Living Cities: What are World’s Fairs good for? — A cycle

Dec 13, 2023

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By AITOR HERNÁNDEZ-MORALES

With GIOVANNA COI

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Happy Thursday, city-lovers, and welcome back to Living Cities.

European cities have long competed to host World's Fairs, those bombastic international expositions that allow them to monopolize the global spotlight for a little while.

But as flashy and fun as these events are, they’re also often synonymous with waste and ruin: Once the expo wraps up, cities are left with big bills and fairgrounds littered with empty pavilions.

This week we travel to Seville for a case study in how to avoid that sad fate and dig into how the Spanish city turned its Expo ‘92 fairgrounds into an innovation campus that generates billions in economic activity.

HEAD’S UP: Next week over 2,000 politicians, academics and civil society representatives from 600 cities will descend on the Belgian capital to attend the Brussels Urban Summit. I’ll be there to moderate several panels and the closing This is Brussels event. Make sure to come by and say hi!

THE YEAR THE WORLD CAME TO SEVILLE: Over six months in 1992, some 15.5 million people traveled to Seville to attend Expo ‘92, a massive World's Fair held to mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ departure from the city on his inaugural trip to the Americas. The event was notable for another reason: Well before it opened, organizers had come up with a plan to reuse the extravagant fairgrounds in the northeast of the Andalusian capital once the party came.

Best laid plans: The goal was to repurpose the fairgrounds as a scientific and technological park that would help reorient the region's traditional service and agricultural economy and usher in a new era of financial growth based on innovation. The whole scheme hinged on three major multinationals that had agreed to move in once the fair closed: These major players would serve to attract smaller companies and create a high-tech hub in Seville.

Source images from Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of STP Cartuja and Aitor Hernández-Morales for POLITICO

The troubled ’90s: It didn't quite go as planned. The end of the expo coincided with a major recession in Spain; with the economy in tatters, the companies at the heart of the scheme abruptly pulled out. For a while, it seemed that Expo ‘92's legacy — like that of so many World's Fairs before it — would be one of abandoned infrastructure and financial ruin. But within a few years, Spanish companies began to take a chance on Seville and move into the fairgrounds, with domestic players gradually creating the tech hub that the expo's organizers had dreamed up. The opening of a satellite office of the European Commission's Joint Research Center in 1994, as well as a branch of Spain's National Research Council in 1996, helped consolidate the site into a center for hard-hitting research.

Success story: Today the scientific and technological park hosts over 556 companies which generated €3.5 billion in economic activity in 2021. "Hosting a World's Fair gave Paris the Eiffel Tower and Brussels the Atomium," said Luis Pérez, general director of the STP Cartuja, the science and technological park that operates on the site. "The legacy of Seville's World's Fair today is a campus that has helped redefine this region's economy."

Check out my story to learn more about how Seville turned its World's Fair into a long-term success.

UBER DOUBLES DOWN ON EUROPE: Uber intends to stay in Europe despite upcoming legislation that could impact the company's bottom line, the ride-sharing app's CEO told POLITICO in an exclusive interview this week. The company has just inaugurated a new campus on the outskirts of Amsterdam that already hosts 1,100 employees and has space to accommodate another 1,000, according to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. That could mean brisk business for the Dutch metropolis: Part of the plan is to increase engineering jobs in Europe while reducing the number in the U.S., where tech workers are more expensive and competition is fiercer. The bulk of Uber's payments-development work is already based in Amsterdam, the company said.

HOW TO MAKE THE EU QUARTER CYCLE-SAFE: The EU Cycling Group, an association of 3,000 staff members of the EU institutions, has released a position paper laying out how the Brussels EU Quarter could be redesigned to favor active mobility. Among other measures, the group proposes creating pedestrianized zones around Place Luxembourg, Square de Meeus and Square Frère-Orban, widening pavements and reinforcing existing cycle infrastructure to create secure, continuous bike lanes throughout the area.

The British government decided to slash investments in walking and cycling in the U.K. by half | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

WE’LL SEE YOU IN COURT: Sustainable transport group Transport Action Network is preparing to file a legal challenge against the British government for its decision last March to slash investments in walking and cycling in the U.K. by half. The group argues the cuts bypassed legal processes and are contrary to the country's climate commitments. More here.

