# DUBAI: The desert town. Nothing but 10 skyscrapers surrounded by desert



## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

FLscraper said:


> ^ That's all you ever hear about Dubai, 10 years this just wait until that, etc... That shows that this city is just an erector set. I'm not denying that Dubai is a beautiful and unique city, but it will never be respected and considered a Paris, NY, London, Amsterdam, etc.




hahahaha thats what the swiss said about the jamaican bobsled team!





and in dubai we keep talking about 10 years this and that because the city has one hell of a future.



so now to summarize...
you are basically criticizing dubai because:



1) it has a residential area which is comprised of a wall of some very tall towers. which is somehow worse than an endless suburban expanse.

2) its traditional downtown skyline does not have many tall buildings (i.e. london)

3) it has several projects currently in development that will come online in 10 or so years


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

for those who want to see, here is dubai's traditional downtown


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

and just to put things in persepctive. this was downtown dubai in 1950. heck this wasnt just downtown dubai. this WAS dubai.


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## FLscraper (Jun 26, 2005)

> 2) its traditional downtown skyline does not have many tall buildings (i.e. london)


So, because Dubai doesn't have many tall buildings (like London), we should consider Dubai one of the greatest cities in the world? :lol: Gotcha.

Your last photo sums up everything I've been criticizing. Dubai was put up over night to wow tourist.(i.e. Disney world)


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

FLscraper said:


> So, because Dubai doesn't have many tall buildings (like London), we should consider Dubai one of the greatest cities in the world? :lol: Gotcha.
> 
> Your last photo sums up everything I've been criticizing. Dubai was put up over night to wow tourist.(i.e. Disney world)



u were implying that a city without a decent skyline/downtown area with tall buildings was not worthy of respect. i showed you otherwise.



however much you try and make dubai seem like disneyland, you cannot. the only thing in dubai you can criticize is its residential area which comprises of tall towers. since i pointed out that it is just a residential area, you realize your folly and start criticizing dubai's real downtown for not having tall buildings. then i point out that even cities like london dont have many tall buildings in their downtown. so now you that you have run out of options to bash dubai, you are desperately searching for new ways to bash dubai. you now have come up with some ridiculous theory which links an absolutely random picture of PRE-OIL and PRE-AMBITION dubai in 1950, to the image of a theme park which you are trying SO HARD to make dubai seem llike. 

tell me how does the picture of 1950s dubai, and the pictures i posted above prove dubai is a disneyland?


can you not handle the fact that dubai is developing faster than any other city?


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

yep, this looks like disneyland to me


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

and FLscraper, since you are so interested in theme parks here is something that will interest you.


http://www.dubailand.ae/

this IS a "disneyland" that Dubai is building to WOW tourists.

oops, looks like attracting tourists by building a theme park is a bad thing.

shame on Dubai, LA, Orlando, Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo

after all, the tourist industry isnt a multi billion dollar industry which every major city in the world is involved in (sarcasm).


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## FLscraper (Jun 26, 2005)

luv2bebrown said:


> u were implying that a city without a decent skyline/downtown area with tall buildings was not worthy of respect. i showed you otherwise.


Please show me where I mentioned a city without a decent skyline isn't worthy of respect.



> I'm not denying that Dubai is a beautiful and unique city, but it will never be respected and considered a Paris, NY, London, Amsterdam, etc.


 Please pay attention next time.  



> oops, looks like attracting tourists by building a theme park is a bad thing.


 I have no problem with a city building a theme park, except when the city _is the theme park._


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

FLscraper said:


> Please show me where I mentioned a city without a decent skyline isn't worthy of respect.[/I]





FLscraper said:


> This is why I have no respect for this city. The skyline tricks the eye, it’s simply 1 wall of skyscrapers along this road. Probably the most overrated skyline in the world.




right there ^




FLscraper said:


> Oh, how interesting, so you're saying the buildings that everyone considers Dubai's skyline isn't even the _real_ downtown Dubai? Care to show us the real Dubai skyline, because I'm sure that one is equally impressive.


sarcasm ^


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

FLscraper said:


> I have no problem with a city building a theme park, except when the city _is the theme park._



here is Dubai

and yep, this looks like a theme park to me. doesnt it everyone?


