ABSTRACT
When the Scientific American dedicated a special issue to urbanism, its editors proclaimed that the world’s cities are a “solution the problems of our age” (DiChristina 2011: 40). They added their voice to a growing discourse that is asserting the importance of cities, a conversation begun long ago by UN-Habitat, continued by the World Bank, and more recently re-iterated in the popular press in a special issue of The Economist, “Transforming Cities” (UN-Habitat 1996, World Bank 2009, The Economist 2013–14, Glaeser 2011). In these publications, the authors remind readers that cities are successful when they provide sufficient public goods supportive of socio-economic inclusion and long-term resilience.
