book review triumph of the city ielts

IELTS AC Reading: Cambridge 13 Test 4; Reading Passage 3: Book Review; with best solutions and detailed explanations

This IELTS Reading post deals with Cambridge 13 Reading Test 4 Passage 3 which is entitled ‘Book Review’ . This post discusses all the answers and solutions for Reading Passage 3. This is another intended post for candidates who have the most difficulties in finding and understanding IELTS Reading Answers. This post can simply guide you the best to figure out every Reading answer without trouble. Finding IELTS Reading answers is a step-by-step routine and I hope this post can assist you in this topic.

Cambridge 13 Reading Test 4 Passage 3 :

The headline of the passage: book review.

Questions 27-29:   (Multiple Choice Questions)

[ Multiple choice questions are a common type of question set in the IELTS Reading test. It is also found in the Listening test.  Most of the time, they come with four options but sometimes there are three options. Candidates need to work hard for this type of question because this may confuse them easily in passage 2 or passage 3. There will be long answers for each question, so they may kill valuable time. So, a quick reading or skimming technique might come handy here.  Remember that answers in 3 options out of 4 will be very close. So, vocabulary power will help a lot to choose the best answer.]

[ TIPS: Skimming is the best reading technique. You need not understand every word here. Just try to gather the gist of the sentences. That’s all. Read quickly and don’t stop until you finish each sentence.]

Question 27: What is the reviewer’s attitude to advocates of positive psychology?  

Keywords for this question: reviewer’s attitude, advocates of positive psychology

We can find the reference to ‘positive psychology’ in line 6 of paragraph no. 1. Here, the writer defines ‘positive psychology’.  However, the mention of ‘advocates of positive psychology’ is found in line 12 of paragraph no. 2.  The writer says in lines 2-5 about them, “Those who think in this way are oblivious to the vast philosophical literature in which the meaning and value of happiness have been explored and questioned, and write as if nothing of any importance had been thought on the subject until it came to their attention .”

Here, as if nothing of any importance had been thought on the subject until it came to their attention means they are actually ignorant about the ideas which they should consider.

*The word oblivious also means unaware or ignorant .

So, the answer is: D

Question 28: The reviewer refers to the Greek philosopher Aristotle in order to suggest that happiness    

Keywords for this question: Aristotle,  

We find the mention of Greek philosopher Aristotle in line 7 of paragraph no. 2. So, we need to scan the lines carefully. Here, the writer says in lines 6-10, “For Bentham it was obvious that the human good consists of pleasure and the absence of pain. The Greek philosopher Aristotle may have identified happiness with self-realisation in the 4th century,. .. . .. .. .   but for Bentham all this was mere metaphysics or fiction.” The writer discusses here that Bentham considers happiness as only with pleasure and with the absence of pain. But for Aristotle it was not only pleasure and absence of pain. Rather, it was something that could be identified by self-realisation, which may not seem correct all the time.

So, the answer is: A

Question 29: According to Davies, Bentham’s suggestion for linking the price of goods to happiness was significant because

Keywords for this question: Davies, Bentham’s suggestion, linking, price of goods,

The answer is in the fourth paragraph, where the writer talks about price of goods. Here, in the last few lines, the writer says, “By associating money so closely to inner experience, Davies writes, Bentham ‘ set the stage for the entangling of psychological research and capitalism that would shape the business practices of the twentieth century’.”  The writer explains here that Bentham had associated money or price of goods with inner experience and thus made a connection between work and human psychology.

So, the answer is: B

Questions 30-34: (Summary completion with NO MORE THAN ONE WORD)

[In this kind of question candidates are given a summary for one, two or three paragraphs with some fill in the blanks questions. As these are fill in the blanks or gaps, there is a condition of writing no more than ONE, TWO, or THREE words for each answer and candidates must maintain this condition. Candidates need to find out the related paragraphs by correctly studying the keywords form the questions. Then, they should follow the steps of finding answers to fill in the gaps.]

Title of the summary: Jeremy Bentham

Question 30: In the 1790s he suggested a type of technology to improve _________ for different Government departments.

Keywords for this question: 1790s, technology, to improve, different Government departments  

The answer to this question lies in paragraph no. 3, lines 6-7 where the author writes, “In the 1790s, he wrote to the Home Office suggesting that the departments of government be linked together through a set of ‘conversation tubes’.”

These lines indicate that Bentham proposed to the Home office that Governmental departments should establish communication with Home office through ‘conversation tubes’.

So, the answer is: F (communication)

Question 31: He developed a new way of printing banknotes to increase ________

Keywords for this question: developed, new way, printing banknotes  

In paragraph no. 3, the author says in lines 8-9, “… and to the Bank of England with a design for a printing device that could produce unforgeable banknotes ”. Here, unforgeable means something that cannot be forged or falsified or falsified. So, this means that Bentham actually developed a new way of printing banknotes to increase safety or security .

So, the answer is: B (security)

Question 32: and also designed a method for the ________ of food.

Keywords for this question: designed, method, food

The reference to food can be found in lines 9-10 of paragraph no. 3. “He drew up plans for a “frigidarium” to keep provisions such as meat, fish, fruit and vegetables fresh.” These lines directly refer to the preservation of food .

So, the answer is: G (preservation)

Question 33: He also drew up plans for a prison which allowed the _______ of prisoners at all times, … .. . .

Keywords for this question: drew up plans, prison, allowed, prisoners

The answer is in lines 10-12 of paragraph no. 3. Here, the author writes, “He celebrated design for a prison to be known as ‘Panoptieon’, in which prisoners would be kept in solitary confinement while being visible at all time to the guards, ….”  Here, while being visible = under observation

So, the answer is: E (observation)

Question 34: when researching happiness, he investigated possibilities for its ________, and suggested some methods of doing this.  

Keywords for this question: investigated, possibilities, suggested some methods    

The answer to this question is also found in lines 1-2 of Paragraph no. 4. “If happiness is to be regarded as a science, it has to be measured ,….” This means Bentham suggested the methods of taking measurement .

So, the answer is: A (measurement)

Questions 35-40 (YES/NO/NOT GIVEN):

[In this type of question, candidates are asked to find out whether:

The statement in the question matches the claim of the writer in the text- YES The statement in the question contradicts the claim of the writer in the text- NO The statement in the question has no clear connection with the account in the text- NOT GIVEN ]

[TIPS: For this type of question, you can divide each statement into three independent pieces and make your way through with the answer.]

Question 35: One strength of The Happiness Industry is its discussion of the relationship between psychology and economics.

Keywords for this question: The Happiness Industry, discussion, relationship, psychology, economics

The answer can be found in the first few lines of paragraph no. 5 “The Happiness Industry describes how the project of a science of happiness has become integral to capitalism . We learn much that is interesting about how economic problems are being redefined and treated as psychological maladies ”. So, it is clear from these lines that there is a strong relationship between psychology and economics.

So, the answer is: YES

Question 36: It is more difficult to measure some emotions than others.

Keywords for this question: difficult to measure, some emotions,

The answer cannot be found in this passage. There is a sentence in paragraph 5 about the feeling of pleasure and displeasure that can be measured which gives further information for research management and advertising. “In addition, Davies shows how the belief that inner states of pleasure and displeasure can be objectively measured has informed management studies and advertising.” But it is not related to this question.

So, the answer is : NOT GIVEN

Question 37: Watson’s ideas on behaviourism were supported by research on humans he carried out before 1915.   

Keywords for this question: Watson’s ideas, behaviuorism, supported, research, humans, before 1915

The answer is found in lines 7-9 of paragraph no. 5 which directly contradicts the given question. “When he became president of the American Psychological Association in 1915, he had never even studied a single human being: his research had been confined to experiments on white rats.”

This means Watson’s experiments were on rats , not on humans.

