In 1845 Alexander Cartwright, a Brooklyn shipping clerk, drew up a formal
set of rules and established the Knickerbockers Baseball Club. Before that
baseball, or rounders, had players in different cities running in different
directions, using different size balls on different size fields. Cities like
Philadelphia and Boston all had their own rules, but in the end New York City’s
rules prevailed and a common game was launched.
Cities now need a new league to foster cooperation and clearly pursue a set
of common objectives. Cities count, and the world is increasingly counting on
them. The world’s 600 largest cities make up more than 60% of the
world’s economy. Even more striking, the world’s 50 largest cities, by population, are home to more than
500 million people, have an annual GDP more than $9.6 trillion (larger than
China), and generate more than 2.6 billion tonnes of CO2 per year (more than the
world’s 100 smallest countries combined, and if a country, these cities would be
the third largest emitter).
