How the crash will reshape America

This piece in March 2009’s issue of The Atlantic paints a really grim picture of things to come, especially for places like Phoenix and Detroit. I agree with a lot of what the article describes, but I think it misses some points about geography.

It seems to me that modern cities can be connected virtually as well as physcially. So these ‘shrinking’ cities that Mr. Florida describes in his article may not contract as rapidly as he predicts. I believe that in the coming years we will see a lot more office spaces being erected, to replace dieing factories, in order to support telecommuting knowledge workers.

Moreover, he mentiones places like North Carolina’s Research Triangle but he doesn’t mention how those places attracted such diverse groups of people. North Carolina’s crumbling textile industry lead way to the state offering immense tax incentives for companies to build bases in the region. The plan thus far has been very successful. Places like Raleigh were able to re-invent themselves as a center for new and existing tech businesses. I believe these contracting regions will also attempt something similar. Detroit is already doing exactly this.

Overall though, the article is well researched and insightful.