So, the answer is: NO

Question 38: Watson’s ideas have been most influential on governments outside America.

Keywords for this question: Watson’s ideas, most influential, governments outside America

In paragraph 5 there is no information about the impact of Watson’s ideas on countries outside the USA.

So, the answer is: NOT GIVEN

Question 39: The need for happiness is linked to industrialization.  

Keywords for this question: need for happiness, linked, industrialization  

The answer to this question can be found in the opening sentence paragraph no. 6 which talks about the need for happiness that is connected with labour market. “ Modern industrial societies appear to need the possibility of ever-increasing happiness to motivate them in their labours.” This is a clear match with the question.

Question 40: A main aim of government should be to increase the happiness of the population.

Keywords for this question: main aim, government, increase, happiness of the population  

The writer says in lines 2-3 in paragraph no. 6, “But whatever its intellectual pedigree, the idea that governments should be responsible for promoting happiness is always a threat to human freedom .”

Our question asks to find out the aim. But we find out that this is a comment from the author, not a statement on the aim of government.

So, the answer is: NO  

Please leave your comments if you like this post or have any queries about it.

Click here for solutions to Cambridge 13 Test 4 Reading Passage 1 

Click here for solutions to Cambridge 13 Test 4 Reading Passage 2

36 thoughts on “ IELTS AC Reading: Cambridge 13 Test 4; Reading Passage 3: Book Review; with best solutions and detailed explanations ”

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Why the answer of 40 is not “Not Given”? In the sentence, it doesn’t mention government’s aim at all

I agree with you 🙂 The question designers of IELTS tests design the tests in a way that even the natives connot answer them correctly!!! I don’t understand it is an analytical test or a test for assessment of our English! I don’t comprehend why they are taking so hard! How many languages except their mother language do they know which expect us know English as well as our mother tongue?!

Sorry:( I am a little angry about the vain rigidity that the world has considered for people!

Hahahahhaha, wonderful???

Totally agree!

Initially, I also struggled to understand the explanation for question 40. After carefully scanning again, I finally found out the problem. We suppose to find the synonym of the key word ‘main aim of the government’ which is located in Paragraph 5, line 10 – ‘the goal of governments’. Reading that sentence, we’ll see that the main aim here is to change the behaviour of the population , not to increase their happiness.

Omg thank u

Government has several aims, and even if one of them is changing the behavior of the population, we still can not be sure whether increasing their happiness is their main aim or not, so the detail cant be in that passage

Just to for fun I guess, cause’ it is wrong answer to make a student have a mistake they say the answer is wrong!

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2 mistakes on ques 6 and 40 🙂

May I ask about the mistakes in details please?

I also found some difficulty in que 6 bcz I think it’s a true but it is false..!

Thanks for explanation But why the q 38 is notgiven ? It is obviously said that :In Britain

But it doesn’t mention ‘most influential’

Why some of the passage 3 in book 12 and 13 are too hard?

Hi thank you for all your information with nice flow to compare frequentist vs bayesian approach. I will look forward to next part of the tutorials!!

You’re most welcome!

The ans of third question should be false

Can you explain que no 37 ..here, they are talking about’ before 1915′ also.. But in passage ,it is mentioned that ‘ he became president in 1915’..

This means Watson’s experiments were on rats, not on humans.

I am from Vietnam and I wish I could do something for you. Since I started to do the tests, this web has helped me a lot

Hello, Thank you for your kind thoughts. My son is extremely sick. As a father, it gives me such a pain to watch him go through this. Please pray for my son.

According to the author’s analysis, the answer 40 seems like a ‘NG’. However, in the last paragraph, the writer gives his own comment that he is not agree with the idea that government should be responsible for promoting happiness, which is just what the question 40 claims. That’s why the answer 40 is a ‘N’ not a ‘NG’, cuz it contradicts the claims of the writer.

How the answer of 35 is yes? AND does it has mentioned that discussing relationship between psychology and economics is the strenght part of The happiness industry?

Thanks a lot.This was helpful

Good day! I always use your system to check my mistakes. The system is perfectly organised. Please, can you give me some advice about reading? I do most of the reading practices but the score is always the same 5.5 or 6.

Hello, I think you can register for some 1-to-1 classes with me. Here, I can help you solve your problems directly. If that sounds good, let me know. Here’s my email: [email protected]

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Many thanks.

Could you explain why the answer for 36 question isn’t No. Could you explain why the answer for 36 isn’t No

because there did not mentioned about emotions, only emphasized pleasure and displeasure

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Academic IELTS Reading: Test 2 Passage 2; A second attempt at domesticating the tomato; with top solutions and best explanations

This Academic IELTS Reading post focuses on solutions to IELTS Cambridge 17 Reading Test 2 Passage 2 that has a text titled ‘A second attempt at domesticating the tomato’. This is a targeted post for AC IELTS candidates who have big problems finding out and understanding Reading Answers in the AC module. This post can guide […]

Academic IELTS Reading: Test 2 Passage 1; The Dead Sea Scrolls; with top solutions and best explanations

This Academic IELTS Reading post focuses on solutions to an IELTS Reading Test 2 passage 1 that has a passage titled ‘The Dead Sea Scrolls’. This is a targeted post for Academic IELTS candidates who have major problems locating and understanding Reading Answers in the AC module. This post can guide you the best to understand […]

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By Diana Silver

• Feb. 11, 2011

Edward Glaeser, a Harvard professor of economics, has spent several decades investigating the role cities play in fostering human achievement. In “Triumph of the City,” he has embedded his findings in a book that is at once polymathic and vibrant.

Glaeser’s essential contention is that “cities magnify humanity’s strengths.” They spur innovation by facilitating face-to-face interaction, they attract talent and sharpen it through competition, they encourage entrepreneurship, and they allow for social and economic mobility. Glaeser takes us on a world tour of urban economics, collecting passport stamps in Athens, London, Tokyo, Bangalore, Kinshasa, Houston, Boston, Singapore and Vancouver. Along the way, he explains how urban density contributed to the birth of restaurants, why supermarket check-out clerks demonstrate the competitive advantage such density confers and how the birth of Def Jam Records illustrates the way cities spur artistic innovation. Here, his enthusiasm for cities is refreshing.

Glaeser’s got some tough words for poorly reasoned public policies that feed suburban living: federal highway programs, the mortgage tax deduction, low gas prices. While he understands the lure of big houses and lush lawns, he’s against subsidizing them. And he 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. Greater density is the goal: more people means more possibility. Even when writing about the developing world, Glaeser is unfazed by threats of overwhelmed sanitation systems, unsafe housing or impossible congestion. These, he suggests, are problems more readily solved than the environmental consequences of sprawling suburban life.

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. Growth that’s restricted in temperate areas like coastal California is pushed into intemperate ones like Las Vegas, where air-conditioning is leading to a carbon emissions nightmare. What will happen, he asks, if China and India emulate us? Paradoxically, fighting for local green space in the Bay Area undermines our ability to be global environmental activists.

Clearly, Glaeser loves an argument, and he’s a wonderful guide into one. “Triumph of the City” is bursting with insights and policy proposals to debate. Sometimes that’s a bit of a problem: there’s a lot of policy in this book, but not a lot of politics. It’s about ideas, not implementation. Some of those ideas may strike you as problematic: the increasing density he credits Atlanta with has been accompanied by an explosion of suburban sprawl. Others, like tilting the benefits of the tax system away from suburbanites and toward city residents, may sound absolutely unrealizable. And still others, like his advice to cities in decline to “shrink to greatness,” seem a little tone deaf, especially since those cities are steadily losing the skills and talent to find that greatness.

No matter though. If separating ideas from implementation can leave you a little lightheaded, you’ll still walk away dazzled by the greatness of cities and fascinated by this writer’s nimble mind.

TRIUMPH OF THE CITY

How our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, ­greener, healthier, and happier.

