U.S. City Dwellers Re-evaluate Where They Want to Live
Lesson Outline
How will the American landscape and demographics change after this pandemic? As a result of the pandemic, we could see significant population shifts in the U.S. "Epidemics historically have played a big role in shaping where and how people live in New York and other cities, said David Rosner," co-director of the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia University.
After a cholera epidemic hit NYC in the 19th century, for example, people began to move from lower Manhattan to other neighborhoods -- if they could afford to. Even now, people who have two homes: one in NYC and another outside of the city have fled in large numbers to their second homes because of the recent pandemic. Some experts wonder if these people will return full time to NYC and other large U.S. cities. In the past, many Americans have left cities for more affordable suburban or country environments for reasons such as economics, safety and schools just to name a few. But now, we may see a large exodus from densely populated cities such as NYC for health reasons. Experts predict the Generation X may prefer gravitating to a tier of cities that are not as populous as NY, LA or Chicago. Examples of these cities include: Austin and Nashville.
