A Backlash Against Cities Would Be Dangerous
Cities are a boon for public health—even now. As public-health experts have known for decades, people who live in a city are likely to walk and bike more often, and they live closer to community services such as grocery stores. Urban density also supports faster emergency-response times, better hospital staffing, and a greater concentration of intensive-care beds and other health-care resources.
Yet despite ample evidence that urbanites and healthier lives than their counterparts in rural areas, the spread of the coronavirus—and New York City’s tragic experience in particular—has fueled a dubious association between population density and contagion. “There is, urging the city to develop “an immediate plan to reduce density.” The pandemic vindicates the exurbs, a number of commentators have concluded.
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