It was a question on the minds of a number of public policy groups in the wake of the pandemic: Is this the death of the downtown?
Researchers at the University of Toronto's School of Cities and the Institute of Governmental Studies at University of California at Berkeley began looking into that query at the onset of COVID-19-related shutdowns as people emptied offices, ordered goods online and stayed home.
The two universities collaborated on downtown recovery research in 2020, using mobile phone data to track visits to 62 downtown areas across North America and compare recent economic activity to pre-pandemic levels. The rankings compare the period from the beginning of March to mid-June in 2023 relative to the same span in 2019.
The results show that foot traffic in downtown Las Vegas has recovered, and then some, from the pre-COVID days to lead all areas tracked. On the other hand, while the federal governments in the U.S. and Canada have said they want workers back to the office two to three days a week, downtown Washington, D.C. remains at 69% of pre-pandemic levels for cellphone traffic and Ottawa, Ontario, was at 82%, the study found.
The financial capitals of both Canada and the United States also proved laggards. Toronto is the second-lowest city in the country for downtown activity at 70%, behind only Montreal at 67%. New York was even lower at 66%, the study found.
The two academic institutions hope to update their data, but other studies on office space show that activity is on the upswing. The Canadian-based Strategic Regional Alliance shows peak weekday office attendance in downtown Toronto was up to 72% of pre-pandemic levels as of Feb. 15.