Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Made Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier

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Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Made Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier Page 38

by Edward Glaeser


  114 Accidents and suicides ... rarer in big cities: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, “10 Leading Causes of Death, United States,” 2007, All Races, Both Sexes, data generated using WISQARS, http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus10.html; and Xu et al., “Deaths: Final Data for 2007.”

  114 than 75 percent less likely to die in a motor vehicle: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Summary of Vital Statistics 2007, tables 2 and 14; and Xu et al., “Deaths: Final Data for 2007.”

  115 The suicide rate ... more common in rural areas: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Summary of Vital Statistics 2007, tables 2 and 15; Xu et al., “Deaths: Final Data for 2007,” table 11; and Cutler et al., “Explaining the Rise in Youth Suicide.”

  115 death rates from suicide: As of 2007, Alaska’s rate is 22.09 deaths from suicide per 100,000 people; Montana’s, 19.42; and Wyoming’s, 19.73. Massachusetts’s rate is 7.62; New Jersey’s, 6.69; and New York’s 6.9. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, WISQARS Injury Mortality Reports, 1999-2007, All Races, Both Sexes, data generated using WISQARS, http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html.

  115 gun ownership is about four times as high in small towns: Cutler et al., “Explaining the Rise in Youth Suicide”; and Kleck, Point Blank. Kleck reports that 42.8 percent of households in communities with fewer than five thousand people own a gun, but only 10.5 percent of people living in places with more than a million people own a gun.

  115 suicides are more common when firearms are more common: For example, Miller et al., “Household Firearm Ownership and Suicide Rates”; and Kellermann et al., “Suicide in the Home.”

  115 suicides rise significantly with the number of hunting licenses: Glaeser and Glendon, “Who Owns Guns?”

  115 Death rates are 5.5 percent higher ... seventy-five to eighty-four: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Summary of Vital Statistics 2007, tables 2 and 5; and Xu et al., “Deaths: Final Data for 2007,” table 9.

  116 The AIDS virus was discovered ... Paris’s Pasteur Institut: Institut Pasteur. HIV/AIDS research at the Institut Pasteur: The discovery of the AIDS virus in 1983. http://www.pasteur.fr/ip/easysite/go/03b-000027-00i/the-discovery-of-the-aids-virus-in-1983.

  CHAPTER 5: IS LONDON A LUXURY RESORT?

  117 Nowhere are London’s extravagances ... Gordon Ramsay’s cooking: http://www.bondstreetassociation.com/.

  117 If you walk down the Burlington Arcade ... the world’s elite: http://www.piccadilly-arcade.com/.

  118 “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”: Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, 160.

  118 thirty-two billionaires: “Billionaires’ Favorite Hangouts” and Bertoni et al., “Billionaires.”

  118 Lakshmi Mittal: Hessel, “Conspicuous Consumption.”

  118 pay a lot just to live in New York: Glaeser et al., “Consumer City.”

  119 Kevin Spacey ... moved to London: Gussow, “Spacey’s New Role.”

  119 Spacey ... grew up in California: Ibid.

  120 built by James Burbage in 1576: Lee, Life of William Shakespeare, 36.

  120 English comedy made its first appearance: Boas, Shakespeare and His Predecessors, 21-22. I want to make it clear that I mean “pre-Elizabethan extremist” in a very positive way.

  121 The first written reference to Shakespeare: Schoenbaum, Shakespeare’s Lives, 22.

  121 a somewhat dissolute playwright: Greenblatt, Will in the World, 216.

  121 Pandosto for The Winter’s Tale: Lee, Life of William Shakespeare, 250-51.

  121 the ur-Hamlet: Ibid., 221.

  121 direct references to Marlowe’s work: Weis, Shakespeare Unbound, 146-488; and Black, “Hamlet Hears Marlowe.”

  121 Marlowe’s earlier The Jew of Malta: Lee, Life of William Shakespeare, 68.

  121 influenced Antony and Cleopatra: Logan, Shakespeare’s Marlowe, ch. 7, 169-96.

  121 confident that they personally knew each other: Greenblatt, Will in the World, 199.

  122 Olivier directed the young Peter O’Toole: “Routine Performance of Hamlet,” review, Times (London), no. 55839, Oct. 23, 1963, 14.

  122 The Second City began in 1959: Rohter, “Second City Looks Back in Laughter.”

  122 DJ Kool Herc: Starr and Waterman, American Popular Music, 83, 86, 200.

  123 are 1.8 times as many people working in grocery stores: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2008, www.census.gov/econ/cbp.

