Manhattan is anything but empty during an Open Streets event on Fifth Avenue in December.
Photographer: Ryan Rahman/Pacific Press/LightRocket
The Pandemic Didn’t Upend US Geography
Three years after Covid began, big cities are still standing. But work and housing shifts are translating to some enduring changes.
When Covid-19 struck three years ago, there was an overriding sense that our geography would be forever changed. Pummeled by the first wave of the pandemic, large dense cities like New York, San Francisco and London were said to face an existential crisis.
Three years later, big cities are still standing and where people live did not undergo a massive shift. Instead, the pandemic accelerated trends and changes that were already well underway. What has seen a more fundamental change is where and how we work. A huge swath of knowledge work is no longer tied to the office. This shift to remote work has been devastating for central business districts, even as urban downtowns are reinventing themselves.