Four (or Five!) Reasons Why

…Urban Densification Is Good

1. Densification can put a cap on urban sprawl. And we all know that urban sprawl is bad. It leads to an overexploitation of budgets, resources and the landscape. Want proof? Click here to see how urban sprawl doomed the ancient city of Angkor Wat and here for a discussion about it.

2. Denser cities create “Consumer Cities” (a term recently coined by Edward Glaeser, Professor of Economics at Harvard). As Graham Bowley notes, “People now want to live in dense areas because dense areas offer what people want to consume - opera, sports teams, art museums, varied cuisine.” More people leads to more stuff to do. More stuff to do leads to more people. Ah, the beauty of the virtuous circle.

3. Densification creates communities. You get to know your neighbours. More local restaurants, shops and bars open up. Ultimately, we get cities within cities. Who needs to travel when you there’s so much to do at home?!

4. Walking, biking, public transportation – up! Commuting – down!

5. More people equals more renting. More renting equals economic growth. Sounds odd, but click here and here for details.

Also, check out All About Cities for some interesting posts as well.