The Greatest Invention: Cities
University of North Texas Center for Public Management
Building capacity in the public and nonprofit sectors through training, research, and community engagement.
Lowell Johnson, MPA , has lived both sides of the public administration dichotomy. He served many years as a Dallas Police Department officer and many years on the City of Corinth city council. Now, as he finishes his doctorate in public administration at UNT, Johnson offers this week’s summer reading recommendation: Triumph of the City, by Edward Glaeser.
Triumph of the City is an expansive book that examines why some cities thrive while others wither. A Harvard economist and native of New York City, Glaeser appreciates the jumble of people, ideas and energy that big cities attract. But he feels much of urban policy is misguided: “public policy should help poor people, not poor places.”
Glaeser favors free markets solutions, such as fewer land use regulations, which he argues make city life more expensive. He wants higher density in cities but wouldn’t require it in low-density suburbs. Instead, he wants to reform federal transportation and housing policies that encourage people to abandon cities for suburbs.
“Governments should encourage people to live in modestly sized urban aeries instead of bribing home buyers into big suburban mansions,” Glaeser writes. “…The home mortgage interest deduction is a sacred cow in need of a good stockyard.”
Have you read Triumph of the City? Does it explain what you see in North Texas? Most important, what’s on your nightstand?