U.S. suburbs and the global COVID-19 pandemic: from cleanscapes to safescapes 2.0? The case of the New York metropolitan area

ABSTRACT

In this essay, I argue that over the past two centuries, U.S. cities have transitioned from dirtscapes, characterized by severe water, land, air sanitation, public health, physical, and affordable housing challenges, to cleanscapes. As in previous epidemics, the current COVID-19 pandemic has caused many middle- and upper-income people to leave higher-density U.S. cities for lower density suburbs and exurbs. I argue that these places quickly transitioned from cleanscapes to safescapes 2.0. I focus on New York City, which was hit early and hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Several push factors made city life in general and living in multifamily homes in particular unattractive, while several pull factors made living in single-family homes in suburban and exurban safescapes 2.0, including Long Island, upstate New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, attractive. The question remains whether the outbound migration will reverse or telecommuting from suburban and exurban safescapes 2.0 will stay.

KEYWORDS:

• US
• suburbs
• exurbs
• global COVID-19 pandemic

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Paul Maginn, editor Pablo Bose, two anonymous reviewers, and the participants of the conference “Stadterweiterung in Zeiten der Reurbanisierung – neue Suburbanität?” at the University of Kassel/Germany in October 2021 for constructive comments on previous drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).