What about Downtown
As we go about our business in this post COVID world, what about downtown? People who live, work, and visit our business districts can see the changes that the COVID-19 pandemic brought – closure of businesses and restaurants, less people on the streets, less traffic, less colleagues in the office. Stanford scholar Nicholas Bloom outlined the lasting impacts of working from home in his article Golf, rent, and commutes: 7 impacts of working from home, June 2023. It is interesting to note from his current 2023 data that “about 58% of people in the U.S. can’t work from home at all” due to jobs that are location based. “Those who work entirely from home are primarily professionals, managers, and in higher-paying fields such as IT support, payroll, and call centers. The highest paid group includes the 30% of people working from home in a hybrid capacity, and these include professionals and managers.” As a result, downtown can no longer be defined by office space absorption rates as one of the main economic drivers. In 2021 and 2022, employers asked workers to return to the office full time, part time or through other flexible arrangements. Employers were met with requests for permanent work-from-home options from a core group of employees. As a result, the work-from-home population is estimated to be stabilized around 30 percent. University of Toronto’s School of Cities and Rotman School of Management professor, Richard Florida stated in his 2021 article, The Death and Life of the Central Business District, “offices are not going back to the way they were pre-pandemic, and neither are the downtown neighborhoods that house them.” He predicts that “as the office recedes in importance, central business districts are transforming into spaces to live and socialize, not just work. It’s a process that began before COVID-19.”
Speaking Up for Downtown
This reinventing of our cities into healthy, inclusive districts has been a many decades-long effort many times hampered by the day-to-day running of a city. Through the post COVID lens, city leaders, advocates, and citizens saw the weaknesses, the challenges, and the opportunities of their city in sharper focus than ever before. In a recent JP Morgan Chase Research Institute article, Downtown Downturn: The Covid Shock to Brick-and-Mortar Retail, January 2023, their research found “a dramatic reorganization of both population and retail establishments away from city centers toward suburban areas that is persistent from the COVID-19 pandemic.” This trend is creating strong new or adapted suburban business districts surrounding metropolitan areas as both retailers and residents seek the benefits of walkable districts. The retrofitting of suburbia with outposts of downtown restaurants, streetscapes, plazas, and bike/pedestrian connectivity is the model we want for new development. Is it more competition for downtown or an opportunity for downtown to fill other roles? JP Morgan recognizes that “this presents both challenges and opportunities that can be addressed with careful policy choices.” Now is the time to plan, reset, and galvanize goals towards a common purpose – reinventing the people-centric business district.
The 15-Minute City Project, a website and blog created by urbanist Dan Luscher, states that “everyone living in a city should have access to essential urban services within a 15-minute walk or bike.” Dan’s goals for a healthy and inclusive city sets up a simple framework that can inform planning, design, funding, and economic development. The economic benefits are clear. The Smart Growth America has been publishing their Foot Traffic Ahead – Ranking Walkable Urbanism in America’s Largest Metros 2023, for a number of years. This document reports on the measurement, rank, and analysis of America’s metropolitan areas with the highest levels of walkable urbanism. They define walkable urbanism as the degree to which places have density and real estate mix of office, retail, multi-family housing, developed in a walkable pattern and connected by transit. This year’s report is framed by the recent impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s choices and impacts on our cities. According to the report “in the largest 35 metros, walkable urban land comprises only 1.2% of the regions’ total land mass, but accounts for over one-fifth (19.1%) of the nation’s annual gross domestic product (GDP).” Even in 2023, “the bulk of economic activity and wealth in a region is generated in walkable urban areas.” Smart Growth America attributes this result from the “more efficient use of space and infrastructure while generating higher rates of local tax revenue.”
Urban Planning Leads the Way
It takes planning and design guideposts to set the direction and guide priorities. It takes a long-term vision even in light of short-term funding. Walkable neighborhoods and districts are the goal, and the social and economic benefits are our reward. Our districts and streets will serve their communities first, then become regional destinations. They will have features that give users cues to where they are in the world. And they will contribute to achieving Vision Zero, a commitment to transportation design and policies that achieve zero traffic fatalities. In the reinventing of our cities for people-centric business districts, we will plan for adaptable land use, equitable redevelopment, and the growth of bike and pedestrian networks to allow all of us to discover the sights, sounds, and community of our world that can only truly be seen up close.
Reflecting on the Lochmueller Group transformation of Kennedy Avenue in the Hessville neighborhood of the City of Hammond, Indiana; it is an example of City leadership directing capital to strengthen community and support the neighborhood’s businesses beyond downtown. By reinventing the Kennedy corridor into a walkable, human-scaled place, this district regains its relevancy in resident and business daily life to support its community for many more decades.
Read more about the Kennedy Avenue Streetscape project and our Urban Design service on our website.
Written by Laurel Harrington, PLA, ASLA, LEED AP BD+C, Senior Landscape Architect, June 2023
