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the line in the op said something about suburbs. I see no data in the census PR discussing suburban growth. While the rate of DC and City of Alex growth suggests they led the metro DC area, without more info its impossible to say.

While manufacturing may remain important to the national economy, much of that will happen in non-metro areas, and within metros, it will likely happen in peripheral suburbs mostly. The future of cities, and city like suburbs, will mostly be with knowledge industries.

and yeah, there is some grey area between services and goods, when the service involves final processing of a good - but the distinction is still generally useful, I think

As for Jane Jacobs, while she had some fruitful ideas about urban vibrancy, I personally am not interested in her as an economic thinker beyond that.

Or even necessarily on urban planning issues - Ive had "antis" quote her at me on the existing suburbs being just fine, when what we need now is suburban transformation. When Robert Moses wanted to tear down the west village for an expressway, defense of urbanism and hostility to planning went hand in hand. Today hostility to planning (if not to zoning) is at the core of anti-urbanist thinking.

by AWalkerInTheCity on Jun 28, 2012 11:16 am • link • report