Book
Survival of the city : living and thriving in an age of isolation / Edward Glaeser and David Cutler.
During the global COVID crisis, cities grew silent as normal forms of socializing ground to a halt. City life will survive but individual cities face terrible risks, argue Edward Glaeser and David Cutler. Great cities have always demanded great management, and our current crisis has exposed fearful gaps in our capacity for good governance. Glaeser and Cutler argue that deep inequities in health care and education are a particular blight on the future of our cities; solving them will be the difference between our collective good health and a downward spiral to a much darker place.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780593297681
- Physical Description: 468 pages ; 25 cm
- Publisher: New York : Penguin Press, 2021
- Copyright: ©2021
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
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Available copies
- 3 of 3 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Valemount Public Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 3 total copies.
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| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valemount Public Library | anf 307.76 gla (Text) | 35194014319842 | Adult non-fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2021 July #2
A sweeping investigation of threats to urban life. Harvard economists Glaeser, who specializes in urban economics, and Cutler, who focuses on health care, believe that cities offer unequaled settings for creativity, commerce, entrepreneurship, and enjoyment. "Humanity crafted itself an urban world because proximity is valuable," they write, even though proximity also allows illnesses to spread easily. The authors examine incidences of contagion throughout history, including plague in medieval Europe; yellow fever in 18th-century Philadelphia; waves of cholera, which surged globally before reaching the New World in the spring of 1832; the influenza pandemic of 1918; and, of course, Covid-19 (some of the data on this virus is unavoidably outdated). "A central theme of this book," write the authors, "is that the vulnerability of large, dense, interconnected cities requires an effective, proactive public sector: a shared strength that serves everyone." They suggest ways to effectively enact quarantine, such as an international early warning system, cooperation to shut down international travel, and sequestration of impacted regions. Because the World Health Organization is hobbled by an unwieldy structure, they propose a NATO-like organization to respond to global health challenges. They critique the U.S. health care industry, which rations care through high prices. "The failure to fund public health," they assert, "is part of the larger problem that our private and public insurance programs are set up primarily to cover acute illness costs, not to prevent disease." Besides analyzing health issues, the authors look at other urban challenges, such as "overly expensive housing, violent conflict over gentrification, persistently low levels of upward mobility, and outrage over brutal and racially targeted policing and long prison sentences for minor drug crimes." Among their proposals for measures that would enhance city life are extensive reforms to business and land use regulations, the strengthening of schools, and policing that would "both prevent crime and respect every citizen." A thoughtful and useful consideration of the fate of cities in the age of Covid-19. Copyright Kirkus 2021 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2021 April
Glaeser and Cutlerâan urbanist and a public health care expert, respectively, in Harvard's economics departmentâexamine the issue of cities, much discussed in the wake of COVID-19. Yes, they concur, cities abet the spread of disease, but that is precisely why they have been key to public health advances, and for millennia they also have spread creativity, connection, and civilization. The authors don't envision a post-urban world but do think cities will changeâe.g., older people may move from cities, making room for go-getting younger onesâeven as they remain laboratories for America's health-care crisis and the attendant issues of income inequality and growth.
Copyright 2021 Library Journal.
