A science of cities: 'Urban science is where physics was before Kepler'

An article in The Atlantic about the higher cost of living, and greater economic vitality, of "walkable cities" cites SFI's cities and urbanization research.

Notes Brookings Institution researcher Christopher Leinberger, SFI Distinguished Professor Geoffrey West "once observed that urbanists have none of the kind of underlying principles that can be tested and proven like scientists do." 

Leinberger has quantified the economic differentiators between cities with different degrees of walkability.

West "had a line that was a real slap in the face, which was that urbanists are where physicists were before Kepler,” Leinberger adds.

Read the article in The Atlantic (May 29, 2012)

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