W hat makes a place? It may be the coffee shop or convenience store at the edge of the block. It could be the neighborhood library, park, mall, or recreation center. It could even be the community's grocery store, big box store, restaurant, bar, or many other establishments. A far-reaching assumption is that places are composed of physical locations that define them. With this perspective in mind, Manhattan wouldn't be itself without its imposing skyscrapers, bustling gridded streets, and diverse cafes and restaurants. Not long ago, I used to have a naive perception that New York City was simply a sum of its physical parts. Add up the skyscrapers, high-density residential buildings, parks, cafes, restaurants, and subway lines, and somehow you end up with New York City. When I moved close to the city in 2022, my perception changed. The calculus above does not compute. New York cannot be copied and pasted into the Parisian suburbs or a rural county in South Dakota. Physical infr...