Out of Control

Another interesting article from Joel Kotkin.

He defines the differences between cities of aspiration, which are growing, and cities which have adopted old world norms and values, and which are declining, and traces how the divide arose and what it means for the future of cities. Embedded are strange tales of cultural change in cities and the oddities that follow.

Towards the end, he points out:

Conservatives and Republicans have reasons to celebrate the conflict between a slowly declining Euro-America and the cities of aspiration. Yet the future may not be so easy to predict. Success, defined as increased jobs and population, has a way of turning cities of aspiration toward a more European worldview.
. . .

The American future belongs to those places where people can most fully engage in their private pursuit of happiness. The party--and the politicians--that can appeal to these voters, wherever they are, will be the one likely to win political power.

This is another way of looking at an evolution Kotkin wrote about in The Future of the Center back in '99.