Planning a City: Dubai

I just got back from the ultimate planned city and country, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The state received its independence in 1968 and began serious building in the mid '70s when it built a world trade center in the desert. Rotaries were built to nowhere planning for future growth.) Of course, we have a few planned communities and certainly in India and China new communities are springing up.

What would you do if you could build up from nothing?

Two conflicting views make planning cities difficult. One view is that a city is best that is diverse in people, in business, and in residences. In the world according to Jane Jacobs and others, we are safer when the factory, the deli, the park and our homes and apartments are in the same general location. We watch for each other. The other view of non-planners is that we don't want to live where we work.

Dubai has chosen the latter view but with a lot of planning. There are all sorts of special areas, for sports, for hotels, and for specific industries. I travelled through an area that was all automotive related with car parts stores, tires piled high, and places to buy rebuilt engines and auto parts.

I specifically visited Dubai Healthcare City, a planned area in which the state of art ideas, construction, and equipment will be used to make world-class healthcare available in the Mid-east. What's more it will be provided by a diverse array of professionals from all over the world. It is impressive. Yes, there will be a few shops for eating, obtaining prescriptions in the first phase, but it will largely be a place to go for excellent healthcare. Later there will be some housing and a mosque will follow. The state expects this "free zone" to devise the highest standards. To do so, Dubai Healthcare City created its own Center for Healthcare Planning and Quality (CPQ) to regulate the facilities and professions. One hospital is already in operation through Welcare, a South African company. And Boston University has enrolled its first class of dentists who will be getting advanced degrees and certificates in specialty areas. Harvard is working with DHC to build a teaching and research hospital.

During my time there, I met Indians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Brits, South Africans, Filipinos, Iraqis, Palestinians, and UAE citizens all working to create the highest international standard of healthcare borrowing from the regulatory environment of the US, the Commonwealth Countries, and a few others. Twenty one countries have good enough programs in medicine, nursing and allied health to have professionals work in Dubai Healthcare City. Even then, some programs in these countries may not meet the standards being created. Nurses must, for example, have at least two years recent experience before they will be accepted for a job in healthcare city.

The other amazing part is that two languages are being used, Arabic and English and so employees must be fluent in one or the other, and most often both. In a predominately Muslim country, health professionals will likely be Catholic (from the Philippines), Hindu and Muslim (from India), and Christian (from the US and Commonwealth countries, and Muslim from states throughout the Mideast and Africa.

Still, there is a downside. Planning is always illusive. Separating out various industries from living areas means that cars and traffic are a major problem. Today, Dubai is building a monorail. The first test runs were being conducted as I visited.
And no bookstore area exists! I never did find a bookstore and I wanted desperately to get a book about their architecture, all of it built in the last 40 years. Even the hotels did not have kiosks with romance novels. Where were the bookstores?