Why We Don't Believe the Big City Obituary

[marmar]

Why We Don’t Believe the Big City Obituary
America’s cities offer the greatest hope for the country’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Fortunately, the people who live there agree.

Ivo Daalder, Will Johnson and Samuel Kling
February 2, 2021, 10:05 AM EST


(Bloomberg CityLab) Like social distancing and curbside pickup, alarm about the future of American cities has become a mainstay of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pointing to downtown office towers usurped by Zoom, shuttered restaurants and stores, and an upsurge in crime and taxes, some are predicting a mass retreat from urban life. “New York City is dead forever,” declared a viral LinkedIn post in August. Last year “ended the boom of cities that started in the 1990s,” announced a recent op-ed in The Hill. Much of the analysis has been fatalistic—gloomy predictions grounded in hunches and snippets of short-term data.

A new survey by The Harris Poll and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs offers evidence for a different narrative. Surveying 1,200 residents of the nation’s six largest metropolitan areas on their attitudes about urban and suburban life in late autumn, the answers provide a window into how metropolitan Americans feel about the places they live during the pandemic.

It presents an image not of cities teetering on the edge, but of urban strength in crisis. Rather than decamping for the suburbs, as has been widely (and anecdotally) reported, city residents remain committed to cities. But beyond the immediate challenges, they want longstanding problems of urban life addressed, and are willing to embrace changes in policy and personal behavior to do so. ..............(more)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-02/new-survey-shows-big-cities-aren-t-dead?srnd=premium

[ret5hd]

1. I am hoping for a rebirth, a resurgence of...

small arts businesses. Think CBGBs, etc. Affordable rent in vacancies (caused by more traditional businesses moving to work-from-home) etc.

One can dream.