I think a city like NYC faces a potential economic tectonic shift much more than violent crime, in terms of long term challenges. Violent crime is a spike with tragic consequences and should be a major focus, no doubt. But you wouldn’t have been asking that question just 2 yrs ago. Personally I doubt this trend will be irreversible. The economic challenges otoh - NYC is driven by about 1 mill daily commuters. It’s a fraction of that even still. I think around 80k a day. So there’ll have to be some convergence there imo - some combination of normalizing commutation, whatever that becomes, and adaptability by the city.

I think other cities face similar challenges to varying degrees. There could be a reordering of the significance of our cities - we’ll see how relevant things like “financial centers” continue to be. But I don’t see irredeemable descent into decay and decline. I see change, accelerated by the pandemic, so it’s kind of jarring. But change is inevitable.