Good morning. Today is Friday. Today we’ll take a look at RTO – back-to-office unevenness – and what it means for New York.
A lot of things seem patchy during the pandemic.
There’s a patchwork of stay-at-home orders and masking rules that vary from state to state (and sometimes from city to city or county to county). There’s a flurry of eligibility rules when vaccines are made available, and when restaurants reopen, there’s a set of requirements for customers to prove they’ve been vaccinated.
There is now a familiar patronage of return-to-office situations, which vary from company to company. Boss expectations about when employees should return — and how many days of the week — can even vary across companies, leaving many offices empty.
Office capacity nationwide slowed down last month around 43%, according to data from security firm Kastle. But in Manhattan, just 8% of office workers return to their desks five days a week, Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy group, said last month.
In Manhattan, there are actually fewer desks. Some companies have move their office closer to where their employees live. My colleagues Matthew Haag wrote that the idea was to make returning to work more appealing by shortening the trip. Before the pandemic, New York City workers had to commute 38 minutes on average – the longest time anywhere in the country. And that’s just one way.
Before the pandemic, Manhattan’s office buildings supported a network of cafes, restaurants and shops in Midtown and the Financial District. Many people close after the office’s daily hours have shrunk to almost nothing. Rental signs are still in many storefronts and 19% of office space in Manhattan now exists, the equivalent of 30 Empire State Buildings. According to real estate company Newmark, this is up from 12% before the pandemic.
Daniel Ismail, lead office analyst at Green Street, a commercial real-estate research firm, told Matthew he expects the office market to get worse before getting better as the offices move. lease agreement signed many years before expiration. He said many companies no longer need the space they have, while others have moved to buildings with better amenities, including better access to public transport.
Has Midtown’s recovery been unaffected by the return to work plans, which many companies have delayed, and the combined schedules, which many have adopted? How many office workers are going to the office?
Yes, Midtown is still the office hub. The Partnership’s last survey for New York City found that only 38% of Manhattan’s one million office workers had returned to their workplaces by mid-April.
Many business leaders had expected that number to be higher this summer, but many companies (including our own) have once again pushed back their return to work plans because of high rates. virus increases.
So I was surprised to see so many people going in and out of Midtown. It looks like the back office workers are doing their pre-pandemic routines. In Times Square, the new Margaritaville hotel had more than 30 corporate events last month and is expected to be even busier this month.
You wrote that people are once again stalking the chair in Bryant Park. What is that, anyway?
It’s one of those urban skills needed if you want to sit and eat. You walk around the park with your takeout, looking for people eating their last lunch. You hover nearby so you can grab their chair or table as soon as they stand up. But try not to sound too pushy, rude, or desperate.
Before the pandemic, you had to sit tight on sunny days when it seemed like everyone was in the park. It is even more necessary now because there are fewer seats than before. The park has not replenished its seat supply during the pandemic. It is not necessary when there are more seats than people. That has changed now. Lunchtime visitors reached 3,500 people per day in May, or about 83% compared to 2019.
Foreign tourists were essential to Midtown’s economy before the pandemic. Now what?
There are more foreign tourists than just a year ago – you can speak in all the different languages you hear walking around.
The city’s tourism promotion agency says there will be about eight million foreign visitors to the city this year, or nearly triple the 2.7 million visitors who came last year. But that’s still a long way from 13.5 million visitors in 2019.
Domestic tourists have returned much faster, but foreign tourists are still predominant. Many people have stayed away because of the federal screening requirement for a negative Covid test the day before boarding a plane to the United States. Until that changes, we may not see many foreign tourists.
We can’t talk about Midtown without talking about traffic.
Yes, traffic in Midtown is back up and running again at 6 mph. That’s still better than before the pandemic, when you could go just 5 miles an hour. But it’s surprisingly slow compared to the 11.1 mph run at the height of the pandemic in 2020.
There are many reasons for congestion to return. Transit riders have turned to driving during the pandemic. Car ownership increased across the city. Deliveries have skyrocketed and construction activity is booming. More people than ever use the streets to bike, eat out, and socialize.
Don’t some people find it difficult to reframe the crowd?
Yes, many New Yorkers – myself included – prefer more space in the busiest part of the city. Rochel Pinder tells me she’s used to walking unboxed on the sidewalk and picking a chair in Bryant Park. She’s a college administrator who’s from Queens to Midtown.
She told me she felt overwhelmed. “There were a lot of people,” she said. “Personally, I like to have space for myself to enjoy. But I think it’s a good thing for New York City.”
Weather
Enjoy a sunny day near the 80s in low temperatures, New York. The evenings are mostly clear with temperatures dropping around the mid-60s.
PARKING OUTSIDE
Valid until June 20 (ie, June 12).
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Dear Diary:
A friend and I were planning a jazz night in SoHo, and we decided to go for a quick drink at a bar earlier. It’s a rather informal place, and a few minutes after we were seated I noticed how lovely the waiter was – maybe a little younger than me, but very much like me.
Lately, I’ve been trying to be more forward, so as my friend and I were about to leave, I decided to give the bartender my number.
I rummaged through my bag for a pen and scrap of paper, but couldn’t find it. So I use a McNally Jackson bookmark and eyeliner pencil. After jotting down my number, I gave the bookmark to my new crush as he passed.
He quickly said that he had a girlfriend, and my face flushed impressively.
A short while later, I was reading a book on my way to work in the morning, fortunately a seat was available near the door.
As the train pulled into Canal Street, the page I was reading was suddenly obscured. A man on his way out the door shoved a folded piece of paper into the spine of my book and vanished into the bustling crowd before I could react.
Surprised, I opened the paper to find a name and a number.
Looks like I got my bookmarks back.
– Charlotte Rein
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and Read more Metropolitan Diary here.
