The city is such a fool's errand. I can remember living in Chicago 30 years ago, and people would have to live in the far burbs just to afford a house that they couldn't even furnish, and drive an hour or more to the city for the job. You think there's so much more to do till you find out how much it costs. Even back then a simple night out for a family of four could drain you for between $150-$200.
Many of my classmates took off for the urban areas because they 'couldn't get the jobs' in Iowa when they were really just chasing the Bright Lights Big City. As the old saying goes, it's not what you make but what you keep. People out here have had a great life still earning good money, but spending way less than they would in the urban metropolis, with far less crime and way better schools.
Now it's just sketchy and straight up dangerous.
I think there is a point at which too many people living together becomes toxic. I think that is somewhere in the tens of thousands, maybe... South of 100 thousand. At some point right in there, the necessary means to manage so many people becomes socialistic, and a hive-mind begins to develop. When you get to something the size of a megalopolis, People have forgotten liberty and relate as one would to a hive... Obedient to standing in queues. trained to follow others, submissive to the system.
Sooner or later, if you study bees, you will see the wax moths or some other move in. And whole generations of the moths grow and live among the bees...until finally they overpower the bees and destroy not only the bees, but themselves as well... And the hive dies.
There are parallels in that.
Detroit is an interesting study, as a megalopolis that reached its demise... It hangs on, trying to rebuild it's grandeur. One wonders if that is possible, having contracted as it has. Because what happened to Detroit will happen to them all.
It is written.
