This type of rhetoric is so backwards it's infuriating. Cities need to adapt to the higher quality of life people are getting. You have to adapt, it's natural. Imagine this 150 years ago when towns in WV we're saying "we need to get people back into the coal mines".
You can't convince someone whose income depends on them not believing. Cities are going to be deeply negatively impacted by losing tons of commuters, by being way less busy.
You are 100% correct but some very malovent engines-of-capital such as the mayor here will die trying to push us backwards.
I averaged 57.4 hours per week in office my last year, plus another 6 hours commuting. There wasn't a while lot of value to being there. Now the subways have gotten worse, lunch costs are even more exorbitant, and the banks have gotten even less productive while tax rates have gone and are going higher. Might as well leave the city and save the city and possibly state tax and have a better lifestyle