Small and mid-sized U.S. cities work on revitalization projects The coronavirus pandemic has cut through the U.S. economy with devastating impact. However, some cities are embarking on planning in order to revitalize their local economies. The days of FDR and a planned economy appeared to have embedded away in the past few decades, in the wake of Reagan and the belief in the infallibility of the free market. However, there are examples of U.S. cities that are introducing an element of the planned economy in order to build the basis for local economic recoveries, ready for the post-COVID era.