New York is Losing its Prominence

Apparently, this is the conclusion of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Senator Charles Schumer in a new CFR article, "The Shifting Capital of Capital". Too many reports are showing London as the World's financial capital. If you ask me, this probably has more to do with the fact that one British pound is now worth two US dollars than anything having to do with US vs UK regulatory practices. Don't tell that to Mike and Chuck though - they are blaming it on Sarbanes-Oxley and are proposing ways to lessen some of the regulations put on corporate America after the Enron scandal. While I agree that some of these regulations are cumbersome and could use reform, this is not hitting the nail on the head. The US dollar is in big trouble and we need to balance the federal budget in order to ensure that all US cities remain competitive in the next 20-30 years.

Potomac Angst and the Reviewing of the City-State Relationship

Monday's TIME Magazine cover story, "Who Needs Washington?", featuring Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I-NYC), and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) reminded me of a recent Globalization and Word Cities (GaWC) Research Bulletin by P.J. Taylor entitled, "Cities and States: An Elemental Reinterpretation of their Origins and Relations". The piece does not go so far as to say that cities are gaining power at the expense of nation-states, but he argues that a fundamental reanalysis of how scholars approach city-state relationships is in order. The article gives a great overview of how this relationship has changed over time. If it is the mission of the two mavericks featured on TIME's cover to restructure this relationship it seems that there is ample historical precedent for it.

NYC vs. Detroit: the Winners and Losers of the Global Era

Harvard scholar Edward Glaesar wrote an awesome opinion piece in today's New York Sun juxtaposing the experiences of New York City and Detroit in the Industrial Era (1890s-1950s) and the Global Era (1960s-present). These two pictures clearly illustrate this paradigm.

While I am often wary of the effects that globalization and deindustrialization have had on cities like Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh among others, I too am attracted to the benefits that growing, dense, innovative power nodes bring. As a city lover, how could I think otherwise? Cities are more than just agglomerations of buildings. There is no experience greater for myself than to wake up in a city where change is in the air, where people flock to, not flock from.

Brookings published an interesting study, Restoring Prosperity: the State Role in Revitalizing America's Older Industrial Cities on why some cities are in ascendance and others are not, and while some of the conclusions may seem obvious, it's definitely worth a look.

Photo Credits: Time Warner Center, New York - MorgueFile.com; Michigan Central Train Station, Detroit - Dave Hogg, photographer

New Book Details New York's Growing Inequality since 1974

According to a June Brooklyn Rail article, "The "Greening" of New York City", New York labor activist Kim Moody's new book, From Welfare State to Real Estate: Regime Change in New York City, 1974 to the Present, provides an excellent analysis of the growing income inequality in New York's five boroughs since the mid-1970s. Moody argues that the city's notorious fiscal crisis during that year sent tremors through municipal officials which led them to take a drastic, more corporatist policy turn. Richard Wells, the author of the review, juxtaposes Moody's narrative within the context of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's recently released 25 year vision for the city, PlaNYC. Interestingly enough, the plan does not address the fact that New York City's poverty rate, 22 percent, is now twice the national average and that the top 20 percent of of New York earners now make 52 times more than the bottom 20 percent. The Mayor's plan seems to get mixed reviews across Gotham's political spectrum - see links below.

• Congestion Pricing: Good Policy for New York's Middle Class (Drum Major Institute for Public Policy)
• Fiscal Impact of PlaNYC (Gotham Gazette)