A nice review of the book in the New York Times - http://libertyandresponsibility.blogspot.com/2013/03/ny-times-book-review-of-triumph-of-city.html prompts the following possible discussion questions:
1. Which of the cities discussed exempifies the wealth enhancing potential of emergent and evolutionary processes? (Which city would Hayek point to as an example of the positive effects of spontaneous orders?
2. Which city reflects the wealth enhancing role that is possible from state or government shaped development?
3. What is your reaction to the "Three Simple Rules" proposed in the book?
4. How useful to you find Glaeser's categories of: The Imperial City, The Well-Managed City, The Smart City, The Consumer City, and The Growing City? Are these mutually exclusive categories?
Table of Contents
Introduction: Our Urban Species 1
Chapter 1 What Do They Make in Bangalore? 17
Ports of Intellectual Entry: Athens 19
Baghdad's House of Wisdom 21
Learning in Nagasaki 23
How Bangalore Became a Boom Town 24
Education and Urban Success 27
The Rise of Silicon Valley 29
The Cities of Tomorrow 34
Chapter 2 Why Do Cities Decline? 41
How the Rust Belt Rose 43
Detroit Before Cars 46
Henry Ford and Industrial Detroit 49
Why Riot? 52
Urban Reinvention: New York Since 1970 56
The Righteous Rage of Coleman Young 58
The Curley Effect 60
The Edifice Complex 61
Remaining in the Rust Belt 63
Shrinking to Greatness 64
Chapter 3 What's Good About Slums? 69
Rio's Favelas 72
Moving On Up 76
Richard Wright's Urban Exodus 79
Rise and Fall of the American Ghetto 81
The Inner City 85
How Policy Magnifies Poverty 86
Chapter 4 How Were the Tenements Tamed? 93
The Plight of Kinshasa 95
Healing Sick Cities 97
Street Cleaning and Corruption 101
More Roads, Less Traffic? 104
Making Cities Safer 106
Health Benefits 114
Chapter 5 Is London a Luxury Resort? 117
Scale Economies and the Globe Theatre 119
The Division of Labor and Lamb Vindaloo 122
Shoes and the City 126
London as Marriage Market 127
When Are High Wages Bad? 129
Chapter 6 What's So Great About Skyscrapers? 135
Inventing the Skyscraper 136
The Soaring Ambition of A. E. Lefcourt 140
Regulating New York 142
Fear of Heights 144
The Perils of Preservation 148
Rethinking Paris 152
Mismanagement in Mumbai 157
Three Simple Rules 161
Chapter 7 Why Has Sprawl Spread? 165
Sprawl Before Cars 167
William Levitt and Mass-Produced Housing 174
Rebuilding America Around the Car 177
Welcome to The Woodlands 180
Accounting for Tastes: Why a Million People Moved to Houston 183
Why Is Housing So Cheap in the Sunbelt? 188
What's Wrong with Sprawl? 193
Chapter 8 Is There Anything Greener Than Blacktop? 199
The Dream of Garden Living 202
Dirty Footprints: Comparing Carbon Emissions 206
The Unintended Consequences of Environmentalism 210
Two Green Visions: The Prince and the Mayor 213
The Biggest Battle: Greening India and China 217
Seeking Smarter Environmentalism 220
Chapter 9 How Do Cities Succeed? 223
The Imperial City: Tokyo 224
The Well-Managed City: Singapore and Gaborone 227
The Smart City: Boston, Minneapolis, and Milan 231
The Consumer City: Vancouver 238
The Growing City: Chicago and Atlanta 241
Too Much of a Good Thing in Dubai 244
CONCLUSION: Flat World, Tall City 247
Give Cities a Level Playing Field 249
Urbanization Through Globalization 251
Lend a Hand to Human Capital 253
Help Poor People, Not Poor Places 255
The Challenge of Urban Poverty 257
The Rise of the Consumer City 259
The Curse of NIMBYism 260
The Bias Toward Sprawl 264
Green Cities 276
Gifts of the City 268
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