From valleys, civilizations and kingdoms in this modern 21st century we are now left with this concept of a city. In his piece “What is an American City,” Michael B. Katz attempts to break down the definition of a modern city. However, this task serves quite a challenge, as there are multiple factors that make up a city, but there seems to be a general consensus on the idea that the suburbs are becoming the new city. Ultimately, with the goal of reforming political policies, Katz makes a strong argument on how essential it is we begin our “new urban progressivism.”
The first step that Katz takes is to define what the modern city is. The original definition of urbanism and cities was “tightly settled and organized units” whereas “suburban urbanization” like the city of Los Angeles, doesn’t have an exact center but rather the vast suburbs are what make the city instead. This process began primarily because African Americans moving into cities and the whites moved out to the developing suburbs. Through gentrification and racial segregation the dynamic of the suburbs began to change as more and more, as single affluent Americans moved there, resulting in the suburbs becoming the new city. While there was often an economic and racial segregation between these places and the “city” both of these areas were codependent on one another.
This theory of the suburbs being just as important if not part of the city dynamic is something that truly makes sense to me. I live in Long Island and I can see how the five boroughs and even Nassau County play an integral part to the functioning of New York City as one of the global cities. There is outsourcing, corporate headquarters all located on the outskirts of Manhattan, and most importantly the majority of people who work in Manhattan live outside of it considering the more stress free lifestyle. This outward looking metaphor appears to make more sense to me because the suburbs seem to be exponentially growing as the study seen by Robert E. Lang and his colleagues.
Katz’ concept of a global metaphor is also a theory that adds up because essentially the entire world is interconnected by multiple factors including the economy, fashion music and more. There are global cities that serve as a “transnational market” and this further proves Katz idea that changing public policy towards cities is not only required but also essential if America wants to maintain its position as a forerunner in the world economy.
I feel as if Katz did a pretty good job putting together this complicated idea in a few pages, however his writing was a bit dense and therefore a little hard to follow. However, his writing did definitely make his point clear that a new progressive era is required to keep up with this new and expanding metropolitan area around us. For further discussion my main question would be what public policies would we enforce so that the suburbs and the city can be the most efficient when working together? Should we further our public transportation? Should we remove the private sectors out of things such as public transportation, street cleaning and security? What do we do to prevent disasters such as homelessness, crumbling infrastructure and the sub-prime mortgage crisis?
