Something in the Aer

posted by Zach Patton

This is either a testament to UNC business professor John Kasarda's awesome PR machine, the staying power of a good urban-planning concept, the laziness flattery of journalists, or some combination of the three.

Kasarda's concept -- which he calls an "aerotropolis" -- describes the mega developments that can spring up around a city's airport. It's a neat word to describe a fact of urban planning, but it's not exactly a new idea. Even Kasarda's word for it isn't new.

But that hasn't stopped a few major media outlets from recently jumping on a bandwagon that Governing was on six years ago. To wit:

Wall Street Journal, 1/24/07, Flight Plan: Airports Take Off As Development Hubs:

Airports are "the new central business districts of the postindustrial economy," says the University of North Carolina business professor.

Memphis Commercial Appeal, 12/14/06, Memphis leads nation en route to 'aerotropolis':

If you've heard the term "aerotropolis," thank John Kasarda... Memphis International Airport is the closest America has to an aerotropolis, said Kasarda...

New York Times, 12/10/06, 2006 Year in Ideas: The Aerotropolis:

Traditionally, of course, airports have served cities, but in the past few years airports have started to become cities unto themselves, giving rise to a new urban form: the aerotropolis.... “Access, access, access is replacing location, location, location as the most important commercial real estate principle,” Kasarda says.

Governing, 9/01, Freight Expectations:

"Airports have become the new downtown," says John Kasarda, a professor in the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who uses the term "aerotropolis" to describe cities such as Columbus.

Comments

[JMG]

Just one problem with this: commercial airplanes are the dodos of 21st Century Earth. The airline sector is the fasting-growing sector for greenhouse gas emissions, and the present or imminent peak in global oil production means that, from now on, flights are going to become so expensive that the industry (which has already managed to lose money overall for a century) is going to shrink to a sliver of its present bloated size.

So don't make any big plans, except for what kinds of crops to grow in between the unused airstrips.

Serious urban planners should be figuring out how to make sure that their city residents have the least exposure possible to financial ramifications of airline industry collapse.

[Christopher Swope]

I doubt air travel is about to die off anytime soon. The cost of it may go up, however. Britain has already upped its air taxes, ostensibly to cut down on carbon emissions.

As for the aerotropolis concept, it's already happening here--just not in the same master-planned way that Asian cities and Dubai are going about it. Look at all the high-tech business around Dulles Airport in VA. Look at DFW airport in Texas, which is really a city unto itself.

That said, US cities probably should so some more thoughtful development planning around their airports. And if you don't have a direct passenger rail link from your airport to the nearest downtown, you're simply not in the big leagues.