The Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth at Georgia State University College of Law celebrated the launch of How Cities Will Save the World: Urban Innovation in the Face of Population Flows, Climate Change and Economic Inequality, co-edited by John Travis Marshall, assistant professor of law on Sept. 8.
Ray Brescia, co-editor of the book and associate professor at Albany Law School in Albany, New York, also took part in the celebration. Julian Juergensmeyer, center director and Ben F. Johnson Jr. Chair in Law, and Ryan Rowberry, associate director and associate professor of law, contributed chapters to the book.
How Cities Will Save the World examines challenges to communities such as climate change, population shifts and economic inequality, and provides recommendations for responding to such critical problems. These issues are core concerns for cities because, as Brescia explains, they “are destructive and disruptive.”
“The urban ruins left in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the hemorrhaging of Detroit’s population, and the vacant properties that litter cityscapes in the wake of the mortgage foreclosure crisis are just a few examples,” Marshall said. “We cannot escape the tragic stories and statistics that document a widening economic and achievement gap between low-income and upper-income families. The stakes are growing.”
The challenges are so significant and fundamental that they demand new approaches—large and small—in how cities engage in local governance, Marshall said.
Cities are often viewed as passive participants to state and national efforts to resolve challenging urban issues, but evidence suggests otherwise. It’s often up to the local officials to devise innovative policy solutions and approaches to disaster recovery and mitigation where existing laws have provided little guidance. It is at the local level where effective policies have the best chance for success, Marshall said.
“Like many countries today, national leaders in the United States are caught in a political deadlock, swaying between austerity budgets and tax cuts, and not being able to pass meaningful legislation. Yet, despite this, pragmatic urban officials are exploring effective innovations and are doing more with less, simply out of necessity,” Brescia said. “Cities are the testing ground and locus of solutions to the problems of this century and the centuries to come, so it is to cities that we must turn for insight. Cities have played – or could play – a critical role as problem solvers for the toughest problems facing this nation and other nations.”
More than 50 percent of the world’s population live in urban areas—and that’s expected to increase to about 70 percent by 2050. Recognizing the problems such rapid growth brings, the Rockefeller Foundation established 100 Resilient Cities Network, an international group of cities that are proactively preparing to face crises of the 21st century. Atlanta was invited to join in May, providing city officials with access to tools, funding, technical expertise and other resources to build resilience to the challenges of a rapidly growing urban metropolis, including deficits in preparedness and recovery from natural and man-made disasters.
“Severe storms can shut down vital systems like roads and utilities,” Marshall said. “They also expose ways in which a city functions poorly, including whether it is supported by weak legal and regulatory frameworks. One important step cities can take to prepare for storms is to identify laws or legal vulnerabilities that impede post-storm recovery. Deficient compliance with existing law, or code provisions that do not reflect current storm threats, can seriously hinder rebuilding efforts after disasters strike.
“Laws are critical instruments that can bolster or hamper communities' resilience against natural disasters.”
How Cities Will Save the World also presents concrete solutions that cities can adopt, serving as a guide for policymakers, urban planners, elected officials and citizens who wish to confront some of the world’s greatest challenges. Each of its thirteen chapters are written by experts with front line experience in the fields of city redevelopment, urban infrastructure, healthcare, planning, immigration, historic preservation, and local government administration.
Marshall is the associate director of the Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth. His research focuses on private, nonprofit and government interventions to promote urban revitalization, including questions related to environmental justice, sustainable development, and long-term recovery from natural disasters. He previously served as counsel to the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA), where he helped implement the Authority’s post-Hurricane Katrina long-term neighborhood recovery strategy.