[p2p-research] "We need more megalopolises"

[Dennis E. Hamilton]

My reading later in the article was that the rate of change of the crime
rate is constant, not necessarily the crime rate itself.  I see he says more
than that based on size of a city with regard to violent crimes and also the
surface area of roads.  It would be interesting to see his model rather than
the rather anecdotal/hyperbolic observations in the interview.

Here's another source:
<http://peopleandplace.net/on_the_wire/2010/10/26/luis_bettencourt_and_geoff
rey_west_cities_as_complex_systems>

This Nature article requires a payment or subscription:
<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v467/n7318/full/467912a.html>

Here are Sante Fe Institute publications that West and Bettencourt have
authored.  I didn't see any to download in a quick look, and I don't have
access to the sources:
<
http://www.santafe.edu/search/results/?query=G.+B.+West+AND+Bettencourt&cate
gory=bibliography>

What's interesting about this next query is it surfaces two downloadable
papers and the connection is that they reference the same 2006 paper by
Bettencourt and West:
<http://www.santafe.edu/search/results/?query=G.+B.+West+AND+Bettencourt&cat
egory=workingpapers>.

That 2006 paper is here:
<http://www.pnas.org/content/104/17/7301>
The full paper, figures, and supporting data are available as open-access on
that abstract page (success at last).

 - Dennis



-----Original Message-----
From: p2presearch-bounces at listcultures.org
[mailto:p2presearch-bounces at listcultures.org] On Behalf Of Michel Bauwens
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 17:49
To: M. Fioretti; p2p research network
Subject: Re: [p2p-research] "We need more megalopolises"

this is also of great interest, and related to patterns, in some way, though
it appears reductionist:

(and on the surface, it appears wrong to me, surely , there are widely
different crime rates per million in various cities,while this article
suggests they would be 'constant')

- After two years of analysis, West and Bettencourt discovered that all of
these urban variables could be described by a few exquisitely simple
equations. For example, if they know the population of a metropolitan area
in a given country, they can estimate, with approximately 85 percent
accuracy, its average income and the dimensions of its sewer system. These
are the laws, they say, that automatically emerge whenever people
"agglomerate," cramming themselves into apartment buildings and subway cars.
It doesn't matter if the place is Manhattan or Manhattan, Kan.: the urban
patterns remain the same. West isn't shy about describing the magnitude of
this accomplishment. "What we found are the constants that describe every
city," he says. "I can take these laws and make precise predictions about
the number of violent crimes and the surface area of roads in a city in
Japan with 200,000 people. I don't know anything about this city or even
where it is or its history, but I can tell you all about it. And the reason
I can do that is because every city is really the same." After a pause, as
if reflecting on his hyperbole, West adds: "Look, we all know that every
city is unique. That's all we talk about when we talk about cities, those
things that make New York different from L.A., or Tokyo different from
Albuquerque. But focusing on those differences misses the point. Sure, there
are differences, but different from what? We've found the what." 


On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 1:12 PM, M. Fioretti <mfioretti at nexaima.net> wrote:


	Still reading it, haven't a real opinion yet:
	
	
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/magazine/19Urban_West-t.html?_r=2&pagewant
ed=all
	
	The reason I'm inviting to read it on a list like this is this
	paragraph:
	
	       [West] suggests, for instance, that modern cities are the
real
	       centers of sustainability. According to the data, people who
	       live in densely populated places require less heat in the
	       winter and need fewer miles of asphalt per capita... Small
	       communities might look green, but they consume a
	       disproportionate amount of everything. As a result, West
	       argues, creating a more sustainable society will require our
	       big cities to get even bigger. We need more megalopolises.
	
	comments are very welcome
	
	Marco
	
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