I haven't looked at the data, but I wonder who is "missing" from downtowns. If it's young families, drawing them back might be accomplished by improving school

I haven't looked at the data, but I wonder who is "missing" from downtowns. If it's young families, drawing them back might be accomplished by improving school choice (and realizing/accepting that high income people generally don't want their kids going to school with low income people) and having more green space for kids to run around.