By Edward Glaeser

Illustrated. 338 pp. The Penguin Press. $29.95.

Diana Silver is an assistant professor of public health at the Steinhardt School of New York University.

Book Review – The Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier

“The Triumph of the City: …” by Edward Glaesar is an epiphany which throws light upon the driving forces behind the very existence of cities. It shatters the notion of cities being associated with downfall of humankind, and establishes them being spaces of shared knowledge that ultimately shape our well-being. This review is an attempt to bring out significant aspects of the book on central stage. The idea is not to criticise the arguments made by the author, rather to critically examine the nature of those arguments in the present context. The review is divided into three sections. The initial section gives a general overview of the book. It highlights the key ideas that have emerged through the chapters. The second section denotes the shift in author’s argument over the read. And the final section contains the reflection of author’s words from a neutral viewpoint. The impressions from classical literature are taken along with for making any external claims.

Summary of content

The shift of argument.

The book has nine chapters. Through each chapter, the author tries to answers a question establishing a connect between cities and humankind. Throughout, his focus shifts from stating that cities are the auxiliary support of human actions to pointing out various challenges of the city-life. In the first chapter- What Do They Make in Bangalore – the primary argument is that the successful cities are the ones that provide space for meaningful human interactions. Examples of Athens and Silicon Valley are also taken for the same. In the second chapter- Why Do Cities Decline – the author explores the reasons for urban decline. With the instances of New York in 1970s and Detroit under Coleman Young, the author has tried to lay emphasis on the economics and politics of a city’s rise/fall. In the third chapter- What’s Good About Slums – the ideals of economic prospects are reflected in the lives within urban slums. The Favelas of Rio and the American Ghettos have always been a priority location of people irrespective of their shortcomings. In the fourth chapter- How Were the Tenements Tamed – the author contemplates the dusty workplaces to be the engines of cities. Be it the case of Kinshasa or Dharavi, the idea of emerging through crimes and diseases remains the same. In the next chapter- Is London a Luxury Resort – the author has highlighted various economic factors which drive the city. Market forces like division of labour, economies of scale, competition, and affordability are introduced as intrinsic properties of a city. The high-end perceptions of London and New York are illustrated to validate the arguments. In the chapter six- What’s So Great About Skyscrapers – the general notion of going vertical rather than horizontal in development is brought to attention. The redefined zoning regulations of New York and Haussmann’s redevelopment of Paris are two very different cases which point towards the similar objectives. The chapter seven- Why Has Sprawl Spread – talks about the physical out-spill effects of modern cities. The cities of United States are talked about in creating an adverse impact on Housing Infrastructure and Transportation. With the next chapter- Is There Anything Greener Than Blacktop – The argument shifts over the environmental viewpoint in the cities. The consequences of environmentalism and the footprints associated with suburban living are criticized and it is established that life in cities would in fact be greener! Through the instance of India and China, it is further illustrated how the whole world has to pay if the two countries proceed with suburban living. With the last chapter- How Do Cities Succeed – the author directs the whole argument of city life to be better by pointing out successful cities over time. Tokyo (the imperial city); Singapore and Gaborone (the well-managed cities); Boston, Minneapolis, and Milan (the smart cities); Vancouver (the consumer city); Chicago and Atlanta (Growing cities); and Dubai (a peculiar man-made city) are pointed out to demonstrate how people are rich, smart, green, healthy, and happy in them.

A critical note

Although, the book also draws several instances from classical literature, there exists a gap (or, an anomaly). The book criticises the instrumental nature of “ Death and Life of Great American Cities ” by Jane Jacobs and suburban viewpoints of Lewis Mumford in “ The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, And Its Prospects ”. Having a previous knowledge of them helps to highlight the fact that this variance from classical literature exists merely because of difference in era- the reviewed book being published in the recent age, and them being published in 1960s. Jacobs did use conceptual tools of her era to understand the success and downfall of American cities. They were not economic in nature, rather social. She constantly pestered on dynamics of diversity within the cities, slumming and un-slumming, gradual and cataclysmic money, and border vacuums. Similarly, Mumford glorified the life in suburbia in early 1900s- with arguments supporting the quality of life with the greens. It is somewhat not reasonable to make a point by standing on (or taking help of) a point of view that was referred to in the previous century. Though it is appreciable that these literary gems are stated in the book, yet for someone not familiar with them would certainly form a sceptical opinion towards them.

The conclusion of the book is also very exceptional. Through the conclusion, the author has tried to bring harmony of thoughts by jolting down the points that are open to interpretation of every author like- levelling the playing field, curse of “not in my backyard- NIMBY”, bias towards sprawl, contrast of poor people and places, urbanization through globalization, etc. Lastly, it is the concluding sentence of the book that imparts a sense of an ultimate triumph within the reader- “ London’s ornate arcades or Rio’s fractious favelas, whether in the high-rises of Hong Kong or the dusty workspaces of Dharavi, our culture, our prosperity, and our freedom are all ultimately gifts of people living, working, and thinking together—the ultimate triumph of the city. ”

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Book Review: Triumph of The City

Why I liked “Triumph of The City”

The central theme of this book focuses on cities and their ability to improve the way we live. Although the author made numerous interesting and compelling arguments, I found his writing style a little too academic for my liking. Be that as it may, the author’s methodical approach and 30+ page bibliography where sufficient evidence to convince to me to nevertheless listen carefully to what he had to say. Some of his ideas which I found most insightful are summarized below.

Full Title : “Triumph of The City – How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier”

Author:  Edward Glaeser

Quick note from Spencer: This is the fifth in a series of book reviews we’ll be publishing to A.CRE. This post is written by Guest Author, Matthew de Klerk. A big thanks to Matthew for taking time out of his busy schedule to offer thoughts on this and other important books for real estate professionals.

Cities Spread Knowledge Exponentially

The author aptly describes cities as “the absence of physical space between people and companies”. In cities with highly educated populations, this abundance of interconnectedness is the crucial driver of innovation. When smart people live close to other smart people, they are able to exponentially increase the rate at which they learn and disseminate knowledge.

This idea of “creative collaboration” is not necessarily new. The famous Italian engineer and architect Brunelleschi influenced Donatello and Masaccio, both of whom played key artistic roles during the Florentine Renaissance of the 1400’s. In Athens too, Socrates was a pivotal mentor to Plato, who in turn taught Aristotle; these 3 Greek philosophers went on to collectively lay the foundations of Western Philosophy. The message is clear – densely populated areas leads to enhanced collaboration which drives innovation and growth.

Jevon’s Paradox

Under Jevon’s Paradox, efficiency improvements lead to greater consumption of a particular good. An example would be improvements in fuel efficiency; one would be forgiven for assuming that such improvement would lead to less fuel being consumed. In fact Jevon’s Paradox states the opposite; that increased fuel efficiency results in more fuel being consumed (because there are more cars being sold due to the reduced cost of fuel).

This is relevant within the IT field where technological innovations such as Skype have created a more relationship intensive world rather than decreasing our need for face-to-face interactions. This may seem counterintuitive but if anything, this further emphasizes our desire to maintain deep and meaningful human connections.

History Matters

Winston Churchill famously said “the longer you can look back, the farther you can see forward”, stressing the importance of analyzing history in order to better predict the future. The author does a great job of this by looking at the evolution of various cities over time and what they did to remain relevant and economically prosperous.

What I enjoyed most was his thorough analysis of both the successful (New York) and unsuccessful cities (Detroit aka “Motor City”). Detroit was a boom town up until the 1950’s, after which it steadily declined primarily due to its vast number of uneducated workers who failed to adapt to the new age once the motor industry declined. It is always easier to focus on celebrating our successes rather than analyzing our failures. Marc Twain once said that “history does not repeat itself but it does rhyme” and it is important that we critically analyze why certain cities failed in the first place in order to ensure we do not make the same mistakes again.

