City futures: Politics, economic crisis, and the American model of urban development

Abstract

Looking to the future, this essay examines the likely trajectory of the American model of urban development in the face of world-wide economic crisis and major political realignment in the United States. It highlights how deeply suspicious many Americans are about concentrating power, even in the face of big sacrifices to social equality and threat of economic crisis. The US model shows how global capitalism does not drive urban change, even in the capital of capitalism. American post-industrial cities have long promoted a competitive urban development style as a matter of public policy, not because of overpowering economic forces leaving little alternative. The major political pillars that sustain the American urban model are not being challenged by President Obama's political coalition. Although American commitment to localism may be unique, it also suggests how urban policy strongly reflects a nation's political choices even in crisis. From this perspective, predicting the future of cities is strongly tied to people's willingness to invest political capital in forms of governance that promote the kind of urban development they want. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.