  123 in New York that ratio is more than reversed: U.S. Census Bureau, 2007 County Business Patterns, New York County (Manhattan), Bronx County, Queens County, Richmond County (Staten Island), and Kings County (Brooklyn).

  123 employment in Manhattan restaurants increased by 55 percent: In 1998, 57,680 people worked in restaurants in New York County (Manhattan). By 2007, this had increased 44 percent to 83,257 people. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns, www.census.gov/econ/cbp, New York County, 1998 and 2007.

  123 Adam Smith noted that the division of labor: Smith, Wealth of Nations, 1791, vol. 1, 26.

  123 credited as the first restaurateur: Spang, Invention of the Restaurant, 11.

  124 to avoid the catering guild’s harsh rules: Ibid., 24.

  124 La Grande Taverne de Londres opened in Paris: “Restaurant,” Encyclopædia Britannica.

  124 “an elegant room ... superior cooking”: Brillat-Savarin, Physiology of Taste, 231.

  124 Delmonico’s of Manhattan: Lately Thomas, Delmonico’s.

  124 Auguste Escoffier: Escoffier, Memories of My Life.

  125 first London restaurant to get three stars: www.albertroux.co.uk, Biography, Le Gavroche.

  125 two hundred thousand Londoners who were born in India: Spence, A Profile of Londoners, 18; and Greater London Authority, Data Management and Analysis Group, “ONS mid-2007 Ethnic Group Population Estimates,” GLA Demography Update, 11-2009, Oct. 2009, p. 2.

  125 gave stars to two Indian restaurants in London: Robin Young, “First to Pull a Michelin Star.”

  125 Rasoi Vineet Bhatia: Zagat 2011 London Restaurants, review of Rasoi Vineet Bhatia, 27, 144; review of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay (at 68 Royal Hospital Road), 28, 82.

  126 working in clothing and accessories stores: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns, www.census.gov/econ/cbp, New York County (Manhattan), 1998 and 2008.

  127 spend 42 percent more on women’s clothing: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2008, www.bls.gov/cex, table 2400: “Population Size of Area of Residence: Average Annual Expenditures and Characteristics.”

  127 spend 25 percent more on footwear: Ibid.

  127 housed 1.4 million people over the age of fifteen: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, Data Profile for New York County, 2008, generated using American FactFinder.

  127 a third (460,000) were married: Ibid.

  127 About half ... were divorced: Ibid.

  127 one half of people over fifteen are married: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, Data Profile for the United States, 2008, generated using American FactFinder.

  127 Manhattanites are much more likely... to be singles: U.S. Census Bureau, PCT7, Sex by Marital Status by Age for the Population 15 Years and Over, United States and New York County, Census 2000 Summary File 3, data generated using American FactFinder.

  128 the most economically successful couples: Costa and Kahn, “Power Couples.”

  128 Theodore Dreiser came to Chicago: Dreiser, Sister Carrie, introduction by Richard Lingeman.

  128 Carrie Meeber: Dreiser, Sister Carrie.

  130 Some cities ... unusually high real incomes: The ACCRA cost-of-living indexes for Rochester, Honolulu, San Diego, and Dallas are 96.7, 162.8, 136.4, and 92.1, respectively. The average cost of living for all areas included is indexed to 100, then each place is given an index relative to 100, so the higher the index number, the higher the cost of living. The median household incomes for Rochester (Minnesota), Honolulu, San Diego, and D
allas are $66,197, $60,531, $62,668, and $40,796, respectively. The ACCRA-adjusted median household income is calculated by dividing the household income for each place by its ACCRA cost-of-living index (divided by 100). The ACCRA-adjusted median household incomes for these places are $68,458, $37,189, $45,943, and $44,285, respectively, showing how low the real incomes of San Diego and Honolulu are compared with those of Rochester and Dallas. American Chamber of Commerce Research Association, Council for Community and Economic Research, ACCRA Cost-of-Living Index—Historical Dataset, 1Q1990-2009, http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/14823, Council for Community and Economic Research, Arlington, VA; and U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, Data Profile for Rochester (MN), Honolulu, San Diego, and Dallas, data generated using American FactFinder.

  130 most expensive ... were in coastal California: Glaeser et al., “Consumer City.”

  131 relationship between city size and real wages: Glaeser and Gottlieb, “Urban Resurgence.”

  131 accept lower real wages to live in New York: Ibid.

  132 population that commutes from central city to suburb: Baum-Snow, “Transportation Infrastructure.”

