Our cities are ground zero for the tensions, fissures, shortcomings, and successes of our society. Before the pandemic struck, cities seemed to undergo an unstoppable renaissance. Then COVID-19 brought a sharp reversal from which cities across the world have still not fully recovered. Remote work, online shopping, and food delivery services persisted, leading to a glut of office and retail space paired with an ongoing lack of housing. These ailments plague not only U.S. cities but, in varying degrees, urban areas worldwide, from Berlin and Paris to Hong Kong. The urban halo is gone, revealing in stark light the long-festering lack of equity and justice.

Nowhere is the growing inequity more manifest than in our large cities. Poverty, blight, and despair are displayed cheek to jowl with glitz, luxury, and opulence. The blatantly extreme disparities not only beg moral, ethical, and political questions but also threaten the political stability and prosperity of those who have so far benefited from these discrepancies. The question of the just city is critical, urgent, and timely.