I, like you, think these people are delusional yet.

From the introduction:

" What if ("over the next 20 years") every city across the country were a more desirable place to live, work, play, shop than its surrounding suburbs?

.

This dream might come true, but I doubt the citizens of the most cities will like the mechanism by which this transition occurs.

"I am currently in the process of trying to convince family and close friends to move out to a property and start re-skilling."

I wish you Good Luck. People around me are finally starting to wake up because of the economic collapse-in-progress but it is too little, too late in most cases (lost job and very few options left open to them).

The "window of opportunity" to voluntarily "transition" is closing very, very fast.

(BTW, slartobartfast, please do not steal the Heart of Gold again, we don't have the energy to chase you across the galaxy anymore.)