National Geographic

SG: No, no, no! That’s not a good answer.[Laughs.]MB: If I could speak Turkish, Istanbul. IfI could speak Japanese, Tokyo. If I couldspeak German, Berlin. If I could speakFrench, I’d think about Paris, but Parisis a little bit small.SG: What made you name those spots?MB: Cosmopolitan cities. Istanbulreally is. Tokyo is less so but exciting—there’s just so much going on. In Berlineverything is open; if you’re a prude,you shouldn’t go there. But to me, NewYork has got everything you want. Farand away the best government job inthe whole world—if you know how touse it—is the mayor of New York City.You have what is essentially a large armyin the NYPD. You have a budget biggerthan the GDP of most countries. Culture:There are great museums in London andParis and a few other places, but NewYork can stand up with any of them.SG: As people flock to cities, what hap-pens to the people who are squeezedout by gentrification?MB: I’ve always thought that cultureattracts capital more than capital attractsculture. So if you want to bring Detroitback, you get young artists to move thereand then people will follow them. Takea look at Greenwich Village; it used tobe an artsy community, but no artistcan afford to live there anymore. I’msympathetic to people who get pushedout, and what I tried to do was build morehousing and improve transportationto make this city better for everybody.SG: What’s an example of the kinds ofthings cities can do to become moreenvironmentally friendly?MB: The press made fun of me when Iwas on the flat roof of a five-story build-ing with Al Gore and we painted the roofwhite. They had a field day—this bozois doing this! But take a look next timeyou drive across the Queensboro Bridgeor fly out of LaGuardia—every buildingroof is painted white now. And if oneisn’t, I guarantee it’s an empty building.of the world’s population willlive in an urban area by 2050.``````cities will havemore than10 million inhabi-tants in 2030, upfrom 31 in 2016.66%4110Susan Goldberg, Editor in Chief``````SG: Why do you paint the roof white?MB: Because it reflects the heat andreduces your electricity bill by 25 percentinstantly. Forever. For the cost of twocans of paint. And they just laughedand made fun of Gore and myself, butthe public isn’t stupid.``````SG: Are there other simple fixes thatindividuals can do?MB: Sure. I can buy a more fuel-efficientcar. I can convert my incandescent bulbsto LEDs. I can put some insulation in.I can turn off the air conditioner whenI’m not home. There’s a little bit ofaltruism—I want to save the world—butI think economics are really what drivethese decisions.``````SG: Talk about the role that cities’ bigemployers play in the environment.MB: Why will a corporation be envi-ronmentally friendly? Today, if you goand recruit on campus for the best andbrightest, they interview you. They ask,What are you doing for the environment?Employees want to work for an environ-mentally friendly company. And thenthere are the investors. If you talk tothe managers of the big pensions andendowments, they want socially respon-sible investing: We don’t buy coal stocks,gun stocks, tobacco stocks.``````SG: Who is making the biggest impactin creating sustainable cities?MB: All this progress is not made bythe federal government—not the lastadministration, certainly not this ad-ministration—and not made by the stategovernments. There are a handful thatdo a little bit; [California governor] JerryBrown has tried to do some real things.But it’s the local governments, the localcompanies, and the local nonprofits—that’s where the progress is made.***Thank you for reading NationalGeographic.``````people will beadded to thepopulation of Delhi,India, by 2030,for a total of moreMILLIONthan 36 million.