrasies.

What Enugu needs to do is study the economic variables of great inland cities like Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Phonenix. These cities do not have seaports yet they are able to generate great economies that attracts and continue attract big corporations to their land. But what these cities have in common are transportation hubs for movement of people goods and services. E.g. American does Dallas, Delta does Atlanta, Usair does Phoenix etc.
Secondly they have great agric, tourism and manufacturing industries.

Manufacturing doesnt have be be the ability to make big airlines but little everyday things that people need.

So in all for Enugu to progress beyond what it is currently the culture of making things ...doesn't matter what it is...should be part of culture of Enugu.

Thanks

And keep the communication.

Bishop42: Then you have a new city called Centenary City being built in Airport Road, Abuja. The new city will gulp 16 billion dollar and will be 100% funded by private sector. What this means is that Government wont spend a kobo on this project

Ozonna: It’ll be sad if soneone doesnt forward all that have been discussed here to[s]SE governors forum or even Ohaneze ndigbo[/s].

Nnewi1stSon: Those two groups are utterly useless! What good can come from a Gov's Forum run by an Imbecillic M0Ron as Orji? Ohanaeze is more interested in flying to Abuja every week to sell Igbos out to Jonathan!