Urban Decay

Pity Hong Kong, for even as the city struggles in the face of regional and global economic forces, another, even more dreaded scourge casts Hong Kong's future in mortal and economic doubt. Cities evolve and prosper or wither and vanish just as individual species do. The causes of that urban selection are economic, geographical and biological, and an unlucky confluence of the three can lead to a Darwinian dead end. Herodotus already observed in the 5th century B.C. that "the cities that were formerly great, have most of them become insignificant; and such as are at present powerful, were weak in...