i mean, if the rich people want to get out of the city, that's fine - i'd love to move in. that's the kind of social stratification i grew up with - the wealth in the suburbs, and the poor downtown. i'm a city person to the core of my being. i don't know how to live in a suburb or small town and don't want to learn how. what i want is cheap rent downtown with a grocery store across the street and a bar with bands playing every night a few blocks away, for $5 cover. and, i want everybody for blocks around to be struggling artists, and no kids for miles.

i want wealthy people to be afraid to come into the neighbourhood, so that costs remain low for miles around.

i guess what i want is to undo gentrification. and, if the virus can do that, great!

but, i know that the virus won't undo the forces behind gentrification, which are so intrinsically connected with financialization. and, i know that all of the white flight in the world won't help to decrease rents if the government just lets a bunch of investors from hong kong come in and buy up cheap property to sell to wealthy immigrants from the middle east, instead.

so, i need to make a move, and i want to keep an eye on this, but i'm kind of skeptical. the fundamental problem is that we're bringing people into the country substantively faster than we're generating new housing, and it's driving inflation and enslaving all of us in the process - when they get you at the supply point of housing like this, we're left with no choice but to sell our labour to the banks if we want to exist.