I found reading your blog post was both informative and provoking due to your ability to aptly reference points made in the conference and consequently offer your own views on the “endless city.” What I gained most from your article is a further understanding that cities, if hoping to achieve sustainability and social equality, must be designed with a vision that anticipates change. Given current trends in urbanization and predictions in climate change, it is no longer possible for the urban process to continue at an evolutionary pace, instead there is a necessity, as Deyan Sudjic describes, for mutation. I think that the successful urban redevelopment projects you reference begin to display mutative techniques. Specifically urban mutation and change is supported by a strong infrastructure that democratizes a city, which you affirm using Burdett’s quote, “Well-connected infrastructure that enables the possibility of integrated growth and interaction.” A strong example of this is the Guangzhou transportation system you have discussed in a former article, along with your discussion of Bogota.

The problem I often run into, in discussing ideas centered around the endless city, is that visionary solutions to urban problems do not give enough thought to their actual implementation. You mention that, “Incentivizing urban redevelopment and density works if cities can set limits at the edge,” I agree with this point, but I would be more interested to hear speculation and ideas of how this may be possible or why it is not occurring in more cities. Incentivizing urban redevelopment appears to be hinged on making it economically profitable, especially in relation to edge speculation. Do you think this is something that can be achieved through legislation as London did decades ago with the implementation of the Metropolitan Green Belt in the 1930s, or does the economic mechanism of growth, that drives most modern cities, make this improbable? Instead is change hinged more on what could be called survival-based incentives, such as large climatic events such as Hurricane Sandy which display the need to rethink and renovate urban infrastructure systems? Your conclusion that, “Well-connected density is more likely to occur through tighter urban redevelopment projects than through more sprawled-out shapes,” functions as a strong starting off point rather than an ending, prompting a discussion focused on the implementation of ideas your article presents.