- Question
Will cities survive now that work from home is becoming permanent?
If remote work becomes permanent, the daily commute that filled offices, transit systems and city-centre businesses may not return at its former scale. This entry maps the debate over whether cities can survive that shift, or cannot.
Position 1 of 2
Read this position →Yes, cities can survive permanent work from home
This position holds that cities will adapt to permanent remote work as they adapted to earlier changes in how people work, with office space converted to other uses and centres reorganised around the people who live in them rather than those who commute.
Position 2 of 2
Read this position →No, cities cannot survive permanent work from home
This position holds that cities cannot withstand the permanent loss of the commuter, because the office values, transport systems, public revenue and city-centre trade that depend on people arriving each day are what hold the centre together.