ABSTRACT
In the history of destructive stakes against a city, September 11th, 2001, in New York will undoubtedly rate a special place. But in what sense and why its claim to fame might last, as its immediacy fades and it enters into the record books and historical memory, is worth considering. Pride of place among the organic metaphors must be accorded to the idea of the city as a body politic. The democratization of the body politic depended upon a clear distinction between the public and the private spheres. The body politic has porous boundaries, while it also contains all manner of divergent and potentially conflictual processes. The trauma of September 11th necessitated some sort of response. The capacity to do so depended upon how the body politic had been constituted over the previous decades. Viewing the city as a body politic in relationship to urban processes illuminates the various ways in which the health of the city can be evaluated.
