Read on Twitter
Is New York dead? Folks, it's time to strap in, because to understand New York now we need to take a little trip to the Sumerian city of Uruk.
I was amused to read Tim Flannery's March NYRB review of two books on early cities, in which he sums up a point of contention between the two authors: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/03/12/early-cities-first-mean-streets/
Smith says conditions in ancient Sumerian cities were so bad that they—much like many US cities today—could not sustain themselves through natural increase, but depended on new arrivals
Whether the most important new arrivals were slaves or eager and ambitious country folks ready to trade textiles, cozy up with the priests, and hang out at the agora depends on your perspective
This is basically the debate over cities today, too: Is New York a society held together by wage slaves chained to their Midtown desks? Or one where people come to worship, socialize, marry, and be entertained?
I think the answer is mostly the second one, which is why I don't think remote work (whatever happens) mounts a life-or-death challenge to the cultural vitality of big cities
Doesn't mean that Washington can't ruin city infrastructure for a generation by letting everyone go broke. But that's a political choice we're making, not some technological inevitability.
