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

by Edward Glaeser

  218 about 20 metric tons of carbon dioxide per person per year: U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Annual 2006, table H.1cco2, “World Per Capita Carbon Dioxide Emissions from the Consumption and Flaring of Fossil Fuels, 1980-2006,” www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/tableh1cco2.xls.

  218 Canadians . . . almost the same amount per person: Ibid.

  218 English emit a little less than 10 tons: Ibid.

  218 Italians . . . 8 tons of carbon dioxide per person annually: Ibid.

  218 The Chinese . . . almost 5 tons: Ibid.

  218 If the Chinese ... increasing world carbon emissions by 69 percent: Total emissions in 2006 were 29 billion tons. If we subtract China’s 2006 emissions from this total (1.314 billion people times 4.58 metric tons per capita for a total of 6.018 billion tons) and then add China’s total emissions if they were at the U.S. per capita level (1.314 billion people times 19.78 metric tons for a total of 25.998 billion tons), the new world total would be 48.98 billion tons, an increase of 69 percent. U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Annual 2006, table H.1cco2, “World Per Capita Carbon Dioxide Emissions from the Consumption and Flaring of Fossil Fuels, 1980-2006,” www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/tableh1cco2.xls.

  218 But if energy consumption in India and China levels off . . . cutbacks in the United States and elsewhere: If, instead, we used France’s 6.60 metric ton per capita figure, China’s revised emissions would be 8.668 billion tons (1.314 billion people times 6.60 metric tons per capita) and India’s would be 7.334 billion tons (1.112 billion people times 6.60 metric tons per capita), for a revised world total of 37.887 billion tons, or an increase of about 30 percent. U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Annual 2006, table H.1cco2, “World Per Capita Carbon Dioxide Emissions from the Consumption and Flaring of Fossil Fuels, 1980-2006,” www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/tableh1cco2.xls.

  218 city-by-city analysis of China’s household carbon emissions: Zheng et al., “Greenness of China.”

  218 While the typical household . . . brownest places in China: Glaeser and Kahn, “Greenness of Cities”; and Zheng et al., “Greenness of China.”

  220 fifty thousand people per square mile: Mumbai, Mumbai Human Development Report 2009, 238; and American Community Survey, 2008 Data Profile for the City of New York, generated using American FactFinder.

  220 Kolkata and Bangalore: Kolkata: “Seoul 6th Most Densely Populated City,” Korea Times, Dec. 26, 2007. Bangalore: Annemarie Schneider and Curtis E. Woodcock, “Compact, Dispersed, Fragmented, Extensive? A Comparison of Urban Growth in Twenty-five Global Cities Using Remotely Sensed Data, Pattern Metrics, and Census Information,” Urban Studies 45 (Mar. 2008): 659-92, doi:10.1177/0042098007087340.

  220 Shenzhen . . . fifteen thousand people per square mile: “Around China,” China Daily, www.chinadaily.com.cn, Apr. 29, 2010.

  220 Shanghai and Beijing . . . (about 2,600 people per square mile) as Los Angeles: Los Angeles population in 2008 was 3,803,383, and land area is 469 square miles, for a density of 8,109.5 per square mile. American Community Survey, 2008 Data Profile for the City of New York and the City of Los Angeles, generated using American FactFinder.

  220 Chinese car ownership: “Chinese Agency Highlights Problems of Rising Car Ownership,” BBC Worldwide Monitoring, Asia Pacific, July 19, 2010.

  220 by producing a $2,500 car: Timmons, “A Tiny Car.”

  CHAPTER 9: HOW DO CITIES SUCCEED?

  223 “Happy families are all alike”: Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, 3.

  224 Tokyo became one of the largest cities: “Tokyo,” Encyclopædia Britannica.

  224 his new castle home, Edo, became the country’s effective capital: “Japan,” Encyclopædia Britannica.

  225 half of Japan’s rice revenue: Ades and Glaeser, “Trade and Circuses.”

  225 The more centralized a nation’s government, the larger its capital city: Ibid.

  225 largest cities in dictatorships . . . 35 percent: Ibid.

  225 in stable democracies . . . 23 percent: Ibid.

  225 Edo had a million people: Seidensticker, Low City, High City, 13.

  225 the Meiji Restoration reestablished imperial power: Ibid., 26-28.

  225 moved his court from Kyoto to Edo, renaming it Tokyo: Ibid., 26.

