The Metropolitan Century by Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi in the thematic Monde Diplomatique on "Cities, the Future of Humanity?" in February 2021. https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/mav/175/KIHLGREN_GRANDI/62701

A large proportion of the world's inhabitants live in cities and this figure is still growing. This phenomenon affects all regions of the world. The world's three hundred largest cities account for less than a quarter of the workforce but more than half of global GDP, 60-80% of the environmental footprint and the bulk of growth.

Cities are central to globalized capitalism. They also crystallize its contradictions, combining wealth, which is sometimes excessive, with great insecurity. Strong social inequalities, most often characterized by geographical location, are the norm and access to services is very unequal according to social status.

These social disparities lead to tensions and movements demanding more social justice: right to housing, access to services, ...

To address these tensions, many discussions on "good" governance are taking place. There are basically two models, a single metropolitan authority model and a model of juxtaposition of municipalities. The first will tend to ignore local specificities and the second will weaken the city through competition and lack of collaboration between municipalities.

Neither model could be universally imposed.

The COVID crisis19 highlighted the fragility of the city. The health and social impacts of the pandemic were most pronounced in the city. With a significant impact on the public finances of cities. It is also in the cities that solidarity and social innovation have been strongest to mitigate the impact.

Thousands of actions described as good practices were deployed in cities during the crisis: bicycle paths in Bogota, Barcelona [and Brussels], sustainable development indicators in Amsterdam, universal access to services in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, long-term accommodation for the homeless in Toronto and Montreal. Various organizations have listed them.

The author concludes by suggesting that COVID19 may have initiated an era of solidarity.

See for example https://unhabitat.org/wcr/ for ideas of 'resilient' and 'sustainable' cities or this recent report on climate change and its impact on Paris: https://www.paris50degres.fr/

And in Brussels?

The city region of Brussels operates in a hybrid model with some competences managed at regional level and others at local level. This does not fail to create tensions as the competences overlap. As we can see with the metro works and the development of the Avenue de Tervueren, the major 'metropolitan' projects are blocked by local interests. Conversely, the devolution of power to the municipality allows it to deploy services that are better adapted to the needs of its citizens and to levy taxes to finance its actions, which can be weighted according to the income level of its inhabitants. Metropolitan solidarity is not at play in this case. In the Brussels region too, the impact of COVID has been strongest in the less socially advantaged neighborhoods. Spatial segregation is very strong. In this sense, greater inter-municipal solidarity would be beneficial for everyone because, as Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett – the authors of the book “The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better” – have shown, everyone's happiness increases when inequalities decrease.