Return-to-office mandates may not be the solution to downtown struggles that Canadian cities are banking on
https://theconversation.com/return-to-office-mandates-may-not-be-the-solution-to-downtown-struggles-that-canadian-cities-are-banking-on-239682
30 Comments
If by “Canadian cities” you mean “businesses that lobbied the government because they own commercial real estate or refuse to stay open after 3pm”, then yes.
Climate change is conveniently forgotten when it comes to return to office. At this point i am starting to wonder how urgent climate change really is, because when it comes to vote, bash the right and tax us it is of uttermost importance, but completely ignored when it comes to everything else.
It feels like it is becoming a new religion or something.
Since my daily parking just went up $4 day, I realize retiring early to avoid fulltime office work again is the best solution. And, ya, I am fortunate I can do that. With a small financial hit of course. But screw $4000/year to park for the sheer “joy” of working downtown.
Turn office building into apartments.
No shit.
Commuting gives people *less* time and money to spend on local businesses.
Make downtown a place people want to go instead of have to go.
My coworkers and i have been sent back downtown 2 days per week. We have all decided to do our best to not spend any money while we are downtown.
No fucking shit…. Go take a walk downtown Toronto and you realize pretty damn quickly that the reason why it’s always buzzing with people is because… And hold on to your hats on this one… PEOPLE LIVE DOWNTOWN 😂
If you have enough condos and homes downtown, you magically have a stable customer base.
But then there won’t be any need for a tunnel under the 401 if less people are driving to the office and polluting the environment!
RTO is a mix, landlords DEMANDING that people pay them and workplaces looking to make people quit so they don’t have to pay severance. Even the feds have a hiring freeze and many people near retirement that this is their tactic.
As someone that commutes for work, please send them back to work from home, I don’t need over an hour commute for nothing.
Hear me out. During pandemic our macro economy was booming, people were working from home and had so much time to spend at home or travel around.
People were very focus on self care and remodeling their home was part of it. They also had the opportunity to travel around and work remotely, they had more time to even make babies because they could take care of them at home.
Return to office is just BS from corporate level for people to “socialize”
I’m really frustrated that not enough people are coming to my downtown shop between the hours of 1:00PM and 1:15PM when we’re open to buy my $40 sandwiches. Is it because of remote workers?
I just love that that the header image is a pedestrianized street which is extremely rare in Canadian cities. There is effectively none in Toronto.
People need to feel safe downtown as well. Can’t speak to all Canadian cities as I haven’t been to them all, but Winnipeg is zombieland downtown.
If they want to revitalize downtown areas in cities, crack down on vagrants, addicts, encampments, and crime.
Fuck the soft approach, we as a society shouldn’t have to bend around people who’ve made shitty decisions.
As for RTW/RTO (or whatever acronym), employees have successfully demonstrated they don’t need to be in an office to do their jobs. It isn’t the employees fault that the company now has useless buildings collecting dust.
The cost of living is insane. I’m mandated to go in office two days a week and pack a lunch both days. $20 minimum for a simple unfulfilling lunch? No thanks.
Make downtown an affordable place to live, and you’ll always have people down there. Restaurants and businesses will have no trouble operating because if housing costs are actually affordable, people will have more money to spend elsewhere in the economy.
This is not a hard concept to understand.
I think they are more to appease commercial real estate holders. I don’t have extra money to spend at downtown businesses when I have to pay to commute to work.
Make your cities walkable, bring back cultural experiences and events, make a place people want to be!
Downtown is also a drug fuelled disaster in most communities across Canada as well sadly. People won’t patronize the businesses. They will get to and from their cars as quickly as possible. If they aren’t stolen while they’re working.
You know what fixes this?
Turn those fucking office spaces into condos. Then everyone can live close to work.
But no. Commercial property be damned.
Maybe if lunch didn’t cost $20 I would be more inclined to go downtown and spend. It’s not just a work issue it’s an inflationary issue as well.
If my salary had kept up with inflation and food didn’t cost so much I would love to spend time in the office downtown, have nice lunches, and go for after work drinks with colleagues. However I can’t afford it since I’m saving for a house.
Poorer workers for one, having to commute there
The quiet quitting commences when I’m asked to return more than my 1 day a week. My boss knows this, downtown businesses don’t have anything to gain here off of me.
Return to office mandates are also making congestion worse which makes me not want to drive downtown, or anywhere in general.
North American downtowns are a waste of valuable real estate. They are financial districts devoid of any life after office hours and they are not producing taxable income 2/3rds of the day. And what income they do produce during the 1/3rd of the day they are useful is not enough to make up for them doing nothing the rest of the day. And yet most of our expensive infrastructure is to serve these offices and getting their employees to the office.
Cities need to start taxing the bejeezus out of this office real estate to make up for how much they cost and how little money they actually make for the city. Then downtowns will naturally clear out of comparably useless offices, and make way for residents who will live there and pay taxes 24/7, and the businesses that will serve them and make taxable income 24/7.
We need cities that never sleep like New York or basically all of Europe, not cities that sleep 2/3rds of the day.
No one has spare money to spend.
Yeah no. What politicians don’t realize is people would probably pump more money into the economy if they were allowed to work from home. They wouldn’t have to pay for the commute to work 5 days a week or pay for parking which means more disposable income to spend on other things. If people return to work in person and have to pay all the money for gas/ parking they’ll probably be too broke to support businesses downtown anyway.
Not only that, people have less absences when they’re allowed to work from home so it means more money/more productivity at work.
Then don’t even get me started on the environmental benefits of working from home that are conveniently ignored..
They clearly aren’t thinking things through as per usual..
The closer you make me live to downtown the more expensive my rent/mortgage is going to be, and the less money I will have to inject into the local economy.
Between this and the recent mortgage announcement, it seems like this government cannot seem to consider past initial knee jerk reactions. I cannot believe how stupid their policies are.