FROM THE EDITOR
COVER: MAGIC TORCH THIS PAGE: GETTY IMAGES X2, BBC, DANIEL BRIGHT
There’s a song that epitomises my thoughts about life in the city. It goes “New York, I love you. But you’re bringing me down”. I imagine this sums up the love affair many of us have with the cities we live in, even if it’s not the Big Apple. Life in the city comes at a cost. Not just the obvious one (the money it takes to keep you alive and off the street) but the toll it can take on your physical and mental wellbeing.
The pandemic, which kept us shut in our homes and taught us to work remotely, seems to have shone a harsh light on that trade-off. The air pollution, congestion, lack of green space, noise and everything in between, now seems like too high a price to pay for many. Realising this, people have started quitting their jobs and leaving the city – and in such great numbers that some are calling it the Great Resignation.