  CHAPTER 6: WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT SKYSCRAPERS?

  135 Haussmann, who rebuilt the city: All on Haussmann’s Paris from Jordan, Transforming Paris.

  136 Tower of Babel: Genesis 11:4, King James Version.

  137 In worldly Bruges, wool topped worship: John Weale, Quarterly Papers on Architecture, vol. 1, London: Iohan Weale, 1844.

  137 the 284-foot spire of Trinity Church: Goldberger, “God’s Stronghold.”

  137 Eiffel Tower: “The Eiffel Tower,” New York Times, Apr. 21, 1889, p. 13, ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Document ID: 106346206.

  137 move upward was a moderate evolution: Landau and Condit, New York Skyscraper, 5-18.

  138 Tall buildings became possible in the nineteenth century: Goodwin, Otis, 45.

  138 Archimedes allegedly built one: Ibid., 8.

  138 Louis XV had his own personal lift: Taub, “Elevator Technology.”

  138 Matthew Boulton and James Watt: Landau and Condit, New York Skyscraper, 35-36.

  138 Otis ... took the danger out of vertical transit: Goodwin, Otis, 12-13.

  138 first two buildings to install powered safety elevators: Ibid., 17; and Landau and Condit, New York Skyscraper, 36.

  138 the elevator enabled pathbreaking structures: Landau and Condit, New York Skyscraper, 62.

  139 whether Jenney was really the inventor of the skyscraper: Turak, “Home Insurance Building.”

  139 Jenney’s proto-skyscraper was a patchwork: Bascomb, Higher, 94-97.

  139 Other builders ... further developed the idea: Landau and Condit, New York Skyscraper, 268, 302, 334, and passim.

  139 They were great architects ... fireproofing innovator Peter B. Wight: Vermiel, The Fireproof Building.

  140 Pulitzer’s World Building had some steel columns: Ibid., 199.

  140 surpassed by the Park Row Building: Ibid., 252.

  140 iconic Flatiron Building in 1907: Ibid., 303.

  140 Metropolitan Life tower, then the tallest building: Ibid., 361.

  140 In 1913, the Woolworth Building reached 792 feet: 792 feet, 1 inch, to be exact. Ibid., 382.

  140 tallest building until the boom of the late 1920s: Ibid., 395-96.

  140 Like a proper Horatio Alger hero: “Romance in Lives of City Builders: New Building Peaks Adjacent to East River Waterfront,” New York Times, Feb. 24, 1929.

  140 working full-time in retail, he kept selling papers: “By-the-Bye in Wall Street,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5, 1932.

  140 Treasury bond, which he kept pinned to his shirt: Ibid.

  140 still in his early thirties, led the management side: “State Board Trying to End Cloak Strike: Employers’ Committee Meets To-morrow to Consider a Joint Conference; No Settlement, They Say,” New York Times, July 17, 1910.

  141 the Protocol of Peace: Greenwald, “‘More than a Strike.’”

  141 a less bloody and likely more profitable middle ground: Ibid.

  141 sank all of his capital into a twelve-story loft building: Tarshis, “Thirty-one Commercial Buildings.”

  141 Bedrock may have: Barr et al., “Bedrock Depth.”

  141 he erected thirty-one edifices: Tarshis, “Thirty-one Commercial Buildings.”

  141 Lefcourt used those Otis elevators in soaring towers: Ibid.

  141 “he demolished more historical structures”: “By-the-Bye in Wall Street,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 5, 1932.

  141 wealth was estimated at $100 million: “E. Lefcourt Dies Suddenly at 55: Was Credited with Building More Skyscrapers Than Any Other Individual,” New York Times, Nov. 14, 1932.

  141 celebrated by opening a national bank: “In and Out of the Banks,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 12, 1928.

  141 optimism was unfazed by the stock market crash: “Lefcourt Plans for 1930 Large: Propose $50,000,000 Expenditure for New Buildings—Other Projects,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 2, 1929.

  142 died in 1932 worth only $2,500: “A. E. Lefcourt Left $2,500, No Realty: Builder of 20 Skyscrapers Had Property Valued at $100,000,000 in 1928,” New York Times, Dec. 15, 1932.

  142 Two economists tried ... where density was easier to develop: Rosenthal and Strange, “Attenuation of Human Capital Spillovers.”

  142 artists connected in the Brill Building: Inglis, “‘Some Kind of Wonderful.’”

  142 “save Fifth Avenue from ruin”: “Saving Fifth Avenue: Building Height Restriction to Prevent It Becoming a Canyon,” New York Times, July 20, 1913.

