The COVID-19 pandemic

[danbrotherston]

There's a long history of highway bypasses being linked to the decline of towns. It's probably a lot more nuanced than the highway bypass killing the town, but it's certainly not an unwarranted concern.

This is absolutely true, there's lots of nuance, and lots of context, but I would argue that a town which is "surviving" as nothing more than a highway rest stop is...what's the word for something which is dead but doesn't know it yet.

But quite clearly neither Elora nor Elmira are in that situation.