The Suburbs Suck

In the USA today, the poverty rate within cities is almost 8% higher than suburban areas. This statistic is incredibly biased however, as the author explains. He discusses how the higher poverty rate in cities is a testament to it strength rather than its perceived weakness. This is because cities attract poor people looking to improve their standard of living, subsequently increasing the population of the urban poor.

We notice that as economically prosperous cities improve life for the poor through better infrastructure (schools, transportation etc.) the poverty rate actually increases rather than declines, because more poor people are drawn to these benefits. As such, I think we shouldn’t be too quick to judge cities with highly impoverished populations as they are clearly doing something right.

Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)

Often when we think of foreigners flocking to cities, we tend to think “overcrowded public infrastructure” or “fewer jobs available for local workers”. Whilst these arguments do warrant some degree of merit, the author lays forth numerous examples of the great benefits to American society that such foreign nationals have brought to the USA, clearly demonstrating a net benefit.

From Alexander Hamilton to Sergey Brin, immigrants have accomplished some remarkable feats which have revolutionized local cities by helping urban areas connect with and learn from other countries. Although globalization and change may be frightening at times, it is crucial that we realize the massive long term economic benefit of increased innovation that makes the tradeoff of accepting foreigners into the country worthwhile.

Rating:  7.5/10

About the Guest Author:  Matthew de Klerk started his real estate career at a private equity real estatefirm in his hometown of Cape Town, South Africa. Matthew then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School where he completed his MBA in 2019. Matthew is currently a Senior Analyst at a hotel investment firm based in Atlanta, GA.

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Here & Now

The Academy of Urbanism Journal

REVIEW: Triumph of the City, Edward Glaeser

Ten Years after its original publication Nicholas Falk rereads this hugely influential book following a visit to Coventry, finding much wisdom but remaining frustrated that we still find these seemingly obvious ideas so difficult to implement.

With chapter titles such as How were the tenements tamed? and Is London a luxury resort?  he challenges the conventional wisdom and is particularly critical of declining cities that think they can build their way to success (like Coventry?). He clearly delights in the restaurants and places of entertainment that density and diversity make viable and provides a wealth of statistical facts and a few strong images to show that it is cities that now provide the wealth of nations because ‘Cities enable the creativity that makes humanity shine more brightly’ .

As a Harvard economist he is good at marshalling statistical data to prove that success today is about creating places where people with choice want to live. He argues it is people, not buildings, that create cities, and that density helps ideas to move. But density also consumes far less energy, especially as far as transport is concerned, and hence cities are more sustainable than suburbs. He calculates that if carbon emissions in China and India rose to American levels, the world’s carbon consumption would increase by 139%, even if their populations stayed the same.

Hence to me the most powerful and relevant sections are where he shows how New York, which in the 1970s was crime-ridden, is now a great place to live, In contrast in California, where environmentalists have largely managed to prevent large scale development, housing is quite unaffordable and homelessness rife.  He points out that ‘cities attract poor people because they’re good places for poor people to live.’ But there is a vast difference between the highly productive slums of Dharavi in Mumbai and the downtown area of San Francisco, with people on the streets sleeping in tents and bus shelters.

‘Cities enable the creativity that makes humanity shine more brightly’. Edward Glaeser

Most of his examples are taken from the very largest of cities, and from cities that thrive on selling information. He is rather dismissive of heritage, except in the case of Paris, saying that the number of listed buildings should be limited. While generally reinforcing and extending what Jane Jacobs wrote in The Economy of Cities he is convinced that to cope with growth cities need to go high, supporting Ken Livingstone against the Prince of Wales in some fine passages.

In my view he underplays the importance of social capital, of the associations people build up by being able to walk around familiar places and relate to their neighbours or shop keepers. This is probably because, like many fine economists, he fails to appreciate the distortion and corruption in many property markets that lead to large areas remaining sterile while developers and their advisors seek to build ever higher. Nor does he appreciate the extra costs of construction and maintenance that result when he writes about What’s so great about skyscrapers?

He would have done better to return to Leipzig, for example, to see how they have refurbished most of their buildings while creating a great water park in the area once scarred by coal and chemical industries. Despite losing 90% of their manufacturing jobs after reunification, the city is now a joy to visit (as the AoU Award nomination explains).

Alas Coventry cannot be held up as a good example of regeneration despite the efforts of its council and regeneration agencies. It remains in the thrall of the car , the pedestrianised shopping centre feels lifeless, perhaps because the lost housing around it was never replaced. The city’s bombing was seen as ‘a blessing in disguise’, as David Rudlin recounts in Climax City . The city’s planners were far more ruthless than the Luftwaffe, and of the 240 timber framed buildings that survived the war, only 100 were standing in 1958 and by 1965 it was down to just 34. The motor industry that once flourished in the city centre largely disappeared, and the City’s beautiful cathedral was built on the site of the Triumph plant. Contrast this with Leipzig, a city of similar size that has succeeded not just in retaining Porsche but attracting next to it BMW’s main new car plant and research centre in buildings by Zaha Hadid.

Glaeser concludes on the central issue of what the future holds, saying  ‘ Indian cities have so far embraced the worst aspects of English land-use planning leading to short buildings and dispersed populations. ’ However it is far from clear how the lessons from the successes are to be transferred without resolving the fundamental issue of land values and the entrenched interests that benefit from the inflation of property values.

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Book Review: Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser

by Lindsay M. Miller, Senior Fellow at The National Civic League

Urbanists everywhere are discussing the “return to the city,” or the re-urbanization of suburbanites and the increasing importance of density in economic development and growth. In his book, Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier , Harvard economist Edward Glaeser champions this trend, arguing that urban life is better for humanity economically, socially, and in almost every other way.

Whether examining the slums of Kolkata or the high-end stores of Fifth Avenue, Glaeser’s book does a good job of showing the bright side to urbanization, no matter where we find it. Some of his most important insights challenge our most prominent preconceptions about cities. For example, he argues that, while admittedly the source of much suffering, not all urban poverty is bad.  Cities attract the poor because they are centers of economic mobility, and the “flow of less advantaged people into cities from Rio to Rotterdam demonstrates urban strength, not weakness.” Urban poverty should not be compared to urban wealth, he argues, but to rural poverty, which is often much worse.

Another counter-intuitive insight Glaeser makes is that cities are good for the environment, and the environmentalist notion of living amongst the land and the trees is misguided. The best things we can do to reduce our carbon footprint, he argues, is to live in smaller homes, walk or take public transit to work, and rid ourselves of NIMBYism when it comes to new development in temperate climates.

Glaeser’s celebration of cities is hopeful, and his challenges to the status quo are sorely needed. One weakness of his book is that he sometimes so unabashedly supports urban growth that he can downplay some of its externalities. Urban poverty may be better than rural poverty when it comes to economic opportunity, but he should not so quickly dismiss the harsh realities of urban struggle.

What’s more, as an economist, Glaeser sometimes waves off the human element. From an economic standpoint, it may be obvious that restricting contemporary buildings in older cities like London and Paris has some negative impact. Yet, to downplay the historical and cultural value of their rich architecture negates our topophilia —or deep sense of love and connection—to place.

Glaeser’s book is timely, important, and relevant to urbanists and non-urbanists alike. To celebrators of urbanism, his book gives you grit. For anti-urbanists, or those fighting against its negative externalities, the book gives insight to the other side. For all of us, the book presents some cogent truths — whether we choose to embrace them or not.

