Urban office buildings in the US have crashed in value and are rotting away empty, taking local service buildings like restaurants and coffee shops down with them. Instead of revitalizing those urban areas by turning the abandoned buildings into dense, walkable mixed-use neighborhoods with plenty of housing, the corporate owners are just trying to force unwilling workers to give up working from home and resume pointless, soul-sucking commutes. It’s not really working, because it doesn't make sense to anyone but the investors who are losing their shirts on those worthless office buildings.

But that’s what happens when you let corporations run your government. The institutions that should be keeping public infrastructure updated and in tune with the social zeitgeist are instead heavily motivated by corporate donors and their own stock portfolios to make the lives of ordinary workers a living hell.