The no-lose argument

There will always be those who argue that the suburb-dominated status quo is inevitable.  

When cities were declining, they had an easy case to make.  They could argue: "look, cities are declining so suburbia is inevitably the wave of the future!"

Then when cities started to gain population, defenders of suburbia moved the goal posts.  They argued: "Sure, cities are growing, but suburbs are growing faster."

Now, there is some (admittedly pretty minimal) evidence that cities are growing faster than suburbs.  But a recent Atlantic Cities post says some commeentators are moving the goal posts yet again, saying: "Well, the cities are growing faster in percentage terms, but the suburbs are adding more people in raw numbers."