Included in the United Nations’ newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is goal No. 11, which calls world leaders to make cities and all “human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.”
It’s a goal that economists and urban academics have been pushing for, with some—like CityLab’s Richard Florida—arguing that it’s one of the most pressing issues of our time. For one thing, more than half of the world’s people currently live in cities. And by 2050, the World Health Organization predicts, more than 6.4 billion people will be city dwellers.
