Cities Represent the Ultimate Achievement of Mankind

Today, more than one-half of the world's population lives in cities. In every corner of the world, people are moving to cities at a rapid and geometric pace. The urban migration taking place today is both historic and inevitable. Our cities represent the ultimate triumph and organizing principle of humanity. They are more than either the concrete jungle portrayed by Billy Wilder in the Lost Weekend, or the human zoo, that Desmond Morris claimed.


The great San Francisco columnist, Herb Caen, one said of cities, “that they should not be judged just by their length and width, but by the broadness of their vision and the height of their dreams.” They are, in some ways, the ultimate achievements of mankind.

Few understand them better than Monica L. Smith, a professor of anthropology and professor in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at the UCLA where she holds a chair in Indian Studies and serves as the director of the South Asian Archeology Laboratory in the Cotsen Institute of Archeology. She is the author, most recently of Cities: The First 6,000 Years

My conversation with Monica Smith:

Jane Jacobs Understood that Cities Have Always Reflected The Best of Us

More and more of us are moving to cities. Look at any demographic map and it’s clear we are becoming a more urban nation. Cities are the vital link in our cultural, social and economic well being. And no one knew more, or understood cities better than Jane Jacobs.

100 years after her birth, her work, her insights and her chronicle of cities is the gold standard by which we judge both the good and bad policy and planning decisions we make.

Robert Kanigel gives Jacobs the biography she has needed, in Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs.

My conversation with Robert Kanigel

Why Cities Matter...Today More Than Ever

While Rural America may have made its voice heard in our recent election, the numbers show that more and more Americans, as well as citizen around the world, are moving to cities. Look at any demographic map of the US and it’s clear that we are becoming a more urban nation. As such, cities are the vital link in our cultural, social and economic well being.

But they also are, by virtue of their density, laboratories for so many of the larger problems that face the society. Problems of inequality, education, race, class and creative disruption are all playing out in our cities.

Cornell professor William Goldsmith thinks they are also target rich in opportunities. He lays out his ideas in Saving Our Cities: A Progressive Plan to Transform Urban America.

My conversation with William Goldsmith:

Triumph of the City

Modern communications technology enables us to leap great distances in a single bound. It allows us to telecommute, to stay connected and even to run a business half way around the world. But does any of this enhance creativity? Does it help generate new ideas? The fact is, our greatest natural resource has been the coming together of people and ideas in the worlds great cities.

While we often associate cities with blight and poverty, our cities have been the incubators of the future. They are places where people are healthier, more creative, more environmentally correct and more in touch. There is a profound reason that two-thirds of the world live on the three percent of the land, that are our cities. Harvard economist Edward Glaeser celebrates this in his new work Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier.

My conversation with Edward Glaeser:

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The Suburban future?

Unlike much of the west, America's population continues to grow.  But will the demographic makeup of this growth be good for America?  Social thinker Joel Kotkin thinks so.  In his new book The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050 says that within fourty years ever more Americans will move to new "greener" suburbs and will be less reliant on cities. His arguments run counter to the views of the New Urbanists and people like Richard Florida.  Is Kotkin's vision really a view of the continued Walmartiation of America?

My conversation with Joel Kotkin:

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Daily must reads

In addition to continuing to post my interviews, today I begin a new feature on this site. During the course of each day, both in preparation for my interviews and in preparation for my afternoon show on KVON, I have the opportunity to read significant amounts of material: Newspapers, blogs, trade publications and links of some of the best and the brightest. I've always felt that I should, at the very least, share some of this with you.

So beginning today, I will post a once daily list of some of what I think are the more interesting and informative pieces I've read and would like to pass one. I hope you enjoy these and I would of course love to have your feedback.

To begin, let me highlight the following from last week:

1. Steven Pearlstein writing in the Washington Post about why the "public option" is not that big a deal.
2. Christopher Hitchens, he of often great cynicism, taking a look at the pain of Elizabeth Edwards in the ATLANTIC.
3. A look at how cities may represent the new American Dream.
4. A look at EveryBlock, a new Hyperlocal website acquired by MSNBC.
5. Simon Johnson of MIT's Sloan School looks at how the recession may be creating greater income inequality.
6. Nate Silver at 538 looks to see if the health care protests are working.
7. Finally,if you haven't yet seen it, the trailer for the upcoming film AVATAR.