Megacities and the Density Delusion
20th April 2013
Joel Kotkin turns over a rock, one well-tended by the Crust.
Perhaps no idea is more widely accepted among urban core theorists than the notion that higher population densities lead to more productivity and sustainable economic growth. Yet upon examination, there are less than compelling moorings for the beliefs of what Pittsburgh blogger Jim Russell calls “the density cult,” whose adherents include many planners and urban land speculators.
The Crust, you see, like to have all of the proles crowded into slums where they will be conveniently at hand for any purpose, from providing Union thugs to Get Out The Vote and intimidate Wrong-Thinking People to being servants and wait staff. And, of course, if they are stuffed into the cities, they aren’t in the suburbs or the Hamptons, leaving more room for golf courses and country estates.