Quote:
Originally Posted by EastSideHBG
On a related note I found this article and the map to be interesting:
Center City pedestrian traffic is rebounding, but office occupancy remains low
The number of people in Center City each day is increasing, but where they are headed tells a story of pandemic recovery.
https://technical.ly/philly/2021/12/...ice-occupancy/ |
Good article. Though this quote from Levy is his usual brand of myopic cluelessness:
“If you walk around Center City and peep into bars and restaurants, you will find people are not afraid to be there,” Levy said. “So what’s the hesitation with offices? Social distancing is easy to achieve and suffice it to say, if we want a competitive city that works on reducing poverty, it’s time to get office workers back in the office.”
LOL! How does people working in an office as opposed to at home help combat poverty? And since when is poverty something he cares about beyond hassling poor people who try to relax in a park the CCD manages?
I think it's pretty clear why people are going into restaurants and bars but not the office. Going to a bar or restaurant offers something that you simply can't get when you try to do something similar at home. On the other hand people have realized that while there are some specific things that are more challenging when you're working from home, for most people who work in offices, most of the work they do is just as easily done from home and they'd prefer to do it there.
Besides I think he's just dead wrong on this. I've been saying for awhile now that the increased work from home nature of many jobs following the pandemic should be a boon for Philadelphia.
I know WAYYYYYY more people who would like to live in the city but feel like that can't due to desire to be within close proximity of their job, than I know people who don't want to live in the city, but feel forced to in order to be close to their job. And while this is anecdotal, the jobs numbers back this up. Philly has always been a city that was behind its peers in terms percentage of jobs in the metro that are located in the city as opposed to the suburbs. And after decades of trying to lure those suburban jobs into the city, Levy should really understand how difficult that is to do.
The fact that people aren't returning to the offices but there are so many people on the streets anyway because the residential population continues to increase is a great thing. Having to go to work 9-5 was actually preventing a lot of people from living here.
Now obviously people will still go to the office sometimes and we definitely still want more jobs in the city. But's it's easier to attract those jobs when there is a larger resident pool of potential employees to attract them.
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