It seems that love is in the air of this city at last. After launching My New Singapore recently, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan spoke to the Straits Times’ Insight (Love and the City, April 24) about how memories were important in fostering Singaporeans love for this city and how such feelings will make this city not just liveable, but lovable.

When you feel for this place, people will think twice about littering, about dirtying the place. They will think about how they interact with fellow Singaporeans. It’s that sense of being part of this place, being part of something special.
Mah Bow Tan, National Development Minister  

Yesterday, Minister Mah also announced the upcoming Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize to recognise those who have helped contribute to creating a vibrant, liveable and sustainable city. Nominations for the award begins in June.

But awards and state initiatives aside, how do ordinary Singaporeans feel and cope with living in this city? Prof Lai Ah Eng’s recent working paper A Neighbourhood in Singapore: Ordinary People’s Lives ‘Downstairs’ for the Asia Research Institute provides an ethnographic answer. The paper looks at Marine Parade residents and the daily interactions in their public housing space and concludes that seemingly ordinary places to urban planners are actually inspiration for artists and memory markers for communities. And at the end of the day, people just want to have a say in how their city is built and planned.