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## FLscraper (Jun 26, 2005)

Let me clear it up for you because I believe you are confused. I think Dubai is a beautiful and unique city, but I have no respect for it because they are throwing up skyscrapers thinking it will earn them the respect as a world class city. What exactly are they building the world’s tallest tower for...just because. Nowhere did I mention not respecting cities without an impressive skyline. That is why I mentioned Paris, London, and Amsterdam. 

World class cities aren't built overnight. 

Paris 1950


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

this is where you do not understand dubai's philosophy.

if dubai were to follow your way of thinking. it would forever remain the fishing and trading village it was in the 30s.

however, much to the ire of many skyscrapercity forumers, dubai was blessed with oil reserves. in much the same way that colonies and the slave trade acted as capital-building resources for the western world, oil serves as a capital building resource for dubai.

now again, if dubai was to follow your manner of thinking (i.e. these towers are not necessary, this port is not necessary, this hotel is not necessary, this theme park is not necessary etc), we could sell our oil, buy a shit load of ferraris, IPODs, TVs, marble floors, gold etc, and live like kings for... 40 years. when the oil runs out, we and our city can just... die out. OR we could just remain a fishing village forever. On the other hand, according to the way we think in Dubai, we could use the oil money to build ourselves a sustainable economy and a good standard of living. now how can a tiny village of 10-50,000 build a sustainable economy? it cant... we need a population increase and foreign investment. now if you were the head of a multinational corporation, how likely would you be to establishing a regional or international headquarters in a fishing village? not very likely. therefore, these mega projects are all aimed at luring foreign investment (Dubai International Financial Center, Business Bay etc). Tourism, is a large part of this strategy. Now since all you ever see on skyscrapercity are the city's efforts to lure foreign investment, you automatically think, "oh the city is made up of JUST these projects". you conveniently forget that an entire city of 1,500,000 existed before these projects were announced. 1,500,000 is a large population. and im sure you can understand how that upsets many dubai forumers, simply because the forumers who DO think that dubai is JUST projects are... dead wrong. 

so in short, these projects like the Burj Dubai are vital to our survival. yes it is about being the biggest and tallest and longest and the tax free-est and what not. but not just for the sake of doing it, we have a reason and a very viable plan for doing so.

just out of curiosity, if you were the dictator of a city like dubai with massive oil resources... what would you do? would you use the oil to build a sustainable and diversified economy? or would you just squander it for 40 years until it runs out? after which case you're fuc****?

you say that world class cities cannot be built overnight. that is your opinion. i happen to disagree with you. dubai has transformed itself from a tiny fishing village, into the commercial capital of the region amid all the competition from already established cities. the city hasnt failed me yet.

i guess only time will tell who is right.


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

FLscraper said:


> I think Dubai is a beautiful and unique city,


thanks.
appreciate the comment


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## Nick in Atlanta (Nov 5, 2003)

The future of Dubai has still yet to be decided. It is in a very volatile area of the world and property values for commercial real estate and housing is riding on a major influx of foreign money from both oil and foreign investors. For it to become a Middle Eastern Hong Kong it has to make its business sector much more open and transparent or foreign investors will not put so much money into a city/country with such a high risk/return number.

As a logistics center it should definitely succeed because of its world-class port and airport, but for all other areas of the economy it is not as clear as some of you think.

Additonally, if it wants to be the Switzerland of the Middle East it must allow citizens of all nations to visit and work there, practice their religion openly, and have proper legal recourse, no matter where they come from. I don't think it's ready to open up anything near this much.


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## De Snor (Jul 28, 2002)

luv2bebrown said:


> and just to put things in persepctive. this was downtown dubai in 1950. heck this wasnt just downtown dubai. this WAS dubai.


