These were cities involved in a fast learning track. That kind of urgency you still find in cities of the developing world. Urban essentials seem under control, mature. But some people, smitten by the power of the Internet, think all this is about to change. Cities could lose population and influence under the decentralizing power of the Web.
People still depend on physical proximity.
We hear all about the death of distance. But I take issue with this. Yes, we have had extraordinary advances in telecom, and these are still going on. You had the electric telegraph in the 1830s and the telephone in the 1870s. These previous bursts of telecom didn't disperse economic activity.