Cities of the future share a defining trait: they treat education, art, culture and public space as infrastructure, not amenities.
These cities understand that human development is not extracurricular — it is an economic strategy. San Diego, by contrast, often behaves like a city waiting for permission, but it is showing promise and seems to be thinking seriously about its future.
Our region boasts world-class assets: research universities, biotech and defense innovation, a vibrant creative community, and a unique binational position on the Pacific Rim. Yet governance remains fragmented, cautious and siloed. Arts and culture are still framed as “quality of life” enhancements rather than as engines of civic cohesion, education and economic resilience.
By most estimates, more than half the world’s population lives in cities and, in the U.S., the top 100 metropolitan areas include about two-thirds of the nation’s population and an even larger share of the U.S. gross domestic product.
In a nutshell, it is why cities, not national policies or statewide initiatives, represent the real strength of America’s economy as well as our political prowess in the world.
Across the world, cities are quietly becoming the most capable units of governance. While national governments struggle with polarization and paralysis, cities are stepping in — solving problems, investing in people and shaping their own futures.
Here are three cities that most analysts agree represent the future:
Helsinki, which embeds arts and design into education. Vienna, which funds culture with the same seriousness it funds transit. And Copenhagen, which designs climate resilience into daily life.The question San Diego must answer is whether it intends to be like one of these three.
This is not primarily a problem of resources. It is a problem of priorities.
San Diego spends, but it rarely aligns. Cultural funding is episodic rather than systematic. Public art policies exist but are unevenly implemented. Education, arts, climate planning and economic development operate on parallel tracks instead of as a single strategy. The result is a city rich in potential but poor in coordination.
Cities of the future do not ask whether they can “afford” culture and education. They ask whether they can afford not to invest in them — especially as automation, climate stress and social fragmentation accelerate. They understand that creativity builds problem-solving capacity, that public spaces build trust, and that education is the most reliable form of long-term infrastructure.
San Diego’s caution is understandable. It is governed within state and federal systems that reward compliance more than imagination. But cities that lead do so anyway. Barcelona redefined urban governance after a political crisis. Medellín used culture and design to reverse decades of violence. Rotterdam rebuilt its identity around adaptation rather than denial.
The cities that will thrive in the next decade will not be the flashiest or the richest. They will be the ones that recognize a simple truth: roads and pipes matter, but people matter more. Education is infrastructure. Culture is infrastructure. Civic imagination is infrastructure.
San Diego does not lack talent. It lacks a shared civic vision that treats human capacity as its primary asset.
San Diego can still choose to be a city of the future — but only if it stops treating the future as optional.
John M. Eger is professor emeritus in the School of Journalism and Media Studies at San Diego State University. He previously served as telecommunications advisor to President Gerald R. Ford, legal assistant to FCC Chairman Dean Burch, a senior vice president of CBS and chair of San Diego’s “City of the Future” committee.
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