• Sustainable city - Meeting the city’s needs with its boundaries, locating homes, jobs and services as closely together as possible. This will require the re-use of brownfield land and the maximising of the efficiency of use of infrastructure, including transport. Residential densities are likely to be relatively high.
• Dispersed city - The north american model. Separate location of land uses with high levels of demand for movement much of it by private car. Emphasis on high quality private space, relatively low residential densities. Substantial greenfield development often in new or very much expanded towns and villages.
• Electronic city - The information technology revolution has the potential for bringing about major change to urban lifestyles. IT could even make the city redundant as the need to travel to undertake work, business, shopping and even education and leisure activities will become increasingly unnecessary - everything can be done in the home or in a local IT centre. This could have the effect of reinforcing the strength of local communities - but not necessarily in an urban setting. It will also strengthen "interest group" communities that will be electronically linked. On the other hand if everything is done from the home will this lead to the further demise of local services?

Discussion points:

What future do we envisage for the city?

Can community-based actions influence this?

• Local neighbourhoods and town centres are the building blocks of the city. Their inter-relationship is fundamental to the way in which the city functions. I believe that Edinburgh’s strength in this area is one of the contributory factors to the city’s success:
• In Edinburgh, the city centre retains a mixture of active uses - shopping, business, tourism, entertainment, culture, and most importantly, residential. The centre is surrounded by a ring of high density inner suburbs - Gorgie/Dalry, Marchmont, Stockbridge to name just a few, which support an excellent range of local services and strong community identity to make them attractive living environments.
• Further out, the suburbs have grown from a series of villages. Some of these still function as the focus of local communities, providing local services and a community identity. These village-based suburbs are interspersed with the large post-war Council housing estates where key characteristics of successful neighbourhoods are missing, significantly contributing to the deprivation experienced by these areas.

Discussion points:

Do current trends in car ownership and use, concentration of commercial and public services, and urban sprawl, undermine identifiable local communities?

Does this in turn reduce the competitiveness and quality of life a city offers?

Are we only talking about geographic communities - what role do interest-based communities play and how?

Key factors include:

• Easy exchange/social activity - the ability to meet neighbours casually
• Existence of local services
• A safe and healthy (unpolluted) environment
• Influence over decisions affecting the local neighbourhood
• Easy access to other areas of the city for activities not available locally

Discussion point: Is there a tension between people’s desire for privacy and private space, and the benefits of community life?

• Reduced traffic levels
• Low traffic speeds through traffic calming/ "homezones"
• Improving the sense of place through urban design
• Providing attractive public space
• Promoting local centres and reducing traffic domination
• Higher residential densities
• Good alternatives to the use of the private car at the city level, with good and easy local access to such citywide networks

Discussion point:

Are there new ways, perhaps harnessing new technology, of reinforcing the functioning of local neighbourhoods? An example might be facilitating deliveries of goods to homes or to local collection points from city centre or "virtual" shops.