Arguing for City-Focused Sustainable Development Goals

“I personally believe it is critical that the UN make cities a centerpiece of its new sustainable development goals. The reason is simple: It is cities, not nations, that are the fundamental economic, political, and social organizing units of our time. Effective city-building—which includes building new cities and revitalizing older ones—is the grandest of the grand challenges facing the globe in the 21st century,” writes Richard Florida.

Florida then goes on to list 11 reasons “why the UN needs to put cities front and center in its forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals,” including:

4) Because reducing inequality and achieving greater equity must be a worldwide effort.
9) Because better research and data-gathering is needed to make cities more effective, so that we can establish a true "science of cities."

Florida writes the polemic in response to “reticence” by both the United States and Canada to sign the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.