Call for Pitches: Cities

We want stories, from you, for April’s theme

By 2050, 70 percent of everyone alive will live in a city of some kind.

It was only in the last few years that we passed the point of becoming a majority-urbanized species. Before, even from the point at which humans first tamed land and farmed it for survival, we had more space to ourselves. That isn’t to romanticize the past but to recognize that cities do a very special thing: They bring people together into close proximity, causing friction, and tension, and unavoidable contact. People share ideas more quickly when they’re in cities, and they invent more.

Urbanization drives innovation, and that makes it a perfect subject for How We Get To Next. But it also means we need to figure out how we’re all going to live on top of each other.

Visualizing the life of the urban individual in cities over the next century is the subject of our April theme: Metropolis. That means it’s time to send in your pitches if you want to write for us (and I sincerely hope you do).

Here are the kinds of questions we’re interested in:

• What will the city of the future — in 50, 500, or even 5,000 years — do differently?
• How will cities adapt to climate change? Can modern cities adapt?
• Can you really green a city?
• What makes a city worth living in, and what doesn’t? How will this differ from what came before?
• How can we avoid making new mistakes in our urban planning?
• How do the shape and design of our cities control us, or free us?
• Can we now call websites and social networks cities just because they bring lots of people together into the same space?
• What, if anything, might stop urbanization from increasing—or even make it retreat?
• Is the city the final form of human organization?
• What can individuals do to their surroundings to make living in cities more personal, healthier, greener, or productive?

If any of these catch your eye — or you have another idea that fits into the conversation — fire an email my way: ian@howwegettonext.com.