The pandemic presents an opportunity to recreate downtowns that cultivate life beyond the office.
Plans to restore downtown into an office monoculture ignore how the trajectory of the office has been altered by a relatively small group of people who gain leverage in a world where they can do their job just as well from outside the office.
We should instead aim to attract and retain people who don’t already need to be downtown for work. This means improving access and recasting the role of central business districts.
The first step is to get people there. More and better public transportation reduces commute friction. When offices become housing, more people can access downtown from their front door. Cities like Calgary and New York lead the way by removing zoning hurdles and providing tax incentives to repurpose suitable office buildings into housing.
Certain businesses will need to reorient to serve people in search of peculiar shops, dining experiences, art and entertainment, conventions, sporting events, etc. Downtown will always be made special by its convenient serendipity.
What's past is prologue, just not in the way some think it is. The recent history of downtown was defined by office, but that past was only the beginning. The future is whatever we make of it. The future of downtown is life beyond the office.