The perfect city?

What does a perfect city look like in a low- or middle-income country – and how do you get there?

In the closing episode of our cities series, Ed Glaeser joins Kurtis Lockhart and Oliver Hanney for a wide-ranging conversation on what makes cities work. He sets out the three foundations every city needs (safety, mobility, education), why infrastructure without the right incentives and institutions fails, what 19th-century New York's cholera outbreaks teach Lusaka about water, why “bus good, train bad” still holds, and what the medieval European city has to offer sub-Saharan Africa's fastest-growing urban regions.

We also discuss the political art of being a great mayor, why "capacity eats policy as a light afternoon snack," and his three priorities for African cities over the next decade.

Read the show notes on our Substack: https://ideasindevelopment.substack.com/

Check out the Africa Urban Lab: https://www.aul.city/