I jus pre-ordered a copy of Edward Glaeser and David Cutler's new book called, Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation. (I'm usually a hard copy kind of guy, but I decided to try this one out on Kindle / my iPad). The official release date is September 7, 2021, so if you're reading this post in your inbox, the book is now available online.

I'm not familiar with the writing of David Cutler (he's a public health expert), but I am a follower of Edward Glaeser and have written about his work on a number of occasions. Glaeser's last book, Triumph of the City, was a kind of celebration of the wonders of urbanism. After reading it, you couldn't help but feel that cities are our best chance at creating healthy, sustainable, and wealthy communities.

But in listening to Glaeser throughout this pandemic I have noticed that his commentary on the future of cities hasn't been filled with unbridled optimism. You get the sense from him that cities are at a crossroads. This is not to say that city life will not persist, because it will. Cities are powerfully resilient. But not all cities are created equal. Some will continue to flourish in this new economy, but others will not.

This is one of the arguments that they make in this new book and I'm looking forward to reading it once it lands in my Kindle app.

Here are some interesting figures about Venice take from this recent FT article by Chris Allnutt:

• Tourist visits to Venice last year were estimated to be about 1/5 of what they usually are

• Short-term rental bookings as of December 2020 were down about 74% year-over-year

• It is estimated that short-term rentals normally represent about 12% of homes in Venice (this is significantly higher than the "typical city" which is estimated to be about 1-2%)

• Even before the pandemic, average property prices had declined from about €4,500 per square meter in 2018 to €4,341 in 2019 (2020 data is still coming)

• Pre-pandemic, the population of the city was about 50,000, which is less than a third of what it was back in the 1950s

• A 2018 study by Airbnb reported that for every local Venetian the city had 74 tourists on average (wow)

• Being a dominant port city, the city has generally been disproportionately impacted by plagues and other health crises throughout its history

• The Lazzaretto Vecchio, which still stands today, is a small island in the Venetian Lagoon that was founded in the 15th century as a hospital to care for plague victims; apparently it was the first of its kind in the world

• During the 15th century, Venice saw its population drop by about two-thirds as a result of an epidemic

• At the height of the Republic of Venice in the 1790s, the city had a population of about 170,000; after falling to Napoleon it halved to about 96,000

• It's worth pointing out that the "height of the republic" occurred after many great epidemics; the subsequent population decline was seemingly the result of a conquest and not pestilence

Photo by @canmandawe on Unsplash

This morning I stumbled up on this conversation between Richard Florida and Ed Glaeser about the post-pandemic city. It's from September 2020 and that is obvious in some of the comments. Richard Florida (who was in Toronto) remarked that it felt like the pandemic was mostly over at that time and that Canada had seemingly done a much better job than the US at tackling it. That no longer feels right. But I did find myself agreeing with some of their other points.

Here's one from Ed Glaeser that looks back to previous health crises:

But pretty much since the 14th century, urbanization proceeded despite the reappearance of the Black Death in the 1350s. Urbanization proceeded despite the Great Plague of London in the 1660s. All of the great diseases that spread in 19th-century America, cholera, yellow fever, the urbanization just chugged along. Even the influenza pandemic of 1919-1920 was followed by a tremendous decade of city building. So, I think our cities have proven to be remarkably resilient.

For the full conversation, click here.

I jus pre-ordered a copy of Edward Glaeser and David Cutler's new book called, Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation. (I'm usually a hard copy kind of guy, but I decided to try this one out on Kindle / my iPad). The official release date is September 7, 2021, so if you're reading this post in your inbox, the book is now available online.

I'm not familiar with the writing of David Cutler (he's a public health expert), but I am a follower of Edward Glaeser and have written about his work on a number of occasions. Glaeser's last book, Triumph of the City, was a kind of celebration of the wonders of urbanism. After reading it, you couldn't help but feel that cities are our best chance at creating healthy, sustainable, and wealthy communities.

But in listening to Glaeser throughout this pandemic I have noticed that his commentary on the future of cities hasn't been filled with unbridled optimism. You get the sense from him that cities are at a crossroads. This is not to say that city life will not persist, because it will. Cities are powerfully resilient. But not all cities are created equal. Some will continue to flourish in this new economy, but others will not.

This is one of the arguments that they make in this new book and I'm looking forward to reading it once it lands in my Kindle app.

Here are some interesting figures about Venice take from this recent FT article by Chris Allnutt:

• Tourist visits to Venice last year were estimated to be about 1/5 of what they usually are

• Short-term rental bookings as of December 2020 were down about 74% year-over-year

• It is estimated that short-term rentals normally represent about 12% of homes in Venice (this is significantly higher than the "typical city" which is estimated to be about 1-2%)

• Even before the pandemic, average property prices had declined from about €4,500 per square meter in 2018 to €4,341 in 2019 (2020 data is still coming)

• Pre-pandemic, the population of the city was about 50,000, which is less than a third of what it was back in the 1950s

• A 2018 study by Airbnb reported that for every local Venetian the city had 74 tourists on average (wow)

• Being a dominant port city, the city has generally been disproportionately impacted by plagues and other health crises throughout its history

• The Lazzaretto Vecchio, which still stands today, is a small island in the Venetian Lagoon that was founded in the 15th century as a hospital to care for plague victims; apparently it was the first of its kind in the world

• During the 15th century, Venice saw its population drop by about two-thirds as a result of an epidemic

• At the height of the Republic of Venice in the 1790s, the city had a population of about 170,000; after falling to Napoleon it halved to about 96,000

• It's worth pointing out that the "height of the republic" occurred after many great epidemics; the subsequent population decline was seemingly the result of a conquest and not pestilence

Photo by @canmandawe on Unsplash

This morning I stumbled up on this conversation between Richard Florida and Ed Glaeser about the post-pandemic city. It's from September 2020 and that is obvious in some of the comments. Richard Florida (who was in Toronto) remarked that it felt like the pandemic was mostly over at that time and that Canada had seemingly done a much better job than the US at tackling it. That no longer feels right. But I did find myself agreeing with some of their other points.

Here's one from Ed Glaeser that looks back to previous health crises:

But pretty much since the 14th century, urbanization proceeded despite the reappearance of the Black Death in the 1350s. Urbanization proceeded despite the Great Plague of London in the 1660s. All of the great diseases that spread in 19th-century America, cholera, yellow fever, the urbanization just chugged along. Even the influenza pandemic of 1919-1920 was followed by a tremendous decade of city building. So, I think our cities have proven to be remarkably resilient.

For the full conversation, click here.