“Change is the law of life,” John F. Kennedy told an audience in Frankfurt in 1963. “And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
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Six years ago, a lot of us were forced into the future, even though many chose to gaze instead at conspiracy theories or partisan narratives.
Kennedy occupied the White House during a different time, when people seemed energetically looking forward to change — whether from the new frontier, the jet age or the prospect of space travel and the goal of sending people to the moon.
Working from home
Today, change often seems thrust upon us, giving former times a nostalgic, sepia glow. Historians may one day debate whether the workplace and the nature of America’s downtowns would have changed as they did in the ’20s without the involuntary effects of a pandemic.
One of those involuntary effects is something a lot of white-collar workers have voluntarily embraced: the ability to work from home.
As a content member of that group who has found productivity in a previously underutilized basement office, I count myself among those happily embracing the daily commute downstairs — at least much of the time. And a host of my like-minded compatriots seem determined to resist efforts to send us into the past.
This week, The Wall Street Journal noted that, despite a lot of high-profile businesses ordering workers back to their offices, a survey by economists found that workers on average spent 26% of paid, full workdays at home in May, which was virtually unchanged from the 27% recorded two years ago.
Back in 2019, before “Zoom” was a noun, the figure was only 7%.
This, the Journal suggests, represents a new equilibrium. Older executives are much more likely to demand workers come downtown. A study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that younger bosses were more open to letting people work from home, and self-employed people work from home almost twice as much as people who work for wages and salaries paid by someone else.
Because younger executives tend to outlive older ones, this change may have staying power. That could be good for workers but difficult for downtowns.
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Changes in Salt Lake City
This week, Market Street Grill announced it was closing its downtown location in Salt Lake City. As KSL reported, this is the latest in a line of restaurants closing in the central business district. And, while other restaurants have opened in the area, the company cited “changing consumer patterns, lower levels of foot traffic and reduced office occupancy” for its decision.
This isn’t a unique problem. Enterprising developers are taking advantage of the shifting nature of downtowns. As entrepreneur.com reported recently, one developer has bought roughly 7% of downtown office space in Denver for pennies on the dollar, which he hopes to turn into apartments, a bookstore, an art gallery, a children’s museum and a daycare center.
“Remote work has devastated downtown business districts from St. Louis to Portland,” the entrepreneur report said. “Nearly 40% of downtown Denver’s office space still sits vacant, the highest rate among the country’s top 50 cities.”
Salt Lake City has seen a fair share of office buildings turned into apartments. KUTV recently reported that 600 units are in transition at the moment.
Unlike most other cities, however, Utah’s capital city is undergoing a large investment that could keep its downtown vibrant. One plan is for a sports, entertainment, culture and convention district near the Delta Center, funded by a 0.5% sales tax increase that was passed more than a year ago.
An influx of downtown residents is bound to fuel more retail opportunities, even if suburbanites like me continue to work from our basements until we retire.
The roughly one-quarter of work-from-home days will, over time, undoubtedly change the nature of downtowns from coast to coast. The old days will be hard to recapture, unless the next unforeseen monumental shift comes along to surprise those whose gaze is fixed solely on the past, the present or people’s own partisan obsessions.
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