Downtowns and central business districts are the economic lifeblood of cities, but when COVID-19 swept across the United States early last year and office employers began instituting work-from-home policies, businesses that had long enjoyed a symbiotic reliance on offices and tourism — the retail, restaurant and service sectors, in particular — began to temporarily close in domino-like fashion. One year later, however, many of those closures may have become permanent, draining life from the cores of our cities. But is this damage irreparable, or are these places resilient enough to rebound? How important is it that they do rebound? In the first discussion of a new, three-part series, we’ll survey the current health of downtowns from around the country and explore the complex factors that they will face along their path to recovery.