I recently finished reading The New Urban Crisis, which I found to be an interesting treatise on the state of cities in North America (and to a lesser extent, worldwide). Before jumping fully onto the bandwagon I read several reviews of the book, some of which criticized the classism in some of his assumptions and the dubious conclusions he draws from the data he has collected.
I am not an architect or a professional at all, so I was wondering what people in the various fields affecting the built environment think of his work or his conclusions. Is there any consensus about his arguments? Are any other urbanist writers offering a different perspective than his?
I haven’t read the book, but it sounds like a little self-flagellation by the author and great gentrifier. I actually like Florida and think the Rise was spot in for its time. This book however sounds like it’s motivated too much by some egoistic guilt and not by the insightful observations that created the last book. All cities are fluid and ever changing. Go to New York and yes, the skyline has changed with bland mega-towers for the absent, uber-riche, but the diversity of New York still exists on its streets and neighborhoods. I’d like to see more space devoted to these areas, not only in New York, but Detroit and Baltimore, and less to the perceived failures of the past.
I haven't read this one, but did the last one. I was always uncomfortable at how broad his definitions were in service of his 'creative class' argument.
Which "urban crisis" was he talking about, there are so many. The schools in places like Baltimore and Philly, the sky-high violent crime rate, the outrageous price of housing, or even a bare lot, for parts of town you are not likely to be killed in, the obscene tax rates, the municipal corruption, the militarized police forces, what?
Nov 27, 17 12:44 pm ·
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tduds
I don't think it's too much of a stretch to claim that these all stem from the same underlying problems.
Go to Baltimore; the city leaders are saying violent crime is out of control. In Philly 45 K-12 teachers have resigned this year alone because of physical attacks or threats.
Nov 27, 17 12:59 pm ·
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won and done williams
LOL - the fears of suburbanites! Crime! Schools! Corruption! And worst of all - traffic!!!
Nov 27, 17 1:15 pm ·
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Volunteer
Laugh your ass off. We used to go to the Baltimore Inner Harbor quite frequently for family outings. No more. Hard to tell the police from the thugs, frankly. My wife was a graduate student at Johns Hopkins in an evening program in Baltimore. I absolutely would not let her go alone. Laugh your ass off again.
Nov 27, 17 1:57 pm ·
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null pointer
You're being insane. Baltimore is like the archetypal Tale of Two Cities. Stay the fuck away from East Baltimore and the projects, and you have almost no crime problems. It takes a lot of suburban stupidity to get caught walking in the bad parts of Baltimore.
Nov 27, 17 2:00 pm ·
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Volunteer
It takes a lot of stupidity not to look at a crime map of Baltimore.
Now take a look at that. Take out all of the "others" (mostly silent alarms and suspicious persons). Obvious yet?
Nov 27, 17 2:21 pm ·
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won and done williams
Dude, I live in Detroit with my wife and two kids. Crime? Yup. Bad schools? Sure. (Great ones too.) Corruption? We've had our share. Big f-in' deal. I'd much rather be in a city than bored to death in the suburbs. By the way - nice job de-railing this thread.
Nov 27, 17 2:25 pm ·
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Volunteer
I just asked what the crisis was. A chart of the "curbed" reference says it is 'wage inequality, economic segregation, and unaffordability of housing'. Seems one and two are the same thing and both of those are closely related to three. Very amorphous premise.
Nov 27, 17 3:27 pm ·
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geezertect
Personally, I'd rather be bored to death in the suburbs than shot to death in the city. To each his own.
Here, argue with the black female mayor of Baltimore:
"Calling violence in Baltimore “out of control,” Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered 30 agency heads to meet every morning at police headquarters, and to make crime reduction the top mission not only of police, but also of health workers, housing officials and public works crews.
“Violence in the city is out of control,” she said. “I want every neighborhood to know I am extremely concerned and focused on reducing violence.”
Killings in the city have surged past 300 this year for a third year in a row. Violent crime is up 13 percent over last year, and reports of groups of youths attacking people apparently at random have dominated recent local news cycles."
Nov 27, 17 2:06 pm ·
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null pointer
Like, how the fuck do you gobble all of this up? Politicians love crisis states. There is nothing new here.
This is about gentrification and class segregation (Which leads to racial segregation due to past discriminatory practices)
The problem is to find a way to let a city grow without losing people and businesses from higher rents new draconian restrictions and shortages of housing stock,viable commercial, office, and industrial space. Finding a way to circumvent the NIMBY crowd with by right zoning is one step. mandatory affordable housing set asides for up-zoning or TOD permits can help.
I haven’t read the book, but it sounds like a little self-flagellation by the author and great gentrifier. I actually like Florida and think the Rise was spot in for its time. This book however sounds like it’s motivated too much by some egoistic guilt and not by the insightful observations that created the last book. All cities are fluid and ever changing. Go to New York and yes, the skyline has changed with bland mega-towers for the absent, uber-riche, but the diversity of New York still exists on its streets and neighborhoods. I’d like to see more space devoted to these areas, not only in New York, but Detroit and Baltimore, and less to the perceived failures of the past.
Richard Florida’s long form writing unfortunately veers toward a TED talk of urban theory. Some decent stuff in there, but he glosses over a lot and misses a few things.
I think the real “urban crisis” is that we’ve reached the end of the automobile-centered economy and are now at the beginning of the digital economy - A tech shock that is laying bare the structures that were set up by and for the automobile-owner based system. the more “successful” cities post recession are places that generally have decent non-car transportation infrastructure and more people centric walkable land-use patterns - this is not just a US phenomenon, but a global one.
Nov 29, 17 10:05 pm ·
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x-jla
This is just the beginning. We are still following the work habits of the past. The next generation will complete the transition. How will kids that don't play outside choose to work as adults...good bye centralized economy. Good riddance...the urbanism of decentralized economics will be odd.
