Dubai Waterfront

February 7, 2005 1:00 AM

More Dubai Madness. The Dubai Waterfront will be 2½ times size of D.C. or the size of Manhattan. The Dubai Waterfront will be a mix of canals and islands full of hotels and residential areas that will add 500 miles of man-made waterfront.
posted by stbalbach (23 comments total)

Ok, we get it guys, you're rich.
posted by ori at 1:21 AM on February 7, 2005

Does anybody get the impression that Dubai will implode into its own vacuous self. I mean not more than 40 years ago now, the only thing there was a single fortress. How devoid of any decent, tangible culture can Dubai actually be. That's if you don't call culture vast and exhuberant displays of wealth....
posted by mikeanegus at 1:35 AM on February 7, 2005

Tsunami? Tsubetcha!
posted by HTuttle at 1:39 AM on February 7, 2005

That tsunami would have to be able to turn a couple corners to reach them
posted by c3o at 1:49 AM on February 7, 2005

We've got offices out in Dubai, and at a recent presentation they showed a photo of the main street back in something like 1984 - including a camel plodding along, and then again now, from the same vantage point.
The difference is astounding - from the size of the road, to the number of (big) buildings that have sprung up.
Apparently one of the biggest industries out there is construction :-)

I've also been told that they're changing the laws out there regarding native workers, to allow more foreign migrant workers to get jobs out there, and are also reducing the corporate tax rates to encourage business growth.

Basically - keep your eye on them; they're either going to get really big, or are going to collapse horribly!
posted by Chunder at 2:24 AM on February 7, 2005

Wait a second. What are these Arabs doing building all this fancy shit? Isn't their entire region just a festering pile of nepotistic tyrrany? Where do they get off building the world's tallest building? And how can they do that without the Power of Human FreedomTM?
posted by scarabic at 2:34 AM on February 7, 2005

Pictures
posted by srboisvert at 3:02 AM on February 7, 2005

Dubai ... waterfront ... human freedom ...

Words which don't really go together well in the Australian psyche.

(All totally unrelated to the FPP, but it's an interesting demonstration of how words can have a collective meaning beyond the dictionary. Sorry about the derail...)
posted by Pinback at 3:02 AM on February 7, 2005

Isn't their entire region just a festering pile of nepotistic tyrrany?

[Zayed's grandfather] has the longest reign in the emirate's history, ruling Abu Dhabi from 1855 to 1909...Zayed's father, Shiekh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ruled Abu Dhabi between 1922 and 1926. Then Zayed's uncle, Shaikh Saqr bin Zayed Al Nayhan, reigned followed by by Zayed's eldest brother, Sheikh Shakhbut in 1928...On August 9, 1966, Sheikh Shakhbut gave control of Abu Dhabi to his younger brother...His eldest son, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan, born in 1948, took an increasing role in the government from the 1990s; he was ratified as president of the United Arab Emirates by his fellow rulers on the Supreme Council directly after his father's death...Zayed was first elected to the presidency of the UAE in 1971 and was reelected on four further occasions: 1976, 1981, 1986, and 1991. These elections were not by popular vote, for no democratic institutions exist in the UAE.

Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum (born 1946) is the current Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and the emir of Dubai...He first became Prime Minister on 9 December 1971 and served until 25 April 1979 when he was replaced by his father Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum. Following the latter's death on 7 October 1990 he resumed his position as Prime Minister and also took over as Ruler of the Emirate.

Sheikh Maktoum runs the emirate of Dubai along with his two brothers, Sheikh Mohammed (Crown Prince and Minister of Defence) and Sheikh Hamdan (Minister of Finance) of the United Arab Emirates.
posted by ori at 3:29 AM on February 7, 2005

Mikeanegus, if "culture" was a requisite for the proper functioning of a city, I can name a few towns in both the US and Europe that would be equally doomed. But, maybe that's your point.
posted by pwedza at 3:57 AM on February 7, 2005

It's like the Hong Kong of the Mid East - massive buildings, great shopping and non-elected autocratic leadership included.
posted by PenDevil at 3:58 AM on February 7, 2005

It's like Brasilia on crack.
posted by crasspastor at 4:05 AM on February 7, 2005

Up until now, these guys have seemed to know what they were doing. I was over there in '95 and again in 2001, and the development over there is incredible. They know that their oil is about to run out, so using the rest of the oil money to turn the place into a mix of the hong kong business district and palm beach living isn't such a bad idea. If you were doing business in or around the gulf, is there anywhere else you'd like to base your operations?
posted by svenni at 4:05 AM on February 7, 2005

That's the kind of stuff people do when they have lots of money. If you gave all of us that kind of money, at least one of us would build his or her version of the marvelous city by the sea.

What would you do if you had that much money?
posted by pracowity at 4:06 AM on February 7, 2005

Um, coincidence
posted by NinjaPirate at 4:45 AM on February 7, 2005

While I understand the Sheikh's probably aren't giving up power soon, I do wonder if the country will be willing to liberalize whatever social rules it has in order to attract westerners.

I know its already quite liberal compared to its neighbors, but I also remember certain weird rules in place such as couples couldn't hold hands or kiss on the beach.
posted by pandaharma at 5:00 AM on February 7, 2005

My ultra-secular nationalistic Turkish friend back in college would delight that one day the Arabs would run out of oil:

"And then Turkey and Israel will f* them" he would often say.
posted by crazy finger at 6:10 AM on February 7, 2005

Does anybody have any interesting links to historical precendents that are similar to dubai and their eventual outcome?
posted by mikeanegus at 7:18 AM on February 7, 2005

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But there's nothing about garbage pick-up or whether they solved the problem they had with huge fragments vaulting like rebounding hail.
posted by pracowity at 7:52 AM on February 7, 2005

svenni wrote: Up until now, these guys have seemed to know what they were doing. I was over there in '95 and again in 2001, and the development over there is incredible. They know that their oil is about to run out, so using the rest of the oil money to turn the place into a mix of the hong kong business district and palm beach living isn't such a bad idea. If you were doing business in or around the gulf, is there anywhere else you'd like to base your operations?

My thoughts exactly. Long-range planning for the post-oil era. If that means their post-oil era (when their country runs low on oil to export), great. But if that means the world's post-oil era (world oil production capacity greatly diminished from today's levels), then I'm not sure that there are any good plans to weather that storm.
posted by tippiedog at 8:19 AM on February 7, 2005

Mikeangus, I'm thinking Houston might be a good place to start.
Toronto vs. Houston
posted by pwedza at 10:45 AM on February 7, 2005

Houston? Houston grew quickly but it's not anything like Dubai. Hustion is to City what Cancer is to tissue. Totaly unplanned monstrosoty.
posted by delmoi at 1:15 PM on February 7, 2005

historical precendents that are similar to dubai

Florida? Vegas?
posted by stbalbach at 4:16 PM on February 7, 2005