CNN (March 18)
“All but one of the 100 cities with the world’s worst air pollution last year were in Asia… with the climate crisis playing a pivotal role in bad air quality that is risking the health of billions of people worldwide.” Of these, 83 cities “were in India and all exceeded the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines” for PM2.5 “by more than 10 times.”
Tags: Air pollution, Asia, Cities, Climate crisis, Guidelines, Health, https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/18/climate/air-pollution-report-2023-asia-climate-intl-hnk/index.html Worst, India, PM2.5, Quality, Risking, WHO
New York Times (March 14)
Some now fear an “urban doom loop.” Cities are encountering budget crunches brought on by “steep discounts” in office and commercial real estate “as the pandemic trends of hybrid and remote work have persisted.” Cities are “starting to bear the brunt.” Budgets once reliant “on taxes associated with valuable commercial property are now facing shortfalls and contemplating cutbacks as lower assessments of property values reduce tax bills.” Cutting services or raising taxes could make cities less attractive, inducing urban flight and further exacerbating city budgets.
Tags: Budgets, Cities, Commercial, Cutbacks, Discounts, Fear, Hybrid, Office, Pandemic, Property, Real estate, Remote, Services, Shortfalls, Tax, Urban doom loop
Financial Times (March 2)
“Surging property prices in recent years has been a common theme for many major cities around the world.” In Tokyo, the difference is “that a longer-lasting trend is driving prices this time. The number of wealthy households in Japan has reached a record 1.5mn as the total amount of financial assets has also risen every year since 2013.” In addition, “demand from wealthy Chinese buyers” is boosting demand.
Tags: 2013, Boosting, Chinese buyers, Cities, Demand, Financial assets, Japan, Property prices, Surging, Tokyo, Trend, Wealthy households
Bloomberg (June 12)
“The owners of the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall are giving up the property to lenders, adding to deepening real estate pain in a city struggling to bring back workers and tourists after the pandemic.” Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Brookfield Corp. will default on $558 million in remaining debt. “San Francisco has been among the hardest-hit cities since the pandemic as office vacancies soar, retail vacancies rise and concerns about safety deter visitors.”
Tags: Brookfield, Cities, Debt, Default, Hardest-hit, Lenders, Mall, Office, Pain, Pandemic, Real estate, Retail, Safety, San Francisco, Struggling, Tourists, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Vacancies, Workers
Wall Street Journal (April 3)
“For decades, American cities have had a parking problem: too much of it. Countless residential parking spots go unused, and many downtown garages sit half empty. Ride-sharing and the rise of remote work during the pandemic have aggravated the trend.” In response, “cities are shrinking the number of spaces, freeing up the land for other uses, with far-reaching consequences.”
Tags: Aggravated, Cities, Consequences, Downtown, Empty, Garages, Pandemic, Parking spots, Problem, Remote work, Ride-sharing, Trend, U.S., Unused
Washington Post (March 4)
“Cities across the nation face a dilemma: Downtown office buildings are empty as workers prefer to stay home.” Office-to-apartment conversion is an essential “part of the solution,” but “city leaders aren’t doing enough…. The longer cities wait to get conversions underway, the more tax values drop and crime goes up, and the more people see no value in living in the heart of the city — or even visiting.”
Tags: Apartment, Cities, Conversion, Dilemma, Downtown, Empty, Home, Leaders, Office buildings, Solution, Tax values, Workers
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
