【彭蒙惠英语】新贵城市（1/3）
Fast Cities(1/3)
From Chicago to Shanghai, urban centers that are shaping our future
For all the challengers cities face-congestion, crime, crumbling infrastructure, environmental decay, plus occasional issues with basic civility-they are still where jobs and youth gather, where energy begets even greater energy, where talent masses and collides. Worldwide, the pace of urbanization is only accelerating. This year, for the first time, more of the earth’s population will live in cities than in rural areas. “In a world where we can now work anywhere, we’re tending to concentrate in fewer and fewer places,” says Carol Colletta, president of CEOs for Cities, an advocacy group. “Smart people are choosing to live near smart people.”
Of course, not all cities are created equal. Rapid growth has a way of laying bare the gap between cities that merely get bigger and those that actually flourish.
In other words, there are winners in this battle for the future. We call them Fast Cities.
What makes a Fast City
In starts with opportunity. Not just bald economic capacity, but a culture that nurtures creative action and game-changing enterprise. Fast Cities are places where entrepreneurs and employees alike can maximize their potential-where the number of patents filed is high, for instance, or where the high-tech sector is expanding.
The second component: innovation. Fast Cities invest in physical, cultural, and intellectual infrastructure that will sustain growth. “ The real forces for change in America and around the world are the mayors and the local communities,” says Richard Florida, a professor of public policy.
Finally, Fast Cities have energy, that ethereal thing that happens when creative people collect in one place. The indicators can seem obscure: number of ethnic restaurants or the ratio of live-music lovers to cable-TV subscribers. But they point to environments where fresh thinking stimulates action and, by the way, attracts new talent in a virtuous cycle of creativity.
Vocabulary Focus
Beget(v) to cause or lead to something else
Bald (adj) basic, plain
Ethereal (adj) something to have a light, airy or intangible quality
Specialized terms
infrastructure(n)基础建设 the basic systems and services, such as transport and power supplies, that a country or organization uses in order to work effectively
