Survival of the City

 Survival of the City
By Edward Glaeser and David Cutler
(Penguin Press, 468 pages, $30)

"What a difference a coronavirus can make. In the move to social distancing that began in the spring of 2020, Messrs. Glaeser and Cutler see nothing less than "the rapid-fire deurbanization of our world."
"Uncontrolled pandemic," the authors write, poses "an existential threat" to the urban world. Nor is the coronavirus the only problem that cities face. "A Pandora's Box of urban woes has emerged," they continue, "including overly expensive housing, violent conflict over gentrification, persistently low levels of upward mobility, and outrage over brutal and racially targeted policing and long prison sentences for minor drug crimes." These are not disparate problems. Rather, they "all stem from a common root: our cities protect insiders and leave outsiders to suffer."
In Messrs. Glaeser and Cutler's view, something has gone deeply wrong with how policy is set in many American cities. Insiders have captured control of how cities operate -- and used that control to enrich themselves while providing limited opportunities for newer, younger residents. Consider Los Angeles. In 1970, housing costs in Southern California were much the same as those nationwide. By 1990, building limitations and strong demand had sent prices soaring in many coastal cities. The result: a massive redistribution of wealth from the young to the old. In 1983, the authors write, the median 35-to-44-year-old had $56,000 in housing wealth (in 2013 dollars). Thirty years later, that same demographic had only $6,000 in housing wealth. During this period, older homeowners (ages 65-to-74) saw their housing wealth increase by 20%. The wealthiest 5% of that 65-to-74-year-old demographic did even better. Their housing wealth rose by over 60%, from $427,000 to $701,000.
It's not just housing wealth. At one time, immigrant neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side offered opportunities that transformed poor children into rich adults. Some, such as Boyle Heights in Los Angeles, still do. But those neighborhoods are now very much the exception. Research on intergenerational mobility conducted by Raj Chetty, John Friedman, Nathaniel Hendren and others shows that most urban neighborhoods fail to provide economic mobility. Instead, this book's authors write, "underperforming city schools and overly punitive law enforcement come together to perpetuate poverty across generations."
For the authors, what these trends add up to is nothing less than "the closing of the metropolitan frontier."" [1]

1. Saving Our Urban Future
Buntin, John.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 10 Sep 2021: A.15.