Why urban decline could be good — even for cities

How decentralization of wealth and status could make America more stable and resilient

A scale.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

These are hard times for America's big cities. Murder is up. Workers are staying at home rather than commuting. Fear that COVID-19 would be more virulent in urban environments proved unfounded, but the pandemic has cast a pall over dense conditions and communal leisure that are part of cities' appeal.

For skeptics of the urban revival that remade political economy in the 21st century, it's a moment of vindication. Writing in The American Mind, Joel Kotkin argues that the overlap between Americans' longstanding preference for a suburban lifestyle, the possibility of effective online collaboration, and "residual fear of proximity" spell the end of big cities' demographic, economic, and cultural dominance.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Samuel Goldman

Samuel Goldman is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, where he is executive director of the John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom and director of the Politics & Values Program. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and was a postdoctoral fellow in Religion, Ethics, & Politics at Princeton University. His books include God's Country: Christian Zionism in America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) and After Nationalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). In addition to academic research, Goldman's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.