Nuclear bombs could turn any city into a zero zone. I would prefer that concept to be Mecca instead of New York. Just remember, Jesse Jackson led the college students in a chant, Hey Hey Ho Ho Western Civ. has got to go. The Communist and the Muslems want to get rid of the Land of the Christ. Meaning Western Civilization.
I watched a TED talk on cities, how they are incredibly resilient unless totally collapsed. A city reliant on a river and the river moves, so there is no water, is one. But collapse through invasion, mismanagement, is almost unheard of, but Democrats are managing it.
One of the interesting trends as that cities are attractive because they are so efficient; double the population, you only need 1.85 the gas stations and so forth. But you get 1.15 the creative class jobs, patents, high income jobs. The largest cities thus become attractive because they offer even more of those extremes. The 1.15 exponent also relates to crime and disease, but you can plan for that.
The problems come in when the leaders or culture puts impediments to the flow of people, resources, ideas. Enabling crime because you won’t prosecute it hurts quality of life but won’t destroy a city unless too many leave to maintain it. Creating poverty by subsidizing and then trapping people there won’t kill the city until you can’t sustain the people, though it drains the economy. Democrats are hindering the potential upside of the cities they control, but they can’t kill a city until it loses too many people.
Detroit is not dying, but the population hub has moved to one less mismanaged.