IF YOU THINK cities are dying-with urbanites fleeing density during the pandemic, never to return- you can think again. With the release last month of details of the 2020 U.S. census, we now know that metropolitan areas gained population in the last decade. Still, city-bashing goes on: "Anti-urbanism is an American religion, practiced widely and frequently in ordinary times, and passionately when cities are actually in trouble," sociologist Eric Klinenberg told The New York Times, in a recent article about pandemic predictions of urban demise. Throughout U.S. history, cities have been seen as hotbeds of crime and disease-and for being places where people of different races come together. As Andre M. Perry of the Brookings Institution has noted, "social distancing" was familiar long before Covid in urban Black communities that have been subject to segregation and racist housing policies. But now, with 86 percent of Americans living in metro areas, comes the opportunity to address the real problems of cities. While the planned return of people to offices and schools this month has been tempered with uncertainty over coronavirus variants, the recent focus on inequities in health care, education, public space, and the environment make this a moment not to be squandered: we need to find solutions for the most urgent urban crises now.
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