  225 shogun’s castle became the imperial palace: Ibid., 28-29.

  225 when Japan was still poor, its people were remarkably well educated: Maddison, “Statistics on World Population.”

  225 substantially more than in France, the Netherlands, or Spain: France had 6, Netherlands 5.42, and Spain 3.4. Barro and Lee, “Educational Attainment.”

  226 Ministry of International Trade and Industry: Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle.

  226 usually picked losers rather than winners: Beason and Weinstein, “Growth, Economies of Scale.”

  227 The success of the British East India Company... buccaneering ambition: Boulger, Life of Sir Stamford Raffles; and Wurtzburg, Raffles of the Eastern Isles, 16.

  227 passionate about flora and fauna, keeping a sun bear cub as a pet: Raffles, History of Java; and Wurtzburg, Raffles of the Eastern Isles, 113-14, 197-98, 569-71.

  227 He later became... the tip of the Malay Peninsula: Wurtzburg, Raffles of the Eastern Isles, 256-70, 643-44, 648; and “Singapore,” Encyclopædia Britannica.

  228 and 25 million people may have died: Ebrey et al., East Asia, 308.

  228 Twelve years later... an independent city-state: Yew, Singapore Story.

  228 His 217-square-mile domain: Ibid.; population in 1965 from Maddison, “Statistics on World Population.”

  228 incomes in Singapore were about one fifth: Maddison, “Statistics on World Population.”

  228 more than 8 percent growth per year, among the highest: Author’s caculations using Maddison, “Statistics on World Population.”

  228 Singapore was a poor shantytown: Yew, From Third World to First, 120.

  228 one of the highest per capita gross domestic products: Maddison, “Statistics on World Population.”

  228 more than $70 just to enter the casino: “The Dragon’s Gambling Den,” Economist, July 10, 2010.

  228 average adult in Singapore had only three years of schooling: Barro and Lee, “Educational Attainment.”

  229 Singapore’s thirteen-year-olds led the world: Boston College, “Highlights of Results from TIMSS.”

  229 A large literature now documents the perverse tendency of natural resource windfalls: Frankel, “The Natural Resource Curse: A Survey.”

  229 high salaries and even higher penalties for malfeasance: Yew, From Third World to First, 182-98.

  229 world’s best logistics for trade and transport: United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Industrial Development Report 2009, p. 69; and World Bank, Connecting to Compete, 26.

  230 Until recently, it had to import . . . recycling the wastewater: “Singapore’s Deep Tunnel Sewerage System Wins Global Water Awards 2009,” Marketwire, Apr. 28, 2009.

  230 adopted congestion pricing in 1975: Goh, “Congestion Management.”

  230 Commute times run around thirty-five minutes: Payscale.com, www.payscale.com/research/SG/Country=Singapore/Commute_Time.

  230 forty-two of its buildings rise above 490 feet: Emporis.com: Singapore high-rises—www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/sk/li/?id=100422&bt=5&ht=2&sro=0; London high-rises—www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/sk/li/?id=100637&bt=5&ht=2&sro=0; and Paris high-rises—www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/sk/li/?id=100603&bt=5&ht=2&sro=0.

  231 second-fastest GDP growth of any country: Maddison, “Statistics on World Population.”

  231 one of the two or three most prosperous nations in sub-Saharan Africa: Ibid.

  231 Gaborone was founded in 1965 . . . a tenth of the country’s population: Botswana, “Stats Update Dec. 2009.”

  231 Botswana’s success rests on . . . physical and human capital: “Khama, Sir Seretse,” Encyclopædia Britannica.


  231 average years of schooling in Botswana: Barro and Lee, “Educational Attainment.”

  231 Gaborone’s growth has paralleled Botswana’s: They do census on the “1” year, so it’s 1971-2001. Botswana, table 1.6, “Distribution of Population in Urban Settlements.”

  231 humane and moderately effective: Botswana, “MASA: Anti-Retroviral Therapy.”

  231 raising the life expectancy substantially for those with HIV: Dorrington et al., Demographic Impact of HIV/AIDS.

  232 explained, in a statistical sense, by education levels in 1940: 2000 is the year with the latest comprehensive Census data across 256 metropolitan areas. When share of adults with a college degree in 2000 is regressed on share of adults with college degrees in 1940, the r-squared is 53 percent and the coefficient is over three. Glaeser et al., “Inequality in Cities.”

