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ana025: Free Private Cities | Titus Gebel Interview

Released Thursday, 18th July 2019

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ana025: Free Private Cities | Titus Gebel Interview

Thursday, 18th July 2019

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We interview Titus Gebel, the Founder, President and CEO of Free Private Cities Inc.

Free Private Cities is working towards building new, greenfield cities using a model of individual bilateral contracts between each citizen and the city owner/operator.

In his book, "Free Private Cities: Making Governments Compete for You," Titus describes why and how Free Private Cities should be developed.

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View full show notes at http://anarchitecturepodcast.com/ana025.

----more----Intro

The Free Private Cities Concept
- Individual contracts
- A simple idea, with profound consequences
- Autonomy from the host nation
Real World prototypes: Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Singapore
Unique forms of urban development
- Patrik Schumacher - Market Based Urban Order
Open to market experimentation
- Competing service provider models
Incentives to cover maintenance costs
Book: Free Private Cities: Making Governments Compete for You by Titus Gebel

Discussion

What is a Free Private City (FPC)?
- A concept to make governments compete for you
- Rights and obligations of citizen and service provider are captured in an individual contract
- A contract should not be changed by only one party
- The Monaco realization - good governance makes political action unnecessary
Location location location!
- Is a weak or friendly sponsor government a geographical feature?
- Location factors -
  - climate
  - proximity to infrastructure
  - access to trade
  - technology can improve desirability of remote locations and seasteads
How does the process get started?
- Spread the idea
- Proposals from candidate countries
- Legal autonomy is the hardest part
- The sales pitch - Special Economic Zones
- Seeking finance: $100m opens a lot of doors
- At some point, they will hopefully compete for us
Examples - Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Macao
- More than 4,000 Special Economic Zones (SEZ's) and Special Administrative Regions (SAR's) already exist
- SEZ's create wealth for the surrounding regions
How do you integrate existing occupants?
- Concept is based on 100% voluntary participation
- Ideal is to start on uninhabited territory
- Existing occupants
  - Referendum to join city
  - Offer free/discounted citizenship
  - Compensation for displacement
How does property ownership work?
- Everything is conceivable
- City operator is a for-profit entity
- Operator would likely own the land, sell parcels to raise funds
- Option agreements or partnerships with existing landowners
- Lease model - less likely but also possible
- User fees alone may not be sufficient
Push vs. Pull development
- Start small, organic growth
- Some master planning is needed for easements, etc.
- Patrik Schumacher - zoning for aesthetics in city center
- "The Freak Zone" in outer areas - little or no zoning
Lighter touch, use based zoning
- Height and noise restrictions alone can determine uses
Opportunities for more unique urban forms
- Disneyland as a SEZ
- Patrik Schumacher - Market Based Urban Order
- We don't know, so we want to try it out
- Different districts with different rules
How do you manage change?
- Noise threshold and other development rights can be sold
Multiple competing operators / providers within one city?
- This is possible for certain services
- Provision of security should be a monopoly
- Transaction costs too high
- "I'm happy if people can prove me wrong"
- Competing security within subdevelopments, with subsidiarity to the operator
- San Francisco private police force
City operator as an intermediary
- "Social contract" is a contract between each individual and every other individual
- People think they own city assets because they pay taxes
- The FPC contract model clarifies the relationship
- In a FPC, other citizens can't interfere with your contract with the operator
- Much better protection for individual liberties
- Representative systems are susceptible to lobbying, cronyism, power plays
- Taxes don't entitle you to any services
FPC operator is liable for malperformance of contract - compensation for poor security performance
- Joe's house was broken into
- Only role of the police was an official report for the insurance claim
- Monaco car vandalism - direct access to the minister
- More cameras, and more screening of immigrants
- "If you are not punishing people for doing bad things, they will do it again"
- Cameras and police presence in an FPC - not as creepy as when a government does it - is it a surveillance state if there is no state?
- There are always trade offs
- If you are not providing effective security, you will go out of business
- People come to Monaco because the cameras are there, keeping them safe
- A cruise ship captain can legally abuse his passengers - but he treats them like customers
How would disputes between a citizen and the operator be adjudicated?
- Third party arbitration, special courts
- No different than any major construction contract
- Minimum payment to arbitrators is $1,200 - not feasible for small claims
- Small claims tribunals a potential solution
- Easier in theory than in practice
Other means of citizen involvement in city management
- It's not so important who owns the city operator, as long as the contracts are enforced
- Some cities might require citizens to purchase a share of ownership
- Cooperatives are possible
- Various councils can be formed, but cannot violate citizen contracts or force changes to the contract
Public space is one service offered by the operator
- Kicking someone out of a city means preventing them from using public space.
- Cities who expel criminals from public and private spaces will end up looking less like a police state
Restitution to victims
- Operator makes citizen whole, criminal owes the operator compensation
- Keep punishment/imprisonment to a minimum, prefer expulsion and compensation to victims
- Multiple laboratories to see what really works
Projects on the horizon
- Subscribe to FPC newsletter for updates
- Buy the book (link below)