Post pandemic urban priorities: safety and healthiness, not woke diversions

Many urban planning experts believe that the coronavirus pandemic revealed frightening fault lines in modern American urban design. And that city leaders should be clear-eyed about what the pandemic taught us, and focus on substantial structural issues such as delivering core services, not on the trendy virtue signalling we see coming out of local city governments. Joel Kotkin considers the issues in City Journal.

City leaders must confront the reality that forces such as digital technology could weaken their hold on companies and talent. Telecommuting, already experiencing enormous growth, represents an alternative to the crowded and often dirty experience of city life. The response to the coronavirus seems likely to accelerate this trend. In the end, the virus threatens to be a crisis not just of public health but of governance around the world. Only by making urbanity safer and cleaner, as well as addressing the health concerns of the many as opposed to appeasing the political concerns of the disorderly few, can cities continue to thrive.

Read the whole thing here.

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