Night Owls is a themed open thread appearing at Daily Kos seven days a week.
Derek Thompson at The Atlantic writes—Superstar Cities Are in Trouble. The past year has offered a glimpse of the nowhere-everywhere future of work, and it isn’t optimistic for big cities.
Some evenings, when pandemic cabin fever reaches critical levels, I relieve my claustrophobia by escaping into the dreamworld of Zillow, the real-estate website. From the familiar confines of my Washington, D.C., apartment, I teleport to a ranch on the outskirts of Boise, Idaho; to a patio nestled in the hillsides of Phoenix, Arizona; or to a regal living room in one of the baroque palaces of Plano, Texas.
Apparently, many of you are doing the same thing. Zillow searches have soared during the health crisis, according to Jeff Tucker, the company’s chief economist. “We’ve seen online searches for Boise, Phoenix, and Atlanta rising fastest among people who live in coastal cities, like Los Angeles and New York,” Tucker told me. Higher search volumes on Zillow have coincided with a booming housing market in the South and the West, as rents fall in expensive coastal cities.
Zillow tourism and a few affluent workers decamping for Atlanta might strike you as a fad—kind of like this whole remote-work moment. Indeed, if you’re lugging your computer to the living room every day to sit on the couch for eight hours, you might not be thinking to yourself, I’m practically starting the next industrial revolution.
But maybe you are. As a general rule of human civilization, we’ve lived where we work. More than 90 percent of Americans drive to work, and their average commute is about 27 minutes. This tether between home and office is the basis of urban economics. But remote work weakens it; in many cases, it severs the link entirely, replacing spatial proximity with cloud-based connectivity. What knock-on changes will this new industrial revolution bring? […]
THREE OTHER ARTICLES WORTH READING
- What Will it Take to Make Covid-19 Vaccines Variant-Proof?, by Megan Molteni. As emerging mutations threaten the progress made against the pandemic, scientists and regulators are racing to figure out a process for updating shots.
- The Past, Boy I Don't Know...No Fair Remembering Stuff, by Driftglass. Bill Kristol, is deeply, deeply disappointed with his former street gang because every decent person knows, if you say some shit and it turns out to be wrong and people get hurt, you apologize for that shit. Unless, of course, you are Bill Kristol.
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Said Something Genuine, So Of Course Men Reacted Poorly, by EJ Dickson. Like many survivors of sexual assault, AOC was called “manipulative” when she shared her experience.
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2010—Fiorina’s fail train at top speed:
The hits keep on coming for Carly Fiorina, the failed CEO gasping for air in the GOP primary to take on Senator Boxer. Carly's campaign has been one unmitigated boatload of fail since its inception. Let's summarize:
- The company she nearly ruined has now maxed out to Senator Boxer.
- She trails primary opponent Tom Campbell badly in all the latest polling.
- She has lied--twice--about her fundraising numbers.
- And to top it off, her website rollout is often considered a nominee for all-time worst.
The California Democratic Party has definitely taken notice, and today announced the creation of a parody site dedicated to exposing Carly's floundering campaign: carlyfailorina.com (it's pleasing that we blogger types aren't the only ones using the alliterative "fail" to describe Carly's drain-circling campaign).