The homicide rate in the United States is now back down to levels that prevailed in the 1950s. (See Figure 1.) The incarceration rate has peaked, but remains extremely high compared to the rate we saw then and the rate we see now in other countries. The new policy challenge is to find a way keep crime down while reducing the staggering social costs implied by our current incarceration rate.

Brandon Fuller Paul Romer Abstract The developing world already packs 2.6 billion people into its relatively dense cities. In 100 years, it could have three times as many urban residents. As their per capita income grows, they will they will also demand more land, perhaps twice as much per person as they do today. Governments can accommodate this increased demand either with a sixfold increase in the average built area of existing cities or with a combined strategy of expanding existing cities and developing entirely new cities.

Throughout the developing world, public agencies often act like illegal squatters. Because they lack title and an incentive to sell the land they manage, these agencies keep the land from being put to its most valuable use. Often this idle or underutilized land is in high-value districts of central cities. Meanwhile, these same cities often have trouble mustering the funds to invest adequately in urban infrastructure. The city’s residents would be much better off if the municipality adjusted its balance sheet, divesting some of its land assets and reinvest the proceeds in infrastructure assets.

William Bratton Bratton Group LLC Paul Romer NYU Stern Urbanization Project Cantor Boardroom, 11th Floor Kaufman Management Center 44 West Fourth Street New York, NY 10012 Wednesday, Oct 2nd, 2013 4:30-6PM Join the NYU Stern Urbanization Project for a Conversation on Urbanization with professor Paul Romer and Bill Bratton — CEO of the Bratton Group LLC, Vice Chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, former Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, and former Police Commissioner in the cities of New York and Boston.

Led by Paul Romer, the Charter Cities initiative focuses on the potential for startup cities to fast track reform. By building new cities in special zones, countries can leverage the ongoing wave of urbanization, generating new options for reform-minded leaders and new choices for families in search of better places to live and work.