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Honestly, not knowing SF (European with very few visits in the USA so far) my point is for all cities build demand time, years, decades in general, things change normally not that fast but change anyway and adapting cities to different (changed) societies it's next to unfeasible. Surely, something can be done, normally with big effort compared to the final outcome, but not more than that. In the very past was easier: rate of change was FAR slower, cities was built with rocks and some wood, the very same rocks can be "moved" to build something different and woods can be sourced nearby. The city was able to rebuild itself. Normally after some catastrophe. Modern cities tend to be steel and concrete, not easy to be "reused" especially locally. As a result modern cites need to be rebuilt from the ground today and IF we accept such enormous challenge when they'll be rebuilt will probably be not good anymore because tech and so business/needs are already changed. In the recent past the idea of a thriving city was simply: we have living places and commerce concentrated, if tomorrow a certain family of shops became obsolete and disappear others will occupy the same places with minor changes, like we do not have anymore the need for stearic candles but at their place light bulb shops arrive, we do not have much classic restaurants and at their place small kitchen for ready-made food delivery take their place etc. That's effectively worked for a certain amount of time. Factories are outside, they have room to change, agriculture have room to change and people live in cities. Now such model is in crisis, climate change force new kind of homes, it's not just a matter of changing windows and some appliance. New small homes are easier to rebuild, you crush the old one, build another at the same place. Tall buildings are another story and most cities are made of tall buildings especially downtown. That's the real crisis, it's not a matter "due to remote work some offices are empty and activities around them can't survive": no one take this places because it's not anymore a simple "economical shift" in the same model. Since we dream a future of flying cars density for economy of scale will be FAR LESS dense than now and that's give the ability to change, cities can only be small/medium and on-purpose, like classic manufacturing districts. The really unpopular part is the fact that in such model too many will be new poor and of course they do not like such idea, we do not like that being not so sure for ourselves since even wealthy today a big shift might be hard to sustain. |