Triumph of the City
January 8th, 2012 | Living Well | 2 Comments »
How our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier, and happier
Edward Glaeser, a New York City born and raised Harvard professor, mentions Nashville only in a few sentences in his new book, disparaging it as part of a group of low-density, sprawl cities in the South. Yet, I understand that Mayor Karl Dean has read the book and shared it with others. The reason is that despite little and adverse mention of Nashville, the book is full of insights and ideas that apply to Nashville and other southern sprawl cities.
Glaeser has a witty, but practical approach to his descriptions and prescriptions. As a New Yorker who grew into adulthood without owning a car, he clearly likes the city he grew up in. Yet, in a chapter comparing New York to Houston (the definition of a sprawl city), Houston comes out ahead as a place that is more friendly to middle-income families. And, in his middle age, Glaeser has moved out of urban Boston to the suburbs, where he makes a commute by car into Cambridge to talk to his students about urban living. At least he fesses up.
Like the movie “Urbanized,” Glaeser takes us on a world tour, beginning with his home town of New York City, but his focus is less on the particulars of design and more on describing why cities are triumphant, despite their problems, and what makes particular cities successful.
His central thesis is that cities bring together smart people who can “produce new thinking.” The new thinking then is transformed into products that people need and want by accessing the vast and diverse resources provided by the city.
To support his thesis Glaeser uses the data-driven tools of economics and also, like street-smart Jane Jacobs before him, makes street-level observations of “the crowds swooshing by” as they head to work, home, or play.
Urban density is green
Glaeser argues that dense is good (meaning green and productive and fun), and this leads him to support positions that many will not like.
- Up not out. He is an advocate of building “up” (the elevator) rather than building “out” (the car). Building up often involves tearing down what already exists (our heritage) and rebuilding in a new character (taller) that fits new demands for more concentrated and productive living. Suburban living, he points out, is surrounded by greenery, but is not “green.” The suburbanite is tethered to a car to get anywhere, and separated (as opposed to stacked) living units cost more to heat and cool.
- Preservation should be focused and limited. In this same vein, he argues that preservation should be limited and focused rather than widespread and indiscriminate. He says preservation restrictions should target only the most significant or beautiful structures, but not every old structure. Cities must be allowed to remake themselves if they are to remain productive and affordable.
- Mortgage interest deduction. The federal income tax interest deduction on home mortgages should be eliminated or capped, he argues. The deduction encourages suburban home building (McMansions) in leafy neighborhoods or green cow pastures (sprawl), and discourages the building of high rise rental apartments near the city’s core.
Nashville’s skyline has added a number of tall buildings in recent years, most related to banking or insurance, but recent high rises have included condos and apartments–downtown living. When I arrived in Nashville in 1972, only two of the 10 tall buildings you see in this picture had been built.
Batman occupies the top floor. AT&T occupies most of the remainder. Cell phones with ears no longer exist. Built in 1994, it stands 617 feet tall (tallest in Tennessee).
Two successful cities: Houston versus New York
In one chapter, Glaeser makes a direct comparison between Houston (where building codes are non-existent) and New York City (where building codes control everything). He ends up praising Houston for its reasonably priced housing as a boon to the middle class. By comparison, New York is a boon for the wealthy who can afford to live in Manhattan, and to the poor who can live outside the city in the suburbs, yet commute in on public transit. Houston doesn’t have restrictive covenants that limit housing construction, and so construction occurs as needed to meet demand. New York has many restrictions on building, with the result that housing stock is expensive. The middle class are priced out into the city suburbs, producing long commutes.
Houston, despite its favorable mention, however, is a sprawl city, built around the automobile and hostile to walking except in the shopping malls that can only be reached by car. Sprawl cities, despite their middle class appeal, are energy hogs, contributing far more than they should to Carbon emissions on a per capita basis.
