There's a debate raging among urban experts over how much the Covid-19 pandemic and recession will hurt American cities. Some predict heavy damage, whereas others foresee minimal harm. But cities are really just people. The right question: What will happen to New Yorkers? Angelenos? Houstonians? Detroiters? On that question, there's something closer to agreement: The virus and the economic slump are likely to worsen inequality, leaving the rich largely unscathed while crushing the poor and working classes of America's big and midsize cities. That's despite the efforts of Black Lives Matter and other movements that are devoted to fighting a winner-take-all urban economic system. Since 2010 the population of 25- to 34-year-olds living within 3 miles of a city center has risen 30% nationwide, going up in every metro area with 1 million or more people, calculates Joe Cortright, an economist and the director of City Observatory, an urban policy think tank in Portland, Ore. "They're the dream demographic of an HR department of a fast-growing company," he says.
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