Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser Coming to Decatur to Discuss “Triumph of the City”
Decatur Metro | February 18, 2011
From the DeKalb Public Library website…
The renowned Harvard University economist Edward Glaeser visits us to discuss his eagerly awaited new book, Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier. It’s a book that faces up to the bad rap America’s cities get: they’re dirty, poor, crime-ridden, expensive, environmentally unfriendly. Glaeser shatters these myths and demonstrates that cities are actually the healthier, greenest and richest — in cultural and economic terms — places to live. Glaeser is the Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard who studies the economics of cities, segregation, crime and innovation.
Glaeser will speak at the Decatur Library on Tuesday, February 22nd from 7:15p – 9:00p.
What might he be discussing? Here’s are of his more interesting arguments mentioned in the recent New York Times’ review of the book…
[Glaeser] chastises city planners in Paris and Mumbai, making a passionate argument for building up — and up and up.
Though he admires Jane Jacobs’s insights into the virtues of mixing residential and retail together, he thinks her prescription for small-scale neighborhoods is wrongheaded. He’d much rather see neighborhoods of skyscrapers than acres of suburban developments.
…Glaeser is scathing in denouncing local conservationists for their devotion to “leafy suburbs,” which he sees as being at odds with true environmentalism. Reminding us that even Thoreau benefited from association with a circle of urban intellectuals, he insists that suburbanization is producing an ecological disaster.
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I heard Professor Glaser on Market Place on the way home yesterday. It was a very interesting interview and I wished it was longer…….now it can be. Thanks for the heads up. See you Tuesday.
Interesting. Is the conclusion here that we should have more 50 story buildings downtown and fewer Decaturs?
There’s other Decaturs? Are any near the ocean and mountains with low taxes but also an excellent school system with walkable, neighborhood schools, and a low crime rate but also within an hour on mass transit to urban amenities, plus a broad and deep job base plus competition for Internet, cable TV, and cell phones that keeps prices low and service good? Oh, and a good all-night diner?
Probably not in this country. But omit “low taxes” and you can find much of that in Europe. Ok, maybe not a good all-night diner.