Posted on 07/19/2023 10:17:24 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Downtown Washington, DC is facing a familiar crisis among American cities right now. With the surge in remote work in recent years, downtowns across the country have emptied out and are struggling to bring workers, residents, and visitors back. Major office tenants are opting to downsize or give up their leases, sending commercial real estate into a tailspin.
But unlike many other US cities, much of DC's downtown office space is controlled by a single landlord: the federal government. While the government has a wide range of telework policies, all 24 federal agencies have reported that their in-person workforce hasn't returned to pre-pandemic levels because of remote work. And it's having a major impact on DC's urban core.
A report released last week by the US Government Accountability Office found that 17 of the 24 federal agency headquarters — nearly all of which are in DC — were using just 25% of their building capacity on average during three weeks in January, February, and March. Overall, utilization rates across the headquarters ranged from about 10% to 50%.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
The traffic is still awful according to a Maryland contact of mine.
Offices empty? Had heard it was like that.
It is time to DownSize_DC!
Liberal cities need to have all funding sources removed.
It’s not just DC - I was in downtown Chicago yesterday and was shocked at how empty the streets were - mostly devoid of cars and commuters alike.
No fed workers should be home getting paid.
Office building hit the hardest!
Just like in China and the former Soviet Union - the BEST JOBS in America are with government.
Better pay, better benefits, lowest-common-denominator work schedule, absolute job security, padded retirement. One only needs to put up with the mind-numbing bureaucracy, and low IQ management and their woke-diversity-bureaucrat-speak.
Turn the office buildings into homeless flophouses.
So they say its because the federal employees are “working” from home?
lol.
empty and hollow just like the people that run the country
A One Party Government including other government helpers will never let that happen. That’s what we have.
The 7 Million Brandon Migrants can live there.
It absolutely is. This story is 100% crap. And you know the traffic is all govt workers because it’s much less on Friday.
Now that feds don’t have to physically be somewhere they have dropped all pretense of working. The fed buildings are empty but the roads are packed with fed employees enjoying their paid free time.
Well, yes. Everyone lives in the suburbs.
She has to drive into Georgetown, and DC is where she hits the traffic.
They're probably goofing off at Top Golf right now. Only checking work emails occasionally on their iPhones.
A few years ago a congressman wanted to pass a bill that would send a lot of DC’s offices out around the country . Basically to spread the problem out so not everyone was pals with each other. Now is a good opportunity to do this since now you don’t even have to go into an office to work.
Everybody else should be working remotely, including congress. They can have a big screen television in the capitol and hearing rooms for tourists to watch the debates.
Surplus office space? Turn them into dorm style rooms and budget hotels.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.