Brandon Donnelly
Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
Brandon Donnelly
Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
Sadly, Japan has one of the higher suicide rates in the world. According to the World Health Organization, the rate from 2000 to 2016 was about 18.5 deaths per 100,000. The only country in Asia with a higher rate is South Korea. They are at 26.9 deaths per 100,000 (an alarming figure). For comparison, Canada and the US are at 12.5 and 15.3, respectively, which also seem rather high to me.
I was intrigued to learn today that one of the ways that Japan has been trying to combat this high figure is by installing blue LED lamps on some of its railway platforms. Blue lights have been proven to have a calming effect (compared to white light). And since jumping in front of a train is unfortunately a common suicide method, blue lights were thought to maybe be a cost effective alternative to platform screen doors.
The first blue station lights were installed on Tokyo’s Yamanote line in 2009. And according to this 2013 study – which looked at the possible impact across 71 train stations in Japan – the introduction of blue lights actually resulted in an 84% decrease in the number of suicides. Further studies also showed that there were no corresponding increases at other non-blue light stations.
It is an interesting example of “nudge theory”, but does it get at the root of the problem?
Photo by Athena Lam on Unsplash
There are a number of affordable housing plans being thrown around in Toronto right now given that we have a municipal election coming up this fall.
From what I have read, the plans are largely centered around surplus and/or available public land and possibly some subsidies.
These subsidies are very important because the money has to come from somewhere. This is often overlooked.
In light of these debates, I thought I would share a short Bloomberg video that my friend Evgeny shared with me this morning all the way from Tokyo.
The video is about how Singapore fixed its housing problem. If you can’t see it embedded below, click here.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cjPgNBNeLU?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
It strikes me as being very Singaporean.
Sadly, Japan has one of the higher suicide rates in the world. According to the World Health Organization, the rate from 2000 to 2016 was about 18.5 deaths per 100,000. The only country in Asia with a higher rate is South Korea. They are at 26.9 deaths per 100,000 (an alarming figure). For comparison, Canada and the US are at 12.5 and 15.3, respectively, which also seem rather high to me.
I was intrigued to learn today that one of the ways that Japan has been trying to combat this high figure is by installing blue LED lamps on some of its railway platforms. Blue lights have been proven to have a calming effect (compared to white light). And since jumping in front of a train is unfortunately a common suicide method, blue lights were thought to maybe be a cost effective alternative to platform screen doors.
The first blue station lights were installed on Tokyo’s Yamanote line in 2009. And according to this 2013 study – which looked at the possible impact across 71 train stations in Japan – the introduction of blue lights actually resulted in an 84% decrease in the number of suicides. Further studies also showed that there were no corresponding increases at other non-blue light stations.
It is an interesting example of “nudge theory”, but does it get at the root of the problem?
Photo by Athena Lam on Unsplash
There are a number of affordable housing plans being thrown around in Toronto right now given that we have a municipal election coming up this fall.
From what I have read, the plans are largely centered around surplus and/or available public land and possibly some subsidies.
These subsidies are very important because the money has to come from somewhere. This is often overlooked.
In light of these debates, I thought I would share a short Bloomberg video that my friend Evgeny shared with me this morning all the way from Tokyo.
The video is about how Singapore fixed its housing problem. If you can’t see it embedded below, click here.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cjPgNBNeLU?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
It strikes me as being very Singaporean.
I’m on a flight right now reading the latest issue of Monocle Magazine in a seat that barely accommodates the length of my femur. This month’s issue has their annual ranking of the top 25 cities in the world.
Munich is first, which is not unusual for their ranking methodology. It generally scores well. Quality of life is high. Crime is low. The economy is strong. Beer gardens are fun. And you’re close to the Alps for snowboarding.
One stat that caught my attention — and it’s not included for all of the cities — is the number of homes built in the past year. Presumably this is all housing units in the metro area — for sale, for rent, subsidized and so on.
Here are their (clearly rounded) numbers. The order is as they appeared in the ranking, but again, not ever city included this stat.
Munich: 8,300
Tokyo: 150,000
Copenhagen: 5,000
Berlin: 11,000
Madrid: 1,600
Hamburg: 7,000
Melbourne: 5,100
Helsinki 4,400
Stockholm: 7,000 (18,000 in Greater Stockholm)
Sydney: 39,000
Hong Kong 17,000
Vancouver 22,600
Amsterdam 5,100
Kyoto 8,900
Dusseldorf 2,600
Barcelona 1,000
Some of these numbers appear to stand out, such as the counts for Tokyo, Sydney and maybe Vancouver. But it’s hard to draw any conclusions around housing supply and housing affordability.
Melbourne and Amsterdam allegedly have the same number of homes built over the past year, but according to Monocle the metro areas of Melbourne and Amsterdam have populations of 4.85 million and 2.4 million, respectively. This also says nothing about their growth rates.
So which one is doing a better job of addressing housing demand? I’m not sure.
But it was still interesting to see that Tokyo delivers somewhere around 150,000 homes a year. Tokyo is somewhat unique globally in that it’s a big city — one of the biggest — that somehow manages to gracefully balance both scale and quality of life.
Photo by Elias Keilhauer on Unsplash
I’m on a flight right now reading the latest issue of Monocle Magazine in a seat that barely accommodates the length of my femur. This month’s issue has their annual ranking of the top 25 cities in the world.
Munich is first, which is not unusual for their ranking methodology. It generally scores well. Quality of life is high. Crime is low. The economy is strong. Beer gardens are fun. And you’re close to the Alps for snowboarding.
One stat that caught my attention — and it’s not included for all of the cities — is the number of homes built in the past year. Presumably this is all housing units in the metro area — for sale, for rent, subsidized and so on.
Here are their (clearly rounded) numbers. The order is as they appeared in the ranking, but again, not ever city included this stat.
Munich: 8,300
Tokyo: 150,000
Copenhagen: 5,000
Berlin: 11,000
Madrid: 1,600
Hamburg: 7,000
Melbourne: 5,100
Helsinki 4,400
Stockholm: 7,000 (18,000 in Greater Stockholm)
Sydney: 39,000
Hong Kong 17,000
Vancouver 22,600
Amsterdam 5,100
Kyoto 8,900
Dusseldorf 2,600
Barcelona 1,000
Some of these numbers appear to stand out, such as the counts for Tokyo, Sydney and maybe Vancouver. But it’s hard to draw any conclusions around housing supply and housing affordability.
Melbourne and Amsterdam allegedly have the same number of homes built over the past year, but according to Monocle the metro areas of Melbourne and Amsterdam have populations of 4.85 million and 2.4 million, respectively. This also says nothing about their growth rates.
So which one is doing a better job of addressing housing demand? I’m not sure.
But it was still interesting to see that Tokyo delivers somewhere around 150,000 homes a year. Tokyo is somewhat unique globally in that it’s a big city — one of the biggest — that somehow manages to gracefully balance both scale and quality of life.
Photo by Elias Keilhauer on Unsplash
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