THREAD: I probably shouldn't be giving this garbage oxygen and clicks but, sorry, I can't help myself, this is the most entertainingly stupid anti-urbanist op-ed I've seen this side of @JoelKotkin, apparently written by a Chicagoland resident.
https://intpolicydigest.org/2020/09/27/new-urbanism-is-dead-what-just-killed-it

Starting with this passage: "New urbanism is dead. It's been killed. And it might even be mortally wounded."

OK, the first sentence of this graf doesn't actually make any sense, but you get the gist. The author is arguing that due to recent looting in fancy downtown shopping districts like Chicago's Magnificent Mile, many people are never going to want to work in urban CBDs again.

Jesus this is dumb. People aren't telecommuting because they're afraid of looting, they've done so because pandemic orders closed offices, and it's still not ideal to have lots of people working together in enclosed spaces. More points off for unnecessary use of scare quotes.

I dunno, maybe a guy who apparently lives in the Chicago region and doesn't even know how to punctuate @Metra isn't an expert on transit?

And Lord knows where he got the numbers that
"'lost ridership'" [more scare quotes] may be as high as thirty to forty percent."

So what's the expert prescription on what Metra should do, from this guy who doesn't even know how to punctuate Metra, in response to the inevitable temporary ridership losses because white-collar workers currently aren't commuting? Gut the Metra system.

So other than slashing transit service, what constructive advice does this forward-thinking gentleman have for addressing current pandemic transportation challenges? Build more downtown parking garages and make them cheaper.

To give you an idea of where Mr. Carlini is coming from, his Twitter banner image is a photo of a fancy car parked on a downtown sidewalk.

Like Joel Kotkin, Carlini is projecting his personal preferences: Since they'd rather live in bland, homogenous suburbs where it's easy & necessary to drive everywhere, rather than vibrant, diverse, sustainable cities, they assume that's the wave of the future for everyone else.

As Seinfeld noted, places like NYC & Chicago will bounce back from the challenges of COVID & civil unrest because people crave in-person interactions in vibrant big cities. And as he eloquently stated, arguing otherwise makes you a "putz." End of thread. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/opinion/jerry-seinfeld-new-york-coronavirus.html