While small town America thrives, its metropolises are being engulfed by chaos
Growing up on the East Coast of America, there was always something quite exciting about its cities: we had Boston a short drive to the south – which, with the glinting glass skyscrapers of its financial centre, felt sharp and busy and dynamic.
New York, a four hour drive away, was like a forcefield of urban energy: packed with exotic, wonderful shops; wafting with food smells, and with a subway whose subterranean ugliness didn’t stop it – after the city was cleaned up in the 1990s – from operating briskly and at capacity, ferrying about a fascinating array of people. New York seemed to be – and looked like – the centre of the world.
Since then, not only have America’s great cities lost their sheen, sparkle, energy and excitement – the forces of chaos and disorder have engulfed them.
The latest crisis to bury New York is the arrival of far more migrants – the city has a law that requires the provision of shelter to all migrants in a timely fashion – than it can possibly manage or pay for.