The Seattle Model

Edward Glaeser says the city could have shared Detroit's fate:

A great paradox of our age is that despite the declining cost of connecting across space, more people are clustering together in cities. The explanation of that strange fact is that globalization and technological change have increased the returns on being smart, and humans get smart by being around other smart people. Dense, smart cities like Seattle succeed by attracting smart people who educate and employ one another.

Zach Klein, who shot the above photo, captions:

The Seattle Central Library is marvelous. I left inspired, and incredulous that such an amazing building could be constructed by the public, not a rich maniac alone. It's so cool.