But before we permanently close the door on a host of aging American cities, we should seriously ponder the significance of cities to culture, both ours and the world at large.
Just two weeks ago, scientists at University College London published a provocative study that puts a new twist on the long-standing belief that the hustle and bustle of cities is the most conducive environment for invention and innovation. Biologist Adam Powell, theoretical archaeologist Stephen Shannon and evolutionary geneticist Mark G. Thomas found that population density was the catalyst for the emergence of modern human behavior. While others have speculated that man's leap into technological and cultural complexity -- from utilizing symbols to decorating our bodies to creating more sophisticated weapons for hunting -- emerged from advances in language, new and improved brains or the settling of new frontiers, the study's authors are pinning it all on the emergence of dense population centers, i.e., the precursors of cities. It is density, they argue, that leads to greater exchange of ideas and helps people develop, maintain and extend skills that lead to technological and cultural innovation.
While going several steps further, these findings jibe with other studies that show a link between innovation and density. A 2006 study for the Federal Reserve found that the number of patented inventions per capita is strongly related to an area's employment density. That study confirmed the view that the country's densest locations play a significant role in "creating the flow of ideas that generate innovation and growth." For all their problems, cities have served an outsized role in our development as a nation.
That's why I find the finality of the otherwise appealing back-to-nature plan for Flint and other traditional cities so discomfiting. Obliterating whole blocks and neighborhoods is just another way of giving up past and future; it will only further encourage the decentralization of residents and jobs. It's one thing for the people or municipal government of Flint to choose to shrink their own city in this manner. But for the federal government to endorse a broader policy of de-urbanization could undermine any future efforts to create the type of density, interaction, exchange and, hence, innovation that might one day help us figure out how to revitalize not just the cities but a whole lot more.
--
grodriguez@latimescolumnists.com
