What are cities doing so right – and so wrong? Edward Glaeser talks to Simon Jenkins

New York-born Harvard economist Edward Glaeser is one of the world’s foremost urban thinkers. Ahead of his upcoming lecture on ‘comeback cities’, he talks to Guardian columnist and vocal London campaigner Simon Jenkins

Simon Jenkins: Can I start by asking what is it about cities that people once so disliked – and what it is they now so appreciate?

Edward Glaeser: I think the reality of urban life throughout most of history is that people didn’t come to cities for their pleasure. It wasn’t a pa...