(Community Matters) Richard Florida, author of The Creative Class, is guest blogging on The Daily Dish this week.
In The Economy of Cities, Jacobs controversially argued that virtually all of economic growth traces back to cities; in her view, cities actually precede agriculture. Early cities, according to Jacobs, spurred agricultural development by providing trading centers for agricultural products.
While it’s common to think of suburbs as draining off city assets, today’s metropolitan areas with their urban cores and suburban and ex-urban rings, are really expanded cities. Up until the early-to-mid 20th century, cities were able to capture peripheral growth by annexing new development, until suburbs figured out they could prosper by becoming independent municipal entities – thus the now-famous concentric-ring or, in some cases, the hole-in-the-donut pattern of our metro regions. The growth of gargantuan mega-regions like the Boston-New York-Washington corridor is essentially the next phase of this process of geographic development.
It’s important to understand how these two interrelated geographic processes – outward geographic expansion and the more intensive use of existing urban space – combine to shape economic progress.
Always enjoy Richard’s insights. Surprised he didn’t take this piece just a bit further and call for revisions in metropolitan governing structures – which are long overdue.
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