August 31, 2021
It has been 9 years since the founding of our “City of Light” Facebook group. Below, as a reminder, I am republishing the text in the group description, which was written in 2012. It is partially outdated (as they say, realities have changed), but the main part remains relevant. And we need to continue developing the idea. There are some developments in that direction, which I will inform you about next.
“CITY OF LIGHT / CITY OF LIGHT: LET’S BUILD OUR CITY OF HOPE
Dear friends,
Here is an idea that I, as a initiator of this group, submit to your judgment and expect an interested discussion within the framework of this group. Although the idea is as old as civilization in its conception, it is still raw in its concreteness and must be further developed, refined, and calculated in order to become fully viable, and additional steps will be necessary to implement it, involving all progressive and interested people – in Armenia, Artsakh, and the Diaspora, opposition, government, or neutral. However, everything starts with the BAN, which in a sense is the very idea that exists. So let’s create the city of our hopes together, the City of the Future, and then build it together.
Below are the details of the idea. I have tried to be as brief as possible. The pictures posted are conditional and let do not interfere with building the New City first of all in your imagination. Painting and posting drawings or imaginary video images of the New City on the wall of this group are encouraged.
Name options: City of Light, City of Sun, Arevakert, Lusavan, City of Hope, Husavan, Arshakavan, Europolis (hereinafter referred to as the City). All those who propose to name the City “Facebook”, or worse – “Facebookistan” – will be immediately removed from the group.
Population – 50,000-70,000 people
Orientation – educational-scientific-industrial cluster
3 location options – a/ between the settlements of Ushi-Apnagyugh in Aragatsotn region, b/ on the Nor Hachin-Yeghvard road, c/ near the village of Fantan. Other options?
Structure – educational-scientific-administrative center (Armenian-type “Downtown” without skyscrapers), industrial sector, suburbanized residential zone (bedroom zone) with 1-2-story residential houses, student campuses and two-story buildings with social apartments.
Goals –
1. Formation of a new lifestyle that ensures human spiritual and material harmony within the framework of the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Armenia: “challenge to the challenges of the 21st century”,
2. Unloading of Yerevan and decentralization of the population in ecologically clean regions and seismically stable apartments,
3. Promotion of the development of scientific, educational and high-tech sectors,
4. Reduction of emigration and promotion of the repatriation of Diaspora Armenians,
5. Establishment of a new tourist center – development of tourism (The city with its architecture and content should be so fashionable and exclusive that all tourists from the world want to come and see it at least once, and many of them want to live in it permanently).
Disclaimer – The idea of the city has nothing to do with Tommaso Campanella’s “City of the Sun”, Francis Bacon’s “New Atlantis” or Thomas More’s “Utopia”, and the few coincidences are accidental.
ATTENTION: This will be a CITY and not a technopark, although it may have centers/centers consolidated according to the principle of a technopark.
Culture: The city is first and foremost people and their lifestyle. The city will have a new, unique urban culture appropriate to the 21st century, free from consumerist and materialistic extremes, casinos, with the primacy of knowledge-based spiritual and intellectual values, and environmental protection. Corruption will be excluded from the city from the very beginning (let’s discuss how). The city will have its own television company, where new culture and ideas that drive a new lifestyle will be generated through discussions.
Governance: Residents moving to the city must first agree that under no circumstances will they cede power in the city to any oligarch or any current party. Residents will directly elect their mayor and council of elders, people with high moral authority and not neighborhood authorities or moneyed people.
Architecture and urban development: This city-park, built by combining Armenian new architecture and the latest Western technologies of urban development, will respond with its architectural and urban development solutions to the challenges facing the 21st century man.
The city will comply with the strictest ecological standards. Buildings will be built with a 10-point seismic resistance calculation, using the latest energy-saving and lightweight building materials and structures, with all the necessary amenities for the free movement of the disabled, and public transport will be exclusively electric. types. With special paths for bicycles, free charging stations for private electric cars (at the expense of the municipality budget). With a high ecological city tax on gasoline-powered cars (gas-powered cars will be encouraged).
Those wishing to build residential houses will be provided with several standard projects free of charge. However, regardless of everything, their size will not exceed 2 floors (or 1 floor + attic) and 150 sq.m., and the land plots adjacent to the houses will not exceed 500 sq.m.
Residents: All state universities should/can be moved to the city (or, as an alternative, one or more large branches of prestigious/leading Western universities will be built), scientific research institutions, etc., and manufacturing companies in the information and high-tech sectors. The staff of all these institutions should be offered an equivalent exchange for their Yerevan apartments, and/or long-term mortgage sale or lease with low interest rates. State salaries of scientific research institutes should be tripled after moving to the city, and the urban buildings should be equipped with the latest laboratory equipment and other necessary accessories and materials.
Immigration of Diaspora Armenians to the city will be encouraged, especially youth, teaching staff, researchers and pensioners.
Estimated cost of the city’s construction and its economy: According to the roughest estimates, the construction of the city will cost 1.1-1.3 billion dollars, of which only 200-300 million dollars will fall on the shoulders of the state as a “non-returnable” capital investment, which will be directed to the construction and furnishing of infrastructure, as well as schools, kindergartens, sports complexes, art centers, and equipment.
The construction costs of universities and scientific research institutes moving from Yerevan will be compensated by the sale of their Yerevan buildings; private residential houses, being cheaper, will be purchased/rented/built by new residents who have sold/rented their Yerevan houses/apartments. Other business infrastructure will be built at the expense of business investments. For this purpose, it is necessary to declare the City a Free Economic Zone and exempt it from a number of taxes, including property tax, land tax and profit tax, for at least 10 years. Tax, credit, and investment mechanisms should also be discussed and require a new creative approach and new proposals.
The city will be open to all foreigners who are ready to invest more than a certain amount (in particular, 300,000 euros) in it on projects approved by the city authorities. Moreover, one of the main functions of the city authorities will be to attract and encourage investments from abroad and other parts of Armenia.
