In an interview about his best-selling series Jack Reacher, British author Lee Child was once asked why he chose to set his books in the United States. Is there something about the American character that was critical to his stories? Maybe a bit, said Child. But the real reason has less to do with character than it does with geography. In a nation that inhabits a giant continent, some of which still remains largely empty, “You can have secret things going on in a remote town 50 or 100 miles before the nearest police department,” he explains. Thus can one of his books describe Reacher being thrown in a van and driven 2,000 miles to a Rocky Mountain hideout. “If I’d been kidnapped where I lived in England and driven [that distance],” Child concludes, “I’d be in the Sahara Desert.”

Indeed, very few countries allow for the physical space between people afforded by the American landscape. And more than a century and a half after the peak of our frontier’s settlement, we still seemed determined to retain that sense of separation—even within our big cities. And even, as several recent EconTalk guests have pointed out, if it comes at the cost of affordable housing, or dooms prospects for a vibrant downtown.

The first density defender is economist Bryan Caplan, whose argument for how much and how high to build can be summed up in a single word: Yes. As he explains in his no-holds-barred critique of American housing regulation, Caplan believes that loosening, or outright losing, such regulation can solve all sorts of social problems, from reducing inequality and crime to raising living standards. Deregulation will even protect the environment! And—most important—bring housing costs down. Of course, some critics will always object that unfettered construction will ruin our landscapes. To them, Caplan urges a bit of imagination. What if cities set free to build taller could end up looking better than they do now?

If Caplan advocates for going higher, self-described urban doctor Alain Bertaud thinks the future of cities may instead lie deep underground. Specifically, in the subways, sewers, and other systems for moving people and things, which are the keys to solving one of cities’ most pernicious problems: You got it, congestion. In a talk that ranges from traffic to urban sprawl to housing affordability, Bertaud echoes Caplan’s point about the many and irreplaceable benefits of sheer proximity. At the same time, he argues for working with, and not against, a city’s unique culture and preferences, which explains why he’s both critical of planning and not anti-regulation. But perhaps most of all, Bertaud wants urban planners to view themselves as facilitators. Namely, and as he explained in his earlier episode on “order without design”, of the market forces that themselves create cities in which people actually want to live.

And that idea—about the irrepressible role of human desires and behavior in the planning calculus—could just be as essential to solving cities’ problems as it is responsible for their failings. Settling the West, as the Bertaud the Frenchman takes pains to point out, was the central experience that defined America’s national psyche. Surely, we can apply the same values that drove that process—optimism, ingenuity, equality, and daring—to resettling our urban frontier? By bringing not more planning, but more bottom-up innovation to the challenge of revitalizing our cities, surely we can create spaces that are both dense and beautiful, and that both encourage a dynamic coalescence and respect the adage, “Don’t tread on me.”

For a city like that, I might just emerge from my own Judean Hills hideout. That is, if there wasn’t so much traffic...and I could find a parking spot.


Marla Braverman
Editor at EconTalk

Mining the Conversation

A selection of additional EconTalk episodes that offer insight into the economic and cultural forces that shape American cities, for better or worse.
 

Judge Glock on Zoning and Local Government Join the economist and Cicero Institute senior fellow as he pokes holes in popular myths about zoning and its negative impact on housing affordability. He also argues that we should learn to stop worrying and love our property taxes—so long as they’re administered properly. Finally, he defends the detested phenomenon of urban sprawl on (are you ready?) environmental grounds.

Donald Shoup on the Economics of Parking Love finding free parking? Wait till you hear its true cost to American society. From auto dependence to urban sprawl to massive wastes of energy, ubiquitous free parking, according to Shoup, is to blame for a host of urban problems that charging fair-market prices and removing zoning requirements could fix. It’s one small spot for drivers, one giant leap for urban planning.

Enrico Moretti on Jobs, Cities, and Innovation What’s the number one rule of successful innovation hubs? According to UC Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti, it’s education, education, education. Hear him explain how for every high-tech worker, cities gain five new service jobs, and why the less-educated earn more in innovation-centric cities than in those whose main focus is manufacturing. He also discusses why “brain hubs” can’t be created by fiat and what workers lose by staying put.

Charles Marhon on Strong Towns, Urban Development, and the Future of American Cities The bad news is, most city planning results in wasted time and money. The good news? Changes as small as the width of roads can make our cities more vibrant places. Listen as land-use planner and municipal engineer Charles Marhon explains why dense towns are strong towns, suburbs should be restructured, and cul-de-sacs should be the road not taken from a planning perspective.

Jason Barr on Building the Skyline and the Economics of Skyscrapers From what determined the locations and height of Manhattan’s iconic buildings to actionable recommendations for affordable housing, “skynomics” expert Jason Barr elucidates everything skyscraper, including its fundamental purpose: accommodating as many people as possible in the same location at once.

Conversation Starters

An eclectic collection of books, podcasts, and films that reveal both the secret history of cities and what their futures may hold.
 

The Death and Life of Great American Cities Journalist Jane Jacobs’ classic analysis of America’s post-war urban-renewal policies laments “the extraordinary governmental financial incentives…required to achieve this degree of monotony, sterility, and vulgarity.” Happily, it also delights in describing the details of daily city life and wields satire like a hilarious hammer that always hits its urban-planning mark.

Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier An impassioned explanation of the ways that cities—even ones in third-world countries—are engines of innovation and wealth creation, Harvard economist Edward Glaeser argues for policies that increase density and disincentivize urban sprawl. When you’re done reading, head over to EconTalk for his conversation with Russ, which posits the reasons for cities’ success and decline and the pivotal role of good policies.

99% Invisible, a podcast that blends research and storytelling to uncover the real origins of our designed world. From the reason for kidney-shaped swimming pools (episode 265) to Sagrada Familia’s never-ending construction (episode 281), host Roman Mars will ensure you never look at a city the same way again.

Chinatown Inspired by the California water wars in the early 20^th century, Roman Polanski’s 1974 neo-noir masterpiece starring Jack Nicholson fictionalizes the irrigation of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, which in turn offered America its first model of drivable suburban development.

Metropolis Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent cult classic depicts an Orwellian urban future in which mistreated laborers slave away in a subterranean world that powers the rich one above. It was also the inspiration for Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi remake Blade Runner, whose dystopic Los Angeles of the future makes Chinatown’s look not bad at all.
 

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