Here’s why privately-owned cities are a terrible idea

Over the last five years, something strange has happened at the eastern edge of Karachi, the crowded megalopolis in southern Pakistan. From scratch, a new city has appeared, complete with its own smooth asphalt highways, schools, hospitals, housing options ranging from modest apartment blocks to posh farmhouses — and, of course, an imitation Eiffel Tower. This is Bahria Town Karachi, an ambitious housing development ultimately planned to cover more than 45,000 acres of land — which is about the same size as Washington, D.C. In Pakistan, its name is synonymous with one man: property developer Malik Riaz, one of the ten richest people in the…

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