
Dubai: How not to build a city - peter123
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/613885
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walidghaleb
Dubai is a city built on the backs of maltreated migrant workers. There is
little glamour for these mainly South East Asian workers who earn $1 a day.
The difference in lifestyles between the labor camps these workers live in
(people literally living out of massive shipping containers) and the fast
cars, over-sized houses that expats own couldn’t be any greater. The companies
that bring the migrant workers over have been accused of purposely forcing
them to stay in the UAE by misplacing their passports and delaying salary
payments. The UAE has also had its human rights record heavily criticized by
the UN and human rights organizations. So despite lavish expat lifestyles and
impressive urban growth, there are plenty of non-economic reasons why Dubai is
an example of how not to build a city.

~~~
nostrademons
Couldn't the same thing be said for NYC? Look at living conditions in a turn-
of-the-century NYC tenement, and you'll be appalled. Millions of immigrants
arrived with literally nothing except the clothes on their backs and toiled
for pennies a day so the fat cats could have their mansions on 5th avenue. Yet
most people don't say that NYC is an example of how not to build a city...

~~~
ensignavenger
Yes, but those immigrants had a better life and more opportunity in America
than their homeland. They came and stayed voluntarily.

~~~
nostrademons
I don't really know the details of Dubai's labor situation, but aren't they
also there voluntarily? I know laws are different in the Middle East, but I
thought slavery was still illegal in the UAE.

~~~
Tangurena
If you're laid off or fired, and you owe money, you will be stopped at the
border from leaving. It takes about a week for the notification from your
employer to get into the financial system, which is why many westerners drive
to the airport and leave their cars in the parking lot with the keys in them -
never to return to Dubai.

~~~
nostrademons
That doesn't sound all that different from turn-of-the-century America, where
debtors were often forced to work _for their creditor_ until the money was
paid off. I guess the difference is that now it seems like everyone's a
debtor, but if you choose to live by the standards someone from a century ago,
you have much _more_ freedom and purchasing power, not less.

(Seriously, when did living debt-free go out of style? If my grandparents
wanted something big like a summer home, they _saved_ for it, they didn't go
out and get a mortgage.)

~~~
krschultz
The difference is that in America's history employers worked in good faith
(aside from slavery). In Dubai (and to some extent, China) migrant workers are
defrauded and deceived by their employers out of their rightfully due pay.

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nostrademons
Wasn't it just a year ago that Dubai was held up as a shining example of
modernity in the Arab world? The future of cities in this interlocking global
economy? Its reliance on tourism and finance was lauded because everyone knew
that oil in the Persian Gulf would eventually run out. And a lot of people I
know wanted to go to Dubai (my sister actually wanted to be spend a year
working overseas there) just to check it out.

Dubai's problem is that they've built an economy that's almost entirely pro-
cyclical. Tourism does well when the economy booms, but dries up when it
busts. Finance does well when the economy booms, but blows up when it busts.
So it's no wonder that in the biggest downturn in 80 years, Dubai's economy is
hurting.

But that doesn't mean that Dubai's an example of how not to build a city, any
more than Silicon Valley or Detroit are examples of how not to build a city.

~~~
thingie
For me, the city looks like if they were trying to build already complete
adult human, then turn it on and hope it will live, without having to be born
and then grow up to that form. Which is something I'm quite afraid of, because
it usually works badly.

~~~
DanHulton
You've... already built a complete adult human?

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haasted
Wonder if the architects considered the "ruin value" of what they were
constructing. May become relevant sooner than anyone would wish.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruin_value>

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sabon
The article didn't point out any arguments or facts to back up the theory that
"you don't build a city like this", except for the opinion that "you just
don't". Too much emotions, too little reason. The city may in fact be in
decline but for the whole other reasons: decline in tourism and financial
markets. These are the factors that influence it badly, not the way it was
built. And if the city keeps declining it's because tourism, technology and
finance dived too deep and weren't able to keep the city afloat, not because
"it was built badly". I could understand such wording in an emotional blog
post, not in anything even resembling serious journalims.

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ilkhd2
One thing is striking: An AMERICAN (I ssume) says thatcity built for driving.
I am afraid to even imagine when a guyfrom have-a-car-or-starve-because-of-no-
foodstores-in-walkable -distance country make such statatements, what a place
it is.

~~~
krschultz
He's Canadian

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mhb
What makes this a suitable post?

~~~
falsestprophet
What makes this an interesting comment?

Someone posts your same urgent insight on every tenth story that makes the
front page... Come on folks, please read the guidelines:

 _"Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate
for the site. If you think something is spam or egregiously offtopic, you can
flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users
will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please
don't also comment that you did."_

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

~~~
mhb
Yeah. I read them and occasionally re-read them when I start thinking that the
explanation for WTF these stories make it to the front page might be that the
criteria have changed.

~~~
falsestprophet
You can improve your experience without polluting the comments.

Consider writing a greasemonkey script that filters domains that contain
content that you don't want to see, then share the script with the community.

~~~
mhb
That is beyond my abilities since, as a previous poster said, this is a
potentially interesting topic but this article about it is completely
uninteresting.

