The Future of the City Is Childless

The Future of the City Is Childless

A few years ago, I lived in a walkup apartment in the East Village of New York. Every so often descending the stairway, I would catch a glimpse of a particular family with young children in its Sisyphean attempts to reach the fourth floor. It looked like hell—or, as I once suggested to a roommate, a carefully staged public service announcement against family formation.