Suburbs are the future – Professor Joel Kotkin

New York. Los Angeles. Boston. San Francisco. Call them America's "superstars." With mega populations, these urban hubs have long reigned as the nation's economic, social, and cultural capitals. But big cities have also been the hardest hit by the pandemic. "Zoom towns" are springing up across the country as professionals leave the city in droves. Even more, the pandemic has brought economic and social inequality into sharp focus for the nation's lawmakers. And some, particularly in large cities that boast the most obvious cases of such inequality, are enacting new progressive policies and laws that seek to combat inequality. For some, this means a new financial structure that makes city life less compelling for those in higher income brackets. Will megacities keep their magnetism in the wake of Covid-19? Or are their best days behind them?

“Big Cities Are Past Their Prime” premiers on March 25th, check out the full debate here:

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#debate #intelligencesquared #iq2us #citiesskylines #deathofcities #joelkotkin #margaretomara #jenniferhernandez #opentodebate

[ryanmccullough]

Suburbs bankrupt cities over time. They are financially supported by urban areas. The tax income from suburbs does not pay for the infrastructure maintenance.

[urbanistgod]

The future is not suburban expansion but contraction.

[TropicalEnterpriseLLC]

I own a huge 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom how with a sustainable backyard garden, fruit trees, blueberries - My mortgage is $850 a month. I have 4 awesome neighbors on our street. People in this state paying $1300 a month to live on top of each other? Got some globalists on here that would prefer you live in a pod and eat the bugs.

[julianselvaraj]

Prof Kotkin maybe right about one point. People are so bored in the suburbs they will have more kids. Even that may not be possible in future when cost of fixing shoddy houses in the burbs may cost more than having kids. And let’s not forget climate change…. Living in Texas, I’m barely surviving the awesome summers, A/C breaks then I have to shell out $$$$, tornado, fire… when boomers talk about future, the word future should be replaced with “hellish future”

[jensboettiger]

Nobody likes suburbs. We want to be able to live in the country for real in communities where people know each other and work fully remotely.

Why is everyone on this panel an urban elite? Maybe ask some regular people about what they think.

Suburbs and core cities are both off the table financially for most people if they’re supposed to ve able to also afford a family. Nobody on this panel has any realistic takes