I mean, could there be any other explanation for these stats?Thanks for reading Meaning In History! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
"Comparing the economic, social, and built characteristics of Toronto to New York City suggests why Toronto’s recovery is lagging. One quarter of Toronto’s downtown workforce is in professional, scientific, and technical services – a category that comprises law, accounting, advertising, architecture, and consulting firms, as well as computer systems design – i.e., the types of firms where highly skilled professionals work alone productively, and thus continue to allow remote work. In comparison, just 18% of downtown workers in New York are in this sector. Conversely, only 5% of Toronto’s downtown workforce is in public administration and support, compared to 14% in New York. Both cities are diverse relative to others in North America; it’s just that Toronto is not diverse enough."
S.F. snd Toronto (source of the study) are largely professional, work-from-home cities.
I would like to see more recent data. Some places are crazy busy these days--like the bigger airports I have been in --SeaTac, SFO, DCA--but I suspect the downtowns have not recovered their pre-Covid activity.
I lived in New York City--Manhattan--for 27 years. Went to school there and fell in love with the place. This was in the mid-70s. Lots of crime. But it was a different kind of crime: you have something I want--give it to me or risk the consequences. Today, people are attacked, shot, beaten to a pulp and left for dead or in an unconscious heap for no apparent reason. Victims are young, old, black, white, Asian, Hispanic--infants and children are hit by stray bullets or pushed off subway platforms. These are like rage crimes. I still have a few friends there, but I will not meet them for a social engagement at night. I will not ride public transportation at ANY time of day. I do meetings by teleconference or zoom. There is no piece of business or social engagement worth dying for or being rendered gravely/permanently injured and traumatized. I raised my daughter in NYC, but if I had a young family today, I would get them the hell out of there. And that's exactly what my daughter did. They are very happy in their new life.
It seems like mass psychosis...but really, this is a natural reaction to almost three years govt gaslighting and local mayors, DAs and city bureaucrats abusing the people they are elected to serve. Politics, planned social deconstruction and the state rebelling against the people. God help us.
Exact same observation for me about crime in NYC in the "bad ol' days." When people asked me how I could move back to the (Dinkins-era) City "with all the crime" after college in DC, I explained that crime in NYC was "transactional," not just senselessly-violent as in DC, Baltimore, Philly and the like. Well...no longer. Don't even recognize NY anymore.
Correction, I wrote this out in a stream of words....to my knowledge, NO infants and children have been thrown off subway platforms. While changing a sentence, two thoughts were merged into one. Children HAVE been shot and killed. But not targeted in the subway. No one brings kids into the subway anymore.
So, here are three "other explanations" that a friend and I come up with, lol. 1. Crime keeps shoppers and would-be socializers? away. 2. The "new normal" of working from home keeps workers away. 3. The excess-deaths phenomenon reduces the pool of live people from which shoppers, socializers, and workers would be drawn.... We are guessing that crime is overwhelmingly the Number One factor, working from home Number Two, and excess deaths Number Three. But what do we know-- for sure?
I think more likely proof of absence from these locations by cell phone users, rather than ditching the phones altogether. People voting with their feet.
Reminds me I want to become a goose if reincarnated. Swimming skills, ability to fly, hone and peck, crap where ever, and most important keeping my head on a swivel.
And a recent incident in Compton, just south of LA mob over ran a gas station / convenience store. I’m sure part of the reason the police stood off was fear of the Soros DA.
As if it weren’t already the greatest insult in recent memory just to wake up every day and earn a living in sunny so cal (I was born in the City of Angels), now that hard-earned income is to be confiscated by the PG&E SJWs, who plan to right the wrongs of the past (?) through your electricity bill!!! Does that mean you’ll end up paying “reparations” as you toodle along in your Tesla, or cool your home during the dog days of September? Another reason for flight from CA - and after two recalls, they can’t get Gascon out…
Agree - third generation Ca here, i have family buried in Compton at the cemetery that had so many scandals. Evergreen Cemetery is so symbolic of California.
