Opinion: Did the pandemic change American downtowns for good? - Deseret News
deseret.com
The pandemic forced a mass urban experiment overnight — and whether American downtowns ever recovered reveals how path dependency shapes cities long after the shock fades.
Path DependencyDisruption TheorySocial Resilience TheoryMotivated Reasoning
Theory Briefing
- Six years after the pandemic, American downtowns are still grappling with whether remote-work shifts permanently rewired urban economic life.
- Many people responded to forced disruption by retreating into conspiracy theories or partisan narratives rather than adapting forward.
- The article frames the pandemic as an involuntary leap into the future — a real-world test of how societies handle sudden systemic change.