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Originally Posted by Bunk
I dread a future of way more people working from home, plus way more e-commerce and delivery replacing bricks and mortar establishments. Aside from incremental gains of less traffic congestion and pollution - image what that will do to civic life in cities. It'll severely dull the places that make civic life vibrant - places like downtown and commercial districts. It’ll also make us more socially isolated than ever. I sincerely miss the everyday human interaction of being out in the world, including at the office. If it is viewed as possible, I think the cost savings for employers will be too strong a factor compared to social desire of many employees to work in office environments. The knock on effects economically and societally are huge. And that’ll be a shame, I think.
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Where I live in Virginia, there had already been a big move to working from home. More than half my suburban neighborhood works from home regularly. I work for a very decentralized organization, so even if I go into the office, the people I work with are in NY, Dallas, St Louis, KC... so what's the point? Even people who work in offices are rarely downtown. Suburban office parks, small office buildings in cool entertainment districts are the creative businesses homes.
One thing I've noticed as we've moved that way (it wasn't like that 17 years ago when I moved here), is the suburbs have become a lot cooler. The chain restaurants are disappearing every day, and are replaced by lots of cool concept independent restaurants, small chains, craft breweries, etc. Entertainment districts have popped up in old warehouse districts that have been converted to food halls, craft breweries/distilleries/restaurants, lofts, other apartments, hotels. People are living/working in these areas away from downtown and imo have a much eclectic and interesting vibe than places counting on downtown office clientele.