Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
How is the Bay Area so low in that tech office space chart? That makes no sense. How are they defining tech?
Yeah, I was thinking the same. It'd be one thing in SF proper has had a down year, despite being the undisputed tech giant. It's another thing for the Bay to have a down year.. Looks pretty unrealistic, at best.
SF neighborhoods are very busy actually, same as Oakland---but downtowns themselves are pretty dead. I noticed the same thing in New York last week when I went there for 1 day. This is the price we are paying for keeping people safe, and that's just fine by me.
How is the Bay Area so low in that tech office space chart? That makes no sense. How are they defining tech?
Well, a lot of it probably has to do with the pandemic and how working habits have changed in the Bay Area---but I digress, Seattle also beat us in 2013 so there is precedent. I'm actually most interested in innovation and capital as well as start up activity.
Also, it really is time to start spreading the wealth as far as tech money----not just to Seattle and Austin, but really in other areas. We have a local congressman by the name of Ro Khanna who actively lobbies local tech giants to expand outside of the Bay Area. LOL
Areas that are heavily business oriented and w/o much of a critical mass of residents will be in some degree of trouble. Places that have a significant portion of residents along w/ businesses will be OKish. Places like Atlanta/Dallas IMO will end up the big winners.
CSA Atlanta, probably, Metro Atlanta, possibly, Downtown Atlanta, no.
The center of Atlanta by the capitol building is looks like they never cleaned up from whatever the heck burned down this summer with protests. It's all tore up, fenced off, graffitied, and pretty much on par with Denver level homeless, which is almost SF level homeless. Trash just everywhere and it's dead. Now the surrounding areas where there's residents, yes those are really active, but the CBD tanked hard.
I do not believe that any big city in the US came out with a CBD core that was not significantly negatively impacted. People still are not back and 1.5 years of greatly reduced weekday traffic is going to cause longer term effects even after people can go to a hockey game again.
Of the downtowns I've been to over the last month, Charlotte and Asheville had leveled off during 2020. Charlotte is picking back up. Asheville's still the same for now, but I expect an uptick soon. My wife and I were in Charleston 3 weeks ago and they were buzzing as much as ever. Great energy. It was great to see.
Philadelphia's Center City took a major hit and was heart-wrenching to see after so many years of crawling back from a similar spot. All four Target stores, Lowe's, Burlington Coat Factory, Zara, H&M, JCrew, Polo Ralph Lauren, Talbots, Ann Taylor, Stuart Weitzman, Forever 21, Modell's, Doc Marten's and Aldo have all closed. Urban Outfitters/Free People and Anthropologie are still closed, may not reopen. Not to mention dozens of independent boutiques and restaurants.
I would guess that downtowns in smaller historic tourism-focused cities in the South like Asheville, Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine and New Orleans are still doing OK.
I moved to Asheville from the Bay Area in October and rented an office downtown. I thought perhaps the pandemic had killed tourism to the city because it looked pretty dead for a while there. Nope. It must have just been winter, because in the last three warm weeks, downtown has been absolutely flooded with people. It’s so bad even just walking to my car that I’m considering going back to working from home until I’m fully immunized.
DTLA is doing surprisingly well considering that the office workers are gone, Staples Center doesn't allow fans, the convention center, museums, bars, and clubs are all closed. Lots of restaurants closed because California was more shutdown than most places. But we have enough residents that most places haven't closed for good although many have. Depending on where you are downtown, foot traffic is about half of normal. Some places a little more than half and the business District much less than half.
It’ll come back. Downtown Seattle commercial buildings are already leasing pretty well. But it may never be as vibrant as it was.
But yeah, during the pandemic most of the street level activity switched from downtown to neighborhood commercial strips. Pioneer Sq is a giant tent city now. I haven’t done any shopping in downtown in months. Finding myself going to Bellevue more. Bellevue is definitely winning from the pandemic.
I live in Seattle and haven’t gone to downtown in literally over a year. There’s no reason to go anymore. It’s sad because we have one of the most beautiful skylines in the country. Our governor and mayor are idiots.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
