Big Cities Aren't as Bad as People Think

Paul Krugman argues that the pervasive myth of cities as crime-ridden cesspools harms democracy and creates a false contrast between urban and small-town America.

2 minute read

July 21, 2021, 12:00 PM PDT

By Diana Ionescu @aworkoffiction


Manhattan

Micha Weber / Shutterstock

In an op-ed for the New York Times, Paul Krugman assesses the "durable myth" that American cities teem with crime, violence, and disease. "Why do so many politicians still believe that they can run on the supposed contrast between urban evil and small-town virtue when many social indicators look worse in the heartland than in the big coastal metropolitan areas?," he asks. In fact, the country's "biggest social problems are in the 'eastern heartland,' an arc running from Louisiana to Michigan. This is where an alarmingly large number of men in their prime working years don’t have jobs and where 'deaths of despair' — that is, deaths from alcohol, suicide and drug overdoses — are running high." 

These problems, Krugman writes, have economic causes: "The rise of a knowledge economy has led to a growing concentration of jobs and wealth in large, highly educated metropolitan areas, leaving much of small-town and rural America stranded. And this loss of opportunity has ended up being reflected in social disintegration, just as the disappearance of jobs did in many inner cities half a century ago." And while the Trump administration downplayed the impact of COVID-19 partly because it was seen as an urban problem, the numbers don't bear that out: "South Dakota has roughly the same population as San Francisco; it has had four times as many Covid deaths."

Krugman also questions misconceptions about who pays for federally funded assistance programs. "For example, do red-state voters know that federal spending in their states — much of it taking the form of benefits from Social Security and Medicare — greatly exceeds the taxes they pay to Washington?" Cynical politicians, he writes, "disparage some parts of the country and suggest that those regions aren’t part of the 'real America'" with often disastrous results. "Cynicism has effectively killed thousands of people in the pandemic — and it could, all too easily, end up killing democracy."

Monday, July 12, 2021 in New York Times

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Wastewater pouring out from a pipe.

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage

Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

April 13, 2025 - Inside Climate News

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

April 16, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Black and white photos of camp made up of small 'earthquake shacks' in Dolores Park in 1906 after the San Francisco earthquake.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees

More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

April 15, 2025 - Charles F. Bloszies

Holland Tunnel, vehicular tunnel under Hudson River that connects New York City neighborhood of SoHo in Lower Manhattan to east with Jersey City in New Jersey.

Congestion Pricing Drops Holland Tunnel Delays by 65 Percent

New York City’s contentious tolling program has yielded improved traffic and roughly $100 million in revenue for the MTA.

15 minutes ago - Curbed

People walking up and down stairs in New York City subway station.

In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving

Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.

April 18 - Scientific American

White public transit bus with bike on front bike rack in Nashville, Tennessee.

Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan

Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.

April 18 - Bloomberg CityLab