Why Cities Are Shiny On The Outside And Crumbling From The Inside
by Vince?Daliessio
Joel Kotkin wrote a marvelous speech on the?history, functions, and future of cities?to deliver to the US Conference of Mayors. So marvelous, in fact, that they canceled him. An excerpt;
THE RISE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS MAKES MORE AND MORE OF WHAT CITIES HAVE HISTORICALLY DONE CONTESTABLE BY OTHER GEOGRAPHIES --- NOT JUST FROM SUBURBS BUT ALSO FROM THE FAR-FLUNG COUNTRYSIDE AND FROM OTHER PLACES AROUND THE WORLD.
TO WITHSTAND THIS COMPETITIVE CHALLENGE, CITIES NEED TO BE STRONGER IN ALL THE ESSENTIAL AREAS...WHAT OCCURRED THIS FALL IN NEW ORLEANS WAS NOT SIMPLY A PHYSICAL DISASTER, BUT THE RESULT OF A DEEP-SEATED ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC MALAISE THAT INFECTS MOST URBAN AREAS...
...DELUDED BY THE CURRENT SPECULATIVE REAL ESTATE MARKET,?(CITIES) THINK THEY ARE RESTORING THEIR HEALTH WITH A LITTLE PLASTIC SURGERY...JUST ADD?A STARKITECHT -DESIGNED ART CENTER, BASEBALL STADIA, A PERFORMING ARTS PALACE, OR SOME YUPPIE LOFTS AND COOL BARS, AND PEOPLE THINK THEY CAN DECLARE PROUDLY THAT CITIES ARE BACK. THIS IS LARGELY DELUSIONAL...
... "A METROPOLITAN ECONOMY, IF IT IS WORKING WELL, "? (JANE JACOBS) ?OBSERVED, "IS CONSTANTLY TRANSFORMING MANY POOR PEOPLE INTO MIDDLE CLASS PEOPLE...GREENHORNS INTO COMPETENT CITIZENS...CITIES DON'T LURE THE MIDDLE CLASS, THEY CREATE IT ."
TODAY ,INSTEAD OF NURTURING ITS MIDDLE AND WORKING CLASS, MOST ATTENTION IS SPENT ON ..."LURING" WEALTHY RETIREES, HIP AND COOL YOUNG PEOPLE AND OTHER NOMADIC TYPES.
Someone should tie up Mayor Skreep and read this to him, repeatedly.