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Design of the META City
The META city, first of all, will not be the creature of the industrial era but of the communications era. The key to the industrial city was production. The key to the META City will be communications, although production of certain types may occur within its confines. Therefore, the kinds of noise and pollution which drove citizens from the centers of the old cities will not be present in the city of the future, providing they are designed to take full advantage of the META city concept.
What make s our cities such an unattractive hodgepodge today? Contemporary cities, like all cities in the past are functionally two dimensional. People, goods and services all compete for the same horizontal space as they find their ways in and out of the cities. Subways (too expensive for the future) provide slight alleviation. For the most part all of our transfer of people and things takes place on street level. Subsurface service lines for utilities do not really alter the situation, since access to them is usually through the street, resulting in great inconvenience to the public. Skyscrapers and high-rise structures allow people urban space in which to work and live but access to them is from the same crowded streets via the same crowded freeways.
In order to take full advantage of the efficiencies that the communications Era META City provides, we will have to build a true multilevel urban environment. This can be accomplished using a "connected layer" zoning requirement.
1. Ground or warehouse Level: The ground level will provide entrance for goods from all types of transport and container. A standard can be defined that encourages the use of international META pallet-containers, which can be carried on conveyors to storage facilities or entrance elevators for processing in the production facilities. Apart from forklift type vehicles, there will be little need for trucks to enter the META City.
1.5 Mezzanine or utility level: This will be given over to massive service tubes that will carry water, sewers and utility lines. Being above ground, they will be accessed with ease for repairs and modifications.
2. Production Level: On this level we will find the production facilities Only light, nonpolluting manufacturing and light industrial enterprises will be suitable for most META City complexes, built within the existing old cities. In third-world locations, it might be feasible to build a "new town" from scratch in which sufficient room to locate certain types of heavy industry within one area of the META City.
Materials can be moved with elevators from the receiving/loading bays on the ground floor to the production level. The finished products would be returned to ground level for export, thus containing the movement of large containers to that level only.
3. Office or Retail Level: This level would be given over to administrative functions. Since these functions require less floor space, there will be ample opportunity to provide some open spaces and decorative features for the benefit of the workers.
4. The Entertainment or Plaza Level: With limited noise and no pollution from heavy industry and no fumes from cars and trucks, the top level, open to the sky, would be reserved for living, shopping and recreation for the META Citizens -- those who work within the META City. Life on this level would be pleasant, with vehicles and goods could provide opportunities for relaxation and enjoyment. Since people would live above their work, the time consuming commuting to the job would disappear. People would have more free time and a less stressful environment. People could move about without having to compete Careful use of building design and landscaping
Roof top tennis and handball courts and swimming pools would provide some outdoor recreation, which could be pursued year round even in the harshest climates under retractable roofs which would enclose the META city recreation areas.
Conventional entertainment such as concerts and shows would be augmented by the latest developments in satellite electronic entertainment and computer simulated games.
Telecommunications would also provide the best in educational facilities for all generations.
Thus the META city would see a geographical reunification of the various aspects of human life work living and play. For many people, life in the META city will be Infinitely more attractive than life outside in the old urban structures. Living in such a unified, self-contained environment will also provide numbers of human beings with the experiences that will be needed as space colonies begin to develop and grow during the next century.
An added attraction to living within the META City will be that life within a free trade zone will be cheaper. The efficient design of the city will reduce energy costs. The wealth that the city will generate will keep housing costs down and luxury goods will be more accessible.
It should be anticipated then, that with the emergence of the META design, more and more people will want to live as well as work within the META city. Over time, the META City will expand, incorporating more and more of the mother city.
At this point, however, there are several caveats that must be expressed:
First of all, the META City should not be conceived as being capable of sustaining unlimited expansion. There will be optimal sizes, which will manifest themselves, beyond which the social and economic life of the META would suffer.
Secondly, the META city must resist the temptation to recruiting menial workers for low-paying jobs from the surrounding municipality who would not be able to live within the META city. This would create an undesirable class division between META Citizens and "outsiders," repeating some social and demographic patterns, which have plagued traditional cities. It might also establish some undesirable commuting housing patterns in unnecessary traffic into and out of the city and surrounded the META City by below-standard housing for an underclass serving it
Finally, the META city must not be a closed economic system. It must be seen to contribute to the economic, social and cultural life of the surrounding municipality.
Moreover, there will be many people who will prefer to live in more traditional urban, suburban and rural environments. They would find the comfortable life within the META city too restrictive. | 
