The Atlantic - a longtime favorite author of news, politics and cultural commentary - last week embarked on a new journey that we are truly mad about. With Sommer Mathis and Richard Florida at the helm, The Atlantic Cities
is a new portal for masses to search all-things-city.
The site serves four purposes, according to Mathis:
1) A position to recite stories about where cities are today, where they`ve been and where they`re headed;
2) A forum to deliver latest news and events happening in cities across the globe;
3) A place for the smartest thinkers and researchers in urbanism to help a bigger-picture, ideas-based conversation with readers; and
4) A new media release to say these stories.
Why the stress on cities?
As start of the launch, Richard Florida wrote a man called "Why Cities Matter." Here`s a tease of Florida`s article:
Our species is good on its way to becoming Homo urbanus. Consider that only two centuries ago, only 3 percent of the world's population lived in cities. At the morning of the 20th century, it was only 14 percent. Today, it`s exploded to more than half the world`s population. And by the year 2030, more than 5 million people (six out of every ten human beings) will live in cities and urban centers.
Cities are our greatest invention. They generate wealth and better living standards while providing the density, interaction, and networks that give us more creative and productive. They are the key social and economic organizing units of our time, bringing together people, jobs, and all the inputs required for economic growth. The great Jane Jacobs was possibly to start to note that in and of themselves cities are engines of innovation; their concentrations of talented and creative people advance and accelerate economic growth. This class in fact marks the 50th anniversary of Jacobs` classic Death and Spirit of Great American Cities-one of the many things we`ll be discussing on this site.
We`re a metropolitan nation, as Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution reminds us: when we say "cities," we actually mean "metropolitan areas." A "tube" or metropolitan area encompasses not just a focus city but its suburban rings. (My colleague Nate Berghas a large piece describing the different ways we define and measure cities. Nearly 85 percent of Americans live in metro areas, which produce 90 percent of the U.S.`s total economic production and 85 percent of its jobs. Across the world, metros with populations of more than one billion people account for more than half the world`s economic output, while housing roughly one in 5 of its people.
As they get bigger, many of these metros are morphing into mega-regions. Decades ago, the geographer Jean Gottman predicted the mount of the megalopolis, as capital cities and metropolitan areas grew together into something even bigger, like the one he dubbed Bos-Wash running from Boston through New York to Washington, D.C. on the eastern seaboard. While many commentators wish to talk about the new global competition among nation states and the surface of the so-called BRICs economies-Brazil, Russia, India and China-their rise has been molded and defined by their cities and mega-regions-the Sao Paolo-Rio corridor, the greater Moscow region, the Bangalore-Mumbai axis and the great mega-region that stretches from Shanghai to Beijing. The world`s 40 largest mega-regions house 18 percent of its people, produce two-thirds of its economic output, and 9 in ten of its innovations.
If our cities are our most powerful engines of growth, they are also greener and more environmentally efficient than suburbs and small towns, as David Owenand others have shown. Multi-family dwellings that share walls are easier to inflame than detached single family houses; density discourages car use and promotes mass transit and walking. Our cities are safer, too. Crime is down to its lowest point in 40 years, especially in America's biggest cities. Part of the cause lies in better policing, but lots of it lies in their growing diversity and improving conditions.
The textbook of the full article can be found here.
Meanwhile, Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution has written a man for The Atlantic Cities called "The Metropolitan Moment," highlighting the grandness of our metro regions to the global economy. Metros, he writes, are crucial for a kind of reasons, but specifically:
1) Metros are innovating locally to direct the change from an economy characterized by debt, consumption and income inequalities to one determined by exports, powered by low carbon, fueled by innovation and plentiful with opportunity;
2) U.S. metros are advocating nationally to engage the service and funding of their states and the union government; and
3) U.S. metros are networking globally to extend the possibilities of deal and exchange.
Cities and metros are critical to the economy; that is clear. What is less clearly in these pieces is where the character of our inner cities comes in. Inner cities are critically significant to both cities and metros for various reasons, including: they provide a diversified workforce, excellent approach to public transit, and cheap housing, office and retail space. America`s inner cities are also home to more than 800,000 small and midsize businesses. We here at ICIC know that inner cities offer make a competitive advantage, but must be supported in place to do so. As such, we look ahead to working with The Atlantic Cities to cast light on the assets and call of our nation`s inner cities neighborhoods.
In the meantime, we will extend to search the new site-and advance others to do the same!
Be the beginning to comment!
BY Amanda Maher on September 19th, 2011
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