The Diner is an American institution that keeps diminishing in importance. This is the normal progression of things. Change is an inevitability that stimulates young people and worries older ones. After this latest purge of national illusions we find ourselves wondering what has replaced the things that have disappeared. Younger people don't read newspapers or watch mainstream news channels. They order on Grubhub instead of sitting at a booth poring over huge laminated menus over sticky tables. Their jobs involve invisible traffic and data points. Its new king is a kind of retrograde demagogue powered by cynicism. Scores of diners like this one have been turned into nail salons and weed shops. For a significant segment of the population this is a good thing or at least nothing worth mourning over. Thomas Jefferson said that people elect the leaders they deserve. Likewise, the landscape of the city as it evolves is what we all deserve...