THE FUTURE OF NEW YORK

摘要

It is, and has been for four centimes, a culture of creative congestion, a miasma of intense interaction, a kaleidoscope of diversity, a cauldron of dreams, a sanctuary for the odd, the hunted, the hated. New York. It's an ill-fitting city in many ways: not "American" enough for America-too polyglot and raucous, too rude and rapacious. It's a place where the marketplace dominates the church, crowded streets replace the open frontier, foreign tongues displace the nation's English, and the economy faces out toward the world , rather than into the hinterland.rnWhile America was building a distinctly transcontinental culture, New York wasrnmaking something else: a global culture. If, over the centuries, America was often appalled by the disorder of New York, the city's vision of an open, pluralistic society built on interna-tional commerce and diversity attracted millions and fasci-nated the nation.