Gottlieb Robert - The Global cities: urban environments in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and China

Urban and Industrial Environments

Series editor: Robert Gottlieb, Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy, Occidental College

For a complete list of books published in this series, please see the back of the book.

Robert Gottlieb and Simon Ng

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

2017 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

This book was set in ITC Stone Serif Std by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited. Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gottlieb, Robert, 1944- author. | Ng, Simon Ka-Wing, author.

Title: Global cities : urban environments in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and China / Robert Gottlieb and Simon Ng.

Description: Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, 2017. | Series: Urban and industrial environments | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016034962 | ISBN 9780262035910 (hardcover : alk. paper)

eISBN 9780262338851

Subjects: LCSH: Economic development--Environmental aspects--California--Los Angeles. | Economic development--Environmental aspects--China--Hong Kong. | Economic development--Environmental aspects--China. | Sustainable urban development--California--Los Angeles. | Sustainable urban development--China--Hong Kong. | Sustainable urban development--China. | Environmental policy--California--Los Angeles. | Environmental policy--China--Hong Kong. | Environmental policy--China.

Classification: LCC HC79.E5 .G6573 2017 | DDC 333.77--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016034962

ISBN: 978-0-262-03591-0

ePub Version 1.0

To our families: Marge Pearson, Casey and Andrea Pearson-Gottlieb, Rebecca Wong and Nathan Ng

The idea for our book originated in talks that we gave in Los Angeles and Hong Kong. As our research progressed, we were able to get support and advice from others who were also engaged as researchers and activists in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and China. In addition, two foundations provided important financial support: the Henry Luce Foundation through the China-Environment program at Occidental College, and the WYNG Foundation in Hong Kong through Civic Exchange. This support created opportunities for us to further develop our research connections and to identify the issues and policy debates taking place in each of the global cities and regions we profiled.

Both of us have benefited from our work in organizations that nurtured and extended the action-research approach we describe in the bookBob as a cofounder and long-time executive director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute in Los Angeles and Simon through his long-standing research role at Civic Exchange in Hong Kong. To get the book in shape for publication, we had the fortune of working with our editors at the MIT PressClay Morgan and Beth Clevengerwho understood the value and the challenges of pursuing this type of project. Clay had worked with Bob for eighteen years on the development of the Urban and Industrial Environments series in which this book is published. After Clay retired in 2014, Beth came in as MIT Press environmental editor and became a champion of the quality environmental books that have been published by the MIT Press. Beth continued to communicate to us the importance of this work, and was supportive of us throughout the process. We also want to thank Miranda Martin, who ably assisted us on many MIT Press publication-related matters.

We especially want to thank the staff and former staff of both UEPI and Civic Exchange for their support and passion for social and environmental justice. Mark Vallianatos, Martha Matsuoka, Rosa Romero, Angelo Logan, and Heng Lam Foong were especially helpful, and Professor Alex (Sasha) Day ably took over Bobs role in the Occidental China-Environment Program. At Civic Exchange, Christine Loh and Lisa Hopkinson laid the foundation in 2000 as cofounders of the organization, enabling it to prosper as the go-to think tank in Hong Kong. Over the years, Civic Exchange has drawn together like-minded people, including Yanyan Yip, Mike Kilburn, and Veronica Booth, who were attracted to Christines vision and charisma and worked together with a mission to make Hong Kong a better place to live.

Several colleagues played an important role in helping us move this project forward. We especially want to thank Mark Vallianatos and Carine Lai for their research and writing contributions to the book and Sunny Lam, Leo Chan, Tracy Wong, Kristie Chu, Kristina Kokame, Simiao Lai, and Anne Ewbank for their research assistance. Special thanks to Professor Jim Sadd for his designing our Los Angeles map and to Jianqiang Liu, Rosa Romero, Deborah Murphy, Carla Truax, Wendy Gutschow, and Jim Gauderman for helping us obtain photos and source material. We appreciate the support of Sylvia Chico, Robin Craggs, and Bhavna Shamasunder of Occidental College, and Iris Chan, Michelle Wong, and Rae Leung of Civic Exchange. We want to thank the two anonymous reviewers as well as Professors Yan Hairong, Yuk Wah, and Peter Brimblecombe for their comments and feedback on the manuscript. We also want to thank Alexis Lau of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) for sharing his air quality data. We are grateful to Patrick Fung of the Clean Air Network, Mathew Fung and Keong Fung of the Hong Kong Institute of Planners, Civic Exchange, Joe Linton of Streetsblog LA, Wendy Gutschow of the University of Southern California, Wendy Ramallo of the Council for Watershed Health, Steven Hines of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Emily Hart, and Meiqin Chen for giving us permission to use their photos and images. It was a pleasure to work with Occidental students Anna (Skye) Harnsberger, Miranda Chien-Hale, Jennifer Yi, Rachel Young, Tsering Lama, Connie Li, and Marissa Chan, and HKUST students Rachel Tai and Keith Chan as well as Tracy Wong, Leo Chan, and Kristie Chu. We also want to thank our many research and activist colleagues, including those from the Moving Forward Network and THE (Trade, Health, and Environment) Impact Project (especially Andrea Hricko, Carla Truax, Angelo Logan, Mark Lopez, Jesse Marquez, Jessica Tovar, Sylvia Betancourt, and Penny Newman, among many others); from the Los Angeles Food Policy Council (Joann Lo, Alexa Delwiche, and Colleen McKinney); from Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (Idy Wong and May Cheng); Angus Lam from Partnerships for Community Development; Shi Yan from Shared Harvest; and Li Kai Kuen from the Tai Po CSA. All were helpful and provided valuable information, and they are all invaluable participants in the issues we have discussed in the book. HKUST faculty Chak Chan, Arthur Lau, and Jimmy Fung, and Nanjing University faculty Cong Cong, Ma Junya, Fang Hong, and Dean and Associate Vice President Zhou Xian, and the students from the Environmental Club, among others, were gracious hosts, and Occidental Professor Xiao-huang Yin and Nanjing University Professor Cong Cong ably facilitated the arrangements for our connections to Nanjing University. We want to thank Ma Weichun, Zhang Yan, Bao Cunkuan, and students from the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering of Fudan University in Shanghai who hosted our visit in May 2014, and City University of Hong Kong faculty Graeme Lang and Robert Gibson for hosting our talks at City University, also in May 2014. Special thanks to Helena Kolenda and Li Ling from the Henry Luce Foundation and Anthony Ng and Belinda Winterbourne from the WYNG Foundation. Bill Barron and the late Anthony Hedley were special friends and long-time collaborators. Our families are very special to us and are always supportive; our love and thanks to Marge Pearson, Casey Pearson-Gottlieb, Andrea Pearson-Gottlieb, and Rebecca Wong and Nathan Ng.