McClay on cities

Yes, yes, yes!  No, I'm not re-enacting "When Harry Met Sally"; I'm linking to Wilfred McClay's essay, at First Things, called "Why Conservatives Should Care About Cities.  And yes, I realize that I probably blog too often about urbanism, "new" and otherwise.  Still, check it out:

[C]onservatism cannot be merely an attachment to certain abstract principles. It is also an attachment to real and tangible things, and to the past out of which those things, not to mention we ourselves, have emerged. Cities are, and remain, the chief places where these meanings are conserved and cultivated.