The New York Times is going to fold its City section as part of the cost-cutting package that came down last week, to save money on freelance payments and whatnot. This is not only disastrous for the Columbia J-school freelancers and other assorted mortals whose only hopes of getting an NYT clip was through the City section; it's equally bad for regular NYT reporters, because this is a mere foreshadowing of a coming trend called "write more stories or else." But without the City section, how will we ever know what's happening in McCarren Park's ironic sports leagues, or other places that freelancers hang out on the weekends? Democracy is dying.