Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Remote work is gutting downtowns

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 262 posts

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#111

Post by rbanffy »

jgalentine007 wrote: post #106
rayiner wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah—the stores in our area (which is a bedroom community for Baltimore and to a lesser extent DC) are doing great.

Which is funny, because after 2008 it felt like a lot of the bedroom communities / strip malls struggled and went down hill (lack of demand I guess) - and it felt like a whole wave of young people were only wanting to live in the city.

Living in the city is great for young people who have no kids - lots of entertainment options a short walk away. It's noisier/busier/dirtier (EVs will help A LOT with noise and pollution).

Living further out is much nicer when you have kids - more space, more freedom for the kids to move around, more trees for them to climb and places to explore.

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#112

Post by eweise »

tuyiown wrote: post #86
highwaylights wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to get the bus to work about 10 years ago because parking in the city became so expensive (I stopped long before Covid hit). The thing I don't miss is that I got sick every single Winter. All it takes is one inconsiderate person to not cover their mouth and everyone is getting ill. And it happened all the time . I had a commute time that ranged between one and two hours over that stretch as I'd lived in a coup…

> The thing I don't miss is that I got sick every single Winter. All it takes is one inconsiderate person to not cover their mouth and everyone is getting ill. And it happened all the time. Give it a few years without exposure, and you will have very hard time if you have to get exposed again. I did 2 years for remote work with a single day with long exposure each week, after a few years with low exposure. I then had…

Nah, its just what happens when you have a kid. I was exposed all the time commuting to work on public transit. Once my kid got into preschool I was sick for months at a time.

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#113

Post by cuteboy19 »

rayiner wrote: post #38

This is great for the climate, for families, and for residential communities. I’ve commuted so much less and spent so much more time with my kids since remote work. And impromptu gatherings with neighbors seems to be up at least for us.

But have you considered the bottom lines of landlords, real estate companies and tax-entitled cities?

Surely you realise that these people are more deserving of your money than you yourself. The climate is a small price to pay for it of course

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#114

Post by logicalmonster »

highwaylights wrote: post #19
wildrhythms wrote: post #3

These seeds were sowed when cities cashed in on commercial real estate, pushing residential zoning further and further out of the city. Wake up call: nobody wants to spend longer than they have to on an unpaid, unpredictable commute into the city anymore. So while these downtown businesses are getting 1/3 of the foot traffic that they used to, all the supermarkets and shops a few miles down the road are raking it in.

I used to get the bus to work about 10 years ago because parking in the city became so expensive (I stopped long before Covid hit). The thing I don't miss is that I got sick every single Winter. All it takes is one inconsiderate person to not cover their mouth and everyone is getting ill. And it happened all the time . I had a commute time that ranged between one and two hours over that stretch as I'd lived in a coup…

> The thing I don't miss is that I got sick every single Winter.

Everybody is always entitled to their values and preferences of course, but it's really hard to see how a chance of getting sick once a year is a worse outcome than a guarantee of missing out on normal society permanently, particularly when you can do everything about as perfectly as you possibly can and still get sick.

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#115

Post by dotnet00 »

SirMaster wrote: post #98
rendaw wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is based on a misinterpretation of the hygiene hypothesis... exposure to germs helps when you're a child yourself but not after becoming an adult (AFAIA). This is supported by https://medical.mit.edu/covid-19-updates/2020/05/all-social-...

But don't parents getting sick at work and bringing it home to their kids help the kids get exposed? Or do you think kids get enough exposure at school? (assuming schools don't keep going remote too)

Based on how consistently my niece has been sick since starting school this year, I'd say they get enough exposure at school.

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#116

Post by ahelwer »

MengerSponge wrote: post #67
highwaylights wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to get the bus to work about 10 years ago because parking in the city became so expensive (I stopped long before Covid hit). The thing I don't miss is that I got sick every single Winter. All it takes is one inconsiderate person to not cover their mouth and everyone is getting ill. And it happened all the time . I had a commute time that ranged between one and two hours over that stretch as I'd lived in a coup…

I've had funny conversations about why I still wear a good n95 on public transit (planes included). My right-leaning and remarkably well educated parents are incredulous. A few years ago I thought personal masking didn't really matter. Wow, I was wrong! And not catching bs colds from weirdos on the bus or the grocery store makes it worth it. My face isn't that pretty anyway.

Yep. I went from being sick roughly one week out of every 1-2 months before covid to only getting sick maybe once a year now that I mask in public places, thoroughly wash my hands with soap every time I arrive somewhere, and occasionally wash my phone. Never going back. This whole "train your immune system" thing is BS. Hygiene is important!

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#117

Post by HDThoreaun »

Certified wrote: post #52

I had a long talk with a Chicago born cab driver when visiting a few years back. He explained to me that Chicago used to be a conventional city where the businesses were downtown and residential was a donut around that. Traffic was congested into downtown in the mornings and out of downtown in the evenings. As the city grew and commutes into downtown from the suburbs worsened, the businesses started moving out of dow…

This really just is not true. If anything the opposite is happening. Pre pandemic at least suburban office parks had been closing and moving employees into the city en mass. Downtown certainly hasn’t fully recovered from covid, but commute traffic is back to stand still levels and the train is back to standing room only.

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#118

Post by jeffwask »

The wholesale abdication of cities to CRE is at an end. These useless monuments to corporate excess will eventually be turned into residential and mixed used properties that will revitalize walking cities. The blocker is again the greed of the CRE industry and corporate interests who know their overinflated property values will start to plummet once the conversions from gaudy status symbols to usable affordable city real estate begins.

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#119

Post by tuyiown »

ericmay wrote: post #95
tuyiown wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The thing I don't miss is that I got sick every single Winter. All it takes is one inconsiderate person to not cover their mouth and everyone is getting ill. And it happened all the time. Give it a few years without exposure, and you will have very hard time if you have to get exposed again. I did 2 years for remote work with a single day with long exposure each week, after a few years with low exposure. I then had…

> Give it a few years without exposure > we have to keep our immunity active to stay healthy, and this happens by getting sick times to times Is going to the grocery store, out to dinner, having friends/family over not enough exposure? Genuinely curious about the science if you need to be around kids (directly or indirectly via co-workers) to build or maintain a "strong immune system". If anything I'd expect the lack…

I mention the kid only because it was the the main change to sickness exposure. I suspect public transport and office work would have been enough.

Given what we could read about covid, exposure is a combination of length and probability of sharing air with sick people. Public transport is a short exposure with many people, evening with friend, long exposure, but less people. Kid: well for all the sickness they have bad immunity for, and the long length of exposure, you have good chances ti get something that you never had or have no immunity for anymore.

My experience is that I now use public transport every day and I have two kids, I get sick time to times, but much less than a few years ago.

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#120

Post by AlgorithmicTime »

rendaw wrote: post #93
tuyiown wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The thing I don't miss is that I got sick every single Winter. All it takes is one inconsiderate person to not cover their mouth and everyone is getting ill. And it happened all the time. Give it a few years without exposure, and you will have very hard time if you have to get exposed again. I did 2 years for remote work with a single day with long exposure each week, after a few years with low exposure. I then had…

I think this is based on a misinterpretation of the hygiene hypothesis... exposure to germs helps when you're a child yourself but not after becoming an adult (AFAIA). This is supported by https://medical.mit.edu/covid-19-updates/2020/05/all-social-...

No post body was provided.
Post reply on HN