Washington Post (January 19)
“The nation is in the midst of one of the biggest workforce shifts in generations.” Many prefer working at home or at least “want a ‘hybrid’ situation of working two or three days remotely. Cities must adapt to this new reality or risk a downward spiral of falling commercial property values, lower taxes on those buildings and ghost downtowns that could lead to increased crime and homelessness.”
Tags: Adapt, Buildings, Cities, Commercial property values, Crime, Downward spiral, Home, Homelessness, Hybrid, Lower taxes, Reality, Remotely, Risk, Shifts, Workforce
Reuters (November 28)
“Thousands of people are taking to the streets in several cities across the country in an unprecedented protest against the government’s stringent COVID restrictions.” This sort of unrest “does not happen very often, and the world is watching intently to see how Beijing handles the brewing crisis.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Cities, COVID restrictions, Government, People, Protest, Stringent, Thousands, Unprecedented, Unrest
Washington Post (March 26)
The “psychological grip” of the coronavirus “on the United States has weakened. Pandemic fatigue, warmer weather and a surge in vaccinations have led to a spring fever palpable across much of the country.” The number of Americans flying surged last weekend and cellphone data shows “movement steadily increasing everywhere except in large cities, where office buildings remain empty.” The pandemic “won’t last forever. But even as people are on the move, so is the virus.” There may yet be “a spring bump, if not yet anything as significant as a surge.”
Tags: Cities, Coronavirus, Fatigue, Movement, Office buildings, Pandemic, Psychological grip, Spring fever, Surge, U.S., Vaccinations
Washington Post (July 7)
“As the nation faces a pandemic, financial catastrophe and massive social justice protests, it is suddenly also confronting a spike in violence in some of its major cities. Tragedies struck in urban centers thousands of miles apart, with 65 people shot over the weekend in New York and 87 in Chicago, and homicides climbing from Miami to Milwaukee.” Shootings often rise in summer, but “the recent toll has been particularly devastating.”
Tags: Chicago, Cities, Confronting, Financial catastrophe, Homicides, Miami, Milwaukee, New York, Pandemic, Protests, Shootings, Social justice, Tragedies, Violence
Bloomberg (June 3)
“A more comprehensive abdication of leadership could scarcely be imagined. America has now lost more than 105,000 people to a still-uncontrolled virus. Some 40 million are out of work, with the economy in free fall. From coast to coast, cities are burning, protests raging and chaos…. And what is the president of the United States doing amid all this? Tweeting, mostly.”
Tags: Abdication, Burning, Chaos, Cities, COVID-19, Economy, Free fall, Leadership, Protests, Trump, U.S., Uncontrolled
Chicago Tribune (March 6)
“We walk the Earth’s crust, we erect vast cities, we boast of our achievements. We see ourselves as the mistresses and masters of our fate.” With the coronavirus, however, “nature once again reminds us who’s boss.” The “little living form that now roils humanity is a virus” and it does not discriminate “in selecting its victims; great wealth has its privileges, but immunity from epidemics isn’t one of them.”
Tags: Achievements, Boss, Cities, Coronavirus, Earth, Fate, Humanity, Immunity, Nature, Victims, Wealth
BBC (March 24)
“All over the world cities are grappling with apocalyptic air pollution but the capital of Mongolia is suffering from some of the worst in the world. And the problem is intrinsically linked to climate change. The country has already warmed by 2.2 degrees, forcing thousands of people to abandon the countryside and the traditional herding lifestyle every year for the smog-choked city where 90% of children are breathing toxic air every day.”
Tags: Air pollution, Apocalyptic, Cities, Climate change, Countryside., Herding, Lifestyle, Mongolia, Smog, Toxic air
The Economist (March 19)
The Economist Intelligence Unit just announced the most expensive cities in the world. Due to inflation, Tokyo doesn’t rank in the top 10. “Singapore marks its sixth straight year at the top of the rankings, and is joined there by Hong Kong and Paris.” Osaka was the only Japanese city to make the top 10 in “the survey, which compares prices across 160 products and services.”
The Economist (September 3)
“An epic struggle looms. It will transform daily life as profoundly as cars did in the 20th century: reinventing transport and reshaping cities, while also dramatically reducing road deaths and pollution.” Across several industries companies have grasped “the transformative potential of electric, self-driving cars, summoned on demand.” With Uber poised to lead this race, “technology firms including Apple, Google and Tesla are investing heavily in autonomous vehicles; from Ford to Volvo, incumbent carmakers are racing to catch up.”
Tags: Apple, Autonomous vehicles, Carmakers, Cars, Cities, Daily life, Electric, Ford, Google, Pollution, Reinventing, Roads, Self-driving, Struggle, Tesla, Transformative potential, Transport, Uber, Volvo
Financial Times (May 26)
Global cities now “drive the world’s economy. The 600 biggest cities account for more than 60 per cent of global gross domestic product. The top 20 are home to one-third of all large corporations, and almost half of their combined revenues. Tokyo leads the pack — in population size, economic punch and number of corporate headquarters — ahead of New York, London and Paris.”
Tags: Cities, Corporations, Economics, Economy, GDP, London, New York, Paris, Population, Revenues, Tokyo
