The Desire to Be Hip Is Making All Our Cities the Same

Cities like New Orleans and Pittsburgh have benefited from major economic investments and new business models. But writer Chuck Thompson thinks this isn’t always a good thing. He’s the author of “Better Off Without ‘Em.” His latest article in The New Republic is called “Take this Microbrew and Shove It.”
In it, he argues against things like craft breweries, kimchi taco trucks, boutique clothing stores, and made-over industrial zones with resident celebrity graffiti sprayers. For all their charm, he says, these “hip” things are making all our cities the same. Does prosperity always come with homogeneity?