Singapore, Singapore
Population of Metropolitan Area: 4,436,000 World Rank: 62
Population Density: 6,814/km^2
Gross Domestic Product: $129,000,000 USD World Rank: 36
Year Founded: 1819
Singapore is a fine city… I think that about sums it up. That slogan made famous by tourist t-shirts pokes fun at how scrubbed clean the city feels; no litter, no jay walking, nothing out of line. Of course generally speaking its good not to have these problems, you have to hand it to a city where you can walk as far as I did at all times of the day and never come across a shady part of town. I think the issue that most people seem to have with Singapore is just the mundane vibes that are given off by a city actually working to plan. It’s sort of like the balance between setting a trend and having the trend become mainstream, Singapore feels very mainstream.
In fact, Singapore sort of feels like one of those cities that could be located anywhere. The city has a diverse population and 4 official languages. Its prominent central business district make the city feel very similar to the cities we know and love in America, but then again Singapore was another English colony and formed at a similar time.
The central city its self is absolutely beautiful. Fort Canning Park is one of the nicest landscaped urban parks I have ever seen and the city boasts a great skyline with plenty of water front. Also the Singapore River snakes through the city dividing many new modern buildings from the classical government buildings and spacious parks. The waterfront is lined with seemingly endless restaurants and bars.
Singapore is a shopping city. You could also say Singapore is a city of shopping malls, I think there’s one like every other block. Of all the stores though, the biggest shopping destination is the Orchard Road. The Orchard Road reminds me of Michigan Avenue in Chicago, but with even more stores and substantially shorter buildings. I also think it must be a sign of affluence for these stores to blast the side walk with air conditioning at least 20 degrees cooler than the temp outside. The temperature change is so extreme between inside and outside that it’s a wonder people don’t end up sick.
One thing that surprised me was how much is still being built in Singapore despite the economy. A number of new malls and high rises are going up as wall as a DNA inspired pedestrian bridge across the bay and a spiraling green roof park space. I guess something in the city must be working alright, even the ridiculous amount of stores seem to be full.
One of the things that I find most interesting about Singapore is the dominance of the tower in the park housing project-esque city planning that fill the city suburbs. On the way in from the airport there is just a sea of 20 story or so housing complexes with no urban front to be found. In the area I stayed in, just north of little India, these housing towers began to mesh with the older colonial city, comprised of traditional looking 2 and 3 story row homes. To me it’s this tower in the park idea that sort of lend to that idea of Singapore being a “fine” city. I’m sure they are nice places to live, and they are efficient, but they take the city life and confine it in private pockets distributed through out the city. The most urban areas of the city are with out a doubt little India and Chinatown, which I think has a lot to with the fact that they inhabit the older English colonial sections of the city. I think it’s clear that the suburban model work’s, I just think it’s clearly a lame solution.
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One thing though I did find interesting about Singapore’s solution to modern highway systems is that they had maybe 6 or 8 lane roads, but in order to speed up traffic the sidewalk was often separated from the street. This sort of diminished the idea of the street front but it was able to keep with the idea of the building front. The only real problem I found with this solution was that in a few instances in order to cross the street you had to go across underground connectors.
So in the end despite its sort of corporate mainstream feel I actually liked Singapore a lot. I was a little surprised when I was actually told to stop sitting on a buildings bench height retaining wall, but what are you going to do. While Singapore feels like a number of different cities, it definitely functions very well and I think it would be a very easy place to live, work, and enjoy.
