“The problem is so big that it is imperiling the economies of the cities themselves.”
Not everyone loves remote working. As the Wall Street Journal reports, cities have been hurt by all those Zoom meetings — some more than others. Just 10% of workers have returned to offices in New York City offices and 15% to those in San Francisco, lagging behind Los Angeles (32%), Dallas (40%), and the national average (about 25%). For New York City, that has led to a “$9 billion drop in sales tax” and other revenue.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as editor-at-large Steve Levine, recently wrote in Marker. Everything ranging from business travel and commuter spending to coffee runs, dry cleaning drop-off and pickup, and dining at local restaurants and bars — undergirds an entire business ecosystem supporting upwards of 100 million workers. All told, the white-collar office economy adds up to more than a trillion dollars.