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/12/developing-world-city-size-urbanization/548468/

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Book Review: Edward L. Glaeser, Triumph of The City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier (The Penguin Press 2011)

Environment and Planning A, 2012

Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 258

4 Pages Posted: 5 Dec 2011 Last revised: 8 Dec 2011

David J. Reiss

Cornell Law School; Cornell University - Cornell Tech NYC

Date Written: December 5, 2011

It is always a bit unnerving to read someone else’s love letters, but even more so, when you have the same object of desire. Edward Glaeser’s TRIUMPH OF THE CITY is a love letter to cities and to New York City in particular. Glaeser provides a theoertical framework of the city, arguing that “Cities are the absence of physical space between people and companies. They are proximity, density, closeness.” Glaeser prescribes three simple rules to protect the vitality of the urban environment: First, cities should replace the current lengthy and uncertain permitting process with a simple system of fees. Second, historic preservation should be limited and well defined. Finally, individual neighborhoods should have some clearly delineated power to protect their special character. While Glaeser does not fully justify his set of rules, he does provide a thought-provoking discussion of the consequences of not following them. If you were to take nothing else from TRIUMPH OF THE CITY, you should attend to its cri de coeur: “the real city is made of flesh, not concrete.” But, notwithstanding its limitations, the book offers much, much more than that. It challenges broadly held beliefs and presents a theory of the city that helps to evaluate urban policy proposals with a clear eye.

Keywords: Cities, urban policy, environmentalism, land use, regional planning, housing, homeownership, sprawl, poverty, historic preservation, green, density

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Triumph of the City

How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier

Edward L. Glaeser | 4.11 | 5,217 ratings and reviews

Ranked #7 in Cities , Ranked #13 in Urban Planning

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Book Review: Triumph of the City – Edward Glaeser

Review: Triumph of the City

I live in a large town in the UK but am fortunate in that there is greenery on the doorstep in the form of a canal, while surrounding trees make it relatively lucrative for our household of cats, though only one will venture outside. I’ve always hoped that later in life I’ll leave all things urban behind and make for the countryside, a rural idyll away from the heavy traffic and crowds. Edward Glaeser’s book, Triumph of the City , takes the opposite view, offering an insight into what makes cities great and why they are the place we should be.

Triumph of the City offers a worldwide view of a selection of famous cities and deals with the history of the rise and fall of some major places. It explores why so many people live in cities, how they impact on industry and growth, why some decline, while others prosper and makes a case for their being integral to our future, if only we can follow the good examples of one another first.

I’ll be honest. I do enjoy non-fiction but I was concerned a book just about cities wouldn’t be particularly interesting but I’m pleased to say Glaeser’s book is very absorbing. It wasn’t the easiest of reads for me at times as I negotiated the early chapters but once I gave it a go I found I soon settled into a rhythm and there was a lot of insight here. Due to the large amount of cities, it’s impossible for Glaeser to cover them all but he does focus on some pretty important ones such as New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Mumbai.

What I learned from this book is that cities are constantly evolving and that not all of them survive. The account of Detroit was sad to read, a once thriving city in the midst of the car industries but now something of a ghost town, left behind and unable to keep up. A major surprise was New York which was near extinction in the 1970s but recovered and is now prosperous once more. London and Paris, while lucrative cities, are held back by being protective about historical buildings and flatly refuse to tear down monuments or build skyscrapers near them. Mumbai has height restrictions for buildings so while the city is thriving, it is fiercely overcrowded. Glaeser also argues about sprawl, families living far out of cities in suburbs, which he admits he is guilty of. While this is something of an idyll getting away from the city it is also argued as unnecessary additional pollution, especially if there is a long commute. Some cities such as Singapore are setting benchmarks for others to follow with quite roads and a thriving economy. On a personal note I have been to Singapore which a tour guide described as extremely safe and she was right.

Triumph of the City covers a lot of history and characteristics of cities in its 300 or so pages. I didn’t necessarily agree with all of Glaeser’s arguments here but I can’t deny they were certainly thought-provoking points. This won’t be the easiest of books for every reader but if you want to learn about cities, especially in countries you might not have travelled to then there are some fascinating points made here. Of the named cities I have only seen London and Singapore, but I would like to see more. Glaeser argues in favour of cities and believes they are the lifeblood of the human race. On this point I won’t disagree with him.

Triumph of the City is a fascinating analysis of some important cities throughout the world. Though American, Glaeser is often critical of cities in the US and how they could learn from the likes of Singapore and Tokyo, just as Mumbai, London and Paris could learn from cities in the rest of the world. Only time will tell who is right or wrong but Glaeser leaves us in no doubt that cities are very important whether it was in ancient Athens or in modern day Chicago.

Verdict: 4/5

(Book source: reviewer received a copy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review)

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I haven't read that book yet, yet I find it a very interesting study. The way I see it, the book tries to explain how the interrelationship between architecture, culture and other factors influence the growth or decline of a city.

Thanks for commenting Sandy.

Yes, Glaesar explores various ideas about why some cities such as Detroit have declined while others like New York and Singapore are thriving today. It's sad to read that each city has some advantages and disadvantages but no one is willing to gather all the good stuff throughout the world and combine it into a template for a truly great city. Different countries like to do things their own way.

Very interesting. The facts that was written in this book is realistic and informative. I am glad there are still writers who wrote about the real status of our modern age. Great review.

Thanks for commenting Jeff.

I wasn't sure this was my kind of book but there were some interesting points made. Certainly a thought-provoking read.

📖 Bài đọc (reading passage)

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 an economist and advocate of ‘positive psychology’ summarises the beliefs of many people today...

 It (= positive psychology) is an astonishingly crude and simple-minded way of thinking 

=> Nếu ko có vốn vocab rộng vẫn có thể đoán rằng: tác giả cho rằng positive psychology là 1 cách nghĩ simple - đơn giản, ko bao hàm nhiều thứ.

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Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier (Book Review)

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I have written a number of posts where I complain about Edward Glaeser. Being a heritage activist, I have objected to his attitudes about preservation. Being a Torontonian, I have resented his criticism of our sainted Jane Jacobs. Being a supporter of urban farming, I was appalled by his article in the Boston Globe.

But since his book, Triumph of the City, came out in February, he has been everywhere, the contrarian for hire, attacking the conventional wisdom. I thought that if I was going to keep complaining about him, I had better read his book.

Glaeser goes beyond Richard Florida's "Cities are hip" and David Owen's "Cities are green." His premise is stated in the subtitle, that cities make us "Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier." He also thinks that cities should be denser and cheaper; the more people, the better. He is an economist, and not a sentimentalist. That is the root of his problem with preservation; those leafy old low-rise neighbourhoods restrict the supply of housing and increase its cost. As for Jane Jacobs, she thought saving old buildings would preserve affordability, whereas her cheap Greenwich Village apartments of 50 years ago are now only affordable for hedge fund managers. He writes:

Preservation isn't always wrong- there is much worth saving in our cities- but it always comes at a cost.

He has a point; Paris, London and Manhattan are lovely to look at, but only the very rich can afford to live there. However, one might ask if the rich would still want to live there if it looked like Houston.

Glaeser correctly notes that transportation technologies have always determined urban form, and that the current car-based model is an environmental disaster. But there are good reasons that people do it:

Exoriating the exurbs is a popular intellectual pastime, but the people who move to the suburbs aren't fools. The friends of the cities would be wiser to learn from Sunbelt sprawl than to mindlessly denigrate its inhabitants.

In fact, Glaeser points out that for many people, living in the suburbs is cheaper and more convenient, thanks to an elaborate and mostly free highway system, convenient and free parking, and subsidized home ownership courtesy of mortgage interest deductibility. In much of America, commuting by car is faster than any other mode. It is such a rational thing to do that Glaeser himself, like David Owen before him, writes about the Triumph of the City while living in the suburbs.

