[hahaxdxd123]

IDK man, NYC survived decades where people got randomly shot on the street and there were crack dealers on every avenue.

It's also hard to paint a gloomy picture since there are probably 10s of millions of Americans who would move to NYC in a heartbeat if an exodus of families really happened and brought with it a corresponding drop in rents.

[rayiner]

It’s important not to confuse the ratio of demand to supply, which is high for cities like NYC, with demand in absolute terms. Only a quarter of Americans want to live in any kind of city, much less the densest, dirtiest city in the country: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-pick-country-over-cit...

[trgn]

The aspirational american city is not the extremes like NYC or SF. It's the verdancy of places like Charleston, New Orleans, Ashville, ... That kind of gentle density and mixed use are wonderful city environments that much more than 25% of people would want to live in. And which is achievable in pretty much any neighborhood build before WW2, if only we allowed for it.

[HEmanZ]

In America, people believe there are only two ways to live: Manhattan high-rise or suburban McMansion.

My pet social theory is that an unbelievable amount of our societal woes stem from this false dichotomy in the American mind, and the cities we end up designing because of it.

[tptacek]

Most suburban homes look nothing like "McMansions". They're simple Cape Cods on small lots packed 30 to a block.

[trgn]

> My pet social theory is that an unbelievable amount of our societal woes stem from this false dichotomy in the American mind

Agreed, it's a failure of imagination. Americans, for whatever reason, cannot make that leap in their mind's eye.