Peak Urbanization - Pacific Standard

Peak Urbanization

Is it just you or is everyone hatching plans to move somewhere less expensive?
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Elevator Alley, a stretch of the Buffalo River. (Photo: Andre Carrotflower/Wikimedia Commons)


In my last post, I wrote that the future looked brighter in Barcelona than in Buffalo. Today, I'm here to sing Buffalo's praises and revisit the prospects for the end of geography. And by "the end of geography" I mean the end of urban hierarchy. We've reached peak city:


Increasingly, people who can employ geographic arbitrage move down the urban hierarchy. A few years ago, my household went upstream from Boulder, Colorado, to Washington, D.C. Once in Northern Virginia, I encountered faces of disbelief that I would intentionally abandon the promised land for commuting hell. Everyone here, or so it seems, wants to be there. I suck at geography.

I suck at geography because the rules of the economic game changed. If I wanted to succeed, then I thought I had to move up the urban hierarchy. I've been Buffaloed by mesofacts:






I introduced this passage with the term "mesofacts." If unfamiliar, I have a primer hereSamuel Arbesman deserves credit for the concept. In my wheelhouse, mesofacts refer to geographic stereotypes that live well beyond what actually exists in the landscape. Zombie geographies such as brain drain Buffalo live on (in that undead way) thanks to the meme, "Rust Belt Is Dying." That's what kept Nick and Amanda far from home. That's what keeps piling up the innovation jobs in Silicon Valley. People from all walks of life are creatures of habit, risk averse.

"The World Is Spiky" is a mesofact. Richard Florida clings to yesterday's geography just as much as most migrants do. Iterations between descriptions of urban cool and bored-out-their-minds townies feed the cycle. Creativity is elsewhere. Austin is a self-fulfilling prophecy. A question remains, "Why are people continuing to move where the rent is too damn high?"

Wise to the creative class folklore of Big City, talent opts for Buffalo over San Francisco. Silicon Valley tech needs Buffalo talent more than Buffalo talent needs San Francisco. People develop, not places.