There is a lot in this book makes me crazy. Glaeser wants to remove restrictions that prevent people from building just about anything, anywhere, suggesting that this will increase density in our cities and reduce the cost of housing. In fact, it would probably have the opposite effect, as greenbelts and protected lands get chewed up for more sprawl; we would probably just get Houston, everywhere. He thinks knocking down all those five storey buildings and replacing them with 40 storey buildings will reduce our carbon footprint, when in fact in so much of New York and other cities, there are vast areas of one and two storey buildings that could be replaced with five storey buildings. New York isn't just Manhattan, and its overall density is rather low when you average it over all of the boroughs. There is a lot of room to grow without demolishing Greenwich Village.

But he also attacks the anti-urban bias in federal policies, from infrastructure investment to income tax, and calls for a carbon tax. It adds up to a powerful argument for a sort of free-market environmentalism: If people had to pay the true cost of the carbon they emit, then they would live where they emit the least carbon, which is in cities.

Glaeser summarizes the entire book in one powerful paragraph in the introduction; all the rest is commentary.

The strengh that comes from human collaboration is the central truth behind civilization's success and the primary reason why cities exist. To understand our cities and what to do about them, we must hold on to those truths and dispatch harmful myths. We must discard the view that environmentalism means living around trees and that urbanites should always fight to preserve a city's physical past. We must stop idolizing home ownership which favours suburban tract homes over high-rise apartments, and stop romanticizing rural villages. We should eschew the simplistic view that better long-distance communication will reduce our desire to be near on another. Above all, we must free ourselves from our tendency to see cities as their buildings, and remember that the real city is made of flesh, not concrete.

I am not persuaded; I rather think that flesh comes and goes, but that great buildings, and great cities, endure. But I am impressed.

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Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier

Published by EH.Net (February 2012)

Edward L. Glaeser, Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier .? New York: Penguin Press, 2011.? ix + 338 pp. $30 (cloth), ISBN: 978-1-59420-277-3.

Reviewed for EH.Net by Fred H. Smith, Department of Economics, Davidson College.

In 1998 Edward Glaeser published an article in the Journal of Economic Perspectives entitled ?Are Cities Dying??? The article makes a strong case for why technology had not, and would not, make cities obsolete.? In the subsequent fourteen years, Glaeser has written dozens of articles on urban economics.? Many of the articles have touched on topics that are of great interest to urban economic historians: From ?Are Ghettos Good or Bad? to ?Why the Poor Live in Cities? Glaeser addresses topics that have informed our understanding of how, and why, cities have evolved over time.?

In his new book, Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier , Glaeser assembles a layperson?s tour of his life?s work in urban economics.? Triumph of the City is an effective coda to his article from 1998, for it demonstrates that not only is the city not dying, it is essential to our continued well-being as a species.?

Triumph of the City ?s nine chapters are bookended by an introductory chapter and a conclusion, and over the course of the nine chapters Glaeser addresses subjects ranging from the importance of slums, to why ?urban sprawl has spread? and why skyscrapers are essential for large cities.? However, he begins the book by reminding us of a fact that many people forget or have never been aware of: Half of the world?s population now lives in cities, and in the world?s most affluent countries this number often exceed 75 percent.? It is essential for us to understand cities, for we live in a world that is becoming ever more urbanized.

The first chapter of the book asks ?What Do They Make in Bangalore?? and the question frames the chapter and much of the rest of the book.? Bangalore, like other successful cities, thrives because it creates an incubator for meaningful human interactions.? By introducing the reader to examples ranging from ancient Athens to Silicon Valley/San Jose in the twenty-first century, Glaeser emphasizes the point that cities succeed when they create opportunities for what urban economists call knowledge spillovers and labor pooling.? Cities bring people into contact with one another on a more frequent basis.? This facilitates the exchange of information and ideas, and it makes it easier for employers to find good employees and for employees to find meaningful work.?

While cities succeed because of their ability to facilitate meaningful human interactions, not all cities flourish.? Thus, in the second chapter Glaeser explores the reasons for urban decline.? He uses the quintessential Rust Belt city, Detroit, to illustrate how a city can rise and decline within a span of just one hundred years.? Detroit faced two problems.? First, its economy was focused too narrowly around one product ? the automobile.? When the auto industry thrived, so did Detroit.? But, when the U.S. auto industry faced competition from foreign automakers the auto industry and Detroit suffered.? Detroit?s decline was exacerbated by another factor.? Detroit was one of many U.S. cities that experienced a severe race riot in the 1960s.? Numerous economic historians have explored the effects of race riots on urban areas, but Glaeser effectively captures the essence of much of this work when he writes, ?riots did tremendous harm to America?s cities, especially to their African-American residents.? After all, the rioters weren?t burning the homes of prosperous white suburbanites.? Those riots and rising crime rates helped create the sense that civilization had fled the city.? As a result, many of those who could leave Detroit did? (p. 55).? In the aftermath of the race riots of the 1960s, Detroit elected Coleman Young to serve as mayor.? Well-intentioned but misguided policies enacted by Young were the second major factor leading to Detroit?s decline.? Glaeser notes that Young?s policy initiatives attempted to help the poor, especially the countless African-Americans who lived in poverty in Detroit, but that they did so by taxing the upper middle class and the affluent.? Facing higher taxes, higher crime rates, and deteriorating infrastructure, Detroit?s wealthier citizens voted with their feet and moved to the suburbs.

Each of the remaining seven chapters of Glaeser?s book is well written and informative.? For an urban economic historian, chapters three and four will hold the most interest.? Chapter three asks why slums should be viewed as being ?good? for urban areas ? especially cities in developing nations.? Glaeser persuasively argues that slums are vehicles for upward mobility.? The poor would never choose to leave rural areas for the slums of the city if that choice didn?t present greater opportunities for happiness and economic success.? The favelas of Rio may look uninhabitable to the eyes of a middle-class Chicagoan, but in reality these neighborhoods represent a step up from crushing rural poverty.? Linking this idea back to American history, Glaeser points out that ghettos in American cities once served as ports of entry for new immigrants from Europe as well as African-American migrants from the South.? Generations of Americans have used the opportunities they found in large cities as a springboard to a better life; their gateway to these opportunities has been the ghetto.?

Chapter four will also be of great interest for an urban economic historian.? In this chapter Glaeser examines how ?the tenements were tamed.?? In other words, he looks at the slums from chapter three through a very different lens.? Where chapter three highlights the opportunities that slums can offer to the poor, chapter four acknowledges that cities, and especially slums, can be challenging places to live.? Thus, Glaeser introduces the reader to some of the biggest problems faced by urban politicians and urban planners ? health concerns (pollution, fresh drinking water, sanitation), congestion, and crime.? Glaeser discusses the solutions that urban authorities have crafted to address these concerns.? The details of what the politicians have done to solve these problems are less important than the overarching theme: These problems can be solved through the creation of effective, thoughtful public policy.? (However, it is clear that Glaeser doesn?t favor government intervention except when it is absolutely necessary.)? Indeed, as Glaeser goes on to highlight in later chapters, our ability to conquer these problems has made many cities extraordinarily appealing places to live.

There is very little to take issue with in Glaeser?s book.? However, there is one addition to the book that would have been of great interest to economic historians.? Jared Diamond, Joel Mokyr, and Deirdre McCloskey (as well as other economists) have spent a great deal of energy trying to explain why the Industrial Revolution started in the West in the eighteenth century.? It is hard not to wonder what Glaeser?s thoughts might be on this matter.? How did cities, and especially cities in Western Europe, contribute to the factors that led to the Industrial Revolution?? Was there something unique to cities in the West that led to industrialization?? This is an area of research in which Glaeser could surely make important contributions.????

Ultimately, Triumph of the City is a wonderful contribution to the urban economics literature. It is built on Glaeser?s work as an urban economist, and his research has been published in the most well-regarded journals in the field.? The book introduces core urban economic concepts to a layperson in language that is easy to read while using wonderful real-world examples from around the globe.? Yet, Glaeser?s book is also a must read for an urban economic historian.? It is full of examples and illustrations taken from American and world economic history, and it gives an economic historian a greater appreciation of the critical role that cities have played in generating the high standard of living we enjoy in the United States in the twenty-first century.?????

