What Values Drive City Growth?

Over 56.2% of the global population now lives in cities across over 180 global metro areas. By analyzing how cities and urban areas evolve in response to some of the most challenging issues cities face today we can see the values guiding growth.

For instance, if we just consider the bare necessities to modern life like running toilets, drinkable water and having a roof over your head, it's hard to not to wonder why over 4.2 billion people live without access to safely managed sanitation, or that 2.2 billion people need access to safely managed drinking water and that 1.6 billion people live in inadequate shelter around the world.

Other less obvious issues also impact the future of cities and it's harder for people to see the connection. For example, in the U.S. most people are unaware that the $1.6 trillion in student loan debt will have a detrimental impact to future of cities if we do not act to address the predicament at hand. Most are unable to see the connection since student loan debt is seen mostly as a personal finance issue and not a city issue.

"the economic repercussions of the student loan debt problem is very much an urban development issue that haunts our cities today"

As student loan debt cancellation continues to get lost in the crossfire of the major partisan debates in Washington, policymakers at the state and local levels believe cancelling student loan debt is a federal issue, but the economic repercussions of the student loan debt problem is very much an urban development issue that haunts our cities today. Student loan debt has created a snowball effect that is stunting the purchasing power of many and has changed the ways in which they contribute, or not, to city life. Couple it with the effects of the nationwide housing affordability crisis and the latest 7% annual inflation rate and it's hard not to see how the student loan debt snowball effect in our cities continues to grow at exponential rates.

Next time you make a run to the grocery store notice how everything in your path (e.g. the quality of the road, the streetlights, the sidewalks, the store itself etc.) says something about the values guiding growth in your community.

~ Your City Planner