Pandemic GHOST TOWNS

摘要

THE COVID-19 pandemic has had a swift and crippling effect on our national economy, dramatically changing the way we live, work, and play. Perhaps nowhere is that more extreme than in the U.S.'s major cities, which, up until March 2020, were the epicenters of jobs, culture, and population. The shutdown and muted reopening of entertainment, hospitality, and restaurant venues has changed bustling downtown blocks full of life into eerily quiet corridors marked by darkened windows and passersby crossing the street to avoid one another. The flood of commuters that used to pack trains, swell daytime population, and spend money at restaurants, dry cleaners, and after-work happy hours is staying home.