Dyson: Fostering Competition Among Cities
+ Brandon Fuller
In her recent Project Syndicate column, Esther Dyson suggests that all cities could stand to be a bit more innovative:
But Dyson also sees the coming wave of urbanization as an opportunity for well-run cities that actually are innovative to attract millions of new residents:
In an increasingly urban world, mobility of people combined with competition among cities for residents can potentially lead to better policy outcomes for everyone, as people abandon poorly governed areas for cities that offer a relatively high quality of life:
For Dyson, charter cities have a role to play in fostering strong competition for urban residents. Indeed, as she points out, charter cities will succeed only if they are profitable for investors and attractive places for residents to live and work.
At the moment, many people in the developing world want to be closer to the social and economic opportunities available in cities. Yet, because many cities are either unable or unwilling to plan for and accommodate new residents, many urban migrants end up in slums where they are excluded from formal city life. New cities could offer a much more inclusive option. A quote from Paul Romer near the end of Dyson’s piece suggests the enormous potential for mutually beneficial exchange that rapid urbanization could enable:
A new city can attract the working poor and still succeed as a large-scale real-estate development project. And a good thing too, because charity will never finance urban living space for 3-4 billion additional people. If new places enter the ‘city business,’ the working poor will find [affordable] urban housing and transport for the same reason that they now find food: because someone profits by offering it to them.