America's Shrinking Cities & Unsustainable Settlements

The United States, following in the tradition of Britain, has been a globaliser of the dubious enterprise, long before the latest sub-prime mortgage fiasco wreaked havoc on the world's financial markets and plunged international economies into a truly global recession.

Thus I listened with some alarm to an item on BBC Radio 4 this morning about "Shrinking America's Cities", a "plan", I fear, which will find new enthusiasts in this country and elsewhere.

It is well known that many older industrial cities in the United States have experienced a massive flight of people both to suburban areas, and to other parts of the country. This flight, incidentally, has been largely, but by no means exclusively, of white middle class people to more desirable neighbourhoods and states, or so they thought.

In fact, the flight has brought unsustainable population growth to precisely those parts of the United States most vulnerable to natural disasters and, therefore, climate change, such as California and Florida. Moreover, the State of California now has its own economic woes comparable to those of the so-called "Rust Belt".

It is the cities of this "Rust Belt", mainly to the north and east of the country, which are the main targets for the latest "Shrinking Plan", notwithstanding that many are well-situated and have good basic infrastructure : unlike many of the apparently desirable suburbs and new settlements of Florida, for instance.

So what does shrinking actually entail ?: essentially knocking down abandoned homes, retail centres and former employment areas and not replacing these with new development; or "rationalising the physical layout of the city", according to one exponent of the plan.

It should come as no surprise, of course, that an earlier recruit to the "Shrinking City Plan" - and who has himself subsequently revealed a need for the services of a "Shrink" (ie psychological counsellor) with regard to a personal eating disorder - was none other than former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott*.

This brings me in turn to the subject of food, and why urban abandonment** should not be encouraged by policy makers, particularly in our rather smaller country than the United States : excessive suburbanisation and new settlement growth generally consume agricultural land, if not natural areas, which may well be required to sustain future populations.

* Some readers may feel that I've been unfair in highlighting Mr Prescott's condition. However, I would suggest that daft ideas are always waiting to seed themselves in the political psyche, and this should serve as warning to the next generation of politicians Over Here and, indeed, Over There.

Moreover, the spatial distribution of populations within countries and internationally, along with food production and consumption, will be amongst the most important issues facing nation states and the global community in the present century.

** Except where environmental factors make this necessary.