Book Review: Triumph of the City

Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier – by Edward Glaeser

Four years ago I first heard of Edward Glaeser on a Freakonomics blog post about Urbanization. He was one of five guest writers, and it’s ridiculous how much better his piece is than the other four. I decided I’d keep track of him and read whatever he writes.  Just check out his conclusion: “Humans are a social species, and our greatest achievements are all collaborative. Cities are machines for making collaboration easier. Thus, I am delighted that our planet has become increasingly urban.”

So when I heard him on a podcast recently, and that he had a new book I immediately picked it up. I thought it was great—a real pleasure to listen to. While preparing this post I discovered a summary of his book in a subsequent Freakonomics blog post, which I’ll summarize below. (Really you should ignore my bullet points, and read the post.)

• Cities are people, not structures.
• Cities succeed because they make smart people smarter.
• Small firms lead to innovative, growing cities.
• High quality universities are important.
• Building up leads to higher affordability, less driving, and less energy use.
• Stop subsidizing suburbs. The use of a freeway expands to fill the space available. The population density in Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) is among the lowest in metropolitan areas, yet is has among the highest prices.

The book also contained an interesting history of how cities were built up economically.  I’ve never heard the history from that perspective, and I enjoyed it. Did you know that Paris’s beautiful, consistent, wide roadways are the result of a single person. I can’t remember his name or title, but he restricted building, bulldozed existing structures, and planned the amazing city.  It’s lack of tall structures leads it to have some of the most expensive housing around.

The biggest takeaway I had from the book is how our government policies are responsible for so much of how cities develop.  I’d never really thought about how sparse dwellings are in the heart of Silicon Valley where I’d love to live.  There’s nothing magical about California that makes the housing prices high, it’s just the government not allowing new building.  He also mentions a law of conservation of building.  When California prevents building along its nice coastline, isn’t it really just pushing building to places like Las Vegas, which aren’t nearly so green?

• Interesting: High
• Informative: High
• Engaging: Medium

Note, my book notes are probably more for my own benefit than yours. This just provides a refresher of content as a way to remember what I learned

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