Nov 30, 17 10:42 am ·
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Thoughts on Richard Florida and "The New Urban Crisis"
I recently finished reading The New Urban Crisis, which I found to be an interesting treatise on the state of cities in North America (and to a lesser extent, worldwide). Before jumping fully onto the bandwagon I read several reviews of the book, some of which criticized the classism in some of his assumptions and the dubious conclusions he draws from the data he has collected.
I am not an architect or a professional at all, so I was wondering what people in the various fields affecting the built environment think of his work or his conclusions. Is there any consensus about his arguments? Are any other urbanist writers offering a different perspective than his?
1 Featured Comment
I haven’t read the book, but it sounds like a little self-flagellation by the author and great gentrifier. I actually like Florida and think the Rise was spot in for its time. This book however sounds like it’s motivated too much by some egoistic guilt and not by the insightful observations that created the last book. All cities are fluid and ever changing. Go to New York and yes, the skyline has changed with bland mega-towers for the absent, uber-riche, but the diversity of New York still exists on its streets and neighborhoods. I’d like to see more space devoted to these areas, not only in New York, but Detroit and Baltimore, and less to the perceived failures of the past.
All 8 Comments
I haven't read this one, but did the last one. I was always uncomfortable at how broad his definitions were in service of his 'creative class' argument.
Which "urban crisis" was he talking about, there are so many. The schools in places like Baltimore and Philly, the sky-high violent crime rate, the outrageous price of housing, or even a bare lot, for parts of town you are not likely to be killed in, the obscene tax rates, the municipal corruption, the militarized police forces, what?
I don't think it's too much of a stretch to claim that these all stem from the same underlying problems.
" the sky-high violent crime rate"
This is not 1980 anymore.
Go elsewhere, fatalist.
Go to Baltimore; the city leaders are saying violent crime is out of control. In Philly 45 K-12 teachers have resigned this year alone because of physical attacks or threats.
LOL - the fears of suburbanites! Crime! Schools! Corruption! And worst of all - traffic!!!
Laugh your ass off. We used to go to the Baltimore Inner Harbor quite frequently for family outings. No more. Hard to tell the police from the thugs, frankly. My wife was a graduate student at Johns Hopkins in an evening program in Baltimore. I absolutely would not let her go alone. Laugh your ass off again.
You're being insane. Baltimore is like the archetypal Tale of Two Cities. Stay the fuck away from East Baltimore and the projects, and you have almost no crime problems. It takes a lot of suburban stupidity to get caught walking in the bad parts of Baltimore.
It takes a lot of stupidity not to look at a crime map of Baltimore.
Don't worry, the professor is here!
https://spotcrime.com/md/balti...
Now take a look at that. Take out all of the "others" (mostly silent alarms and suspicious persons). Obvious yet?
Dude, I live in Detroit with my wife and two kids. Crime? Yup. Bad schools? Sure. (Great ones too.) Corruption? We've had our share. Big f-in' deal. I'd much rather be in a city than bored to death in the suburbs. By the way - nice job de-railing this thread.
I just asked what the crisis was. A chart of the "curbed" reference says it is 'wage inequality, economic segregation, and unaffordability of housing'. Seems one and two are the same thing and both of those are closely related to three. Very amorphous premise.
Personally, I'd rather be bored to death in the suburbs than shot to death in the city. To each his own.
Here, argue with the black female mayor of Baltimore:
"Calling violence in Baltimore “out of control,” Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered 30 agency heads to meet every morning at police headquarters, and to make crime reduction the top mission not only of police, but also of health workers, housing officials and public works crews.
“Violence in the city is out of control,” she said. “I want every neighborhood to know I am extremely concerned and focused on reducing violence.”
Killings in the city have surged past 300 this year for a third year in a row. Violent crime is up 13 percent over last year, and reports of groups of youths attacking people apparently at random have dominated recent local news cycles."
Like, how the fuck do you gobble all of this up? Politicians love crisis states. There is nothing new here.
For those not familiar, here's a NYT article that briefly describes the book's argument:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/0...
and here's one from Curbed:
https://www.curbed.com/2017/5/...
This is about gentrification and class segregation (Which leads to racial segregation due to past discriminatory practices)
The problem is to find a way to let a city grow without losing people and businesses from higher rents new draconian restrictions and shortages of housing stock,viable commercial, office, and industrial space. Finding a way to circumvent the NIMBY crowd with by right zoning is one step. mandatory affordable housing set asides for up-zoning or TOD permits can help.
I haven’t read the book, but it sounds like a little self-flagellation by the author and great gentrifier. I actually like Florida and think the Rise was spot in for its time. This book however sounds like it’s motivated too much by some egoistic guilt and not by the insightful observations that created the last book. All cities are fluid and ever changing. Go to New York and yes, the skyline has changed with bland mega-towers for the absent, uber-riche, but the diversity of New York still exists on its streets and neighborhoods. I’d like to see more space devoted to these areas, not only in New York, but Detroit and Baltimore, and less to the perceived failures of the past.
Richard Florida’s long form writing unfortunately veers toward a TED talk of urban theory. Some decent stuff in there, but he glosses over a lot and misses a few things.
I think the real “urban crisis” is that we’ve reached the end of the automobile-centered economy and are now at the beginning of the digital economy - A tech shock that is laying bare the structures that were set up by and for the automobile-owner based system. the more “successful” cities post recession are places that generally have decent non-car transportation infrastructure and more people centric walkable land-use patterns - this is not just a US phenomenon, but a global one.
This is just the beginning. We are still following the work habits of the past. The next generation will complete the transition. How will kids that don't play outside choose to work as adults...good bye centralized economy. Good riddance...the urbanism of decentralized economics will be odd.
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