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Leon seems to think that people don't enjoy being in the city. High density, over large parts of a city allows for the flowering of the "creative class", as per Richard Florida's arguments. Greater productivity within the city, and greater intellectual output from this co-location, is what has driven not just city growth and social justice, but also our greatest human achievements in science and literature. If the city were kept to Leon's 4 storeys, the economic value placed on centrality would, in effect, push the poor even further out, creating a far greater barrier to entry than the "elitist" congestion charge. If Leon believes that the fast-urbanising rural poor around the globe can be made to wait for stone-built 4 storey houses before they eat at the capitalist table, he is much mistaken. I'm astounded that this man who describes himself as happy, finds fault in all but one (unbuilt) scheme. What seems worse is that to his solution, New Urbanism, he (or the journalist) devotes only a couple of sentences. The interview reads like a string of unmitigated misery. Perhaps if Leon could accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and latch onto the affirmative, and couch all of that in economically relevant terms, I wouldn't think him such a blowhard.