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From Detroit to Oakland, pandemic threatens urban renewal

Posted at 9:27 PM, Oct 21, 2020
and last updated 2020-10-21 21:27:40-04

DETROIT (AP) — As office workers continue to stay home during the pandemic, cities that were in the middle of bustling downtown comebacks are feeling a lot of uncertainty.

Places like Detroit, Cleveland and Oakland, California, were seeing big downtown growth before the coronavirus hit.

Now the revitalizations have been stalled and experts say it's likely to take the once-struggling cities longer to come back than those with established commercial and residential markets.

Many redeveloping cities already were losing population, making comebacks harder.

One expert says that if the virus persists, businesses will close, and that will hurt those that remain downtown.