Fred Smith is an associate professor of economics at Davidson College.? His most recent paper (co-authored with Bill Collins of Vanderbilt University) is ?A Neighborhood Level View of Riots, Property Values, and Population Loss: Cleveland, 1950-1980? in Explorations in Economic History .

Copyright (c) 2012 by EH.Net. All rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational uses if proper credit is given to the author and the list. For other permission, please contact the EH.Net Administrator ([email protected]). Published by EH.Net (February 2012). All EH.Net reviews are archived at https://eh.net/BookReview.

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Triumph of the City

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Triumph of The City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier (2011)

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapter 9-Conclusion

Key Figures

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

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Summary and Study Guide

Harvard economics professor Edward Glaeser brings new life and controversy to the study of urban areas with his book Triumph of The City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier (2011). The 2011 Penguin Books edition is the subject of this guide.

Glaeser amasses evidence from his own research and elsewhere to prove the critical importance of cities to the progress of humanity. His thesis is that the many personal interconnections that take place in dense metropolises generate good ideas that lead to greater economic productivity, better opportunities for the poor, more creativity in arts and entertainment, and an environmentally greener way of life than is possible in rural or suburban areas.

Since ancient Athens, cities have been idea factories. Today, the leading urban centers of innovation—Bangalore in India, Silicon Valley in California, as well as New York, Boston, London, Hong Kong, and Singapore—attract educated workforces and lots of small, innovative businesses where ideas translate into new goods and services. Once-great manufacturing cities like Detroit became too dependent on a few large industries and were unable to remake themselves when factories no longer needed masses of laborers. Some, like New York and Boston, managed comebacks by reconfiguring themselves as centers of innovation, where person-to-person interactions proved vital to the growth of productivity. Key to this makeover is education: A well-schooled workforce is more creative and prosperous.

Cities worldwide attract the poor because urban centers offer better opportunities than rural regions. In a well-functioning city, poverty is a sign of success (the urban poor tend to rise out of poverty; they’re replaced by newcomers who follow in their footsteps). In urban centers where the poor become ensnared and unable to move up, the problem usually lies with bad governance. The best things city leaders can do are provide clean water, sanitation, functioning transit systems, competent policing, and good schooling. In Western countries, disease and crime have come down over the past century, and those cities are now safer than the countryside.

Arts and entertainment thrive in the crowded give-and-take of city life. Enticing arts scenes and buzzing nightlife are selling points for cities that wish to attract the best-educated workers. On the other hand, young artists’ access to lively downtowns becomes blocked when restrictions on urban construction cause living expenses to go up. What should go up instead are skyscrapers, whose efficient use of limited acreage helps reduce the cost of city life. Locals often resist high-rises, fearing overcrowding and a loss of neighborhood character, but tall buildings designed with plenty of ground-floor shops and entertainment generate a vibrant street life of their own.

In the US, many policies encourage people to leave cities for suburbia. The mortgage-interest tax deduction makes home ownership more valuable, while federal support for highway construction makes it easier to work in town and live in the suburbs. However, large suburban home sizes and long commutes increase energy costs and pollution. Meanwhile, attempts to limit construction in greener states shift housing demand to browner areas, which worsens overall environmental damage. Cities, on the other hand, reduce per-person environmental impacts with densely built neighborhoods and shorter commutes. Wooded urban parks and enhanced entertainment options remedy some of the quality-of-life issues that drive residents to the suburbs.

Every city is unique, and each succeeds in its own way. Some, like Hong Kong and Singapore, emphasize good governance and free markets; others, like Boston and Minneapolis, feature excellent universities; still others, like Paris and Dubai, offer urban pleasures. Many municipalities have become centers of finance and technology; some cities are known for the physical beauty of their locale.

Even successful cities struggle under misaligned public policies that restrict their growth while propping up dying areas. Restrictions on trade and immigration also blunt the vibrancy urban life. Meanwhile, if developing nations copy Western policies that encourage suburban sprawl, the world will face vastly increased environmental burdens.

Big cities, then, are idea factories that lead to increased productivity, improved opportunities for the poor, and reduced environmental impact. Cities are vital to the progress of human civilization; if not supported by public policy, public police should at least not constrain them.

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Book Review: Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser

Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Healthier and Happier By Edward Glaeser Penguin Press; 352 pp; $29.95

The city, Rousseau once suggested, is "the abyss of the human species." And while that judgment represents a fairly 18th century view of the squalor of industrial life, present examples don't necessarily dispute it. Many metropolitan areas have developed into dense grids of humanity surrounded by soulless office parks and a few nice, leafy streets where the nouveau riche can buy heavily fortified townhouses—or high-rise apartments with a fitness center in the basement. All amid a cluster of Starbucks ( SBUX ).

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April 17th, 2011

Book review: the triumph of the city: how our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier, and happier.

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

In The Triumph of Cities , Ed Glaeser takes us around the world and into the mind of the modern city – from Mumbai to Paris to Rio to Detroit to Shanghai, and to any number of points in between – to reveal how cities think, why they behave in the manners that they do, and what wisdom they share with the people who inhabit them. Reviewed by Olmo Silva .

Ed Glaeser is Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and is one of the most talented urban economists of our generation. He was among the first to venture down the route of bringing in economics tools to study the functioning of cities. And yet, despite building on years of economic research, his new book is not a tough read filled with economics jargon, equations and statistics. The numbers are there, of course, but so is a vibrant historical perspective which guides the reader through centuries of the rise and fall of cities – from Athens and Venice, to New York, London and Bangalore.

The Secrets of Cities

What are the secrets of cities? In a nutshell, people and proximity. In Glaeser’s own words, “ideas spread more easily in denser places”, and density gives cities an edge over more dispersed places. Entrepreneurial people with bright ideas cluster in urban areas to learn from one another and to realise their potential. And, in a virtuous cycle, cities magnify these people’s talents by stimulating interactions and innovation, and by sharpening entrepreneurial acumen through the forces of competition.

Interestingly, in the age of globalisation and information technology (IT) when everything is just one-click-away, cities are more productive and core to the process of development than ever. As IT has made the ideas we can think of more complex, proximity and face-to-face interactions have become increasingly important in fostering learning and the creation of new ideas. Moreover, global markets imply that what is invented in New York, London or Singapore is sold all over the world, raising the returns to being smart together – i.e. clustering in cities – and inventing the next big thing. So much for the death of distance…

The Dark Side of Cities

Cities have negative aspects too: think of the slums of Mumbai , life in Victorian London , and New York 150 years ago. Crime, congestion, sanitation issues and concentrated poverty are only some of the problems that cities have had – and still have – to confront, while growing and attracting more people. However, argues Glaeser, the presence of urban poverty is a sign of progress: cities do not make people poor! They attract poor people who leave behind rural hardship in search for a bright urban future.

Sure enough, this seems at odds with our perceptions of existence in cities: life in London, New York and Hong Kong is stressful and expensive . However, a growing amount of data suggests that people in cities are not only richer and more productive, but also happier, healthier and living longer. This transformation of cities from places of production to places of consumption and wellbeing does not happen overnight. To prosper, cities need entrepreneurial and educated people, and this applies to the people who are in charge of governing cities too. Indeed, the book presents many examples of successful practices adopted by public officials governing urban agglomerates, as well as cases that turned out to be less of a hit.

