My own hot take on this: If the fundamental unit of value is provided by people, then the potential to get work done scales with the number of people engaged a

My own hot take on this: If the fundamental unit of value is provided by people, then the potential to get work done scales with the number of people engaged and ready to do it. In a city like New York, there are a lot of talented people that are engaged in value creation. That creates an economic ecosystem that provides the potential to take an idea and bring it to value delivery with low friction. Vibrancy, then, is the attribute where idea potential is able to reach value delivery with low friction. This is evidenced by a lot of what the other posters have mentioned: restaurants, the arts, startups, etc. These are the result of that potential existing within the ecosystem.