Brian Ler on WNYC.

So New York City is facing multiple challenges post-pandemic, as I don't have to tell you.

Think about the topics we talk about on this show.

Congestion pricing,

funding of city services like the MTA and libraries, e-bike and moped traffic, shoplifting,

the influx of asylum seekers moving in while New Yorkers stressed by housing costs and some others who just don't like it here anymore moving out. But are things really so bad? The journal Vital City is out with a new issue

in which leading urbanists, journalists, and thinkers from a number of disciplines try to answer

that question. And most of them actually think the city is bouncing back. Even the economists who

popularized the theory of the urban doom loop. You know that phrase? That's the idea that many people

who can in the remote work era will leave the city for the suburbs and not come back,

crashing the city's commercial real estate economy, the office building economy, and the

rest of the economy follows. Well, the doomers are looking at the young Zoomers, and they have reassessed their thinking.

So joining me now to discuss the latest issue titled, Is the Urban Doom Loop for Real,

is Elizabeth Glazer, founder of the journal Vital City, and former director of the New York City

mayor's office of Criminal Justice under Mayor

de Blasio. And joining us a little later in the interview will be none other than Jennifer

Egan, the author of many books, including Manhattan Beach and The Candy House. She's a contributor to

this vital city issue with an essay on why she, Jennifer Egan, will never leave New York.

Hi, Liz. Welcome back to WNYC.

Thanks so much, Brian. Great to be here.

And for listeners who may not be familiar with the work that you do over at Vital City,

can you give us a brief introduction to the journal and the issues that you cover?

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