Harris County (Houston) had 240 cases yesterday and we're up another 335 today. We're spiking but as long as our hospitals aren't overwhelmed, we're still on track to head into Phase III; Bars at 50% and restaurants at 75%. I still haven't been in one since early March.

Illinois now has more available ICU beds than before COVID. I bet we will see a big spike soon after all the non social distancing protests though .

DFW became the busiest airport in the world through this, but it's a bittersweet title.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/...d-19-downturn/
DFW becomes the world’s busiest airport during COVID-19 downturn
Flights and passengers were down substantially at DFW in May, but not as much as other major airports.

By Kyle Arnold
3:58 PM on Jun 4, 2020

DFW International Airport was the world’s busiest airport in May, leaping ahead of other major travel hubs that have downsized during the COVID-19 pandemic.

DFW, still running a fraction of the flights it did a few months ago, operated 12,132 flights in May, far ahead of the No. 2 airport, Chicago O’Hare, according to aviation data company OAG. O’Hare, the biggest hub for Chicago-based United Airlines, had 8,596 flights, OAG said.

DFW has been the world’s third or fourth-largest airport for the last few years, serving more than 75 million passengers, or about 205,000 a day.

I haven't been to DFW in a few years--I assume it's a hub for a major airline or two?

I think American might have a couple of gates at DFW?

‘Frantic’ New Yorkers snatch up unwanted homes in the suburbs
By Michelle Sinclair Colman
June 4, 2020
https://nypost.com/2020/06/04/franti...n-the-suburbs/

^On the other hand, the NYC rental market may not be feeling as much pressure (yet) as feared. My friend was able to break his lease because the building still has people on a waitlist.

Putting aside the NY Post tabloid idiocy, the article completely misses the point.

Rich people in NYC are in their weekend homes, and those that didn't have one are renting one. NY is just different in that the wealthy tend to live in smaller apartments, and so are extremely likely to have weekend homes in proximity. If you're a rich family in, say, Chicago, DC, or SF, you're much less likely to need a nearby country house, because you probably already have space and grass.

Even in my non-wealthy neighborhood, half my neighbors are renting places in areas like the North Fork or the Berkshires. They don't have back yards and these places are comparatively cheap. You can buy five homes in the Berkshres for a two bedroom apartment in Park Slope. In the Upper East Side, many buildings are practically empty. It's like three months of Labor Day/Memorial Day weekends.

That doesn't have anything to do with an "urban exodus", but no one expects nuance from the Post.

This is kinda true of San Francisco too, just backwards in that the wealthy tend to use their SF apartments as their second home.

I could see that, though I still think most wealthy SF households, esp. with children, would live somewhere like Pacific Heights or Noe Valley, places with space and yards. In contrast, in NYC, places like Upper West Side and Brooklyn Heights typically have neither, so people typically have weekend homes.

Also, there's a huge price differential compared to Bay Area. A home in the Catskills might cost 10% of a primary home in Manhattan. You can get a lot of home in really scenic woods for 200-250k. A home in Marin isn't gonna cost 10% of a primary in SF.

Yeah, that's definitely true. Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post!

The Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Bucktown, and South and West Loop all have affluent areas where families live in SFH with yards or townhouses with yards. That isn't the case in NYC.

So I doubt there are tons of wealthy Lincoln Park residents with a weekend house in Lake Forest or Barrington, but there are lots of wealthy UWS residents with a weekend house on the North Fork or CT.

no, there are not many (if any) at all.

what you will find is some wealthy lake forest or barrington residents who have a pied-a-terre down in the city (especially if they work in the loop), but their primary residence is their large suburban house.

lake forest and barrington are suburbia. wealthy chicagoans by and large don't "weekend" in suburbia. they go beyond suburbia to "get away from it all".

the lion's share of weekend homes for the wealthy in chicagoland are up in wisconsin or over in SW michigan. the big exception to this within the MSA is the chain o' lakes region in northern lake county IL (which is pretty damn close to the wisconsin border anyway).

Yeah, that's definitely true. Sorry, I wrote the part about Chicago without really thinking it through, so that's why it was deleted. ;)

for some anecdotal color, a friend and his family have thee known largest backyard in queens. its in astoria and its pretty unique. they have kids so at least they can get outside and work on the yard to get sun and air, which is a real luxury in this town.

wouldn't the houses with the largest backyards in queens be out in little neck?

in a neighborhood like this: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7710...7i16384!8i8192

^Yeah, how does someone have a large yard in Astoria? But there are plenty of houses on large-ish lots in outer Queens.

I know where the Berkshires are, but where's the North Fork?

Long Island... other side of Gardiners Bay from the Hamptons.

There is an old school theory among city planner that cities need to reserve enough land for future commercial and office space.

This usually results in low-density office parks, retail, and otherwise vacant land when there is a real need and demand for residential uses. The debate is still out if employers will cut back on office space needs post pandemic. I wonder if more cities will finally stop the strict segregation of commercial uses to allow more residential uses to be built.

https://i.imgur.com/ipuHF7h.jpg
https://cdn.archpaper.com/wp-content...-c-default.jpg

Both the developments above contain a similar amount of office space. The difference is the one on the bottom also contains close to 2,000 dwelling units and takes up 1/4th of the land.

I understand the need to provide a separation distance between residential and industrial or manufacturing uses. But the concept of a Central Business District or lands reserved for office space never made sense since developers can always build up to meet any demand.

There was a fair amount of older office buildings to residential space in lower Manhattan. It helped revitalize FiDi that was dead after hours or on weekends. I hope this trend continues in NYC and other cities. Planners really out to designate downtowns as mixed-use. I think cities in Australia and many progressive U.S. cities due this well, but it seems to be a foreign concept for many cities in the U.S. still.

Now if only planners allowed nursing homes to be built in residential neighborhoods and not in some far flung office park containing a bunch of warehouses. It's as if senior citizens that cannot live 100% independently are no longer part of a community and are relegated to the fringe of town. Another topic for another day about the sins of American's planning policies.