Two last comments about life in Singapore.

1. All hotels and restaurants are required to let non-customers use their toilets, and they are all beautiful and so clean. For most restaurants they are actually located on the outside to avoid non-customer traffic through the restaurant. Very handy as a tourist.
2. The basic idea of the public housing is to build at the pace required to avoid a price surge. When one applies they go to a central location, where a giant display board shows the apartment units still available. One goes there with a prioritized list, just hoping their first choice is still available when their number comes up.

Now pivoting to one of our fun things. When we last visited Japan we had this wonderful dinner. It is called Kaiseki, and features more than 20 courses. Each course is a bite or three, and they are served in bunches of artfully arranged ceramic dishes — with each dish unique in color and design. A wonderful presentation yet a dishwasher’s nightmare.

Betsy became intrigued when some of the plates and dishes served to me had gold veins in them, while hers did not. It felt like I was always getting the nicer ones with gold, perhaps because I was the male. Before we left we asked if we could buy one or two of the dishes with gold veins. The General Manager was at first perplexed, then had to laugh. Their dishes are valuable, and they fix the ones they break with a technique called Kintsugi. It has intrigued us since, and we discovered an opportunity in Singapore to actually learn how it is done at a special studio with a teacher certified in the art. So we did.

Essentially one mixes gold into epoxy glue, carefully spreads it on the first broken surface with enough for some to squeeze out, and then align and press the two pieces together by hand until it dries. When all of the pieces have been put together and more time has passed more gold dust is brushed across the seams with a mascara brush. If one is very careful the gold seams ooze out uniformly and make a beautiful design. Here is a photo of the final outcome plus one of the work in progress.

It has been fascinating to learn about the planning behind Singapore’s evolution. Even before independence was achieved in 1965 a master plan was in place. Today that master plan has 50, 30, 20, 10 and 5 year layers, and is updated every five years. People understand it and it has been followed.

For context, Singapore is physically smaller than New York City, and even Augusta GA. Singapore has 6 million population, vs. 8+ million for NYC. So Singapore also has to be a vertical city. Singapore has room to expand into the sea, however, and much of the new development occurs on land reclaimed from the sea. The land in Singapore all belongs to the government, with 99 year leases for buildings issued for commercial buildings (e.g. office building). We were intrigued by a number of examples of how the combination of land ownership and strategic planning contribute to an interesting place to live.

Fresh water. With such explosive growth where does the fresh water come from? They do have wells and desalinization and import water, yet never want water shortage to be an issue because it was a big one many years ago. Over a 20 year period of time with a lot of innovation, they converted a salt water marshy and messy area to a fresh water river and bay that are now a centerpiece of downtown and serve as a 3rd level reserve reservoir. They even have robots cruising around in the water to pick up any surface material/trash.

Housing. Singapore’s explosive growth has required rapid housing construction, all mid-high rise. The concept has been a block of housing building, with a market and community center integrated at the center of the complex. The first one (shown in this photo) actually dates back to British rule and was built in the 1930’s.

Today 90% of Singaporeans live in public housing. Why? Availability, cost and culture! All but the top ten % of income qualify for public housing, and the cost is 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of private housing. In public housing you own your unit (for 99 years) and are free to rent it out or resell it. As a prospective resident you can choose to buy on the open market or wait for a new government block to be constructed (typically a three year wait). You can get on the list for a new place and move when it is ready. One of our guides had moved ten times.

The latest models deliberately integrate all sizes of apartments to create a mix of income levels in the same building. They have vibrant community centers with a myriad of activities for all ages. And while they like stylish and luxury goods there is no “keep up with the Joneses” mentality here related to housing. In fact it is not “cool” to have private housing if you qualify for public housing. People actually turn down wage increases to keep their eligibility. One great result of all of this is that owners take better care of everything in their block. This is an excellent article with more info. https://www.businessinsider.com/see-inside-public-housing-singapore-hdb-million-dollars-blue-zone-2023-11#each-hdb-estate-typically-consists-of-a-few-identical-apartment-blocks-clustered-together-7

Seniors: With an aging population Singapore is shifting its support system from senior residences to extending living at home. Benefits are offered to family members caring for elders, and a network of nurses and care providers is being developed that go to the homes of seniors instead of having them come to a medical office.

Homeless: Singapore has no homeless population, for several reasons:

• Sleeping on park benches or any public place is not permitted (even if attired in a Ferragamo suit). The police will intervene.
• Use of drugs is a no-no, for anybody. Therefore not a homeless contributor.
• Anyone who loses their job and runs out of funds is provided basic housing with a time limit. It is not free — they still have to pay something. Those with medical or mental issues are cared for in government facilities.
• Their culture associates shame with not providing for yourself by working. You must find a way! And panhandling is not seen either. There is a shame in that as well.

There are so many more components to the many outcomes of their strategic planning and execution. It has been very enlightening.