As pundits were contemplating what life would look like in a post-covid world where jobs are remote or hybrid/flexible, many stated what they felt was a universally accepted belief that we’d see the death of cities. If people no longer had to commute to offices located in “downtown” or city center locations, why would people even want to live in or near cities?
While there are certainly some people whose primary reason for living in cities is to reduce commute time to the office or to maximize the amount of “face time” with their managers or executives to increase their likelihood of career progression, this represents a very narrow understanding of why people from a diverse set of backgrounds live in cities. Also, it’s easy to focus on simplistic differences in amenities or lifestyle when attempting to differentiate living in cities compared to suburban or rural settings.
However, there is something more fundamental to distinguishing city living — a preference for more of our lives to take place in a public realm as opposed to private. The most dynamic, vibrant, and healthy cities are the ones that lean into that idea of what makes a city a city: when our society creates an abundance of public space, public resources, and public services and the majority of its citizens engage in that public realm, we have a more equitable, diverse, and collectively rich society.
While building this sort of society requires a critical mass of citizens indicating their preference for it, I believe it’s possible to start getting a foretaste of the ideal state even if it seems far off. The more people start making a choice to engage in the public realm, the greater the benefit, but it needs to start with a choice — being intentional about living in open public space instead of retreating to private spaces that may feel more comfortable, more familiar, and more exclusive.
I’ve thought about writing on this topic for a while. I wrote a post along these lines about public education a few years ago. I thought about writing this from the perspective of a Christian moral obligation to engage with society, but I think there’s clearly a compelling motivation to fully engage in city life and feel a sense of purpose or mission, regardless of whether that’s tied to religion. I hope I can write these posts in a way that doesn’t come across as judgmental but as sincere invitations to fully experience what living in the city could be. I also admit I am far from the perfect example of what it means to fully engage with life in the city, but as someone who was born and raised in a large city and lived in a number of different cities through my 20s as a single adult and in my 30s and 40s as a parent to two children, I’d like to think I have thoughts worth sharing. Thanks for reading so far and I hope it won’t be long before I find time to write again.
