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  #1  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2021, 6:46 PM
the urban politician the urban politician is offline
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Transit systems & downtown landlords marketing a "come back downtown" campaign

I had a feeling that, eventually, something like this was going to happen. The push to revigorate downtowns is starting, I'm betting we will see this elsewhere? Also, groups with shared interests (transit, downtown landlords) joining together in the effort.

Quote:
Metra, landlords join forces in 'come back downtown' push
The commuter train agency and an office building group are hosting an event to send the message that it's time to think about leaving home.

GREG HINZ
March 08, 2021


A rail agency that carries people to work and a business group that represents Loop office towers are joining forces in a bid to woo former commuters away from their home offices and back downtown.

In an unusual collaboration, Metra and the Building Owners & Managers Association of Chicago are hosting a “Safe Return to Work Summit” on March 11. Though the event will be streamed live, it also will include limited in-person attendance at Metra’s training center at 147 W. 47th St.in Chicago.

Though Metra now is carrying about 10 percent of its normal patronage load, that figure has begun to increase and signs are it could grow quickly, said Metra Executive Director Jim Derwinski.

“We think it’s time to begin the conversation about bringing people back to work,” Derwinski told me. “With the COVID vaccinations coming out . . . there’s a lot of indication this is the right time to bring some people back, or at least talk about it.”

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg...-downtown-push
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  #2  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2021, 7:30 PM
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Foot traffic in the loop has definitely been picking up.

Randolph St/ Hubbard St are already too crowded on weekend evenings.
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  #3  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2021, 8:16 PM
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Quote:
San Francisco Bay Ferry eyes lower fares, more service to bring back passengers
Mallory Moench
March 7, 2021
Updated: March 7, 2021 11:46 p.m.

As public transit agencies across the Bay Area wrestle with cutting service and preserving revenue to stay alive during the pandemic, the San Francisco Bay Ferry is considering a different approach: boosting routes and lowering prices to bring passengers back.

The San Francisco Bay Ferry, which crisscrosses the water from the city to regional destinations, may lower fares for a year, add more off-peak trips and simplify payment options to get riders back . . . .

The agency, formally known as the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority, is seeking public input on the proposed changes at a March 16 virtual open house, ahead of an April 1 board vote. The changes which would take effect in July if finalized

The proposed fare reductions range from 7% to 20% off of current fares, depending on the route. Following the slashing of routes as ridership dropped off with the pandemic’s economic fallout, the new proposed service changes include: resuming the Harbor Bay route and adding service on the Vallejo and Richmond routes. The agency is also pushing ahead to open a new terminal in Alameda in August that eliminates a stop and cuts travel by 20 minutes on the Oakland-San Francisco route. South San Francisco service should come back in October . . . .

The ferry service estimates its revenue loss this fiscal year will be about $37 million. Ridership is less than 10% of what it was before shelter-in-place policies knocked out work commutes and other trips. Three out of the usual five routes are running, with no weekend and sparse midday service.

Federal relief funds have kept the ferry, like other transit agencies, going. It received $23.7 million so far and expects $13.5 million this month, with more from the American Rescue Plan. Funds enable the agency to drop fares and up service — although sustainability remains uncertain . . . .
https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/ar...e-16008093.php
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Old Posted Mar 8, 2021, 8:42 PM
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Unless this was already budgeted, these marketing campaigns are a waste of money. People will be back as soon as this has passed.
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  #5  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2021, 9:17 PM
the urban politician the urban politician is offline
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^ I don't know, I think it will be a bit more gradual. Sort of a "you first, then me" mentality, not dissimilar to the vaccine.

I like the idea of discounted fares. I even would advise that transit agencies offer free fares for a month, just to get people back on the trains and buses
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  #6  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2021, 9:27 PM
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Originally Posted by the urban politician View Post
^ I don't know, I think it will be a bit more gradual. Sort of a "you first, then me" mentality, not dissimilar to the vaccine.

I like the idea of discounted fares. I even would advise that transit agencies offer free fares for a month, just to get people back on the trains and buses
Maybe. But they won't have to spend a dime on convincing me to go back out into the city once I get vaccinated. I assume a lot of people feel the same.
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  #7  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2021, 9:43 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician View Post
I even would advise that transit agencies offer free fares for a month, just to get people back on the trains and buses
Quote:
Muni rolls out free rides for people traveling to get COVID-19 vaccine, joining BART, AC Transit
Mallory Moench
Feb. 19, 2021
Updated: Feb. 19, 2021 10:16 a.m.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will offer free transportation for people traveling for their COVID-19 vaccine, Mayor London Breed announced Friday.

