The city strategist

Charles Landry has arrived fresh off a six-week thinker-in-residence programme in Perth to help the city's authorities develop a 10-year strategic vision. You can see his thoughts are racing.

He is restless, mid-conversation asks what the question was, and is noticeably relieved when the interview is over, rushing to open the door for you to leave. He is an authority on the future of the world's cities, so he's forgiven for having weighty issues to ponder.

Landry founded Comedia in the UK 20 years ago as communications consultancy for unorthodox businesses. Sometime in the mid-80s the focus unintentionally shifted from organisations to cities.

"It all started with working with a theatre that was suddenly not doing very well in the English town of Basildon. In the course of the project we realised it was not the theatre that was the problem but the whole town; it was stagnating," says Landry.

Suddenly, they found themselves with projects that examined the identity and future identities of cities, determining what were the conditions that allowed them to plan and act creatively. "Creativity became a currency, in business, in education, and when that took off, so did we."

Then came a series on projects, including examining the future of cultural institutions such as public libraries and the development of the idea of the informed citizen, the social impact of the arts, the role of public parks.

A lot of what they examine is the city's culture. "As you become a global centre, it's important to know how much of Mumbai-ness you should retain; it's about working out what you keep as well as what you take on," Landry explains.

"We challenge the organisational structures of cities and develop a common language across professional disciplines concerned with city making," he continues.

What that really means is that they plan for cities to be competitive by examining their assets and whether they are relevant to the future. In Perth, he investigated opportunities for the city beyond mining, as well as developing a "green" mining industry.

Last year Landry wrote The Art of City Making which proposes that a city should not seek to be the most creative city in the world "" it should strive to be the best and most imaginative city for the world; city-making should have an ethical foundation.

Landry goes on to cite examples of creative cities, talking about Barcelona that in the 80s literally moved the city to its waterfront by putting the highway that separated the two, underground. On this newly open land were fashioned new beaches, parks, and neighbourhoods and it rejuvenated the city.

"It's rare that cities actually create a whole new blueprint for themselves but Bilbao did it with the Guggenheim project," he says. Bilbao's authorities took it on to jumpstart the Basque country's economy, and also so the city's metropolitan area could become a major cultural reference point for European regions.

Does he have any immediate ideas for Mumbai? "People seem to complain about the lack of civic pride. You already have the 'I Love Mumbai' campaign. If I were the government I would create a post for someone to be in- charge of making Mumbai's citizens fall in love with their city," he says simply.

Landry admits that half of all the work he does fails because it requires the coming together of so many different stakeholders. "All I can do is appeal to the dissatisfaction of the city's people. They take it from there." That's a simple but effective prescription. Now it's over to the people of this great city to take that prescription seriously and effect change.