Sure. All the looting in local stores or shopping malls that is met with zero policing or arrests is deemed a form of "reparations" by BLM activists. And, I guess, mayors. Why would any cop risk his life or his future when these crimes aren't prosecuted?
It’s difficult to imagine Americans without cell phones isn’t it?
I suspect people intelligent enough to use a cell phone are leaving those metro areas. In addition, we have higher than normal mortality, lower birth rates and serious injury/disability, courtesy the vaccines. And perhaps folks are disinclined to have nosy govt and tech companies minding their personal matters.
I reside in a metro border state, cook county southwest, and am now "managing" my cell phone. On/Off, Faraday bag, no apps. When this dies, back to flip. Ooma at home. But I have never been addicted to the phone . . . my attitude has always been just cause it rings doesn't mean I have to answer it.
Likely a result of COVID lockdowns which hollowed out urban cores and tuned them into crime and drug infested hellholes that nobody wants to go back to work in let alone to shop, dine, or visit.
Nobody left coherent enuff to use a cell in the city. Lotsa folks moving to the country - in my rural area, they're using lotsa federal $$$ to improve broadband & wireless, even tho signal has gone from great to almost none in the course of 5 yrs or less. Go figure. Was overrated anyway...
I have to travel through downtown Seattle on a regular basis, and I can't imagine anyone voluntarily staying there. Tons of open-air drug markets, barely coherent homeless, the occasional gunfight - brought to you by the Democratic Party!
https://notthebee.com/article/and-here-i-thought-id-already-shared-the-craziest-chicago-video-today-
The Rest of the Story: The study details
https://www.schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/news/why-downtown-sf%E2%80%99s-covid-19-pandemic-recovery-dead-last-nation-karen-chapple-writes
"Comparing the economic, social, and built characteristics of Toronto to New York City suggests why Toronto’s recovery is lagging. One quarter of Toronto’s downtown workforce is in professional, scientific, and technical services – a category that comprises law, accounting, advertising, architecture, and consulting firms, as well as computer systems design – i.e., the types of firms where highly skilled professionals work alone productively, and thus continue to allow remote work. In comparison, just 18% of downtown workers in New York are in this sector. Conversely, only 5% of Toronto’s downtown workforce is in public administration and support, compared to 14% in New York. Both cities are diverse relative to others in North America; it’s just that Toronto is not diverse enough."
S.F. snd Toronto (source of the study) are largely professional, work-from-home cities.
New York isn't.
I would like to see more recent data. Some places are crazy busy these days--like the bigger airports I have been in --SeaTac, SFO, DCA--but I suspect the downtowns have not recovered their pre-Covid activity.
Parking lot’s are empty where I work. Trees are growing in the cracking pavement. Bars and such are packed though
I lived in New York City--Manhattan--for 27 years. Went to school there and fell in love with the place. This was in the mid-70s. Lots of crime. But it was a different kind of crime: you have something I want--give it to me or risk the consequences. Today, people are attacked, shot, beaten to a pulp and left for dead or in an unconscious heap for no apparent reason. Victims are young, old, black, white, Asian, Hispanic--infants and children are hit by stray bullets or pushed off subway platforms. These are like rage crimes. I still have a few friends there, but I will not meet them for a social engagement at night. I will not ride public transportation at ANY time of day. I do meetings by teleconference or zoom. There is no piece of business or social engagement worth dying for or being rendered gravely/permanently injured and traumatized. I raised my daughter in NYC, but if I had a young family today, I would get them the hell out of there. And that's exactly what my daughter did. They are very happy in their new life.
It seems like mass psychosis...but really, this is a natural reaction to almost three years govt gaslighting and local mayors, DAs and city bureaucrats abusing the people they are elected to serve. Politics, planned social deconstruction and the state rebelling against the people. God help us.
Exact same observation for me about crime in NYC in the "bad ol' days." When people asked me how I could move back to the (Dinkins-era) City "with all the crime" after college in DC, I explained that crime in NYC was "transactional," not just senselessly-violent as in DC, Baltimore, Philly and the like. Well...no longer. Don't even recognize NY anymore.