  232 If less than 5 percent... 19 percent of that area’s population had a college degree in 2000: Author’s calculations using data from U.S. Census Bureau, 1940 and 2000 Census.

  232 If more than 5 percent . . . 29 percent had a college degree in 2000: Author’s calculations using data from U.S. Census Bureau, 1940 and 2000 Census.

  232 “raise a Bulwork against the kingdom of AntiChrist”: Vaughan, Puritan Tradition, 26

  232 founded the Boston Latin School in 1635: Ibid., 27; Boston Latin School, “History (375 Years), Celebrating a Public Treasure,” www.bls.org/podium/default.aspx?t=113646.

  232 allocated £400 . . . for a college: Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard; and Quincy, History of Harvard.

  232 Another £375 and four hundred books: Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard, 9.

  232 “most literate society then existing”: McCullough, Reformation, 520.

  233 In 1647, a famine . . . fortune during the Colonial era: Rutman, “Governor Winthrop’s Garden Crop.”

  233 The city exported . . . food and wood to the Caribbean: Ibid., 131-32.

  233 Boston’s first-mover advantage . . . as China and South Africa: Ibid.

  234 an understanding of Manchester’s power looms: “Lowell, Francis Cabot,” Encyclopædia Britannica.

  234 religious mosaic founded new colleges: Tufts: “The Founding of Tufts University,” www.tufts.edu/home/get_to_know_tufts/history; Boston College: “History: From the South End to Chestnut Hill,” www.bc.edu/about/history.html, Feb. 5, 2010; Boston University: “Timeline,” www.bu.edu/timeline; and Wellesley: “College History,” web.wellesley.edu/web/AboutWellesley/CollegeHistory.

  234 Vannevar Bush: “Raytheon: A History of Global Technology Leadership,” www.raytheon.com/ourcompany/history.

  234 Raytheon’s current headquarters: The Raytheon Web site has a Google map confirming location on the reservoir near Route 128; address: Raytheon Company, 870 Winter Street, Waltham, MA 02451-1449.

  234 engineers from MIT and Harvard created companies: Dorfman, “High Technology Economy.”

  234 Wang had 30,000 employees and DEC had over 120,000: Wang: “An American Tragedy,” Economist, Aug. 22, 1992, 56-58. DEC: Edgar H. Schein, DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC: The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2003), 152.

  234 lost the edge that comes from urban density: Saxenian, Regional Advantage.

  235 first business trusts in 1827: Adams, Boston Money Tree.

  235 the first investment trusts: Markham, Financial History of the United States, 324.

  235 birth of management consulting: Arthur D. Little “About Us/History,” www.adl.com/9.html.

  235 Little was a training ground for smart people: Treynor bio: Treynor, Treynor, xviii. Black bio: New York Times, Aug. 31, 1995; and Henriques, “Fischer Black.” BCG: Boston Consulting Group, “BCG History: 1963,” www.bcg.com/about_bcg/history/History_1963.aspx. Bain: Bain and Company, “History Based on Results,” www.joinbain.com/this-is-bain/measurable-results/history-based-on-results.asp.

  235 Foreign firms . . . Necco Wafers: Treffinger, “Alchemy Will Turn a Candy Factory into Biotech Offices.”

  236 Minneapolis, which lost 30 percent of its population: Gibson, “Population of the 100 Largest Cities.”

  236 per capita personal income in the Minneapolis metropolitan area: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, “Personal Income for Metropolitan Areas, 2009,” Monday, August 9, 2010. http://www.bea.gov/newreleases/regional/mpi/2010/pdf/mpi0810.pdf.

  236 seventh-best-educated metropolitan area: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2008 Data Profile for the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, generated using American FactFinder.

  236 Medtronic: “Medtronic Annual Revenue Up 8 Percent to $14.6 Billion,” May 19, 2009, wwwp.medtronic.com/Newsroom/NewsReleaseDetails.do?itemId=1242677732763&lang=en_US; expansion: www.medtronic.com/about-medtronic/locations/index.htm; employee count: www.medtronic.com/about-medtronic/diversity/index.htm; history: “Our Story: The Garage Years,” www.medtronic.com/about-medtronic/our-story/index.htm.

  236 Walt Lillehei: Medtronic, “Our Story: The Pacemaker Years,” www.medtronic.com/about-medtronic/our-story/our-first-pacemakers/index.htm.

