The first thought that came to me during my 15 hours in Dubai on a Tuesday in early November is “this is the future”. I think it was the numerous huge construction projects in progress and the modern residential communities rising out of the desert. It was also that the city grew from the recent oil boom and everything is new and shiny, like much of Salt Lake City. I was there for work so didn’t get much time to explore the city. It was my third trip to this global city of expatriates.
I stayed at the Park Inn by Radisson located in Dubai Motor City. It is right next to Autodrome Racetrack that is open to the public. People can drive several different categories of cars or ride shotgun with a professional driver on a Formula One Racetrack. Only one car that day was driving around the track. The hotel was connected to a small shopping mall which led to a small business district. After my meetings, I walked to a Daiso Japan and did some grocery shopping. Nadia and Ocean like it when I bring home a bag of groceries with products they can’t get in Tashkent. After returning to the hotel, I went for a swim on the rooftop pool and then packed and headed out to the airport. Traffic congestion is a problem during peak times (6:00 AM – 10:00 AM) and (5:00 PM – 9:00 PM) during the week. Both of my Uber drivers pointed this out as we were bumper-to-bumper to and from the airport.
During the day I visited two beautiful, modern international schools packed with expatriates. Developers collaborate with school owners to anchor their residential gated communities with a high-quality international school. This attracts families to their development. One in particular caught my attention, Sustainable City. We went to lunch at a restaurant on the development and walked through a pond area with free range chickens, ducks, and gardens. The Dubai-based Diamond Developers invested $354 million dollars into a 114-acre site with 89 apartment buildings and 500 villas. The community has 2,700 residents and many of them walk or bike to the school and other amenities. I saw mostly Scandanavian families, who are probably wealthy due to the cost of the villas ($1 million+). Below is a description of the site from One Key Marketer Mike Anderson.
The Sustainable City boasts a number of genuinely impressive green features. The homes are designed to shade each other, making them easier and cheaper to cool in the desert heat. Strategically placed wind towers cool the air on the streets. A verdant park runs the length of the development, complete with 11 biodome greenhouses for urban farming that are irrigated by two lakes filled with recycled greywater. Designed primarily for pedestrians and bicyclists, vehicles are banished to a nearby car park shaded with solar panels. These, and the solar arrays on the roofs of the villas, generate the lion’s share of the community’s electricity. LED lights, solar water heaters, and low-power appliances reduce energy needs by up to 50%. Each resident is furnished with a free electric golf cart to get around the development, or a $10,000 subsidy for an electric vehicle of their choice. Onsite amenities include a gym, swimming pool, and equestrian stables, as well as a small mixed-use plaza containing a variety of retail stores, entertainment, offices, restaurants, and coffee shops.
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