Free Republic

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...

CHICAGO — A number of businesses in the city’s business district have covered windows and doors with plywood to better protect the buildings should demonstrations during next week’s Democratic National Convention turn unruly. Crews with a business called Chicago Board Up Services say they’ve boarded up at least a dozen locations around the West Loop, downtown and Daley Plaza and have plans to work on additional businesses weekend. “If you feel you’re in any type of line where you feel there’s going to be a lot of commotion — we’re not pushing it — we’re hoping the city will be...

CINCINNATI — Multiple teens and an 18-year-old man have been sentenced for their part in a Jan. 23 assault on a man downtown. In court Friday, 18-year-old Jadin Shaw was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his part in the assault. In addition to Shaw, multiple juveniles have also been sentenced for the attack after accepting plea deals; WCPO is not naming them because they are still children. In addition to Shaw, five juveniles were also charged in the crime: A 14-year-old has been sentenced to probation A 15-year-old was ordered to pay $800 in restitution to the victim...

In Chicago, the birthplace of the skyscraper, the total downtown office vacancy rate has jumped to 25.1%, a new record high, according to data from real estate firm CBRE. The rate has climbed steadily since the end of 2018, when it stood at 13.4%. “We just don’t have the same number of people working in the Loop as before,” said Dan McMillen, a real estate professor at the University of Illinois Chicago. Now, the city says it is investing in its real estate. Just like a mortgage, interest rates on billion-dollar loans used to build skyscrapers are rising. Those high...

For years, Marc Benioff has turned the quest to help San Francisco into a core part of both his political identity and his company’s mission. Now, the Salesforce CEO appears to be worried the city is too far gone. The executive told the San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday that the city’s challenges with homelessness and drug use could drive away Dreamforce, his firm’s massive yearly conference in downtown San Francisco. “If this Dreamforce is impacted by the current situation with homelessness and drug use it may be the last Dreamforce” in San Francisco, Benioff reportedly said in the interview, which...

The activity and vibrancy of Chicago's downtown area, once the heart of the city's economy, shifted dramatically in the wake of the pandemic. Physical offices and gathering places closed while remote work soared. Cities across the US are now dealing with the ramifications of that workplace upheaval, despite many companies' attempts to get their employees back into the office. As a result, downtown crowds eating, drinking, and shopping are a fraction of what they once were. Chicago's downtown office space posted a 22.4% vacancy rate in the first quarter of 2023, which poses the question: What does the city do...

Williams-Sonoma, a retailer specializing in kitchen and home furnishings, confirmed Friday that it will leave its downtown San Francisco location next year, becoming the latest big retailer to leave the Union Square area. The San Francisco Standard reported (original links): The Williams-Sonoma Union Square store will close in 2024, the retailer confirmed Friday afternoon. … Williams-Sonoma is one of many stores that have left or plan to leave Union Square, with several of them blaming street conditions and reduced foot traffic. News of the retailer’s closure comes after Nordstrom announced it would close both of its Downtown San Francisco locations....

The editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle is urging that the city adopt a response similar to that which New York City used after 9/11 to save the downtown, and the entire Bay Area, from economic “collapse.” As Breitbart News noted last June, the Chronicle had already warned that the downtown area was in danger of “collapse” because of commercial office vacancy, a legacy of the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown policies. The report noted: On Friday, the Chronicle published an interactive article titled “Downtown S.F. on the brink: It’s worse than it looks.” The article invites readers on a...

Former President Donald Trump has warned about the potential of "death and destruction" should he be charged as part of the Stormy Daniels hush money investigation. In a post on Truth Social, Trump denied any wrongdoing while hitting out at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg amid strong indications that a potential historic arrest is forthcoming. Last weekend, Trump called on his supporters to protest his apparently upcoming arrest, which he claimed was due to take place on Tuesday, March 21. The arrest never occurred, but Democrats accused the former president of attempting to rile up his supporters to carry out...

Business owners and workers in a Democrat-run North Carolina tourist town said their downtown district is deteriorating amid rising crime, rampant homelessness and diminishing police. Multiple people who work in downtown Asheville, North Carolina, bemoaned the condition of the city and pinpointed a lack of police presence to its decline, according to an investigation by local outlet Asheville Watchdog. "We really need beat cops, police on bicycles," Rose Garfinkle, who lives and works downtown, told the outlet. "The lack of a police presence is noticeable. Things have taken a turn in the last five years." Violent crime has spiked in...

The beating heart of the Pittsburgh region is the Golden Triangle, and people are its lifeblood. For the sake of the social and economic health of Downtown, and of the entire city and region, employers in the urban core should encourage as many workers as possible to return to the office, at least a few days each week. It’s not just about maximizing the number of warm bodies in office chairs: More workers mean more lunches and happy hours, more shopping and catering, more cycling and transit riding, more haircuts and shoe shines. In other words, more people mean more...

