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.

In a recent post on the New York Times’ Economix blog, Harvard economist Edward Glaeser takes a look the solutions to the inherent problems of close human proximity over the course of American city history and determines that basic survival compels city dwellers to be more government-inclined.

Money quote…

I’m a big fan of the free market, and I see lots to like in liberty. But the downsides of proximity, be they cholera or crime, have never been solved with laissez-faire. Costly, often intrusive public action has often been needed to manage the negative externalities associated with urban density.

In a sense, the gulf between the political attitudes of New York City and Montana can be understood as a reflection of the fact that city dwellers need government a lot more than ranchers do.

h/t: Otis White

There’s a new post on the New York Times’ Economix blog by Harward Economics professor, Edward Glaeser, which gives a concise overview of Atlanta’s economic history and weighs in on the city’s future.

Though Atlanta has higher-than average unemployment and is suffering from the real estate market coma, Glaeser is still putting his chips on the ATL.

Yet there are three key reasons to think that Atlanta will weather this storm and continue to thrive.

First, Atlanta benefits from the fact that it is the dominant agglomeration in the region. The continuing vitality of large cities is a remarkable feature of our age and Atlanta benefits from that fact.

Atlanta also benefits from its business-friendly politics, which will continue to attract plenty of companies.

Finally, Atlanta also benefits from being highly skilled — something that outsiders too often forget.

Nearly 43 percent of adults in the city of Atlanta have college degrees, as opposed to 27 percent in the nation as a whole, and 41 percent in Boston. The figure is even higher in surrounding Fulton County.

Skills have long led to urban success, especially when mixed with large urban size.

Smart money never bets against the ability of a huge concentration of smart people to weather an economic storm. Don’t count Atlanta out.

h/t: Terminal Station