Big Cities circa 1914
Chicago by Carl Sandburg
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning....
Big City people 2021
Written back when cities were a center-of-gravity for producing things. Now, not so. Where we're heading? A city center shiny and nice. (may not last much longer though) An outside belt of shopping, populated subdivisions, widget production. In between a decaying belt transitioning to Mad Max country.
ReplyDeleteBigger cities are dead as anything other than population centers. They just don't know it yet. That population is there because they can't or won't get out. Productive people can work remote, or the productive hands-on work will be done in that outside belt or beyond.
Have you ever considered blogging? You are good at it.
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