I strongly agree with your last paragraph. It is a very bad habit, from within the event, for people to conclude that everything has changed, that this thing, which is ephemeral, will have the particular long term impact that the authors are wishing for.

There may be long term effects, but ... In the valley, the number of people I personally know who are moving - not talking about it, actually moving - out of the city, in particular, but also out of the peninsula, is actually quite surprising. But I saw this happen in 2000-2002, as well, and half of them moved back by 2004.