Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast.

This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal.

Joining me on today's show is Edward Glazer. Ed is a, perhaps the leading urban economist in the world, and he's the Fred and Eleanor

Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard. He's a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a long

time contributing editor at City Journal.

He's the author of the book Triumph of the City, which is a bestseller some years ago,

and he has a brand new book out, co-authored with David Cutler called Survival of the City,

Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation. So Ed, great to have you on the show, living and thriving in an age of isolation.

So Ed, great to have you on the show, and thanks very much for joining us.

It's wonderful to be back on with you, Brian.

Thank you so much for having me on.

You noted in an article in the summer 2020 issue of City Journal that plagues have been a perennial threat to urban life.

But you expressed skepticism there that this plague would permanently reshape urban America.

There was lots of talk early on in the pandemic, as I'm sure you recall, about the mass exodus from cities, and we certainly saw a bit of

that here in the New York area. But judging at least from rental markets in New York and San Francisco,

demand seems at least to have stabilized and in some areas has bounced back. But, you know,

even if COVID and the pandemic doesn't spell the end of city life, it is certainly, I think, you would agree, change things.

So you refer in this new book to the rapid fire de-urbanization of our world.

And, you know, it's true that some have left permanently for the suburbs.

Meantime, the pandemic, not to mention the civil unrest that we saw in New York and other cities last summer,

cast a harsh light, I'd say, in problems with the way our cities are currently governed.

So, you know, here's a broad question to get us started.

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