Correction, I wrote this out in a stream of words....to my knowledge, NO infants and children have been thrown off subway platforms. While changing a sentence, two thoughts were merged into one. Children HAVE been shot and killed. But not targeted in the subway. No one brings kids into the subway anymore.
So, here are three "other explanations" that a friend and I come up with, lol. 1. Crime keeps shoppers and would-be socializers? away. 2. The "new normal" of working from home keeps workers away. 3. The excess-deaths phenomenon reduces the pool of live people from which shoppers, socializers, and workers would be drawn.... We are guessing that crime is overwhelmingly the Number One factor, working from home Number Two, and excess deaths Number Three. But what do we know-- for sure?
I think more likely proof of absence from these locations by cell phone users, rather than ditching the phones altogether. People voting with their feet.
Reminds me I want to become a goose if reincarnated. Swimming skills, ability to fly, hone and peck, crap where ever, and most important keeping my head on a swivel.
Soros DA in action in LA:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/jack-dunphy/2023/04/15/los-angeles-da-george-gascon-menace-to-society-n1687460
And a recent incident in Compton, just south of LA mob over ran a gas station / convenience store. I’m sure part of the reason the police stood off was fear of the Soros DA.
https://youtu.be/S3rgpEV81go
As if it weren’t already the greatest insult in recent memory just to wake up every day and earn a living in sunny so cal (I was born in the City of Angels), now that hard-earned income is to be confiscated by the PG&E SJWs, who plan to right the wrongs of the past (?) through your electricity bill!!! Does that mean you’ll end up paying “reparations” as you toodle along in your Tesla, or cool your home during the dog days of September? Another reason for flight from CA - and after two recalls, they can’t get Gascon out…
Agree - third generation Ca here, i have family buried in Compton at the cemetery that had so many scandals. Evergreen Cemetery is so symbolic of California.
Terrifying article on Ca regulations / laws:
https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-regulatory-labyrinth?wallit_nosession=1
Sure. All the looting in local stores or shopping malls that is met with zero policing or arrests is deemed a form of "reparations" by BLM activists. And, I guess, mayors. Why would any cop risk his life or his future when these crimes aren't prosecuted?
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/state-utility-bills-may-see-a-change-with-a-fixed-rate-based-on-income/
Maybe because of free open Wi-Fi?
You would think people would know enough to be able to hold a cell phone in one hand and a gun in the other!
It’s difficult to imagine Americans without cell phones isn’t it?
I suspect people intelligent enough to use a cell phone are leaving those metro areas. In addition, we have higher than normal mortality, lower birth rates and serious injury/disability, courtesy the vaccines. And perhaps folks are disinclined to have nosy govt and tech companies minding their personal matters.
I reside in a metro border state, cook county southwest, and am now "managing" my cell phone. On/Off, Faraday bag, no apps. When this dies, back to flip. Ooma at home. But I have never been addicted to the phone . . . my attitude has always been just cause it rings doesn't mean I have to answer it.
Likely a result of COVID lockdowns which hollowed out urban cores and tuned them into crime and drug infested hellholes that nobody wants to go back to work in let alone to shop, dine, or visit.
Nobody left coherent enuff to use a cell in the city. Lotsa folks moving to the country - in my rural area, they're using lotsa federal $$$ to improve broadband & wireless, even tho signal has gone from great to almost none in the course of 5 yrs or less. Go figure. Was overrated anyway...
https://nypost.com/2023/04/16/how-new-yorks-legal-weed-is-turning-workers-into-stoned-zombies/
Maybe Bolton could come up with a strategy for our cities? Or maybe he's part of that problem--would explain a lot.
Maybe Chicago should give that strategy a try. Stoners > Rioters and Shooters? Just kidding... I think.
I think Bolton is smoking some of that weed himself after seeing his op-ed.
I have to travel through downtown Seattle on a regular basis, and I can't imagine anyone voluntarily staying there. Tons of open-air drug markets, barely coherent homeless, the occasional gunfight - brought to you by the Democratic Party!
Using a cell phone downtown, in public, in any of those cities invites an assault on one's person.