Quote:
Originally Posted by JManc
Depends. Suburbanites work and spend time in urban areas and when we're not in lock down, we in the burbs find ourselves in crowded situations fairly often; office environments, stores, events and so on. The main thing we avoid is mass transit. We live in the suburbs but my wife works downtown and i worked in the Texas medical center. Massive amount of people in both locations.
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Right. I don't get the "Covid-19 will encourage sprawl" argument.
I could see a plausible "Covid-19 will encourage rural living and isolation" argument, but those living in metropolitan-area sprawl are generally doing the same things as those living in metropolitan-area city centers. They eat out, go to stores, fly in planes, go on vacations, visit museums, attend concerts, have friends/family etc.
So I'm not clear why, say, a McMansion sprawl town would have an advantage over a main street-style suburb, or a more urban environment. At least in the U.S., the lifestyles are generally about the same. Yeah, they might go to different kinds of restaurants or venues, but the risk factors are the same. A Home Depot in sprawl isn't safer than an artisanal product store in hipsterville.
And this is all assuming that Americans have long memories and will permanently alter their lifestyle and forego innate desire for human interaction for a once-in-a-century pandemic on the downswing. Sounds rather implausible.