We've all heard stories or know people who have made the decision to leave the city during this pandemic, either temporarily or permanently. Some young people have moved home until things settle down and some people have sold their real estate and bought something outside of the city.

I don't know know what the exact numbers are, but you can see this trend being reflected today in downtown rental rates and other indicators. This is happening in many cities around the world.

But here's what I think about when I hear these stories:

1) Are these people assuming that we will never go back to offices and that WFH is our new reality? In this case, the thinking is simple. The world has changed. I need a proper Zoom room and a home gym.

2) Did these people never really like urban living or have they simply outgrown the city? Pre-pandemic, family formation was still a major pull away from downtowns for many. In this case, a move was going to happen regardless.

3) Or are these people taking a short-term view of the world and forgetting/ignoring that our global cities are going to rebound and that 2 hour commutes really suck? (Sitting in front of Zoom all day is also no way to live in my opinion.)

There are both positives and negatives to urban living. There are forces that make people want to centralize and there are forces that make people want to decentralize. And the reality is that many of the benefits and perks of living in a city are temporarily turned off right now.

Things are not fun right now, but this isn't going to last. I'm looking forward to the roaring twenties.

One of the things that I don't think we are doing a good job of here in Canada is promoting our COVID Alert app. Most of the people I talk to don't seem to have it installed on their phones. And most of the people I talk to seem to be nervous about sharing personal information with it, including their location. (That's not actually how the app works.)

The thing with exposure alert apps is that they're only really useful if most people are using them. And they're only really useful if people who test positive for the virus enter the code that they are given into the app. So it relies on us trusting that other people will do the right thing. I get that. But those same shortcomings apply when we just ask someone if they've been exposed to anyone with COVID-19.

I could be wrong, but my view on this is pretty simple.

If everyone who had COVID-19 got immediately sick and showed highly discernible symptoms, then this virus would likely be a lot easier to control. Part of the problem, as I understand it, is that some people get really sick and some people don't get sick at all. But these latter people can still unknowingly spread it around -- perhaps to other people who might get really sick.

Given this variability, it's critical for us to know who has been potentially exposed and who has not been exposed. Otherwise, we're running around mostly blind. From what I can tell, exposure alert apps are one of the best ways for us to track transmission. But, of course, it only works if you've got the app. For those of you who don't already have it, you can download it for both iOS and Android by going here.

P.S. I'm writing this post because it came up with my barber today while I was getting a haircut. He wasn't all that aware of the app, but he ultimately concluded that we have a problem of education and that he was going to download it. Maybe some of you will do the same after reading this.

We've all heard stories or know people who have made the decision to leave the city during this pandemic, either temporarily or permanently. Some young people have moved home until things settle down and some people have sold their real estate and bought something outside of the city.

I don't know know what the exact numbers are, but you can see this trend being reflected today in downtown rental rates and other indicators. This is happening in many cities around the world.

But here's what I think about when I hear these stories:

1) Are these people assuming that we will never go back to offices and that WFH is our new reality? In this case, the thinking is simple. The world has changed. I need a proper Zoom room and a home gym.

2) Did these people never really like urban living or have they simply outgrown the city? Pre-pandemic, family formation was still a major pull away from downtowns for many. In this case, a move was going to happen regardless.

3) Or are these people taking a short-term view of the world and forgetting/ignoring that our global cities are going to rebound and that 2 hour commutes really suck? (Sitting in front of Zoom all day is also no way to live in my opinion.)

There are both positives and negatives to urban living. There are forces that make people want to centralize and there are forces that make people want to decentralize. And the reality is that many of the benefits and perks of living in a city are temporarily turned off right now.

Things are not fun right now, but this isn't going to last. I'm looking forward to the roaring twenties.

One of the things that I don't think we are doing a good job of here in Canada is promoting our COVID Alert app. Most of the people I talk to don't seem to have it installed on their phones. And most of the people I talk to seem to be nervous about sharing personal information with it, including their location. (That's not actually how the app works.)

The thing with exposure alert apps is that they're only really useful if most people are using them. And they're only really useful if people who test positive for the virus enter the code that they are given into the app. So it relies on us trusting that other people will do the right thing. I get that. But those same shortcomings apply when we just ask someone if they've been exposed to anyone with COVID-19.

I could be wrong, but my view on this is pretty simple.

If everyone who had COVID-19 got immediately sick and showed highly discernible symptoms, then this virus would likely be a lot easier to control. Part of the problem, as I understand it, is that some people get really sick and some people don't get sick at all. But these latter people can still unknowingly spread it around -- perhaps to other people who might get really sick.

Given this variability, it's critical for us to know who has been potentially exposed and who has not been exposed. Otherwise, we're running around mostly blind. From what I can tell, exposure alert apps are one of the best ways for us to track transmission. But, of course, it only works if you've got the app. For those of you who don't already have it, you can download it for both iOS and Android by going here.

P.S. I'm writing this post because it came up with my barber today while I was getting a haircut. He wasn't all that aware of the app, but he ultimately concluded that we have a problem of education and that he was going to download it. Maybe some of you will do the same after reading this.