Ethical Dilemma And Future Of Urbanization

Since China entered the twenty-first Century, "China's urbanization" and "American high technology" have been called Stiglitz's two most influential factors on human society. The future of urbanization in China, to a certain extent, indicates the direction of economic and social development. People especially hope for the development of Guangdong, Hongkong and Macau, the Yangtze River Delta city group and the Beijing Tianjin Hebei Urban Agglomeration.

In the process of urbanization in the United States, there has been "no growth of urbanization", and this contradiction has become increasingly prominent. This is called "the new urban crisis" by Richard Florida, and it is specially written as a book to analyze and discuss.

The creative economist has made a name for himself in the book "the rise of the creative class".

In his classic work, he asserted that the key to urban success is attracting and retaining talent, not just attracting businesses. Moreover, the power of creation and innovation in big cities has covered all walks of life. The author's empirical research shows that the innovative activities of literature and art, together with the science and technology industry and the commercial financial industry, constitute the driving force of economic development. The city is an important platform for technological innovation, wealth creation, social progress and the cultivation of open thinking, progressive values and political freedom. It is also the best laboratory for us to try out new policies, stimulate creativity, create high paid jobs and improve living standards.

Perhaps because of this, in the new urban crisis, the most important feature of urbanized economic maladies is summed up as "disappeared middle class" - the middle class group and the middle-class community, once the embodiment of the American dream, are decreasing. This unequal ethical dilemma of urbanization is a deep crisis hidden by the appearance of "high housing prices" or economic stall. In Richard Florida's words, "the new urban crisis is not only a city crisis, but also a major crisis of our times."

In the United States, the inequity of urbanization is the accumulation of talent and economic resources, because only a few super cities and elite communities can benefit from urbanization, while the development of most areas is lagging behind or stagnating. As a result, the power to promote the extensive development of urban economy has also brought split and contradiction, which has hindered the continuous development of cities. The most typical symptom is "winner takes all the urbanization". It is not surprising that super cities become the inevitable choice for ambitious and top talent. But with the rapid development of a few elite cities, most cities are struggling and stagnating in their predicament. Even within these core cities, the "winner takes all" has spread to every field, concentrating on the widening of the income gap. In the past 40 years from 1978 to 2015, the chief executive of the United States grew by more than 940%, while the average income of ordinary staff increased by only 10%. Another example is that in 1980s, only artists, musicians, and other creative workers were willing to transform the abandoned urban space into studios, but now they have been squeezed out by financial personages, entrepreneurs, scientists and technicians, and super rich people from all over the world.

A more serious problem is that economic differentiation or spatial inequality in the city separates the dominant and disadvantaged groups from cities and suburban areas which are completely separate from each other. This is also known as the "fragmentation of the metropolis". The trend of economic classification is more troublesome than inequality itself, because it keeps the top level accumulating advantages, and the disadvantage of disadvantaged groups is getting worse and worse.

The "new urban crisis" in the United States is constantly self reinforcing in this continuing inequality. The dominant groups occupy the best communities, and also get the best economic opportunities, schools, libraries, services and public facilities. All these have strengthened their original advantages and promoted the further upward mobility of their children. On the contrary, the disadvantaged group has entered a vicious circle like "low level duplication trap" in development economics. Suburban housing was once the cornerstone of the American dream, but today's suburbs not only help Americans realize the American dream, but also hinder people from moving upward. In rural areas, residents with longer commuting time are more prone to obesity, diabetes, anxiety, insomnia and hypertension, and their suicide rate and traffic accident death rate are higher. The average life expectancy of suburban residents will be reduced by three years. According to the study of economists Daniel Kahneman and Alan Kruger, "commuting is ranked last in the preference ranking of daily activities." This is a serious problem brought about by urbanization, which is driven by market forces. It also has reference significance for people who are evacuated to the suburbs from the core cities. In a word, the rich live where they want to live, and the poor live where they can live. This is an important source of poverty and inequality in urbanization.

Of course, this does not mean the whole of the suburbs. The economic stagnation and decline of the old suburbs have far-reaching impact on the United States, but the most remote suburbs, because of the same white paper, have a faster pace of development. According to economist Kolk, the fastest growing population in the most remote suburbs and the most densely populated urban core areas. In particular, the "urban villages" in the outskirts of the "foot cities" and the core cities of the city can help new immigrants to polish their skills and stand out. For example, the six km of China's Chongqing mentioned in the book, though it looks like a poor gathering area, is full of learning vitality and upward momentum, and is also a melting pot for entrepreneurship.

Richard Florida once expressed a very important point in the book "the rise of the creative class": the cities with economic prosperity will perform well in 3T elements, namely, Technology (Talent) and Tolerance. However, according to lessons learned from urbanization in the United States, the most creative urban communities are often destroyed by unregulated land use. This kind of "inclusiveness" is very rare but extremely fragile. The new urban crisis calls for "to destroy the precious urban ecosystem and enhance the creativity and productivity of the city in the era of knowledge driven economy".

The large demand for durable goods in the suburbs has greatly contributed to the post-war economic prosperity in the United States. Up to now, it has absorbed 54% of the American jobs. However, because of the diversion of real estate investment in the suburbs, the United States has reduced the investment in more productive knowledge, technology and talent fields, leading to a deep crisis. This crisis is precisely the background of Trump's election to the presidency of the United States: the suffering in the "new urban crisis" and the low income class in the suburbs of the core city are important sources of his vote.

Therefore, the "new urban crisis" is also a clue to understand the current political and economic trend in the United States. Bloomberg was in danger when he was attacked by the "911" terrorist attacks in 2001. He was elected mayor of New York less than two months later. Under his leadership, the city of New York was rapidly rebuilt and full of vitality. He led the municipal government to raise the graduation rate of high school in New York by 40%, the crime rate was reduced by 1/3, the carbon emissions in New York had been reduced by nearly 20%, and the life expectancy of the people had been prolonged by 3 years. Today, the 220 billion yuan owner of the world's largest financial information company has announced his candidacy for president of the United States, becoming the most important competition object for Trump's re-election. Whether he can gradually resolve the "new urban crisis" as the expectation of the American people and realize the benefit of the urbanization of the whole people is still unknown. But its merits in governing the city, as well as some important experiences and ideas put forward in the new urban crisis, deserve our reference.

In my opinion, the most valuable idea of the book is to increase inclusiveness by increasing aggregation. For example, we should adjust the tax system and replace the property tax into land value tax, so as to promote the density and aggregation of land use. For example, the use of new types of transport, such as the subway and high-speed rail, and other infrastructures will facilitate the aggregation. New urbanization will not happen automatically. Fair and universal urbanization will be a decisive issue for the better development of urban agglomerations, including the Tai Wan District, and the sustainable development of star cities such as Shenzhen.