Instead of trying to be the best (fill in the blank) IN the world, why not strive to be the the best (fill in the blank) FOR the world? Light Up the World does it. The Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology does it. CADA’s been doing it since Terry Rock, it’s president, returned from a Creative Spaces and Places conference a few years back. As he told me in an interview:
I need to know that I’m part of something that is building a city that is not only “great” or “world class” for the people who live here today, but is a system that is tuned (or becoming tuned) to be a source of innovative practices in healthcare, discoveries in energy science, historic works of art, etc… The benchmark isn’t whether or not we are “the best,” it is instead whether or not we are living up to our own potential: a much higher standard!
Tags: cities, civic duty, Terry Rock, Urban planning
