Hip To Be Safe

Joel Kotkin has a prescription for what ails many American cities in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required):

One good thing that can come out of the new census numbers would be a shifting away of urban priorities. Since the dot-com boom, many big city mayors -- such as Baltimore's Martin O'Malley and San Francisco's Gavin Newsom -- have placed their faith on selling their cities primarily as "hip and cool" for the "creative class." By luring talented singles, gays, artists and well-heeled empty-nesters, they hoped, their cities would prosper even as hoi polloi exited for the bland suburbs and exurbs. This explains the widespread enthusiasm among urban boosters for the construction -- often with city subsidy -- of concert halls, museums, fancy restaurants and boutique hotels.

The evidence we have today should suggest that a different approach may be in order. Instead of luring the "hip and cool" with high-end amenities, cities need instead to address issues that concern businesses as well as working- and middle-class families. These include such basic needs as public safety, maintenance of parks, improving public schools, cutting taxes, regulatory reform -- in other words, all those decidedly unsexy things that contribute to maintaining a job base and the hope for upward mobility.

Given the growing challenge posed by the emerging boomtowns as well as the suburbs and exurbs, wannabe "hip cool" cities need to realize they can't thrive merely as amusement parks for the rich, the nomadic young and tourists. To remain both vital and economically relevant, they must remain anchored by a large middle class, and by families and businesses that feel safe and committed to the urban place.

It's advice that the leaders of Minneapolis would do well to heed. Instead of spending their time on smoking bans, making the city "greener," assuring gender and ethnic diversity in the ranks of the City's street sweepers, and where their next bribe is coming from (in the case of the City Council at least), they should concentrate on making the streets safe, the schools decent, and the burden of government on citizens and businesses tolerable. No, I'm not holding my breath.