Stephen Mackintosh

I believe that our major cities would be in different locations if they were built and populated based off of access to energy and resources instead of economic opportunity. Originally, economic opportunity was a function of ample resources, but rapid advances in technology have disassociated the two and made some cities outgrow their regional capacity. All that to say, I think as we truly account for circular, sustainable economies in our urban centers, we will approach a network of interconnected villages (which Elle wrote about recently), or Ebenezer Howard's "Garden Cities," which I touched on in my City State article. I'm all for urban growth and new cities as long as they are ecocentric. I think the new model would be starting from scratch with novel power sources, closer to living biocities than the power grid model.

On a different note, Tomas Pueyo proposed ten new US cities. The first one is a provocative thought exercise that I really enjoyed. I haven't read the rest but your article reminded me to revisit his series. I thought you might enjoy diving into it as well.