Contrary to dire predictions that new communications and information technology would weaken cities by decentralizing jobs and industry, a new study by NewYork University’s Taub Urban Research Center indicates that New York and other cities continue to dominate the Internet. New York has more than twice as many “registered Internet domains” as its closest competitor, San Francisco. Manhattan, which by itself also edges out the “City by the Bay,” has had an Internet growth rate 10 times the national average since 1993.
The Taub Urban Research Center study indicates that cities are driving, rather than merely participating in, information-based industry. The research also shows the emergence of a corridor of information-intensive cities stretching from Boston to Washington, DC that is now at the forefront of Internet growth in the United States.
Mitchell L. Moss, professor of Urban Policy and Planning at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and director of the Center, said, “The development of new communications systems has allowed those cities that are centers for information-based industries to extend their markets and geographic range via the Internet. Contrary to the prevailing wisdom - that technology threatens urban life - this study suggests that many North American city-based organizations are using communications creatively and aggressively and are driving the growth of the Internet.
“Manhattan is a center of urban Internet activity and growth that leads nearly every part of the world for which data is available in both size and density of domain registrations. For the island of Manhattan, the hub of New York’s financial, cultural, and media industries, the Internet has emerged as a powerful link to the rest of the globe that rivals the bridges and tunnels originally built to connect us to the rest of the world.”
The study is available on the Taub Urban Research Center Web Site at “http://www.nyu.edu/urban” or by calling 212-998-7500.