SPEAK ENGLISH, PLEASE: In a nod to Brussels’ substantial expat community, the Flemish liberals are proposing English be made the Belgian capital's third administrative language. That's not playing well with Flanders’ nationalist party N-VA. My colleagues Nicolas, Barbara and Ketrin have the story.

TRAM CHAMPS: Congratulations to Vienna's Wiener Linien tram drivers, winners of the top prize at the European Tramdriver Championship, which this year was held in Orbea, Romania. The teams from Gothenburg and Prague came in at second and third place at the famed multidisciplinary event in which tram drivers partake in challenges like tram bowling, using their vehicles to hit giant inflatable balls into pins. Shout-out to Dublin's Ian Collins, best driver in this tenth edition of the championship.

CATCHING UP WITH CEMR: The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) is one of the oldest and largest associations of local and regional governments, representing over 1 million democratically elected European politicians. Set up in 1951, its goal is to promote the idea of a peaceful Europe built on local self-government. I sat down with Fabrizio Rossi, who took over as secretary-general last year, to discuss CEMR's work and the challenges local leaders face.

Top priorities: "From climate change to migration, to mastering artificial intelligence, sustainable finance and increasing polarization within societies, we must be impactful and forward-thinking," said Rossi. His goal, he added, is to "place impact on the top of our agendas" and support local leaders "on the ground who have been in the forefront of crisis management in the last years."

Building bridges: Addressing those challenges will require looking beyond the urban agenda, Rossi argued, stressing that cities don't exist in a vacuum, but as a broader network of interdependent communities. "The relationship between urban and rural systems is a win-win relationship, we cannot create artificial oppositions between the two," he argued. As an example, he pointed to the fight against climate change in cities and argued that measures like building renovations, greening transport and sustainable waste management require "an integrated territorial approach" that involves working with surrounding areas.

No one left behind: "The rise of the right-wing parties in [rural] areas is worrisome," he said, insisting on the need to ensure rural areas aren't left behind in policy making. "It requires a deep reflection, which means the need to create a new narrative that puts rural and urban together."

Making it happen: Bottom-up measures are the most effective means of addressing "unprecedented and systemic" challenges like climate change, Rossi also argued. "It is crucial to work with [local] leaders on the ground and support them with instruments, data and new participatory approaches" so that they can get their communities on board. "At the end of the day, the green transition is not a mere technological and market-driven exercise but is first and outermost an exercise of democracy."

We’re back with our weekly cities-related trivia question! Last week reader Gilles Coetsier challenged the audience to identify the European city that prides itself on having a grim hangman's noose as its informal symbol. John Beaven was the first to correctly identify Ghent as the home of the stroppendragers ("noose bearers").

The stroppendragers of Ghent | Wikimedia Commons

The nickname dates back to 1540, when Charles V suppressed a revolt in the Flemish city: Incensed by the disobedience of the citizens of his birth city, the emperor ordered locals to march through the streets wearing nooses to show that they deserved to hang for their disloyalty. The people of Ghent recreate the procession every year while wearing the ropes, which are now an enduring symbol of their resistance against tyranny and misplaced authority.

This week's question: Which EU capital has a fountain dedicated to Lucifer in its main park? The first to answer gets a shout-out and a chance to choose next week's trivia question!

— I was deeply disturbed by a new study in the journal Transport Research finding that cyclists who wear safety attire appear "less human," making them greater targets for aggressive behavior. Researchers theorize that items like helmets and safety vests make cyclists seem like committed members of a minority group, a factor that might contribute to them being "othered."

— Wind energy lobby WindEurope this week staged a clever, urban-themed outdoor expo on the European Parliament's esplanade in Brussels: The space has been filled with seats, benches, reclining chairs, tables and flowerpots crafted out of old wind turbines, highlighting that the spinning blades can be put to use after they stop generating green energy.

— In a new episode of The War on Cars podcast, actor Nick Offerman (of "Parks and Recreation" and "The Last of Us" fame) reflects beautifully on the connection between toxic masculinity and cars’ dominance over urban landscapes; many of the points he made were ones my colleague Gio raised in her excellent story on men and cars last year.

MANY THANKS TO: Jamil Anderlini, Nicolas Camut, Barbara Moens, Ketrin Jochecová, Pieter Haeck, my editors Esther King, Kelsey Hayes and Stephan Faris, and producer Giulia Poloni.

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