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Remote work is gutting downtowns

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Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#91

Post by neutronicus »

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.

Yes - pre-pandemic, white-collar office parks and big-box retail had already dispersed to the suburbs where I live (Baltimore).

Honestly, remote work allowed us to stay in the city (our preference), if I'd had to keep commuting I don't know if raising my kid would have been workable for us.

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#92

Post by AlexandrB »

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. All it takes is one inconsiderate person to not cover their mouth and everyone is getting ill. And it happened all the time.

When I visited Hong Kong in 2008 I was amazed by how many people wore masks (presumably because they were either feeling sick or were worried about getting sick). It's too bad that post-COVID masks have become associated with authoritarian government overreach in many parts of North America.

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#93

Post by rendaw »

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…

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-...

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#94

Post by warmwaffles »

MSFT_Edging wrote: post #49
awesomegoat_com wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. And I would say the broader distribution will actually be good for the environment as whole. Or at least it could be.

More roads, sewer pipes, power lines, distribution networks, more cars, more power for bigger homes. I think you have this reversed.

High rise buildings consume more electricity per capita than smaller family homes and apartments.

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#95

Post by ericmay »

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…

> 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 of activity to cause your immune system to be hyper-aware and you'd get less sick. Trade-off is allergies and autoimmune disease.

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#97

Post by dhimes »

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…

I went to work every day when my kids were small and taught roomsful of college students. I still got poisoned by my little vectors who were a magnet for every virus in the Metro DC area.

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#98

Post by SirMaster »

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-...

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)

Re: Remote work is gutting downtowns

#100

Post by mikeryan »

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…

So SF is interesting, I grew up here. In the early days of the internet I always considered the oracle buildings the northern edge of SV. Took a developer job at TechTV in SF in 99 when SOMA was known as “multimedia gulch” and had a reverse commute from Portola Valley to SF. Mid 2000 SV extended into SF as more of the new Unicorns, Twitter and Zynga (who moved into the office space on Townsend where I had worked) were early ones with the rise of Social Media. That shifted the commute patterns both ways and led to the start of the Google bus.

Patterns haven’t seemed to reverse really but it’s still easier these days to commute I the Bay Area then it was pre-pandemic.

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