[Video 7:38] Human Feces, Other Biohazards on San Diego Sidewalks Cost City Nearly $1 Million Every Year NBC 7’s Alexis Rivas takes a look at the issues behind filth on public streets, and the price tag for cleaning it up. NBC Universal, Inc. Taxpayers in San Diego spend nearly $1 million each year sanitizing sidewalks from biohazards, including needles, personal hygiene waste and human feces. It’s a problem that is not only gross, it's also a major public-health threat some say the city isn’t doing enough to fix. “Maybe this is really gross,” said Sherman Heights resident Essence McConnell, “but...

DENVER, Colo. (WKRC) - A local man was killed and his wife was seriously injured after a shooting in Colorado on Friday. Married couple from Tri-State shot while renting car in Denver, husband dead (Denver PD) Pat and Shannon Huhn were customers at a Denver Enterprise Rent-A-Car location near N. Broadway and W. 3rd Avenue. Married couple from Tri-State shot while renting car in Denver, husband dead (Denver PD) Emergency crews were called to the scene around 1 p.m. for a report of shots fired. They found the couple in the parking lot suffering from gunshot wounds. Pat, a 1985...

Hello and goodbye from Des Moines, where everything on the New West Side is shiny and bright.Every office park, retail center and neighborhood is alit with a bright swath of LED lights.Which is beautiful but makes me nostalgic for what seemed a much simpler Christmas time of my youth. These watercolors of old Grand Rapids downtown encompass most of my Christmas shopping haunts of old - before the suburban malls displaced downtowns (only to shut down themselves several decades hence) and Macy’s bought the few surviving regional department stores. Bigger but definitely not better by most measures.Herpolshiemer’s, Wurzberg’s and Steketees’s...

Chicago police are considering closing streets in the city's downtown area, along with other potential strategies, in an effort to avoid a repeat of weekend mayhem that resulted in the arrests of more than 20 people last Saturday, ABC Chicago reported on Tuesday. Citing an internal police memo that was given to police commanders on Tuesday and obtained by the ABC affiliate's investigative team, the affiliate reported that downtown streets near Michigan Ave. and lakefront parks could be closed. Police sources told the affiliate, however, that no plans had been announced and that such closures were meant to be used...

The US Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, Don Cochran, said Sunday that the man responsible for the explosion that shook Downtown Nashville on Christmas morning has been positively identified. ... It was also revealed Sunday that a song played before the audio warning and countdown. The song was “Downtown,” the 1964 hit by Petula Clark. The investigation continues into a possible motive and officials are probing whether Warner was a believer of the 5G conspiracy theory. Some people believe 5G towers cause cancer or are used by the federal government for spying on citizens. According to ABC News’...

Here, life has felt incredibly normal. It's also revealed how abnormal the lifestyle I followed in Virginia really was.OCALA, Fla. — Last Sunday I plopped a steaming hashbrown casserole and a bowl of freshly sliced oranges down on one of a row of endless folding tables covered in those flimsy plastic tablecloths you get at the dollar store. The casseroles were outnumbered only by the pans of homemade cinnamon rolls, and the fruit section was meager: it was a good Southern Baptist potluck. Church ladies buzzed around, removing tin foil from tin pans and putting serving spoons in each dish,...

It’s time once again to reminisce about the days of Christmas Past when shopping entailed a trip downtown to visit the Five and Dimes and your local department stores. From the heyday of downtowns we transitioned first to the era of suburban malls, enclosed meccas of commerce featuring anchor stores, hot pretzels, cheap boutiques and endless parking lots. That vignette too has morphed into Christmas Past as once great malls have become wastelands of obsolescence. By and large they now sit empty awaiting a rebirth. Somewhere along the line the wizards of marketing decided that people really wanted to be...

When I was growing up  every town had at least one iconic department store that did Christmas right: fabulous back-lit and magical Christmas displays, often animated, gracing all of their street level windows. In a time before kids were so wired into their iPhones and “social” networks that they missed much of the amazement of the real world, there were all these fabulous windows of mystery and wonder, free for the taking. All it took was a dime bus ride downtown.  I was very lucky as my hometown, Grand Rapids, MI, had three such emporiums of merchandise, all founded in...

First Lady Melania Trump strutted in style on Monday alongside President Donald Trump as she departed the White House for New Hampshire to speak about America’s opioid crisis. Wearing a navy coat with a funnel-like collar by French luxury brand Chloé and breathtakingly rich Gianvito Rossi knee-high Italian leather boots, Mrs. Trump was easily the most fashionable woman in the room (not uncommon for her) during the event on opioids. Mrs. Trump chose big brown-shaded sunglasses to conceal her smokey eyes from the sunlight. The knee-high boots paired with long coats and dresses look that Mrs. Trump chose has been...