So much for the revival of (inner) cities. ‘Look beyond the tourist districts’, Joel Kotkin writes in this lengthy article in The American Enterprise Online.

The author draws attention to the state of American cities, showing how Katrina uncovered a whole lot of urban problems that were actually being played down by all the talks about creative cities.

Kotkin also gives a hint about where cultural regeneration strategies goes wrong:

“From republican Rome to the golden ages of Venice, Amsterdam, London, and New York, cities have flourished most when they have served as places of aspiration and upward mobility, of hard work and individual accountability.”