City sharing

Resource sharing, like the economy built on this principle, has become increasingly widespread in recent years. This trend is especially strong in the private sector.

In the meantime, city administrations around the world and large companies operating in the public sector faced very different trends: budget cuts, technological innovations, and the increasingly diverse needs of the citizens themselves. All this requires a revision of the traditional approach to urban planning.

And despite some successes of the private sector in terms of resource sharing and the use of infrastructure, government structures in this regard are a stronghold of conservatism. The reason lies mainly in the ignorance of officials regarding the innovations and benefits provided by economies of shared consumption.
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Today it will be difficult to find a city whose administration has entered into a partnership with companies whose business is based on joint consumption. In the overwhelming majority of cases, urban transformations are based on traditional models. And this can be understood: the rules and traditions that most companies are oriented to were developed in the conditions of the realities of mass consumption and the primacy of private property. At that time, many modern technologies simply did not exist, so they often do not correspond to the current regulatory framework. Moreover, regulators have to keep a balance between the desires of the public, government officials and key players in the market in order to maintain innovation and maintain an acceptable level of safety.

However, most often this leads to the status quo, which is far from optimal for cities as a whole. Usually, the main tasks facing the municipalities become hindrances: investing in the local economy, developing entrepreneurship and improving the efficiency of resource consumption. All this leads to various conflicts, which are often resolved rather awkwardly. An example of this is a story that took place a few months ago with a judicial decision regarding the activities of Airbnb in New York, as a result of which the company, travelers and many homeowners were in a state of uncertainty. Therefore, many citizens now face bans on doing business associated with sharing - from renting a room in their apartment to sharing a rented car.

But how much better it would be if city officials realized what benefits they could get from using sharing models, instead of issuing judicial and legislative bans. Imagine a city in which residents can effectively and safely share any property, resources and infrastructure, from premises to cars, skills and communications, in order to create more comfortable, clean and healthy living conditions.



Cities that will begin to implement this model will create powerful and effective solutions that will allow them to change such aspects of city life as transport, labor market, education, tourism, food trade and many other areas for the better.

Mayors will rule the world

The role of local leaders and local approaches to solving various issues will increase. Signs of a similar trend can already be observed in various megacities of the world. Of course, not all countries, but still. Perhaps by the middle of the century, the main power figures will not be presidents and prime ministers, but heads of cities. Those that will actively support conversion processes. The situation in each city is unique, but the most successful cities will be able to develop approaches and schemes that others will be able to adopt and adapt, adjust, scale.

Watch the performance of Benjamin Barber on the TED Talks scene, in which he convincingly tells why the mayors of cities should rule the world in the future. The same view is supported by the projects of the Recilient Cities (Rockefeller Foundation) and the Mayors Challenge (Bloomberg Philantropies).

Today, cities are only taking the first steps in a sharing economy. And everyone’s success is very different. At the end of 2012, the mayor of Seoul, Park Won Soon, described his vision of how the capital of South Korea will become one of the leaders among Shareable Cities, the “sharing cities”. There he proposed a comprehensive strategic plan for how to achieve this. In the summer of 2013, the mayors of 15 US cities signed a resolution announcing support for a sharing economy. Of course, “to promise is not to marry,” so it would be good to back up the statements with deeds.

City as a resource efficient social model

The concept of shared consumption implies the development of unused (underutilized) opportunities of urban infrastructure and property. When something stands idle or is not used entirely, it leads to lost profits and increased costs. “Resources” means not just money, cars and buildings, this concept also includes our skills and abilities, public places, roofs of buildings, parking lots and much more.

In any city, some share of resources remains untapped, and in any kind of resources. But in most cases it is not obvious, because very few people think about it. For example, about cars parked for 23 hours a day. About offices that are empty 70% of the time. Including about the objects belonging to the city and communications, which are almost never used to its fullest. But the cost of their maintenance does not become less.



Involving unused resources does not require large investments in infrastructure or restructuring of existing systems. Cities can save money and earn extra income simply as a result of more complete and efficient use of existing property. In addition, it can lead to an improvement in the situation in not the most prosperous areas, actively involving residents in sharing, thereby creating and strengthening social ties.

Urban planning with a human face

For decades, the main motto of progressive cities was “New Urbanism”. The main inspirations were architects and other stakeholders. The central installation was the creation of pedestrian zones, the adherence to the principles of green building and the creation of an integrated infrastructure. In fact, pedestrian areas and LEED (Energy and Environmental Design) certification are important ingredients for urban well-being. But they alone are not enough for the successful development of cities. The reason for this is the lack of involvement of the residents themselves, the lack of the human factor in a good sense of the word. All these decisions do not stimulate the interaction of community members, and therefore do not make it easier to implement the principles of sharing something.

The main purpose of cities is to provide comfortable living. It is necessary to actively create small-scale facilities and infrastructure that will encourage and nurture the expansion of social ties in us. Namely, the viability of sharing models depends on them, from coworkings instead of traditional offices to caring for neighboring gardens and vegetable gardens . "Cities of Sharing" will be built on strong and close ties with other residents and the material environment.

Cities of the future

Sharing models are available for settlements of any size, from townships for megacities. This will increase the efficiency and flexibility of urban services, ensure sustainable growth, promote the development of the local economy, attract investment and innovate. Of course, in each case, an individual approach is needed, as noted above. But the principles and drivers will be the same everywhere: active interaction between residents and the use of unused resources.



But this simple and effective solution requires a certain shift in the thinking of many officials and businessmen. And only “votes from below” are not enough for this, active supporters of the principle of joint consumption in city administrations are necessary.