Instant cities and a not-so-Jetsonian future.

As a kid, I took it for granted that by now we’d be riding around in space cars, á la The Jetsons, flying from place to place with our feet hardly ever touching the ground. According to John D. Kasarda, professor at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, and Greg Lindsay, writer and co-author of Aerotropolis: the Way We’ll Live Next, daily air travel is here – though not in the way we once imagined.

Instant cities with matching airports are popping up at record speed, drawing vast pools of money and people, but it’s hardly the Jetson vision of high-speed space bubbles propelling people across town. An aerotropolis, says Kasarda, is defined as “an airport-integrated region, extending as far as sixty miles from the inner clusters of hotels, offices, distribution and logistics facilities.” No futuristic fantasies here, just a new approach to how we get to and work with cities.

Kasarda has spent hundreds of hours up in the air, touching down just long enough in places like Bangkok and Detroit to discuss cities of the future with eager entrepreneurs and government officials.

Since ancient times, cities have been built near transportation centers, whether they are on rivers like the Tigris and Euphrates, ports like Bordeaux, or the railroad yards of Chicago. Kasarda and Lindsay’s book makes the case that a city like Chicago is what it is now because of O’Hare (up until recently, the busiest airport in the world).

Yesterday’s Chicago is today’s Dubai, or Shenzhen, or Memphis. Yes, Memphis, thanks to Federal Express, which had no small part in turning the area near Graceland into the cargo capitol of the United States. Cosmopolitan Dubai is practically old news, though it’s interesting that New York University now has a campus in this Gulf state.

Dubai’s Atlantis Hotel is considered an architectural wonder.

Shenzhen is a textbook aerotropolis. Located on the Pearl River Delta, north of Hong Kong, it is easily accessible by train, plane and ship. A former fishing village, its port is now strewn with containers carrying electronics and other goods leaving and coming to China. The airport is a major hub for commerce and inter-Asian travel. It has had its own stock exchange since 1990 and is a modern city in every way, serving as a model for future aerotropolis’s in China.

Downtown Shenzhen

Other Asian nations are racing to create efficient, prosperous urban dwellings. New Songdo City, a green, LEED certified city, is being built on a man-made island off the coast of South Korea. By the time it is finished in 2015, it will have a replica of New York’s Central Park, a Jack Nicklaus Golf Course, South Korea’s tallest building and all the business and lifestyle amenities needed to attract foreign businesses. One of its most important features is that its airport will serve as a gateway to the rest of Asia and South Asia without being terribly far from Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

The authors believe the most futuristic cities will be ones modeled on the aerotropolis, with the purpose of providing jobs, creating growth and adding to national prosperity. For builders and planners in renowned cosmopolitan cities like London, New York and San Francisco, this rise of the aero-city may sound inauthentic, perhaps even fatal to the city as we know it. But given that 80% of the world will be living in one by 2050, the notion of what makes a city hospitable is bound to change.

Image: rickyqi, Lori Greig, Phil

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It’s 5 o’clock in D.C. Perhaps our gridlocked politicians could try humanity’s oldest social lubricant.

“It’s a lot easier to demonize someone you don’t know well than someone you do know well,” says Terry Nelson, a major Republican operative. Ain’t that the truth. If you believe the cable news channels, the Democrats and Republicans speak completely different languages with each one believing the other is channeling the devil.

As any couple’s therapist will tell you, one of the best ways to bring people together is to focus on what they have in common and try to strengthen this ‘bond’ so that other issues can be amicably worked out. We may not be at the point where we need to assign each congressional committee a shrink, but I could not think of a better time for our representatives to share their mutual love of extracurricular activities with members of the opposing party – just not at the taxpayers’ expense.

The pleasure I am referring to is wine and the Congressional Wine Caucus is a great model for cooperation. Set up by Mike Thompson (D- CA), this bipartisan group works on a host of issues like interstate shipping with a general consensus that transcends party lines.

I asked Thompson if he has noticed the spirit of collaboration found in the Congressional Wine Caucus seeping into other areas of policy among members. “You chat socially and I think it improves your working relationship with your colleagues down the line.”

Wine and politics, the perfect pairing.

I also talked to several of the Beltway’s palates, from different points on the political spectrum, to see if they ever share their Ridge Zins or Conterno Barolos with ‘the enemy.’

“Actually, I do, a good amount,” said Jeffrey Browne, a wine drinker since his student Eurail days and a principle at CAPAD Communications, a consulting firm that works with Democratic candidates. “I have some of my most interesting conversations with Republicans.”

