Ma Yansong Quotes

After working in cities for nearly 40 years, I am telling you that every city can improve its quality of life in less than three years, no matter the scale or the financial conditions.

We're planting trees to break up the concrete jungle. We're building public transportation and affordable housing.

Sustainable South Bronx advocates for environmental justice through sustainable environmental and economic development projects.

The future belongs to us, because we have taken charge of it. We have the commitment, we have the resourcefulness, and we have the strength of our people to share the dream across Africa of clean water for all.

When I first joined the Irvine Company, I realized that less than 11,000 acres were designated as open space in the original master plan, and that just didn't seem adequate to me. So, I began the lengthy process working with public and community organizations to add more open space.

Building sustainable cities - and a sustainable future - will need open dialogue among all branches of national, regional and local government. And it will need the engagement of all stakeholders - including the private sector and civil society, and especially the poor and marginalized.

A coalition with Tories and Liberal Democrats together is a golden opportunity to create the sort of planning reform that means not only can we have more environmentally sensitive planning, but we can have more homes and more schools.

Cities can be the engine of social equity and economic opportunity. They can help us reduce our carbon footprint and protect the global environment. That is why it is so important that we work together to build the capacity of mayors and all those concerned in planning and running sustainable cities.

To preserve the human race, it is now necessary to reorganize society. To this end, an Authority must be created with the power to control human population, to redistribute food, to purify air, water, soil, to re-pattern the cities.

I think ultimately, bringing more nature back into the city is a way to deal with urban sprawl and things like that. If the cities feel a little more natural, people like to live there more rather than moving out and dividing up another piece of land that shouldn't be touched.

By working to ensure we live in a society that prioritizes public safety, education, and innovation, entrepreneurship can thrive and create a better world for all of us to live in.

If you give me Times Square, I want to give it back to the people.

Your cities can be saved or squandered in one generation. So let's agree to set aside our philosophical disagreements and focus on those aspirations that unite us. Let's grasp the opportunity that is presented by innovation to build better communities for our neighbors. Let's replace a focus on partisan division with a focus on results. That is the path to a better future for us all.

If we wish to rebuild our cities, we must first rebuild our neighborhoods. And to do that, we must understand that the quality of life is more important than the standard of living.

My studio's passion is improving the public experience of cities for everyone.

A city should decide where it doesn't want to develop, saving at least some of the canyons and hillsides and wetlands from the bulldozer's blade.

I do worry about population growth and the preservation of the green belt space but I don't think these are insurmountable problems.

Many of the problems facing the nation and the world today may only be solved if their technical elements are understood - climate change, energy supply, health care, and infrastructure, to name just a few.

The Green New Deal is for elitists who live in their high rises in New York City and see a dirty world around them because they're in New York City. I said New York City can pass a Green New Deal... Why not try it? Why not try it?

Most of the job on DDP was already done by the time I became mayor. So was Gwanghwamun Square, described by many architects as the city's worst architectural creation, and the new city hall. I did not think that redoing them would be the right approach as that would only create new problems.

The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city.

We cannot be the welfare state of the planet.

I was inspired to see leaders from Paris, New York City, San Francisco and Vancouver, B.C. rolling up their sleeves to create clean and safe transportation systems; make homes and buildings efficient, comfortable and affordable; and ensure more of our energy comes from clean sources like wind and solar.

Permissible growth in the future has to be based on sustainable and equitable models.

For me personally, it is one of my biggest priorities to build a sustainable city that can respond properly to the climate change.