Overcoming Ambivalence about American Cities

Abstract

This article is addressed to urban scholars, who often have deep doubts about whether cities have a place in a more democratic and redistributive political order. Urbanists are so ambivalent about cities because many mistakenly believe that cities are, politically, inherently untrustworthy and, economically, inherently ineffectual. Rather than entering into the communitarian debate, it is more fruitful to attempt to understand how local government authority, properly conceived, is actually necessary to many left and minority goals regarding politics and economics. The lack of confidence that the left has in cities has not really been recognized or explored in the existing urban political economy literature.

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