finding the bottom

I'm trying to get excited about this Pruitt Igoe competition, and it's hard, because the part of St. Louis near the site looks like it got hit pretty hard by 20th century deurbanization. "Deurbanization"--now there's a concept. All statistics point to the increasing importance of cities in the modern age, but the high density, centralized, walkable city that forms the basis of architectural mythology seems to be the exception rather than the rule. People drive cars. Proximity becomes less of an absolute geographical condition and more of a function of road access, parking capacity, contemporary amenities and good reputation. That last feature seems to be the important quality. Once a place is perceived as being in decline it becomes hard to put the pieces back together. All this is old hat.

The libertarian in me says "Unleash the force of the free market." What seems to have happened, and what continues to happen, is that the market has spoken and it says: "We've moved out to the suburbs and that's where we want to stay."