Richard Schragger (Virginia): The Attack on American Cities. In the wake of the housing crisis, a new breed of real estate investor is destroying America’s cities. Richard Florida is sorry: Sam Wetherell reviews The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class-and What We Can Do About It by Richard Florida (and more and more and more). Are cities too small or too big? To get the most collective benefits out of urban life, we might need more people to live in fewer (but bigger) cities. Making cities more dense always sparks resistance: David Roberts interviews Brent Toderian on how to deal with NIMBY [Not In My Backyard]. Why big cities thrive, and smaller ones are being left behind.
Amelia Thorpe (UNSW): Hegel’s Hipsters: Claiming Ownership in the Contemporary City. How to stop gentrification: Individuals moving to newly-hip neighborhoods admit they are part of the problem — what can they do? We should ban cars from big cities — seriously. Driverless cars could see humankind sprawl ever further into the countryside. Why can’t we get cities right? Paul Krugman wonders. Desperately seeking cities: Amazon has bankrupted the ideology it claimed to appeal to, the ideology of “urbanism”. Amazon is running its own hunger games — and all the players will be losers.
How Detroit’s mayor became unbeatable: Mike Duggan pulled a symbol of American decline back from the brink — now, he wants to finish what he started. Will Columbus’ Smart City grant serve moms in need? Why so many Americans are saying goodbye to cities: What’s happening to New York City is a microcosm of what’s happening around the country — the hollowing out of the U.S. city. To Donald Trump, the American city will always be a dystopic, “eighties movies” New York.
