The Self-Service City, Timothy Egan . nytimes blog.

"But the will to till[farmlets] has never left us. At the same time, this recession is forcing local governments to abandon traditional services. Cities are becoming robotized and retro at the same time.

... cities are turning impersonal – with eye-on-the-people enforcement. In this respect, the self-service city has no heart, no room for mercy. It’s like umpiring a baseball game by remote camera. We might as well install self-ticketing devices in our cars."