Posted on 03/11/2025 12:10:43 PM PDT by DallasBiff
The hollowing out of U.S. cities’ office and commercial cores is a national trend with serious consequences for millions of Americans. As more people have stayed home following the COVID-19 pandemic, foot traffic has fallen. Major retail chains are closing stores, and even prestigious properties are having a hard time retaining tenants.
The shuttering of a Whole Foods market after only a year in downtown San Francisco in May 2023 received widespread coverage. Even more telling was the high-end department store Nordstrom’s decision to close its flagship store there in August after a 35-year run.
In New York City, office vacancy rates have risen by over 70% since 2019. Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, a stretch of high-end shops and restaurants, had a 26% vacancy rate in spring 2023.
(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...
The SFO Whole Foods had extra burdens, with SFO perhaps being the poster child for how to run a city into the ground.
But due to the other forces in play, such as Amazon, I doubt that inner cities (or the malls) will ever recover to mid/late-20th levels.
Parking issues, insurance costs, credit card transaction fees, over-regulation, small biz owners who don’t know how to run a biz and adapt to a changing market...
There’s a lot in addition to crime.
I’m in Italy, its cities are thriving, generally.
However, I do see problems like homelessness and begging. It reminds me a lot of Washington, DC in the 1980s.
I gave a Euro to a woman in front of a church yesterday. She obviously was there due to her faith.
Italians are under stress and they pray for God’s help.
It’s now “the love that won’t STFU”.
“small biz owners who don’t know how to run a biz and adapt to a changing market”
I passed by a public park market in the Foce section of Genoa yesterday.
The merchants seemed to offer a good selection of merchandise at fair prices.
They have raised the minimum wage and small businesses can’t stay in business. The new generation doesn’t want to work. Free money from the government. No reason to go to the movies as they are trash and unwatchable. Most shop online now. The streets are unsafe. People don’t socialize because they work remotely.
Of course there are no more downtowns.
Most decent businesses prefer to stay the hell out of “downtown” battlegrounds. They are the hangouts for most feral POS animals.
Urban Utopias Untie!
I don’t even remember the last time I was in Downtown Dallas or Fort Worth.
SF-Portland-Seattle are all self inflicted.
Much of the rest of the country’s downtown is dying like the writer suggested.
FlingWingFlyer wrote: “Most decent businesses prefer to stay the hell out of “downtown” battlegrounds. They are the hangouts for most feral POS animals.”
And, the democrats want to build Section Eight housing in the subburbs so they can export them to the subburbs.
Obviously.
Sounds like the burbs are on the way to losing all of their pharmacies, supermarkets and Walmarts. Once the “smash and grabber” slash and stabbers move in, decent businesses will be moving out.
So does Amazon. Why take the risk if you can get it delivered?
Here is how Kansas City, MO turned it around:
1. Farmer’s Market
2. Entice attractions and restaurants with tax incentives
3. Entice developers to remodel empty office buildings into trendy Lofts for students/young professionals
4. Entice retail stores with tax incentives
5. Increase public transportation options/frequency
6. Police presence. In KC’s case, they had to keep all the BS east of I-35.
They could have sealed the deal if the Jackson County voters agreed to subsidize the construction costs of a new stadium for the KC Royals.
They keep blaming the pandemic. I guess the plandemic caused the looting and polar bear hunting.
Where would film noir be without downtown, with its phone booths, buses and basement bars?
I don't shop in Boston...go to the movies there...or to sporting events...or to restaurants...or to anything! And I don't see that changing in the next 20+ years.
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