From Aeon, Leo Hollis on how reclaiming the streets through civic participation does more than change the city: it creates citizens. Priced out of Paris: Our great, global cities are turning into vast gated citadels where the elite reproduces itself. Ethnic and racial diversity locked up in poor neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side does little good for the regional economy — so why do many blindly associate ethnic diversity with economic development? All city-goers want to live in beautiful buildings — but the reality is that ugliness may be the price we pay for sticking the majority of the world’s population into cities. A person in Europe or America can only patiently wait for the art of “foreign lands” to blow their mind like the Aztec’s blew the mind of Durer, or for the ideal city to be re-imagined somewhere outside of our civilization, and perhaps, this time, even formed. Are the suburbs where the American Dream goes to die? New research shows upward mobility is higher in denser cities. The introduction to Keys to the City: How Economics, Institutions, Social Interaction, and Politics Shape Development by Michael Storper. Fleeing Los Angeles for Harrisburg: Ironic migration is an emerging trend in which talent leaves some of the most unexpected places. Brian Clark Howard on why cities are safer than rural areas: 5 surprising facts on the risk of car accidents, shootings, and other injuries.
