🏗 Building in World 2.0 →
Daniel Gross has a good list of things that will change post-coronavirus lockdown — patterns of lifesytle, businesses, real estate, and others:
A few notable ones:
- The (temporary) end of cities. We might see a temporary exodus to the suburbs until there’s a vaccine. A few realtors have told me interest in SF apartments is down while suburban homes are up.
- Trust. Suddenly all humans are suspect of carrying biological weapons. How do you feel when you see a stranger on the street today? The virus increases trust between smaller groups, decreases it towards strangers.
- Public transit is seen as dangerous. World 2.0 doesn’t like human density. And nothing is as dense as a rush-hour subway. Some cities need urban transit to thrive, and in those metros I think we’ll either see very rigid enforcement (Taiwan) or mass infection and subsequent herd immunity (NYC). Maybe this is a boon for Uber.
- Schools return, with it supercharged online education. Parents will demand it, rightfully so. It’s quite possible college campuses are the safest way to resume life. You want to centralize all the youth together, away from the elderly, since they are mostly immune to the virus. New digital alternatives should emerge too. It’s extremely unlikely that attending school over Zoom is the best we can do.
Here were my notes from a couple weeks into lockdown.
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