Joel Kotkin in Quilette accepts the notion that modern cities must be "cities of bits", though this has some serious problems that he also notes--no middle class to speak of, new parents leave, it has great class divides, and "work from home" pulls people away from the city entirely. To fix the problems: "The key is not forcing people into cities but making them more attractive to people as they enter adulthood and enter family formation years." ... "Successful future cities can only compete by providing a more dynamic, vital alternative to the periphery or small towns. In the “city of bits” era, success depends on tapping the skills and entrepreneurial penchants of its denizens."
But somebody has to "bend tin", process the food to make it edible, package and move things--where do those people live? Don't tell me robots will do it all, and offshoring just shifts the problem somewhere else and generates a new one--unemployment. Where do the factories go? Where is the space for the children?
Fixing the crime problems are a sine qua non for restoring a city, and fixing the corruption would be an excellent follow-up, but the systemic problems of space (where do you put something when everything is already full?) and inhuman scales need attention too.
