The Growth Psyche

New York City. The scene of famous movies and TV shows. A centre of world finance. The original concrete jungle. Probably the best cityscape of them all. Home of the NYPD, FDNY, WTC, MTA, MSG and FIDI.  

Then there’s London, also the scene of famous movies and TV shows. Also a centre of world finance. I compare the two, as the economic fortunes of the UK (and the EU) and the US are diverging. I think I’ve discovered why.

An example will help: London is the busiest city airport system in the world. But there is a problem: We’ve been running out of capacity for about a thousand years. Now, in the intervening period, you’d think we’d have got around to doing something about this; like building some new runways or airports.

But no. We’ve been talking, commissioning reports, conducting feasibility studies, writing environmental and pollution studies; in fact, doing everything, as far as I can tell, except actually doing something about it.

Which brings me back to New York, New York. The city that never sleeps. The city that never stops. Need more room? Build more land. Need to get from one borough to another? Have a free ferry. Need a skyscraper? Build the tallest in the world. Then beat your own record a year later. Suffer the worst terrorist attack the world has ever seen? Build a new skyscraper and keep going. Need more residential space? Build the tallest residential skyscraper in the world. Need more office space? Build skyscrapers over railroad yards. Want to make more tourist dollars? Get some helipads and set up some helicopter tours! It’s the same helipad that the President uses when he visits in Marine One. Want to move with the times? Free wifi across the city. In New York, the private hires aren’t Toyota Priuses but black Chevvy Suburbans, much cooler. Flat taxi fare from JFK to Manhattan? Check, and it means your taxi drives like he’s in Speed. I love it.

New York is home to the Space Shuttle Enterprise, the first orbiter for the Space Shuttle program. It didn’t actually go to space, but we’ll gloss over that. It sits atop the USS Intrepid Essex class aircraft carrier, both engineering testaments to American ambition, economic and military might, and technology capability.

There is an optimism, a boldness, an ambition, a desire to build, build, build which permeates the New York and the American psyche. It’s relentless and infectious. It has been for a long time, and it compounds. The riches of current growth were sown many years ago. That goes for the whole of the US. You’ve got to build. We’ve got to build. An appetite for growth is the only cure for decline.

Which is why New York feels wealthy. It feels rich. It feels good. It feels like what the world can, and should, be. It’s got good pizza to boot. Why can’t every city be like this? Why can’t London feel like this? Granted, Trafalgar Square has a lovely Christmas tree every year, but that’s thanks to the Norwegians. Perhaps the most illuminating example is The Sphere. In the time Las Vegas proposed, planned, approved, built and opened theirs, London … hasn’t.

But I’ve got news for you: every city can be like New York. We need more Manhattans. Just follow the New York state of mind. The cities of Europe are beautiful and they are wonderful: Vienna, Prague, Rome. But they are stuck in the past. This hurts the people of those cities in the present. Cities should not be museums. Museums should be museums. 

And if you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned Silicon Valley yet, that’s really very simple. I haven’t just been on holiday in Silicon Valley.