This is so unreal , so hard to imagine


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## AltinD (Jul 15, 2004)

Nick in Atlanta said:


> The future of Dubai has still yet to be decided. It is in a very volatile area of the world and property values for commercial real estate and housing is riding on a major influx of foreign money from both oil and foreign investors. For it to become a Middle Eastern Hong Kong it has to make its business sector much more open and transparent or foreign investors will not put so much money into a city/country with such a high risk/return number.
> 
> As a logistics center it should definitely succeed because of its world-class port and airport, but for all other areas of the economy it is not as clear as some of you think.
> 
> Additonally, if it wants to be the Switzerland of the Middle East it must allow citizens of all nations to visit and work there, practice their religion openly, and have proper legal recourse, no matter where they come from. I don't think it's ready to open up anything near this much.


UAE, where Dubai belongs, has the 18th freeiest economy on the World, out of ... around 200 countries and territories. This figure speaks for itself.


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## nygirl (Jul 14, 2003)

Dubai is an incredible city, anyone calling this place disneyland is just jealous. 10 years from now it's gonna be right up there. There's like a zillion things under construction, and imo it is the only true imaginative city right now. Building the tallest buildings for the sake of building them aint such a bad thing bro. I bet if Tampa was building the things dubai is, and as tall as dubai is building, you would be calling it disneyland as well right?


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## zimna8080 (Jul 1, 2004)

nygirl said:


> Dubai is an incredible city, anyone calling this place disneyland is just jealous. 10 years from now it's gonna be right up there. There's like a zillion things under construction, and imo it is the only true imaginative city right now. Building the tallest buildings for the sake of building them aint such a bad thing bro. I bet if Tampa was building the things dubai is, and as tall as dubai is building, you would be calling it disneyland as well right?



Floridians are just jaded with Disney stuff. You can build a world class city with oil money, Dubai is proof. 

And hey, Tampa is building some pretty cool things


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## polako (Apr 7, 2005)




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## AltinD (Jul 15, 2004)

^ The colours are messed up. The red marked aereas are actually green (vegetation)


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## Koi (Jul 10, 2004)

FLscraper said:


> This is why I have no respect for this city. The skyline tricks the eye, it’s simply 1 wall of skyscrapers along this road. Probably the most overrated skyline in the world.


That is why I voted for Kuala Lumpur in the Dubai v. KL thread.


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

u realize KL's skyline isnt much better right?

its just a bunch of skyscrapers built around the place sporadically, as opposed to in a perfect line.

KL Skyline



as opposed to a dense city centre




the whole point of this thread is that the line of skyscrapers in Dubai isnt even the city centre.


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

@KOI

look at the pictures of Dubai's city centre on page 3 of this thread.


are you telling me the only reason you voted for Kuala Lumpur over Dubai is because Dubai has a residential street comprised of towers built in a line?


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## RedMarlin (Oct 19, 2005)

It is interesting to see how a thread that was started in a sarcastic manner to prove a point has kind of backfired you could say. The main problem is with threads such as this, and ones found in the versus section, is that they promote biased mud-slinging, and arrogant unsupported and ignorant statements toward other cities that half of us know nothing about. However, since we must make our city (where ever that may be) sound better, we put down the other. This is utter childish arrogance (sorry if this is too obvious).

Sorry residents of Dubai, but I think the reason that many cut on your city is because of the extreme arrogance that several of the forumers from Dubai portray. They vote for there own city, in versus threads that have nothing to do with them just to get another shameless promotion for their future construction (which I do believe is extremely impressive, overall). However, the comparisons to the already great cities causes irritation due to them having already accomplished greatness, and your (generalization, sorry) basing your greatness upon hopes and dreams of what has not yet come to be (5-15 years down the road). There can not be a claim of possessed greatness based on future ideas and plans. 

