THERE'S STILL LIFE IN AMERICAN CITIES

Many people still want to live in urban areas, but downtowns will never be the same.

- SANDRA BLOCK

Richard Florida is a professor at the University of Toronto's School of Cities and author of The Rise of the Creative Class and The New Urban Crisis.

The pandemic and increase in remote work have led some to predict that major cities will be hollowed out as workers relocate to less-expensive areas. Is that happening? At the beginning of the pandemic there were predictions that cities, because they were dense places, would experience an exodus and an existential crisis. People did decamp temporarily-the wealthy went to summer and vacation homes, and large numbers of college students and young professionals left to go home with their parents. When the borders closed, we had very little immigration, and immigrants contribute significantly to cities' populations.