Covid-19 Economy, finance, and budgets Outmigration of residents from high-cost “movie-set cities,” such as New York and Los Angeles, to lower-cost locales, such as Denver and Nashville, has generated ample media coverage, especially since the pandemic began. Covid-19 has certainly shaken up American cities. Before Covid, leaders in high-cost cities could assume residential fealty because workers and workplaces needed one another. Remote work has shattered that equation. Still, long before Covid, people were leaving expensive coastal cities for more affordable and dynamic places. What’s new is greater public awareness of this trend, which has put leaders of high-profile cities on the hot seat and created openings for leaders of inland urban dynamos to innovate—and to attract more people and investment.