But wait, what do Republican enophiles have to say about this? Nelson concurs with Browne, “It’s interesting for me to hear their perspective on what’s going on. In those discussions people try to be pretty objective of what’s going on in their party.”

Dan Hazelwood, who has been involved in Republican politics almost as long as he’s been a wine drinker, admits, “I tend to socialize more with Republicans but drinking wine is not necessarily a partisan perspective.” Doug Heye, former Director of the Republican National Committee and current Burgundy fiend, shares the feeling: “There is nothing partisan about it.”

I  met Heye on a trip to Champagne in 2008. As a long time San Francisco resident, my political bubble was shattered not only by Heye but by Sam Dealey, a self described “libertarian conservative” and prominent D.C. journalist who, on this same journey, became my late night drinking partner in crime. Meeting Heye and developing a friendship with Dealey opened my eyes to the “other side” – and helped inspire this article.

Which begs the question, can wine serve as a mediator of sorts between opposing political views?

“It’s an icebreaker, “ Hazelwood acknowledged, “It creates a bridge to have a dialogue without rancor.” Khalid Pitts, owner of Cork Wine Bar in Washington D.C. told me, “Any day you can walk through Cork and see people from all sides talking politics or about what they’re doing this weekend. You see staffers with other staffers coming across the aisle.” Keep in mind, many who are serving in both houses have started off their careers as staffers.

Richard Schlackman of RMS Associates, a fiscally moderate and socially liberal Democrat from San Francisco, can often be found sharing a bottle of Spanish wine with Alex Castellanos, a top Republican media consultant, when he is in the nation’s capital.

“Just a couple of weeks ago I was at Cork Wine Bar discussing  politics and the state of the world with Alex. We agreed upon how good the 1991 Lopez de Heredia was.”

Is that all they could see eye to eye on?

“ While you may not share everything, you share a love that transcends politics,” Dan Kully, a progressive Democratic and partner at Kully Hall said.

“It’s a good medium to have a conversation whether it’s about politics, sex or the local ball team,” Browne says.

Dealey concurs. “Any time you can connect with someone on a personal level you get beyond the colleague relationship to friend status.”

It seems oenophiles on both sides of the aisle can agree wine is a bridge to facilitating dialog. Perhaps the next budget debate should start off with a bottle of Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs and depending on how long it goes, finish with a Hunt Country ice wine from New York. For the love of Bacchus, please crack open a bottle, give a glass to your nearest adversary, and start talking.

Image: Jenny Downing

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When love for live music crosses the ticket line to addiction.

Skipped out on rent to blow extra cash at Coachella? Scheduled a pregnancy around a Phish concert? How about letting mom’s birthday cake candles melt just to spend an extra hour with Dave?

Find me a harmless hobby or a gentle habit and I’ll show you someone who’s developed a full-blown addiction. We humans are good at getting hooked, but why? Addiction has its roots in a neurotransmitter called dopamine. This chemical plays an integral role in the pleasure we derive from sex, food and yes, rock ‘n roll. The first time you hear a song you like, one or more elements in the music causes an increase in the level of dopamine in your brain. This might lead you to download the tune and listen to it over and over again for days (admit it, you’ve done this). But after hearing it many times, the pleasure subsides because you no longer have the cues to make the dopamine to kick in as powerfully. In other words, it gets old.

This is why live music takes on greater importance for music lovers. Even the most manufactured pop stars perform their songs a little bit differently with each gig, and musicians who are known for improvisation manage to keep their fans not only interested but coming to shows repeatedly.

The ‘high’ occurs not only when you feel, taste or hear something that you thoroughly enjoy but also with its anticipation. With bands like Phish, Dave Matthews and of course, the Dead, the set list always changes and predicting which songs are going to be performed is part of the ride. As one song ends the thrilling deduction process begins again for the next song. If you’re right and it’s a song that you really love, dopamine, that wonder drug, kicks right back in again.

Concerts have a communal spirit that can help ‘feed’ the addiction. I remember watching the Dead and feeling a sense of connection with the strangers around me as we danced to “Sugar Magnolia.” (And it’s not just a substance-induced euphoria.)

Live music can provide a transcendental and very personal experience. Phish follower, Jon Bates, says, “It’s like a religion for me. It really gets deep inside you.”

Dopamine’s role in our affinity for music can border on the extreme. The general medical consensus is that as long as it does not negatively impact your life, being obsessed with seeing live music is a harmless habit. Besides, is planning a pregnancy around a tour all that different from trying to conceive in February so you end up with a little Scorpio?

Image: Carlo Cravero

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