Under processed urban musing: the idea of a "city that never sleeps" had a noticeably different valance when it was as or more likely to be industrial shift workers, longshoremen, etc out and about as carousers.
This isn't meant to be normative, by the way. People socializing and having fun is important, and there are still plenty of shift jobs and night shifts out there.
Just a noticeable shift.
In many ways, the archetypical nighttime institution—the all night diner—was invented to serve this kind of work.
@foxandcity I've bored many people with my armchair sociology observations about all-night diners. they are fascinating places that manage to serve nearly every age range / lifecycle stage at different times of day. if I were to re-write Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language I would include all-night diners in it as an essential element of urban life--every city needs one
