Suburbaniztion in the 70s hollowed out the middle class leaving just the extremely wealthy and extremely poor. Crack epidemic and the War on Drugs and the resultant crime accelerated the exodus. With the loss of tax base the city was going bankrupt, cutting back services (like police), and the infrastructure began to rot.

It wasn't all bad. Some of my favourite artists and musicians lived in the city of that era. They were paying low rents or squatting while working on their craft.

Once the disinvestment had run its course developers swooped in and bought some of the most desirable property for cheap. New buildings went up. A generation of kids raised in the suburbs discovered cities were awesome. And those starving artists either became successful or were forced to move out.

The working poor and working class who built the city, maintained the city when everyone else walked away they were discarded. Sent to live in unfashionable suburbs hours away. Rising ever so briefly as "essential workers" while COVID wrecked the economy and ravaged the cities knowledge workers.