Peter Karl Kresl, Charles P. Vaughan Professor of Economics Emeritus, Bucknell University, USA

‘The author, Peter Karl Kresl, is a very experienced scholar in urban competitiveness and has been conducting research projects and publishing books and papers on the topic for almost three decades. In this book, he analyses the pandemic crisis from his angle of expertise, providing the reader with an organic picture drawing on his own experience, observations and on a large array of sources. It is interesting how the book relates to the scales of the phenomena. The analysis is performed at the macro and micro economic level, and from the scale of the larger urban region to the central core of the city. This allows Kresl to approach also the discussion on post-pandemic recovery, paying attention to the complexity of the processes, while providing examples from several case study cities with whom many readers could relate first hand. By deconstructing some interpretations that were perhaps prematurely formulated in the heat of the pandemic, it provides us with a much-needed reflection on events that have inevitably changed ways of thinking about life and business in cities, and on the threats that the future poses.’

• Contents1 Introduction to Urban Competitiveness and the Post-COVID City 2 The essentials of post-COVID urban competitiveness 3 The consequences of COVID for the city 4 Impacts on the city center 5 Impacts of the urban region 6 The structure of the recovery 7 How to prepare for another existential attack Bibliography

Peter Karl Kresl, Charles P. Vaughan Professor of Economics Emeritus, Bucknell University, USA

‘The author, Peter Karl Kresl, is a very experienced scholar in urban competitiveness and has been conducting research projects and publishing books and papers on the topic for almost three decades. In this book, he analyses the pandemic crisis from his angle of expertise, providing the reader with an organic picture drawing on his own experience, observations and on a large array of sources. It is interesting how the book relates to the scales of the phenomena. The analysis is performed at the macro and micro economic level, and from the scale of the larger urban region to the central core of the city. This allows Kresl to approach also the discussion on post-pandemic recovery, paying attention to the complexity of the processes, while providing examples from several case study cities with whom many readers could relate first hand. By deconstructing some interpretations that were perhaps prematurely formulated in the heat of the pandemic, it provides us with a much-needed reflection on events that have inevitably changed ways of thinking about life and business in cities, and on the threats that the future poses.’

• Contents1 Introduction to Urban Competitiveness and the Post-COVID City 2 The essentials of post-COVID urban competitiveness 3 The consequences of COVID for the city 4 Impacts on the city center 5 Impacts of the urban region 6 The structure of the recovery 7 How to prepare for another existential attack Bibliography

Peter Karl Kresl, Charles P. Vaughan Professor of Economics Emeritus, Bucknell University, USA

‘The author, Peter Karl Kresl, is a very experienced scholar in urban competitiveness and has been conducting research projects and publishing books and papers on the topic for almost three decades. In this book, he analyses the pandemic crisis from his angle of expertise, providing the reader with an organic picture drawing on his own experience, observations and on a large array of sources. It is interesting how the book relates to the scales of the phenomena. The analysis is performed at the macro and micro economic level, and from the scale of the larger urban region to the central core of the city. This allows Kresl to approach also the discussion on post-pandemic recovery, paying attention to the complexity of the processes, while providing examples from several case study cities with whom many readers could relate first hand. By deconstructing some interpretations that were perhaps prematurely formulated in the heat of the pandemic, it provides us with a much-needed reflection on events that have inevitably changed ways of thinking about life and business in cities, and on the threats that the future poses.’

• Contents1 Introduction to Urban Competitiveness and the Post-COVID City 2 The essentials of post-COVID urban competitiveness 3 The consequences of COVID for the city 4 Impacts on the city center 5 Impacts of the urban region 6 The structure of the recovery 7 How to prepare for another existential attack Bibliography