A selection from Co-Artistic Director Stephen Squibb’s introduction to literary magazine n+1 City by City series, which he edited with Keith Gessen:

If the American city is no longer seen as a threat to public health and morality, it now represents an escape from America rather than its realization or continuation. “Thank God,” we say, gazing upon the rural natives, “that we live in New York [Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, Boston] and not in America.”

This needs to end. Today we inaugurate the City by City project, during which we hope to gather reports from as many American cities as possible, to see how things are going and what can be done. The first issue will include Baltimore, Seattle, Greensboro (N.C.), Milwaukee, and one rural area, northern Kentucky. Some of these essays are historical, some are personal, most are someplace in between, but all would, we think, stand as evidence of the centrality of the city to both the historical American experience and the contemporary one.

Read the whole article on nplusonemag.com.