The father of urban (or village) sprawl
Glaeser, in his discussion of urban sprawl and its ecological damage, accuses a former Harvard undergraduate of being the “father of urban sprawl.” It is a surprising choice. That former student, as a young man seeking the simple life surrounded by nature, built a cabin by himself from scratch in the woods near a New England pond. Henry David Thoreau, sitting in his hut near Walden Pond, might be surprised at what he spawned, but someone living on an acre of partially forested land in Bellevue or maybe Goodlettsville (and commuting 12 miles downtown) might consider themselves to be living out his vision (except for the commute, and having to hold a job). Such a suburbanite, of course, might admire the simple, leafy life, but would be a very active participant in suburban sprawl, using much more energy to get around and to heat or cool his or her home than someone living in a high-rise in the Gulch or downtown. Thoreau’s “green living” has become “brown” in our own era.
On the left, the L&C (Life and Casualty) Tower, the company that sponsored the Grand Ole Opry, and the oldest tall building in Nashville. On the right, a condo tower, housing, among others, one of two couples I know who have moved to downtown towers. The L&C Tower was built in 1957 and is 409 feet tall.
Attracting talent
Glaeser has lots to say about why cities fail and why they succeed, and what he has to say represents the key rationale for reading his book and the reason the Mayor distributed it to his staff. Mayor Dean may even have taken his new-term playbook in part from the chapter on education—the skilled and innovative work force that is the key to the success for the modern city.
In his world tour of cities, Glaeser finds that successful cities each have unique features contributing to their success. But, he thinks that successful cities have one thing in common: they attract smart people and help them work collaboratively. They do this in different ways, though. To develop his argument, he takes a look at successful “types,” using several example cities for each type. He discusses:
- Capital (Imperial) cities (Tokyo, which is now the largest city in the world with approximately 36 million people; ancient Rome also gets a review),
- Well-managed cities (Singapore: clean, productive and “disciplined”),
- Smart cities (Boston, anchored around its elite universities),
- Consumer cities (Vancouver, an attractive place to go for “fun”), and
- Cheap (affordable) cities (Chicago, which in recent years has also been well managed).
He takes us through a brief history for each of the examples (about 15 cities in all) highlighting important events and interesting people along the way. The biggest surprise to me was an African city (Gaborone, Botswana) that he included in the “well managed” section.
I think Nashville has elements of all of these types:
- It is state government capital (though not a national capital or a nation-state);
- It has been well-managed in recent years (intelligent mayors and effective city administration);
- It is supported by a strong college/university infrastructure, including one of the nation’s elite research universities (Vanderbilt with its medical center also happens to be Nashville’s largest employer);
- It contains a downtown that thrives with music, sports, theaters, restaurants and bars; and
- It retains relatively cheap, close-in housing, including a lot of new high rise condo’s and apartments.
Glaeser’s description (and vision) of the city will find many harsh critics, including all of my neighbors who have fought so hard to keep commercial development at a distance.
I remember, in particular, the transformation of the nearby Richland Golf Club into a gated community (more or less a black hole for those outside the gate) rather than an accessible restaurant/office/condo district (the developer’s first offer) surrounded by a “buffer” of single unit houses.
I have a mild regret about that decision, and wish occasionally for a shorter walk to nice restaurants, a coffee shop, or even a corner grocery store, as is possible in much of close-in East Nashville.
But what my neighbors and I would not have liked is the traffic the commercial district would have generated from outside our neighborhood; the rude intrusion of fast-moving autos steaming off the interstate with grumpy drivers who are indifferent to the neighborhood and its values. So it was not the thing itself (the commercial/office district) that was the biggest problem, but the way office workers and retail customers would have gotten to the area (the flood of automobiles) that led to the resistance.
Yet, I think Glaeser is correct in predicting that the leadership of successful U.S. cities (even southern sprawl cities) will see the benefits of mixed use, higher density, taller buildings, more public transportation, and certainly more bikes and walkability, in order for talent to be attracted and collaborate, and for economic growth to continue. Nashville is certainly growing taller, but it is also building out, particularly its suburban counties. Competing visions aren’t bad, though, and the city may be better for the competition. The most important insight about cities is that they shouldn’t be just “one thing.”
If you are interested in where cities might be heading (and why people are heading to cities), you will find “Triumph of the City” dense with “aha” moments, well worth your time (and money).
Triumph of the City, by Edward L. Glaeser, Penguin Press, 2011
