Starting Tuesday, people getting a vaccine at any of the city’s mass or neighborhood sites, Department of Public Health clinics, pharmacies offering vaccinations or any other sites outside of San Francisco can ride for free. All they need to show is proof of their appointment, which could be a photo or email, or vaccination card.

Paratransit rides will also be free to and from vaccination sites within the city’s service area.

Giving free rides supports the city’s goals of getting San Franciscans vaccinated as soon as possible and making sure sites are equitable and accessible by public transportation, Breed and SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin said in a press release Friday.

In the East Bay, BART and AC Transit are already offering similar free transit to the Oakland Coliseum, a mass vaccination site run by the federal government. BART is providing free $7 value tickets back home for those who can show they were vaccinated at the Coliseum site.

AC Transit is running a free shuttle from the site to the BART station from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. seven days a week. The shuttle also connects to Eastmont Transit Center for free, providing access to East Oakland where BART cannot.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...o-15963489.php

Entirely free service for the duration of the pandemic (whatever that means) has also been proposed.

Honestly though, I won't be riding a bus or train even if its free. Some things are more important than saving a couple of bucks. And free service is going to be more crowded which is a DISINCENTIVE for me.

And here's a tip: SF Muni service has long been free for those who simply decline to pay and board through the rear bus doors. Nobody checks, nobody challenges them and on some routes (those through poorer parts of town) it seems like close to majority have done this for years.
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  #8  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2021, 9:49 PM
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Originally Posted by iheartthed View Post
Maybe. But they won't have to spend a dime on convincing me to go back out into the city once I get vaccinated. I assume a lot of people feel the same.
It's a question of where are you going to go? I'm vaccinated but I'm not only not riding transit (I will now use Uber which I wasn't doing), I'm not dining indoors and most indoor entertainment venues are still closed (and while they probably will allow outdoor sports--baseball--to resume allowing vastly reduced live crowds, that's not my thing either.
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  #9  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2021, 10:16 PM
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Originally Posted by Pedestrian View Post
It's a question of where are you going to go? I'm vaccinated but I'm not only not riding transit (I will now use Uber which I wasn't doing), I'm not dining indoors and most indoor entertainment venues are still closed (and while they probably will allow outdoor sports--baseball--to resume allowing vastly reduced live crowds, that's not my thing either.
Since I'm younger than 40 and don't interact with the public for work I probably won't be eligible until vaccines are open to all. By then I presume that most things will have reopened.
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  #10  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2021, 10:21 PM
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Let's not turn this into the 12th "How did COVID affect my life?" thread and just discuss the campaigns by cities/transit agencies/businesses to bring people back downtown in earnest.
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  #11  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2021, 11:01 PM
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The prices of single family homes have skyrocketed in the Toronto area since the coronavirus, all while condo prices are falling. There was even an outbreak in a condo tower here. More and more people are realizing that transit and higher densities and other aspects of urban living aren't such a good thing after all, and how it is promoted so much has been a mistake.
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  #12  
Old Posted Mar 8, 2021, 11:23 PM
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Downtown San Francisco may take longer to recover than many other major American CBDs.

In large part that's because of the nature of the pre-pandemic downtown workforce. Over the last decade, big money tech corporations drove the cost of office space in the Financial District sky high, which pushed a lot of office-based businesses out of the city. SF's biggest employers are now mostly tech corporations; tech corporations are generally leading the way in working from home; SF's tech corporations, like Salesforce and Twitter, are specifically leading their industry in embracing mostly or entirely working from home. Permanently. That means there will be fewer downtown tech workers than there were before COVID, and a lot more empty offices.

Who will fill the void? Some non-tech businesses will no doubt move in, but it may not be sufficient to return the area to Before Times employment levels. For years, office jobs in law, architecture, finance, health care, and even government have been relocating into less expensive digs across the Bay and in the inland suburbs. Those firms, agencies and corporations still have time left on their long-term leases, at lower costs than SF commands. And their workers have adjusted to those long-term relocations in terms of housing and commuting. Workers may not want to sell their homes so soon or buy at San Francisco's insane prices, and may remain leery of crowding back into dirty subway trains and buses for a long haul across the region--which matters a lot, because the Financial District is built in a way that requires almost all workers to commute by public transit.

