Urban Studies Watch, ctd.

Main and Broadway, Vancouver

As promised, I have been following the Economist debate on the proposition "This house believes that restricting the growth of cities will improve quality of life" and I have come to a conclusion of sorts. It is this: it depends on the city.

Both sides advocate for careful city management and accountable governance, with the proposition advocating restricting city size as one tool of management in a modern city:

Our contemporary planet, beset by climate change, resource depletion and self-destructive growth, is a different place than it was when a world-without-limits seemed to have common-sense veracity.

I think this argument has excellent merit, and certainly cities in the developing world have the economic and political tools to productively limit their city's growth: green belts and zoning laws, for example. I for one would love to see the environmental impact of suburban sprawl mitigated, and feel that to do so would require limiting the growth of cities and their surrounding areas.

As much as I am tempted to agree with the proposition that "restricting urban growth of a sprawling and bloating city by democratic processes would be a possible tool for a better life for its citizens," I have to cede a point to the opposition:

My view is, and this true to most sprawling cities in developing countries, that this is not feasible.
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In light of this (weak urban planning systems and lack of strong urban management), one does not jump to an impractical conclusion and charge ahead with the utopian task of restricting urban growth to achieve improved quality of life. Rather, the focus should be on creating better urban planning and management systems to tackle the challenges in a more sustainable way, especially in the small and medium-sized towns/cities that are fast becoming the growth magnets in most countries.

I suspect that rather than siding with either proposition or opposition, we should realize that cities should each have their own municipal government and their respective strategies for dealing with growth; in cities of the developed world this should certainly include curtailing growth in order to develop in a smarter, more environmentally-friendly way. In developing cities, developing in a smart and environmentally-sane manner is also a laudable goal, it just may not yet be compatible with restricting the growth of cities.

I would also like to share a podcast I found: from NPR's Radiolab, subject: Cities. The fantastic hour-long radio show intertwines an interview with the physicists studying the city as a statistical object with incredibly unique stories of cities from around America. If you have an hour near your speakers, it's worth a listen.