Pushing Cities to Invest in Certain Infrastructural Development Projects

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The paper titled The City as a Landscape of Power: London and New York as Global Financial Capitals was written by Sharon Zukin. In the paper, Zukin analyzes London and New York as major global financial centers. From the local government to the central government, cities such as New York and London have experienced a lot of growth that long shifted from “public goods to private development.” The US and British governments continue to offer “official support for the expansion of financial markets – and for an inevitable struggle between New York and London over priority of place.” It is this competition to “capture global markets in a single space” (84) that often leads to cities and governments adopting measures to develop financial centers. The goal as Zukin notes is to have a competitive advantage over other cities and this pushes cities to invest in certain infrastructural development projects.
Her analysis makes or considers the foundational motive of these cities and makes a clear distinction between vernacular and landscape motives. Unfortunately for these large cities, “power in modern times is best abstracted in the skyscraper outline of a city’s financial wealth, the vernacular is most intima...