Isn't it important to note the significance of the city in times past? To understand it as the upcoming hub of social life and exchange, not to mention the center for communication.  
In fact, the underlying meaning of the city has not changed all that much, it is more the external appearance of the city that has been altered. Roads, trains, cars and traffic, skyscrapers and asphalt are the defining features of the city today. But the crowds remain constant. People still flock to the city to do their business, to sell their wares, to ogle and gasp and gape and observe. The city is a fascinating creation of man, inevitable, but nonetheless a testament to man's imagination and creativity. 
Each city of the earth today is just another wonder of the modern world.