Last night in class we talked about how place is being challenged by globalization, population growth, global warming and other challenges. When places must compete for resources they have to sell themselves. They are essentially in competition with each other.
On the surface that would seem beneficial to places, because it would prompt them to sharpen their competitive edges and make them more attractive. But what makes places more attractive, the marketplace says, are jobs, commerce and convenience. The marketplace is not very good at recognizing, creating and delivering the ineffable something that makes, say, San Francisco, San Francisco. And why should it be? What makes certain places sing out to us is far more than the sum of their parts.
So when places have to compete for jobs or big box stores, they sell an image of themselves. I've seen this happen with Lexington, which pushes itself as the "horse capital" even as racetracks are dying and horse farms struggling to make it. Once the real place is gone, it resurrects itself as a carriacture.
The real placeness of a place can only bubble up from below. It can't be superficially imposed from above. End of sermon!