Furthermore, we Americans and many of the forumers from Toronto (sorry) are guilty of extreme arrogance as well. Although, most of it is based on perceived and actual accomplishments, it is still wrong.

My point is basically, don't be surprised when people attack you about your city. Some may be jealous, but others may just be fed up about future tense greatness being claimed as present day accomplishments. I for one think that the plans and construction you have is incredibly impressive, and I hope to see it in person some day (I don't doubt that Dubai is going to be an unbelievable city soon). We just all need to tone down our arrogance (Americans included) and then may people wouldn't be filled with such animosity. 

Sorry for the extremely long post. And the cheesy "can't we all just get along" feel to it.


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## luv2bebrown (Nov 4, 2004)

i am completely accepting of any valid criticisms of Dubai. your criticisms are very welcome and i agree with some of them too. 

i get angry, however, when people start criticizing dubai based on false knowledge.


the dubai is fake/dubai is a disneyland argument is one of those criticisms that are based on false knowledge. when people say Dubai is simply an amusement park because of all the projects, they fail to realize these projects have only been conceptualized a year or so ago. they fail to realize that an entire city of 1,000,000 existed before these projects were even announced.

this particular thread was made directly in response to a series of posts calling dubai a desert town with a few skyscrapers surrounded by miles and miles of desert. i felt I had to show that Dubai is actually quite built up, and not just towers surrounded by miles and miles of desert.


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## Harkeb (Oct 12, 2004)

oh girls, why all the bitching?? Let Dubai dust herself off and get dressed for the new century! We'll see if she turns out to be 'cindergirl-cum-Cinderella-cum-cindergirl', or 'Sleeping Beauty-cum-queen'.


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## Citystyle (Jan 6, 2005)

Perths whole skyline compromises of buildings going from the river back. In the 70's to the begining of the 90's, perth has a boom and our skyline went taller and went backwards away from the river. 

Perths boom stoped and we were left with a line of scrapers. Give us 50 years and it wont look so bad. Your correct time makes a city what it is, thus dubai has it's own vibe. Perth's boom was no way near dubai's. But does a line scraper's make a city fake. Once apon a time london and paris would have had a main street with the taller buildings along side.

The speed a city grows and how and why it grows does not detirmine how fake a city is. City's are made of people and dubai to is made of people with dreams big woop.

Dubai is the most important thing in the middle east in history, no christ, no prophet has ever created a city with a middle class and were arabs have prospered like in the UAE.


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## swerveut (Jan 23, 2005)

Why Dubai is a very impressive city:
1) it is very ambitious
2) it has achieved a lot in a very short period of time which has indeed put it on the map prominently
3) most of it was done by dubai-people's own resources instead of being mostly funded by foreigners
4) in the middle of the desert, it has come up with an impressive tourist destination which people really think about visiting
5) also, in the middle of the desert, it has been able to provoke a real estate boom with a lot of the world's millionaires trying to get a hold of some property there
6) it is swiftly rising up to join ranks with Singapore, HK, KL, etc. 
7) it is promoting one of the free-est societies in the middle-eastern region
8) its future is indeed very good as a regional economic and trade hub

I dont have the time to say more, but even all this speaks volumes about the city that seems to have risen out of the dust. I would just say that anybody who is jealous, let them burn in their own smelly little holes.


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## Koi (Jul 10, 2004)

@luv2bebrown

I agree with you that KL's highrises are spread out and therefore the skyline look less impressive than Singapore's. If that KL picture was taken at a much lower altitude, the skyline will look better.

Re Dubai picture on Page 3, central Dubai look very dense and quite impressive with the highrises in the distance.....but there is very little greenery. With all these massive projects going on, Dubai need to improve its public transportation network. The recently announced elevated train system is too little too late.


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## Koi (Jul 10, 2004)

swerveut said:


> Why Dubai is a very impressive city:
> 1) it is very ambitious
> 2) it has achieved a lot in a very short period of time which has indeed put it on the map prominently
> 3) most of it was done by dubai-people's own resources instead of being mostly funded by foreigners
> ...


