all cities are effectively one city now

Hmm. I'd love to RTFA, but registration ... notsomuch ... BugMeNot ... notsomuch. I could be completely misinterpreting the article based on the snippet, but ...

Speaking as someone who grew up in the typical middle-America sub-urban environment, then upgraded to an actual urban environment, then downgraded drastically to an almost rural environment ... only someone who rarely makes it out of the city could think that we are that connected. Sure, it's a nice thought and it has a pleasantly futurist feel to it ... but it's just not the case. There are some scary backwater places that have little to no link to the outside world. Sure, they do actually have CNN and the web and blah blah blah, but they have no desire nor care for anything outside of their community. They don't know you nor do they want to connect with you. And they aren't as (geographically) far away as you think.

We have a long, long, long way to go before true metroplexes come about. What we have now is just sprawl all tarted up to look like structure.

RE: City Planet, by Stewart Brand