Instead of building skyscrapers in the city, The Awl's Ken Layne
argues that San Francisco should be seen as "the Brooklyn to an
as-yet-unbuilt Manhattan." Layne's proposal? Knock down the
outdated strip malls, office parks, and office buildings in the
fallow parts of Silicon Valley (Google's, Apple's, and Stanford
University's campuses are presumed cool) and build a glittering
new mixed-use metropolis laced with public transit, a California
fantasyland. If Jane Jacobs were here, she'd probably say that
elites' sweeping plans to knock out neighborhoods they don't
like for infrastructure they think their region needs rarely end
well.