In a world with rapidly dwindling resources and a swiftly expanding population, surely there will be no field more vital to the 21st century than urban planning. From the basics of power generation to the intricacies of accessibility, on the ground and in the air, future cities will live and die on their sustainability and their interconnectedness. Though the authors overstate their case, Mr. Kasarda's academic theories on the cities to come and Mr. Lindsay's investigations into the early implementation of said ideas amalgamate into a piece of fascinating, predictive non-fiction.
Mr. Kasarda's core contention is that the cities of both the now and the future must be built around a popular and efficient airport. An incredible amount of goods, from clothes, to electronics, to DVDs, take a ride in an airplane as a part of their journey from manufacturer to retailer. The ready flow of these goods through urban airports will attract related businesses which, in turn, transform these airports into economic hubs capable of fueling the popularity and prestige of their cities. Mr. Lindsay is tasked with logging all the airmiles, flying around the world to discover if this is a viable theory. In the process, he takes us on a tour of the history of commercial air travel, from the birth and decline of LAX and O'Hare to the UPS and Fedex inspired surges in Louisville and Memphis. But while this is instructive, it's the new aerotropoli in China that captivate, billions upon billions of dollars poured into the urbanization of whole swaths of China, establishing cities from scratch, cities that follow the airport-centric model promoted by Kasarda.
Aerotropolis makes a solid case for air travel being the hub around which the city functions. Additionally, their argument, that developing Asia has a leg up over the West because it can build its aerotropoli from scratch, is certainly compelling. But the authors fail to address what seem to me key flaws in the aerotropoli model. First of all, what if the dominance mode of the future transportation of goods is not the airplane? What if we don't come up with an alternative jet fuel and are stuck with the ever-rising costs of existing oil? It is well within the realm of possibility that air travel simply becomes an unaffordable way to distribute goods. Secondly, while Mr. Lindsay does a wonderful and thorough job of explaining how airports like LAX and O'Hare have lost out to other airports in other cities thanks to environmentalism and politics, it is far from clear that just building an aerotropolis will attract the secondary businesses that have grown up in Louisville and Memphis. Businesses flock to those cities because UPS and Fedex have put down roots there. Building an aerotropolis from scratch in, say, Idaho, won't derive the same benefit. This suggests to me that Kasarda may have missed the mark somewhat. Airports are necessary to draw businesses like UPS and Fedex which wouldn't exist without air travel, but it's those businesses that draw the other businesses with them, not the airports. The behemoths move the meter, create the buzz, not the airports.
Interesting, important and compelling, but it feels oversold. (3/5 Stars)
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