I agree with your points, except:

Re 2) Wouldn't you if you know your oil reserve will run out in 5 years?
Re 3) Bullshit!! Dubai is only loaded with money. Most of the workers are foreigners (Dubai nationals only hold key posts, but most of the work are done by foreigners)...Dubai need foreigners to survive!!
Re 5) Many millionaires decide to invest in Dubai because of tax reasons.


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## SkylineTurbo (Dec 22, 2004)

Too many people are jealous because they know that their cities cannot sustain such a boom that Dubai is experiancing.


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## Douly (Sep 19, 2005)

How many people live in Dubai?
Where do you find all that money to build these sksyscrapers? Are they all hotels or even all full of executives? Except oil, tourism and duty free on what exactly the economy of dubai relies on?
How many tourist come in dubai every year?

This city is simply amazing. Nevertheless if dubai was really experiencing an economic boom such as bangalore or shanghai everybody would know it no?


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## Guest (Nov 3, 2005)

nothing but 10 srappers 'n' desert all around. Wait a moment and you'll see...


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## dubaiflo (Jan 3, 2005)

Koi said:


> I agree with your points, except:
> 
> Re 2) Wouldn't you if you know your oil reserve will run out in 5 years?
> Re 3) Bullshit!! Dubai is only loaded with money. Most of the workers are foreigners (Dubai nationals only hold key posts, but most of the work are done by foreigners)...Dubai need foreigners to survive!!
> Re 5) Many millionaires decide to invest in Dubai because of tax reasons.



re2) dubai is the leader in the this field they are the first ones that did so, and some still rely on oil , like KSA for example.

re3) but the locals started all of this.

re5) which is also a point only dubai has to offer 



Douly said:


> How many people live in Dubai?
> Where do you find all that money to build these sksyscrapers? Are they all hotels or even all full of executives? Except oil, tourism and duty free on what exactly the economy of dubai relies on?
> How many tourist come in dubai every year?
> 
> This city is simply amazing. Nevertheless if dubai was really experiencing an economic boom such as bangalore or shanghai everybody would know it no?


about 1.2m . it's growing about 150.000 a year, and we are not talking abt construction workers here.

hotels/off/res , there is demand everywhere.
hotels are almost always fully occupied.
off are needed all the time
res projects are sold out within days or weeks, it was worse before they sold within hours, but it slowed down now.

economy:












Wait another 2 or 3 years and everybody WILL know about dubai, even the americans,see trump investment.


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## Marco Polo (Oct 14, 2002)

Hmm... I do appreciate the effort Dubai is making. however, I must say that it is all oil money. No skills or brainpower. It is not Japan or Switzerland - those managed to become rich because of their skills. Dubai has just oil money.
On the other hand, many other places wasted oil money and Dubai is at least doing something with it. So in the end maybe they have a skill of not throwing it all out but somehow investing it.


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## Effer (Jun 9, 2005)

Dubai is just simply AMAZING!!!


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## as cities burn (Aug 29, 2005)

whatever you guys make of dubai - the banner that's just come on is amazing!! that's a lot of cranes. i think it's a beautiful place no matter what people may think of the 'cluster' of skyscrapers down the one road


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## ۩SkyScraper۩ (Oct 28, 2005)

luv2bebrown said:


> this is where you do not understand dubai's philosophy.
> 
> if dubai were to follow your way of thinking. it would forever remain the fishing and trading village it was in the 30s.
> 
> ...


:master:


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## city of the future (Jul 24, 2004)

luv2bebrown said:


> u realize KL's skyline isnt much better right?
> 
> its just a bunch of skyscrapers built around the place sporadically, as opposed to in a perfect line.
> 
> ...


