San Franciscans for decades have feared "Manhattanization", a feeling that their city could be overtaken by skyscrapers and an even denser population. John King says that SF could use a dash of New York's new ingenuity when it comes to urban planning.
King writes that in New York, "...the most vivid impression these days is the irrepressible street life, ground-level urbanity that allows for the unexpected and, increasingly, favors pedestrians over the automobile.
Parochial San Franciscans identify such traits as unique to this place, but they define today's island between the Hudson and East rivers equally well. The difference in New York is the sense of adventure - a willingness to explore innovations at a large scale, rather than recoil from anything ambitious or new."
