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there is no excuse to ignore it. The challenge lies in the urban form of cities, and their urgent need for densification. It is no longer tolerable, in terms of service management, to have to plan water, sanitation, or transportation networks over hundreds of kilometres, rather than tens of kilometres. If density is the aim and the ideal city on this model is Manhattan, then the safest, fastest, and most economic model for public transport is neither the bus nor the metro, but the elevator – paid for by the public or private sector, and used for free! There are solutions, though many of them are yet to be invented. These solutions can be trusted to the dynamic of local powers and administrations to innovate, with their private partners, but also with the support of the population. Local geography is a ‘total social fact’. It applies to all members of society and is
created by all its members in constant interaction, taken either together or separately. However unique they may be, with their complex metabolism, all metropolises are intrinsically dependent on basic services whose production, provision, management, access, and quality they organize - whether or not they have the mandate, responsibility, or means. Deeply rooted in the realities of their localities, metropolises stand at the forefront of such pressing issues as climate change, where states, prisoners of their national interests, fail to agree on mechanisms and joint actions. While these cities themselves, for all the reasons mentioned, do not manage to fully organize subsidiarity and coordination of their actions within their boundaries, they remain indispensable to the potential capacity of human societies to bring to life a utopia for the common good. In this respect, the battle for dignity and equity will be won -or lost- in metropolises.