This is a sign of decay. We need a new ethic of land use and development that optimizes value and creates qualitatively better communities rather than quantitatively bigger communities. Today's good citizens should be a part of the networks that build the public good to be more than a empty phrase. It's no longer possible, if it ever was, to administrate a city from the top down. Cities work with the meaningful involvement of the citizens who help to shape a healthy civic life.
Leaders make civic noise and create positive change.
We are called to build community. The torch has now been passed to the business leaders and shifted from civil and political rights to economic rights. America is at a crossroads. Buckminster Fuller called it a choice between utopia or oblivion.