Huge commercial buildings in San Francisco are already selling for 35% to 40% of what was the asking price two to three years ago. One big commercial building just sold for $65 million and a FReeper observed that’s not a lot more than the most expensive residential estates on the San Francisco Peninsula.
So many cities are in death spirals. People don’t want to commute to the inner city, something they learned during COVID. BLM and antifa made many cities burned-out messes. Building prices collapse resulting in the tax base collapsing. City revenues to keep streets safe and clean aren’t there. Bums, druggies, graffiti, and excrement proliferate. Cops are fired. Cities become a lot more dangerous.
The result is people are even less inclined to commute to the city. Rinse and repeat.
Breaking cycles like that is extremely hard to do. It could take ten or fifteen years to climb out of this hole.
Maybe big city governments will come to their senses and hire lots of police, get rid of the bums, clean the streets, hire lots of tough-on-crime DAs, prosecute criminals, incarcerate them with long terms, and provide tax holidays to companies to keep their downtown offices open.
They haven't for a while now. Even in Albany, NY the joke has always been the streets get rolled up after 5pm and it becomes a Ghost Town, except for the bums, druggies and criminals. Covid gave people a legitimate excuse and started a momentum that is unlikely to change.
“get rid of the bums”
Bums have constitution rights according to federal judges [except no camping on Supreme Court grounds](and soon will have the unquestionable statutory entitlement to feast on SNAP benefits).