  236 Bob Ulrich: Wakin, “Hit, Strummed or Plucked.”

  237 trained two mathematicians: I am specifically referring to Francesco Brioschi, secretary to the minister of education and founder of the Politecnico, and to Gabrio Casati, an education minister, founder of the Accademia of Milan, which was later merged into the University of Milan, and promulgator of the Casati Law, which organized Italian postunification education. See: The Men of the Time: or Sketches of Living Notables, 1852, 161.

  237 Pirelli . . . use of rubber: Polese, “In Search of a New Industry.”

  237 telegraph cables insulated with rubber: Ibid.

  237 headquarters is an architectural icon: Foot, Milan Since the Miracle, 118.

  237 two design magazines: Nelson, Building a New Europe, 161-62.

  237 designed ceramics, bottles, and chairs: Ibid., 58-59; Foot, Milan Since the Miracle, 113.

  237 also made Milan’s population plummet: “Milan,” Encyclopædia Britannica.

  238 population increased between 2000 and 2008: Istat, Demography in Figures.

  238 Milan’s per capita productivity is the highest: In this case, I am using productivity to mean value added per capita. Author’s calculations using Istat, Regional Accounts and National Economic Accounts.

  238 three quarters of Milan’s workers are in services: Author’s calculations using Istat, Regional Accounts.

  238 Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli: Galloni, “Miuccia and Me”; “Learning from Prada,” RFID Journal, June 24, 2002, www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/272/1; and for Pocone, “Prada, Miuccia,” Britannica Book of the Year, 2003, Encyclopædia Britannica.

  238 The Versaces: Spindler, “Gianni Versace.”

  238 A quarter of the Vancouver area’s residents: Canada: Statistics Canada, Population 15 Years and Over; and Canada: Statistics Canada, Greater Vancouver.

  239 top of global quality-of-life rankings: For instance, Mercer’s Quality of Living Worldwide City Rankings, www.mercer.com/qualityoflivingpr#City_Ranking_Tables, or the Economist Intelligence Unit, Global Liveability Report, www.eiu.com/site_info.asp?info_name=The_Global_Liveability_Report_Press_Release&rf=0; and Canada: Statistics Canada, Greater Vancouver.

  239 Its Januaries average 37 degrees . . . cooler than the other two cities: Estimated temperature for Vancouver from a tourism site: http://vancouver.ca/aboutvan.htm; U.S. cities temperature from U.S. Census Bureau, County and City Data Book 2000, table C-7, “Cities—Government Finances and Climate,” www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/00ccdb/cc00_tabC7.pdf.

  239 Vancouver was a logging town with . . . well-educated citizens: Morley, Vancouver, 33-34, 58-61, 79, 84-89, 145, 222.

  239 population stagnated . . . 50 percent: Vancouver Public Library, “City of Vancouver Population.”

  239 Arthur Erickson . . . plenty of open space: “A Tribute to Arthur Erickson,” AI Architect
, http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek09/0612/0612n_arthur.cfm; “Arthur Erickson, Lauded Canadian Architect, Dies,” Architectural Record, 197, no. 7: 24; “Massey, Raymond,” Encyclopædia Britannica; “Massey, Vincent,” Encyclopædia Britannica; “MacMillan Bloedel Building,” www.arthurerickson.com/txt_macm.html; and UBC Robson Square, “About Us: History,” www.robsonsquare.ubc.ca/about/history.html.

  240 Erickson became a national icon: Martin, “‘Greatest Architect.’”

  240 twenty structures with more than twenty stories: Emporis.com, “James KM Cheng Architects Inc.,” www.emporis.com/application/?nav=company&lng=3&id=101306.

  240 Good planning . . . deserted at night: Emporis.com, “Buildings of Vancouver,” www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/?id=100997.

  240 A full 40 percent of the city’s population is foreign-born: Canada: Statistics Canada, Greater Vancouver.

  240 a quarter of its citizens were born in Asia: Canada: Statistics Canada, Population by Selected Ethnic Origins.

  240 its immigrants are disproportionately skilled: Author’s calculations using Canada: Statistics Canada, Immigrant Status and Period of Immigration; and Canada: Statistics Canada, Educational Portrait of Canada.

  241 better educated than native Canadians: Galarneau and Morissette, “Immigrants’ Education.”

  241 nearly half of the Canadians with a PhD were born somewhere else: Canada: Statistics Canada, Educational Portrait of Canada.

  241 more than two hundred thousand immigrants: Canada: Statistics Canada, Components of Population Growth.