And there's the problem of value for the money. There must be a compelling, tangible payoff to justify moving a firm or corporation into much more expensive office space, and it's not clear the Financial District has what it takes. It certainly has a lot of things people do not want. Most visibly, there is the skeeze factor: downtown is peppered with the sort of filthy, crazed and unruly street people, oftentimes committing petty crimes, that one doesn't often find in suburban office parks. Also quite visible downtown: the lack of retail and restaurant options. Retail all but disappeared from the Financial District even before COVID, and has been decimated in Union Square since. Many of those brick and mortar stores will never reopen due to the shift to online sales.

And when it comes time to reopen those restaurants that actually survived the pandemic, a very tight labor market will become issue #1, just as it was before COVID, but this time made worse by the subtraction of a ton of previous restaurant workers. Deprived of jobs for a year and counting, many have vacated their rent controlled apartments and departed for less pricey locales in which they could ride out the pandemic on unemployment benefits. Many will never return, and fewer will likely take their place.

As before COVID, there will be stiff competition among employers to hire those willing to cook, wait tables, etc., which usually means offering higher pay. Yet increases will need to be sufficient to lure potential employees to commute in from the suburbs, where there are similar jobs at similar wages but with a lower cost of living. And many restaurants devastated by COVID just won't have the margins to compete on higher wages.

I think there will be a lot of empty restaurant and retail spaces in SF for a long time, and darkened storefronts downtown are not a good look for potential office lessees.

Of course, I could be completely wrong about all that. Life can be surprising. Nobody thought we'd live through a real life zombie apocalypse which would empty out our downtowns, after all, so only time will tell.
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  #13  
Old Posted Mar 9, 2021, 12:21 AM
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^ That'd be ironic given the tech industry is something we'd have thought would pay the bills indefinitely two years ago.
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  #14  
Old Posted Mar 9, 2021, 2:52 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SIGSEGV View Post
Foot traffic in the loop has definitely been picking up.

Randolph St/ Hubbard St are already too crowded on weekend evenings.
I've noticed this too. I love it, it feels like a city again.
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  #15  
Old Posted Mar 9, 2021, 3:44 AM
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Re working from home:

Quote:
. . . a number of corporations are developing plans for more work-from-home options beyond the pandemic. A recent separate survey of firms from the Survey of Business Uncertainty that I run with the Atlanta Federal Reserve and the University of Chicago indicated that the share of working days spent at home is expected to increase fourfold from pre-COVID levels, from 5 percent to 20 percent.

Of the dozens of firms I have talked to, the typical plan is that employees will work from home one to three days a week, and come into the office the rest of the time.
Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom @ https://news.stanford.edu/2020/06/29...-home-economy/

I think this is right and it means, essentially, that employees who can do some work at home will still have to come into the office about half the time and that means that living within a convenient range of the office will still be desirable. While you could move 2 states away and fly in for your days at work, that would both get expensive negating savings of living in a cheaper location, it could also get exhausting.

Then there’s the question of what does this mean for the amount of office soace companies need. It probably does mean they need less but maybe not as much less as some people think because the reason for having employees come to the office is to network and collaborate with other employees meaning many employees would likely be in the office at the same time. One large SF company, Salesforce, seemed to be contemplating this when CEO Mark Benioff talked about not so much reducing space as redesigning it to facilitate employees getting together in groups; in other words no cubicles but rather open living room like office spaces.

I do think it can mean less commute traffic, much lower peak demand on commuter transit systems and less business for downtown services like restaurants serving lunch. You could see a greater emphasis on dinner service in downtown dining spots.
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  #16  
Old Posted Mar 9, 2021, 7:38 AM
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Dropbox's San Francisco HQ is selling for a record-breaking $1.08 billion

Andrew Chamings
sfgate.com
March 8, 2021

It's a story that has been common across large tech firms in San Francisco over recent months — first, a company announces a work-from-home strategy, then comes the unloading of San Francisco office space. But this deal is a whopper.

File-hosting service Dropbox's Mission Bay headquarters — a four-building complex at 1800 Owens Street — is selling for $1.08 billion, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
. . .
The astounding sale marks yet another major tech firm pulling out of San Francisco office space as working from home becomes the new normal. In October, Dropbox made the announcement that the office-to-home shift was permanent.

“We believe the data shows the shift to remote work, though abrupt, has been successful overall,” the company said in a blog post at the time. “... In our internal surveys most employees say they’re able to be productive at home (nearly 90%) and don’t want to return to a rigid five-day in-office workweek.”

In February it was revealed that Uber was looking to unload a large chunk of office space, also in Mission Bay, before they had even moved in.

Salesforce, which employs over 9,000 people in the Bay Area, announced in February its “Work From Anywhere” strategy, estimating that more than 65% of employees will adopt the new system, based on a company survey.

