A New New York: a 15-minute city - Cindy McLaughlin

New York City is facing an economic crisis of historic proportions, triggered in part by the virus, but made worse by decades of zoning that often serves to separate residential from commercial and manufacturing districts, rather than blend them seamlessly. These zoning choices made sense at the time (who wants to live next to an oil refinery, or reside in a building whose lobby is overrun at rush hour?), but they locked New Yorkers into a mass-movement commuting model that relies too heavily on outdated transportation infrastructure.