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Cities aren't dead. And a majority of people don't have the luxury of being able to work remote or move away from their jobs. There was never going to be a "ma

Cities aren't dead. And a majority of people don't have the luxury of being able to work remote or move away from their jobs. There was never going to be a "mass exodus" from cities. Rather, a subset of the people who could afford to leave and can work remote would leave. That is driving down rents and attracting the young people who still want to live in cities like New York.

BobbyJo 6y ago
While I don't think cities are dead, I think COVID has changed the balance of how centralized society will be. It's added a cost that didn't exist previously, and higher cost means lower demand. As for the exodus, it is already happening to a degree in the Bay Area. People may come along and fill the gap eventually, but given the new cost I don't think demand will ever be what it used to be. Additionally, the Bay Areas growth in the last decade was driven almost entirely by an industry who's job are very easy to make remote, so there's an extra point against things bouncing back to before, at least here in SV. I know New York has benefitted from tech growth in the last decade as well, but it's still much more diversified than SV and will likely get off a little easier.