Actually KL's planning is much better getting sick of the strait streets, even Hong Kong doesn't built like that, including London and Paris


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## bunt_q (Jul 29, 2003)

world's tallest in the middle east? i give it 10 years before some extremist or terrorist takes it down... almost too tempting a target not to. not that i'd blame them of course... if i had endless oil money i'd try and build something a little more human-scaled than a bunch of architectural monoliths... sure, they're nice towers... but what sets them apart from any of a thousand buildings going up in china? nothing.


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## dubaiflo (Jan 3, 2005)

Marco Polo said:


> Hmm... I do appreciate the effort Dubai is making. however, I must say that it is all oil money. No skills or brainpower. It is not Japan or Switzerland - those managed to become rich because of their skills. Dubai has just oil money.
> On the other hand, many other places wasted oil money and Dubai is at least doing something with it. So in the end maybe they have a skill of not throwing it all out but somehow investing it.


1st of all, if so, where is your problem? 

2nd it is just not true!!
of course oil was the start for all this, but from then on nothing is done with oil money except the govt projects like metro, roads etc!! and of course the oil money secures a tax free zone.
but the projects underway at the moment are not at all financed by Oil money.
emaar, the company building Burj Dubai, is only 33% govt owned, and the money they build their projects with comes from stock exchange, investors , sales etc.


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## dubaiflo (Jan 3, 2005)

bunt_q said:


> world's tallest in the middle east? i give it 10 years before some extremist or terrorist takes it down... almost too tempting a target not to. not that i'd blame them of course... if i had endless oil money i'd try and build something a little more human-scaled than a bunch of architectural monoliths... sure, they're nice towers... but what sets them apart from any of a thousand buildings going up in china? nothing.



huh? was there an attack in the middle east or in the US at first? :runaway: 

and what sets the us skyscrapers etc apart from the ones in china..?


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## Æsahættr (Jul 9, 2004)

Dubai has just 10% of it's GDP tied in with oil...


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## Open Road (Feb 26, 2005)

Oh my fu$king God. I think the admins should hit a big fat BIGOT button on some of these posts, and then let the rest of us decide to just turn the BIGOT marked posts off so we don't have to deal with them.

I have never been to Dubai. I don't know anyone who has been to Dubai. Most of my friends don't even know where the damn place is. But it is interesting. Whether you think the architecture is great or not, whether you think they "deserve" a city or not (and since when did THAT become valid), and whether or not you possess the economic understanding to see how and why they are reshaping their economy, Dubai is one hell of an interesting thing.

Some of these posts are just so rediculous. To the numbnut blasting Dubai for being able to build buildings because they have oil... and didn't have to make money the "hard" way. Exactly why is Panama City such a bustling city? Who built that canal anyway? I have nothing against Panama City, I'm just saying that for whatever reason, I don't see many people blasting away at it (and by the way, I know it's a center of banking, insurance, and finance, so don't rip my @$$ on it).

To the rolling donut in post #10 who said they are "Building the tallest in the world solely for just having that title."... well... yeah. I'm pretty sure it would have been less costly for Taipei to build a pair of towers instead of one... it looks like there might have been room for a nice quartet of half-size Petronas's instead of "just" 2. 

I think this thread should be locked. If not locked, maybe the admin can just set fire to the preceeding 4 pages because the adolescent rediculum is pathetic. Too many people put too much time gagging back their bile to dole out educational answers that no one cares to read. I don't know where people get such an anti-everything different attitude, but tonight it was too much. 

If you found this tirade obnoxious or enraging... I apologize, but you can go [email protected]$k yourself. Just ask the admin to institute my BIGOT post policy.

BTW, Luv2BeBrown... Nice photos man.


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## dubaiflo (Jan 3, 2005)

calm down man


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## Arpels (Aug 9, 2004)

Dubay city is an investment made by Dubai government for the future such as anothor investment I dont see nothing wrong in that :?


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## dubaiflo (Jan 3, 2005)

agree but still even that is nut true.
at least 95& of dubai's projects except things like the metro/roads etc are not at all govt financed!


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