The office vacancy rate in the city is 27 percent, up from just 4 percent in 2019.
Thassa, err, big change.
The city estimates that downtown foot traffic has declined about 64 percent compared to 2019.
These numbers are from 2023, not from the plague years.
Go to Phoenix, Arizona on a weekday afternoon. Busy fun downtown areas.
Go to Chicago, Illinois. Quiet, dangerous.
Go to Miami, Florida. Crowded, bustling.
Go to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Deserted, scary.
Find the commonalities.
“People Who Annoy You”
I’ve been saying since Covid that if you own property in London, you need to dump it and GTFO. It’s going to be bad. If I could find an investment fund based on housing in run down seaside places (Weston, Great Yarmouth etc) I would put a load of money into them.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64624412
Think it’s bad now? Wait until the CA power grid starts imploding in a serious way (another year or two, at most) and you’ll see Silicon Valley empty out in a heartbeat. SF will look back at 27% vacancy rates as the “good old days”.
As an aside: Mrs. Peasant and I took a vacation in SF 20 years ago. It was a shithole then. Anyone who says they couldn’t see this coming is a moron.
What’s going on in Austin?
What’s going on in Austin?
Same shit as SF, NYC, Minneapolis and Chicago.
It’s a shithole. As is Denver, of all places.
Well Dennis. You can’t expect those poor people, after the plebs have so badly misused their noble reforms in California that they have to migrate to Austin, not to introduce those badly needed reforms there as well.
To be fair to the USandA, one thing they do better than anywhere in the world imv is empty their towns when they no good any more.
None of this stuff that happens on the EU fringes where pensioners hang on in places like Sillamäe, or the UK government trying to keep Corby and Scunthorpe alive. Get out, move somewhere better, abandoned mining town becomes a minor attraction for being ghostly, and people start again somewhere new.
When I first visited the US, many many moons ago, the three outstanding things I saw were Manhattan, SF, and the Grand Canyon. Other things were pretty good (e.g. Yellowstone or the giant Redwoods) but those three were the pick.
So; one down, two to go. What a pity. Surely even the Dems can’t ruin the GC can they?
Ducky
As to Austin, we’re luckily decidedly out of the city, in Williamson County, which has a rep for law’n’order.
There’s a fairly major highway – 183 – which cuts through Austin sorta from north to south; to get anywhere I have to get onto it (or its accelerated tolled equivalent 183A).
Until a few months back, the elevated portion of 183 from the city boundary to the interstate was littered by down and outs camping out under the (almost continuous) elevated portion. Austin is full of left wing softies who complain when the scum aren’t allowed to “camp in public places”. But then apparently the city began to act on the results of a local election decision, and began clearing them out.
We cheered a little cheer.
But then ’twas necessary to go towards south Austin – and begod, under the elevated portion of 290 – more scum camping out.
Bloody ‘eck – I’d thought that was a fixed problem.
But yes, the CA invasion isn’t helping.
Meanwhile, in Wales….
“All major road building projects in Wales have been scrapped over environmental concerns…
The Welsh government said all future roads must pass strict criteria which means they must not increase carbon emissions, they must not increase the number of cars on the road, they must not lead to higher speeds and higher emissions, and they must not negatively impact the environment.”
I mean WTF is the point of building a road that doesn’t increase the number of cars on the road and increase speeds?
What if camping is a way of life that you have no right to use police violence to stop?
Why should crapitalism take away the natural, self-evident right to sleep for free on commons?
What if..
It ain’t the commons. It’s a public right of way, and there are laws about dumping shit on the roads and littering and blocking the right of way. So – as you well know, unless you are the moron you present as being – there’s plenty reasons for moving ’em on and out.
As to it being capitalism at fault – are you truly nuts?
@?
Who will shovel the shit out of the building? Who will respond to put out the fires? Who will pay for utilities? Does the building owner have any rights? Do I have the right to camp on your front lawn and crap in your garage?
In the US we have millions of acres of Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land where you can camp for free. The only problem is that there are no pharmacies to loot and it’s hard to find a meth dealer.
So the commons are available, but few take advantage of them.
You really need to think these things through.
As noted in the article, downtown population is way down, so many of those offices that are still under lease are pretty empty. As those lease agreements expire the vacancy rate may rocket further. it’s a mystery to the mayor and board of supervisors who keep observing, “but we give you so much freedom to poop wherever you want”. They’re baffled.
Meanwhile the government of the Reich has noticed that people are not going to the theatre, museums, opera, cinema, footy etc as much as they used to.
A large and expensive government study has therefore been commissioned to research the causes of this wholly unexpected and inexplicable development, for which no one can think of, off the top of their heads, a single possible recent cause, let alone multiple recent causes, and to recommend which ways in which money can be hosed around in an effort to reverse it.
A time machine and a fuel-air bomb dropped on Wuhan circa 1998 would sound about right.
“All major road building projects in Wales have been scrapped over environmental concerns… ”
This will also come to include maintenance of existing roads