Abstract
The Pacific Asian urban transition is part of a process of globalization that is pitting city against city during intensifying games of competition for internationally footloose investment. The major dilemma posed by this form of globalization is how to make cities more livable and environmentally sound as vagabond capital demands higher levels of subsidies and giveaways, and lower impositions of environmental costs on business. Intercity cooperation within and among nations is proposed, to overcome the “grow now, clean up the environment later” syndrome, by using livability as a means of securing global investment and gaining greater local economic resilience.