The Sunset Boulevard of Cities

Liverpool and Detroit have given us The Beatles and Motown . They have also shined as centres of excellence, thanks to a strategically located harbour (Liverpool) and a world-dominating car industry (Detroit). Yet nowadays they are often associated with urban decline…what has happened? Technology evolved, drastically reducing transport costs and thus Liverpool’s edge as a logistic hub across two continents. The same process of technological change made it possible for Henry Ford to routinise car-production and integrate activities under one single roof in a town-sized plant. While Ford needed the city when learning his trade from other smart entrepreneurs supplying parts and ideas, the company only required abundant ‘cheap space’ when it shifted to mass production: so it moved out of the urban core, leaving it to decline.

These are just two of the many examples of cities on Sunset Boulevard presented in the book. The common lesson is that failing cities are those that have abandoned their core business of attracting clever and entrepreneurial people, as well as their focus on creating ideas. True: some cities have emerged as industrial colossi, but this has been an anomaly. Historically, cities have been made on the fortunes of merchants, with their shrewd, clever and entrepreneurial attitudes. Just think of Amsterdam and Venice centuries ago, and more recently London and New York, as well as the Silicon Valley area and Bangalore, all with their creative sparks of IT genius.

What Have We Learnt?

What is the best way then of making sure cities will continue to prosper? The book contains many clear and well-grounded policy suggestions, although not all will please every reader and policy maker around the world.

First, Glaeser argues for stopping policies that subsidise sub-urban sprawl. These include tax rules that favour ownership of large homes located away from urban centres – such as mortgage interest rate deductibility – and road-building without road-use charging – which encourages long commutes, congestion and pollution. In this, London and the UK are ahead of their times: mortgage tax deductions were abolished in the 1990s and the London Congestion Charge (introduced in 2003) successfully reduced congestion and promoted the use of public transport. Surely enough, as we make suburbs less attractive, we need to make life in cities more appealing. This includes improving urban infrastructures, in particular schools – a prime concern for many urban families – and public transport systems.

The second and more controversial policy recommendation Glaeser makes is to “build up, not out”: skyscrapers with mixed-use space, part offices/part flats, such as The Shard , are the way forward. This is because they increase density – therefore fostering interaction and innovation, and because, perhaps counter-intuitively, high-rise cities are greener than sub-urban sprawl. Think of all those tiny, tightly spaced urban flats, as opposed to those vast, hard-to-heat country-side mansions… Or of those urban commuters packed on a bus, as opposed to sub-urban workers driving alone in their cars along (mainly) toll-free roads.

However, the most controversial policy advice is that the solution to urban decline is to stop worrying about places, and to start focusing on people. At the end of the day, cities are just the people who live there, and making sure they are endowed with a worthwhile education and are able to follow their route to success is what policy should be all about. Of course, they might move out in search of a brighter future: good for them! Still, the best solution for the cities that have been great in the past and are struggling to shine again is to scale down their ambitions and focus instead on improving their people’s chances of success, no matter where this leads them.

Undeniably, these are hard points to sell. Yet the book is a gripping journey through the life and death of cities, convincingly arguing that “our greatest invention(s)” really have the potential to make us all “richer, smarter, greener, healthier and happier”.

Listen to a podcast of Edward Glaeser’s recent talk at the LSE, or watch a video from the event.

——————————————————————————————-

Olmo Silva is Lecturer in Real Estate Economics and Finance at the London School of Economics .

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Triumph of the City, By Edward Glaeser

Time for the metropolis to grow up (again), article bookmarked.

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Many see the city as a burden on humankind, and the globe's growing urbanisation as an environmental and social threat. For others, cities are places of opportunity. And people are voting with their feet because half the world's population now lives in cities. But this huge phenomenon of urbanisation has received very little modern economic analysis.

Insofar as it has been studied at all, the emphasis has been on the problems of urbanisation, particularly in the emerging economies, rather than the opportunities. So, it is truly refreshing that Ed Glaeser, Professor of Economics at Harvard, should give us this celebration of the boom in cities, explaining, as the subtitle of the book says, "how our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier and happier".

Really? Richer, most people would accept, at least in terms of GDP generated. People living in cities generally are better educated, with most of the great universities of the world located in cities. Healthier, you can measure, and it is a fact that longevity is highest in the greatest urban agglomeration in the world, Tokyo.

Happier, might seem tougher to substantiate. But one of the most useful concepts in economics is "revealed preference" which, applied simply, means that you look at what people choose to do and start with the presumption that this is what makes them happier and that therefore you need to be cautious about any policy that resists the choices they make. People move to cities, that is, because they think they will have a better life.

And greener, might seem the hardest to prove of all. Here, Glaeser argues that the energy footprint of people in traditional cities (though not the sprawls of US ones) is much lower than that of people of similar income in the country.

In a thrilling ride around the world's great cities, he looks at why some cities decline (such as Detroit and Liverpool) and what might be done about it; and why others grow (Bangalore, Sing-apore, etc) and how policy has helped that process. Glaeser throws out some squibs, for example: what is good about slums; what's so great about skyscrapers; and why has sprawl spread? He has a message for London, which he sees as a great luxury resort, praising the vision of Ken Livingstone – interesting that – and calling for it to be allowed to grow upwards. And he suggests that our modern suburban spread will be seen as an historical aberration: density will be back.

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Mysterious guerilla art project makes its triumphant return, this time with Spokane’s blessing – and sturdier brackets

A mysterious guerrilla art installation that fascinated Peaceful Valley residents before it was removed in December by city officials has returned to its concrete perch, this time with the blessing of the mayor.

Holding stationary about 20 feet up in the air, the creation dubbed Polly Valentine rides vertically up a concrete column looming over the Clarke Avenue cul-de-sac, strapped to a support for the Maple Street Bridge with steel brackets.

Polly is a mannequin, donned with a scarf, skirt and helmet, her basket full of wildflowers, which showed up sometime around Halloween, her wheels at the time snuggly strapped to the column with a rope and steel cables. She held steady above the heads of passersby for at least seven weeks before being removed by city officials.

In December, city Public Works Communications Manager Kirstin Davis wrote it was the city’s position at the time that “it is not appropriate for the public to alter or attach things to City infrastructure, facilities, or equipment without prior planning and approval,” adding that crews had removed the “unauthorized display.”

Neighbors, disappointed by Polly’s removal, pushed for her return. Councilwoman Kitty Klitzke, who had seen the mannequin while walking in the area, was sworn in for her first term in January and began to hear from those neighbors.

“I was walking through that area a lot and was really sad to see it come down,” Klitzke said Tuesday. “There’s an element of freedom to riding your bike, and even though she was kind of comical, she was also very joyful.”

Klitzke worked with Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown, who also took office in January and agreed that the installation should be returned and officially mounted on the column.

In collaboration with Spokane Arts and various city departments, Polly was reintroduced to Peaceful Valley, where she is again on display with a sturdier bracket mount. Brown biked down to the neighborhood Tuesday evening to celebrate the return alongside two of the mayor’s grandchildren and a handful of community members.

“Due to the great work of the neighborhood, city departments and Spokane Arts, (Polly) was repaired and restored,” Brown said to the applause of a few dozen neighborhood residents and their children who gathered in front of the mannequin and shared snacks and conversation.

The identity of the artist, known as “Bikesy” in a nod to guerilla artist Banksy, is a widely known secret among the neighborhood residents, who declined to share that information with The Spokesman-Review.

Bikesy is suspected to be behind the blue bike placed improbably on top of a concrete pylon in the middle of the Spokane River near People’s Park, located on the far edge of the Peaceful Valley neighborhood and mystifying passersby since summer 2022.

Spokane Arts’ role in the handoff facilitated the artist’s continued anonymity, Brown said Tuesday.

Klitzke said she understood the city’s earlier concern over liability and the potential hazard of Polly or other guerilla art projects, but believed that, if done in a safe and harmless way, they helped define the community.

“You see something every time you look around, and it just adds to the artistic element of the neighborhood,” Klitzke said. “Things like that, they say that people who care are nearby.”

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