The Zoomshock Metropolis
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 May 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our towns and cities are facing an existential crisis. The rise of online shopping has left gaping holes in high streets. And if hybrid working takes off, some economists predict a dramatic 'zoom shock' as workers spend less time and money in city centres. What seems like a crisis could be an opportunity to reinvent our cities and 'Level Up' struggling towns. But are we ready to seize this moment?
Helen Grady meets local leaders embracing this moment of change - from the Teesside town bulldozing a shopping centre to create a park to the US community paying remote tech workers to relocate. She hears how big cities like Manchester are enticing people back to the office. And she asks if we're about to see a move away from city-led growth to a model where jobs and prosperity are more evenly spread between towns and cities.
Producer and presenter Helen Grady Editor Jasper Corbett
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, |
| 0:33.0 | find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. This is the sound of a city slowly coming back to life. |
| 0:47.0 | After months of lockdowns, Manchester is reopening. |
| 0:54.7 | Cafes, shops, pubs and restaurants are back in business and some office workers |
| 1:00.4 | are trickling back to their desks. |
| 1:03.0 | But no one knows how many will return, |
| 1:05.0 | and that's left Manchester and all our cities |
| 1:08.0 | facing an existential crisis. |
| 1:14.0 | Could that crisis be a once in a lifetime opportunity, |
| 1:18.0 | a chance to reimagine our cities and towns |
| 1:21.0 | and spread prosperity more evenly between them? cities and |
| 1:24.0 | town's |
| 1:25.0 | in our cities in this edition of analysis |
| 1:28.0 | I'm a whistle stop tour of places leaning in to this moment of change. |
| 1:33.0 | But first, I want to understand the shock that's opened up this opportunity. |
| 1:38.0 | It's called Zoom Shock. |
... |
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