The Case for Cities

Most of my family members and school friends live in the suburbs. None of them are necessarily anti-city or pro-suburb, they've just chosen the package that makes sense for them and I don't begrudge them that. But let me lay out an argument for why the future of cities is so important for all of us and not just those who happen to prefer them.

Let me start by simplifying things in saying that what I mean by cities is basically density. There's a lot that comes with being a city, and a lot of ways scholars can define them, but fundamentally let's strip it down to the premise that cities are where there is a dense concentration of people and stuff, and everywhere else is less dense in those things. Again, this is all descriptive, nothing prescriptive or judgey.

But let's unpack what you get what you cram a bunch of stuff together. And here is where I strongly believe that our shared destiny rests on whether cities will thrive going forward. Because they are our path forward for innovation, equity, and sustainability.

I've said often that the myth of the solo inventor toiling away in his lab is just that: a myth. We now know innovation happens incrementally, due to the collision of many planned and unplanned interactions, preferably with groups of people who come from diverse disciplines and perspectives. Well, I've just described a city, because what is a city if not a place where you can have many planned and unplanned interactions with groups of people from diverse disciplines and perspectives. Obviously, innovation can happen from one person out of nowhere. And, it can happen in less dense settings, where people do still get together and exchange ideas and riff and explore. But the most fertile ground for such action is cities. And whether we are racing to stay ahead of the next public health disaster, environmental crisis, or business cycle shift, a lot of the planting and germination and flourishing of those seeds will happen in cities. Or, alternatively, it won't, if we don't preserve the conditions for innovation. In which case we all lose out.

We also all lose out when cities cease to be places where diverse groups of people feel welcome to exist, exchange, and be their full selves. It has long been established that diversity isn't just a feel-good thing: it contributes to more successful businesses, more abundant artistic expression, and more just societies. And cities are where we are exposed, by choice and by proximity, to people who are different from us. In our neighborhoods, in our public gathering places, and on the streets, we rub elbows with all walks of life, and it reminds us that we are more alike and less scary than we might otherwise think. Other places, you can opt out of such inter-mingling; indeed, most non-urban places are officially organized to self-sort. So cities are where we can be in diverse settings, and pursue intentional acts of inclusion and equity in the process. But this does not happen on its own, but rather must be cultivated. For it can also be true that cities hollow out, or become just as segregated, or metastasize into places where warmth and open-mindedness are replaced by prejudice and exclusion. In which case we all lose out.

Lastly, if there were an existential crisis we face as a human race, it is our environment. And no matter how much we want to think that driving electric cars and protesting coal plants is our path to salvation, the fact of the matter is that continued human flourishing requires a dramatic rethink of how we live and move about. It's crazy to me that when most people think "green," they consider rolling hills rather than a dense urban grid, and yet the latter is vastly superior in carbon footprint and ecological sustainability. If we fail our cities and our cities fail us, leaving everyone to scatter to their corners to live and circulate in relative isolation, not only do we miss out on opportunities for innovation and equity, but we also put the final nail in our own coffin as residents of this planet Earth. In which case we all lose out.

So that's my case for cities. You don't have to live in them or even like them. But don't think that a pro-city agenda and pro-city investments have nothing to do with you. Rather, they hold the key to our collective future.