In The New Urban Crisis Richard Florida, an American University professor and current director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, compellingly and convincingly defines the problems facing today’s cities and their suburban counterparts.
For over 30 years, urbanist and author Richard Florida has observed the life of cities, and has come up with solutions on how to make them work. In his new book, The New Urban Crisis, Florida argues that cities will have to turn to themselves to help themselves and to make them more inclusive for all.
In 2017, the cacophony of Toronto’s urban discourse—and urban realities—makes understanding the city a daunting prospect. The skyrocketing rents, record waitlists for affordable housing, growing economic disparities, and inadequate transit, are being met with staggering development and densification, growing economic status, and a waxing global cachet that’s rivalled by few cities. Our city leads the world in livability and human development indices, while simultaneously facing an affordability crisis that threatens to make good urban housing the sole purview of the rich.
Columbus remains a beacon in the Rust Belt, known nationally for its fast-growing population and robust economy. But a researcher who studies urban disparity says the city also stands at a dangerous crossroads, one that threatens to choke off the path to a middle-class livelihood.
Anton Diego, born in Moscow but raised in Havana and Spain, runs EveryMundo, a Miami-based marketing-technology company serving the travel and hospitality industry.
Richard Florida is feeling reflective. He became the equivalent of an urban planning rock star with the publication of his book The Rise of the Creative Class 15 years ago. In the intervening years, the book’s thesis—attract young creative professionals and your city will flourish—seems to have proven both portentous and problematic.
I was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1957, back when it was a thriving city, bustling with iconic
department stores, morning and evening newspapers, libraries and museums, a busy downtown,
Richard Florida is a professor and writer and his latest book, The New Urban Crisis, looks at the way cities can expand and grow with technology and innovation. You can pick up his book now.
Steve Inskeep talks to author Richard Florida — who has made a career studying cities, both culturally and economically. Florida’s new book is called The New Urban Crisis.
