Cities: threat or answer to our future?

If we can for a moment forget about today, tomorrow or next month’s problems and think about where we are heading in a hundred years, what the cities of Cameroon will look like is a key question. Will the cities of tomorrow become ungovernable, choked by ever increasing numbers of cars, ripe for crime and havens for criminals to hide from the forces of law and order ? Or can they become the answer to better, cleaner, more efficient living ?

We are lucky in some countries that our ancestors had the foresight to create some of the world’s great cities: Paris, New York, London, Amsterdam for example. Amsterdam ? I hear you question. But yes the foresight of previous generations has made Amsterdam into the cycling city of the world. Ideally suited to promoting healthy commuting, reducing green house gases, helping families reduce costs by not having to rely on expensive gas guzzling cars. Other cities are now trying to catch up. Under pressure from the people, London is announcing the construction of a main East-West cross London cycle path to encourage the thousands of cyclists who commute into and around London already. And another, North – South cycle path will rapidly follow on to help keep the cyclists separate from the lorries and dangers of buses and other traffic. Difficult to do when we are trying to convert an old city like London with its huge and expensive buildings and monuments, into a modern bicycle friendly city.

So we know what good city planning is. Nowadays there is no excuse. We know which cities ‘work’ and are people friendly. We know the big dual carriageways and flyovers of the 1960s are horrid, polluting concrete monstrosities. We know that people centred town planning, using small clusters of houses, apartments with well lit pedestrian pathways, spaces and cycle paths make people feel safe, so they can walk or cycle to school and the office, and live healthier lives. And yet in so many rapidly growing cities in the world we ignore the lessons of history.

I urge our leaders to be bold. Impose your vision on those who are seeking to profit today at the expense of our childrens’ generation. The grand avenues of Paris did not just happen by chance. They needed leadership and strong town planning. Strict rules but with a reward later that makes the property owners and those living in the houses and apartments rich: rich in money and rich in quality of life. The green rolling parks of London did not happen by chance. The leaders before us decided to keep them and develop them into the green lungs of the city we see today.

The guidance is clear and easily available – for example Prince’s Foundation which explains what we need to do. Follow the example of Gabon where they are building a model ‘quartier’ along the lines recommended by the Prince’s Foundation. If they can continue along this route they will have a capital city the envy of the world. But those who choose the path of ‘laissez faire’ – it doesn’t matter it will sort itself out, will leave a mess of tangled congestion and pollution for future generations.

Let us build a better future, better cities, together.