Demand for Density?

Is the city becoming obsolete? Many social observers believe that it is. In their view, improved information and transportation technology has deprived urban density of its raison d'etre. They also argue that many cities have caused themselves irreparable damage by pursuing policies that have attracted the poor and repelled the rich. The combination of foolish policies and technological change, they say, has doomed the city. Edward L. Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research argues that the turn of the new millennium does not presage the end of a ten-thousand-year pattern of increasing urbanization.