  142 antigrowth activists ... city as a whole: Ibid.

  143 landmark 1916 zoning ordinance: New York City, “About NYC Zoning.”

  143 New York’s many ziggurat-like structures: Landau and Condit, New York Skyscraper, 395.

  143 Five of New York City’s ten tallest buildings: Emporis.com, www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/?id=101028. They are, tallest first, Empire State Building, 1931; Bank of America Tower, 2009; Chrysler Building, 1930; New York Times Tower, 2007; American International Building, 1932; Trump Building, 1930; Citigroup Center, 1977; Beekman Tower, 2010; Trump World Tower, 2001; and GE Building, 1933.

  143 race to produce the tallest structure: Bascomb, Higher, 139-53.

  143 amended more than twenty-five hundred times: Makielski, Politics of Zoning.

  143 resulting 420-page code: New York City, City Planning Commission, Zoning Maps and Resolution.

  143 thirteen different types ... of commercial districts: Ibid.

  144 picayune detail of the code: Ibid., 25.

  145 “piece of built-in rigor mortis”: Alexiou, Jane Jacobs, 91.

  145 a fight with Jane Jacobs: Asbury, “Board Ends Plan.”

  146 Jacobs published her masterpiece: Jacobs, Death and Life, Random House, 1961.

  146 between one and two hundred households per acre: Jacobs, Death and Life, 208-17.

  148 Several papers have shown that new construction is lower: For example, Glaeser and Ward, “The Causes and Consequences of Land Use Regulation: Evidence from Greater Boston,” 265-78; and Katz and Rosen. “The interjurisdictional effects of growth controls on housing prices,” 149-60.

  148 One of the cleverest papers ... less new construction and higher price: Albert Saiz, “The Geographic Determinants of Housing Supply,” 1253-96.

  148 The building’s architect, like Jane Jacobs, saw height: Moore, Life and Times of Charles Follen Mckim, 274; and Ballon and McGrath, New York’s Pennsylvania Stations, 54.

  148 preparing to raze its old New York station: Jacobs, Death and Life, Random House, 1961.

  149 subtitle of the New York Times article: Bennett, “City Acts to Save Historical Sites.”

  149 Landmarks Preservation Commission became permanent: Landmarks Preservation Committee, www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/html/about/mission.shtml; and “A Landmark Law,” New York Times, Apr. 27, 1965.

  149 twenty-five thousand landmarked buildings: New York City La
ndmarks Preservation Commission, Midcentury Modern Midtown Office Tower Becomes a Landmark, Apr. 13, 2010, No. 10-04, www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/10_04_springs_mills.pdf.

  149 More than 15 percent of Manhattan’s nonpark land: Glaeser, “Preservation Follies,” 62. This figure was calculated using New York City Map (http://gis.nyc.gov/doitt/nycitymap/) and GIS (Geographic Information System) software to determine historic district and park boundaries and land areas.

  149 proposed putting a twenty-two-story glass tower: Pogrebin, “Upper East Side Tower.”

  149 Tom Wolfe ... would betray its mission: Wolfe, “(Naked) City.”

  149 In response to his critics ... “on the way to being solved”: Gillette, “Has Tom Wolfe Blown It?”

  150 almost 74 percent wealthier: Author’s calculations using Geolytics Neighborhood Change Database 1970-2000 Tract Data Short Form Release 1.1, CD-ROM (Brunswick, NJ: Geolytics, 2002) and landmark district information from http://gis.nyc.gov/doitt/nycitymap; and Glaeser, “Preservation Follies.”

  150 three quarters of the adults living in historic districts: Glaeser, “Preservation Follies,” 62.

  150 are 20 percent more likely to be white: Author’s calculations; Glaeser, “Preservation Follies,” 62.

  150 In the postwar boom years ... 11,000 units each year: U.S. Census Bureau, Manufacturing, Mining and Construction Statistics, Residential Building Permits, www.census.gov/const/www/permitsindex.html.

  150 Between 1980 and 1999 ... 3,120 units per year: Ibid.

  150 price of a Manhattan housing unit increased by 284 percent: Haines, “Historical, Demographic, Economic, and Social Data: The United States, 1790-2002.”

  150 an additional square foot of living space on the top of a tall building is less than $400: Glaeser et al., “Why Is Manhattan So Expensive?”

  151 80 percent of structures erected in the 1970s had more than twenty stories: Ibid.

  151 fewer than 40 percent of the buildings erected in the 1990s were that tall: Ibid.

 

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