Quote:
Originally Posted by allovertown
But I just don't think that's a big factor for Philly where already a lot of our jobs aren't in the city core and most who live here likely have reasons greater than proximity to their job for wanting to live here.
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Yeah, this is my point of view as well. I don't want to prolong this topic too much, but over the last decade, Philly has made a big name for itself in the live/play category, and has always lagged in the work section. When it comes to live/play, if you have to work at home I imagine many people will WANT to live in the city so they can go out for dinner/drinks etc. rather than being trapped in a suburban house 24/7 with no amenities. Sure, the pandemic might accelerate some decisions that people were already thinking about anyway, but I can't imagine that anyone who prefers suburban living isn't ALREADY living in the suburbs and commuting in. On the flip side a large amount of my friends now won't have to commute OUT to the suburbs either, and very anecdotally nobody I know IRL in the millenial age group has made any lifestyle changes from this situation. On top of that, Philly had been lacking in jobs that now people could potentially get without having to LIVE in the NY/Boston/DC regions, but could take Amtrak trips in every once in a while.
At worst, I think it will be a wash, because people commute both ways in Philly anyway (city folks will do suburban jobs at home and suburban folks will do city jobs at home), or at best we'll catch people from HCOL cities who could do NY/Boston/DC jobs here and commute by train a few times a month. I personally don't see the negative effects being too strong when we were never a huge office city and a lot of our good jobs can't move in healthcare, education, and research. Maybe more of our legacy office buildings will someday convert to biotech/research space as that field grows? They'll always need physical space.