The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Bringing end to urban doom loop
Watching “60 Minutes” last week about New York City’s vacant midtown and downtown commercial and office spaces was a reality check about so many of us working remotely. America’s largest cities are undergoing a seismic shift during and since the pandemic because employees favor working from home than in offices.
But office spaces have been vacant for months, if not years, while the real estate and banking industries finance much of the empty spaces — for now. These critical sectors hardly reveal their actual losses on commercial leases and we should be alert to this so-called “urban doom loop” or “ghost town” downtown phenomenon.
It’s interesting timing that CBS featured New York’s vacant commercial space conundrum. As a community development researcher, I am frequently in touch with developers and they frequently offer antidotal evidence about their experiences. In fact, last week I had lunch with a longtime mentee who has been getting pressure to lease more office space and resolve modernizing spaces around midtown Manhattan. He said various investors are seeking an immediate return on their real estate holdings while so many office spaces remain vacant.
As “60 Minutes” highlighted, more than 95 million square feet of office space is unoccupied in America’s largest city — or about 30 Empire State Buildings. Some commercial developers and officials are concerned about the sustainability of having so many vacancies. Columbia University Professor Stijin Van Nieuwerburgh has been studying empty commercial spaces around New York. He argues these vacancies need to be revealed since empty offices can keep cities and private sectors afloat.
At the same time, it’s no secret that cities are hardly one-sector entities. Richard Florida, among other urbanists, counters that modern cities must be innovative by ensuring a “creative class” of professionals, artists and intelligentsia so they can draw innovative and insightful residents and sectors.
But New York and so many American large cities are already diverse and offer a variety of pathways toward urban revitalization. Mixed-use development, for example, remains a strong point for countless communities because onesector spaces are hardly sustainable when an area is purely for commercial or residential use, including midtown Manhattan.
Cities are unique for offering these varied approaches and policies. But too often, areas like midtown Manhattan have become office fortresses than residential and entertainment mixed-use areas. Clearly, these commercial sectors need to be more innovative, while developers and public officials must be resourceful about revamping their singular zoning spaces and projects. Current as well as future initiatives should not be exclusive to commercial use.
While some observers and advocates are urging for repurposing commercial space for residential use, the process can be costly and rarely feasible. Cities such as Chicago and Washington, D.C. are at least trying to convert vacant commercial space for housing. Still, there must be a reawakening to a community’s organic and multifaceted uses. Or, as Brookings Institution rightfully stressed in their “Breaking the Urban Doom Loop” analysis, “this dread should prompt public and private leaders to reassess.”
Legendary urban diversity activists, such as Jane Jacobs, recognized cities are constantly evolving. While preserving communities should be a priority, revamping underutilized areas and appreciating cities as evolutionary spaces are equally important. And since we’re in the midst of the post-pandemic era and many of us are working remotely, now is the time to evolve ghost town downtowns.
Maintaining vacant office and commercial spaces is ineffective and shortsighted. Incentivizing and planning future development of our urban landscapes is long overdue. This requires rethinking and goal setting, but we can confront this supposed urban doom loop by recognizing that cities are innovative and evolutionary spaces.