The City Solution

In the 1800's, the idea of a city had a negative stigma attached to it. Cities were not cities we know today, but slums that were considered homes to the poorest of the poor. According to the Victorians, these cities were "colonies of breeding animals." Robert Kunzig's essay The City Solution is ironic because the essay starts by addressing the terror behind olden cities and how they should be shut down, but continues to describe cities as a solution to many prevailing issues in the world today.

Kunzig's first section is in the past, addressing the issues that cities have. Kunzig starts with Jack the Ripper to get your attention and invite us in with someone we all know about; we are all are interested in scary things so this makes us want to continue reading. London was the biggest city back then, seen as the leader in technology. Kunzig then uses Ebenezer Howard who believes that cities should really be like suburbs, but we later find out the Howard is not the hero.

Kunzig breaks the reading up into sections which contribute to his thesis, that urbanization is now "good news." The first section addresses the fact that economist embrace cities. Kunzig speaks of economist Edward Glaeser, who says that poor people flock to cities because thats where the money is. Having so many people in one place "reduces the cost of transporting goods, people, and ideas." Kunzig concludes this section by saying no technology ever invented is as important as a city.

The next section addresses the view of cities from environmentalist, which is surprisingly in support of cities. Kunzig says that cities use less space, leaving more open land, cities use less resources, including heat and lighting, and finally people living in cities drive less, taking public transportation. Carbon emission and energy use are lower than the national average in cities. This argument supports his thesis, that cities are helping the Earth. The end quote of the section shows that the government needs to change in order to adapt to the new urbanization.

Kunzig then uses the example of the capital of South Korea, Seoul, that transitioned from being one of the world's poorest countries in the world to being richer than some European countries. This economic growth was due to population growth, from 3 million to 10 million, between 1960 and 2000. This example shows that cities can urbanize quickly if needed. This urbanization helped the economic issues, but is also done in an environmentally friendly way.

Next Kunzig uses a counter example to get out attention again. He talks about stopping the development of cities is impossible. Park Chung-Hee, the dictator of South Korea, surrounded to city with a greenbelt to stop further development. By using a greenbelt, the issue of urbanization is not resolved. People cannot be stopped from wanting to be in a growing city because of cheap transportation and rising income. Like Howard suggested, many people want to live in a house with a yard. For that reason, many people opt to live outside the city and commute to work.

The ending is talking about Letchworth, England is a suburb right outside of London. It is great closure to open and close with England. London survived because they have wildlife parks and they expanded with transportation. It is exactly what Howard envisioned when he saw cities, it has houses and open land, but is still close enough to the city to get to by train. Howard tried to escape to Nebraska, but would not handle the country lifestyle. The end of the article quotes Howard again, and we see his beliefs have changed.

Kunzig picked a timeless argument because there is always an issue with cities. Because of the mass amounts of people and limited space, many people see cities as a home for crime, unsanitary living conditions, pollution, and chaos. Kunzig chose to argue against those beliefs, and drew out reasons why cities were beneficial to the world.  I liked how Kunzig chose to support his argument with an environmentalist, because many people see cities as a main cause of global warming.

Kunzig's article The City Solution is an effective article because it made me think about cities. Prior to reading this, I used to see cities as a crowded, dirty place that only poor people lived in. I did not realize that there was an economic component to cities, or that they are actually eco-friendly.