Cities on the Rebound – May 6, 2024
Fittingly, given the time of year, we’ve been seeing green shoots coming up in major U.S. cities lately. Major office tenants are committing or re-committing to sizable leases in New York and San Francisco, for example. And last week, WeWork reached an agreement that would see it emerging from bankruptcy, albeit under different ownership than before.
It was four years ago that a “black swan” event in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic appeared to jeopardize the long-term outlook as far as cities were concerned. Residents of downtown neighborhoods began relocating to the less-crowded suburbs, offices were shuttered amid lockdown conditions, and retailers and restaurants were hard-pressed to stay open.
It’s a different world in 2024, if not a matter of night-and-day difference. In contrast to the suburban exodus and social distancing seen in 2020, today city residents are more inclined to stay put—and if they do relocate, most want to move to another city, preferably one with more people.
That’s among the findings of a newly published study by the Gensler Research Institute exploring how global perceptions have shifted in 15 cities worldwide between 2021 and 2023. Among other findings, the study indicates that residents surveyed feel more positively about their cities today than they did two years earlier, when the overhang of the pandemic was more pronounced.
The study found that more people today think that their neighborhoods feel authentic (66% in 2023 vs. 60% in 2021), beautiful (67% in 2023 vs. 59% in 2021), clean (65% in 2023 vs. 60% in 2021), and welcoming (63% in 2023 vs. 55% in 2021). More respondents (60% in 2023 vs. 52% in 2021) feel that their neighborhood offers multigenerational housing options. And 49% of urban residents feel that their neighborhoods prioritize pedestrians over cars, up from 40% in 2021.
That comparatively upbeat assessment extends to the workplace as well. Since 2021, according to Gensler, there has been a 130-basis-point increase in people who feel that their career advancement has gotten better (40% in 2023 vs. 27% in 2021), and an 80-bp increase in people who feel that employment opportunities in their city have improved (44% in 2023, compared to 36% in 2021).
The attitudes are not uniformly positive, though. Although fewer respondents feel that their city is too noisy (44% in 2023 vs. 47% in 2021) or losing its cultural heritage (36% in 2023 vs. 37% in 2021), more respondents in 2023 believe their city is “too big” (43% in 2023 vs. 36% in 2021). There’s also an uptick in residents who consider their city less affordable than it was a year ago.
In the view of the Gensler Research Institute, we’ve all seen this movie before. “Urban life has pain points, but the desirability of cities is persistent,” said Sofia Song, global cities research leader. “Historically, we’ve observed this pattern of city life resurgence after major world events, and COVID-19 was no different. We’re once again at a significant turning point, where downtowns have returned to thriving centers of activity and people want to be a part of that buzz. Cities are back on the map as urban residents overall feel more positively about their neighborhoods — but urban living is not without its challenges.”