In January, Digital Realty — a tech support company that employs around 1,500 people worldwide — announced its headquarter's relocation to Austin, the tech capital of Texas.

Yelp's San Francisco headquarters at 140 New Montgomery St. is also now up for lease. “With more employees working remotely we’re reducing some of our footprint in San Francisco, but we will still maintain our HQ office there,” the crowd-sourced reviews company said in a statement.

Last year, Pinterest, the social-sharing site popular for pinning recipes, home inspiration and more, canceled its $89.5 million San Francisco office lease.

In another sector, Gap Inc., recently announced to employees it will be closing its Old Navy offices in Mission Bay and consolidating those workers into the parent company’s Embarcadero office building.
. . .
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  #17  
Old Posted Mar 9, 2021, 8:36 AM
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^^Far from being bad news, this strikes me as remarkably good news:

Quote:
Owner Kilroy Realty said Monday it has agreed to sell the 750,000-square-foot property for around $1,440 per square foot, the highest price per square foot in city history.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business...n-16009421.php

The unnamed buyer, at least, must think that San Francisco commercial space has a bright future and that any softness is temporary.

One possibility lies in the very hot hot hot market for biotech space. Some former office spaces are being considered for conversion. In fact, Dropbox has already subleased a big chunck of the Exchange to Vir, a biotech company. And as many of us remember, Mission Bay was supposed to be a biotech center but then the InfoTech folks supplanted biotechs in demand for space and the city allowed much of the building in Mission Bay to go in that direction. They may now be wishing they hadn't (most biotech has gone to South San Francisco and Emeryville across the Bay bridge).

On the other hand, though, here's another example of an infotech firm pulling back and this may show the distinction between a Financial District tower and a midrise in Mission Bay:

Quote:
With developer saying a lease is "no longer in hand," it looks like Salesforce has pulled out of a new tower project
By Laura Waxmann – Staff Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
Mar 8, 2021 Updated 4 hours ago

Salesforce has apparently withdrawn from plans to lease a major block of space at a new San Francisco office tower, according to comments made by one of the developers in a public hearing on Monday.

At Monday's Board of Supervisors committee hearing — during which a development agreement for the 61-story skyscraper was advanced amid scrutiny by some city leaders — Hines Chief Operating Officer Cameron Falconer said that an “initial lease commitment” that the developer had for the unbuilt Parcel F Transbay Tower “is no longer in hand" . . . .
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...Pos=1#cxrecs_s
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  #18  
Old Posted Mar 9, 2021, 3:21 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedestrian View Post
Re working from home:


Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom @ https://news.stanford.edu/2020/06/29...-home-economy/

I think this is right and it means, essentially, that employees who can do some work at home will still have to come into the office about half the time and that means that living within a convenient range of the office will still be desirable. While you could move 2 states away and fly in for your days at work, that would both get expensive negating savings of living in a cheaper location, it could also get exhausting.

Then there’s the question of what does this mean for the amount of office soace companies need. It probably does mean they need less but maybe not as much less as some people think because the reason for having employees come to the office is to network and collaborate with other employees meaning many employees would likely be in the office at the same time. One large SF company, Salesforce, seemed to be contemplating this when CEO Mark Benioff talked about not so much reducing space as redesigning it to facilitate employees getting together in groups; in other words no cubicles but rather open living room like office spaces.

I do think it can mean less commute traffic, much lower peak demand on commuter transit systems and less business for downtown services like restaurants serving lunch. You could see a greater emphasis on dinner service in downtown dining spots.
Yes, this is probably the most likely scenario. It will take a couple of years to know for sure, but I am fairly confident that the true risk is to lower cost suburban office parks than highly desirable locations in city centers. Companies will trade the space for location. It will look similar to the gradual obsolescence of suburban shopping malls.
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  #19  
Old Posted Mar 9, 2021, 3:28 PM
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Chicago's less reliance on tech is suddenly working to its advantage now, as it seems that tech companies can "pull off" work from home more than nearly any other industry.

Chicago still is heavily reliant on sales/marketing. And you will never beat a sales team that is willing to pitch in person.
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  #20  
Old Posted Mar 9, 2021, 3:46 PM
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Originally Posted by the urban politician View Post
Chicago's less reliance on tech is suddenly working to its advantage now, as it seems that tech companies can "pull off" work from home more than nearly any other industry.

Chicago still is heavily reliant on sales/marketing. And you will never beat a sales team that is willing to pitch in person.
Sales and marketing is not really an industry. It's a function that exists in every industry. And, I think those jobs are as easy to do from anywhere as writing code. Maybe even more easy since building software products is a very collaborative task.
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