*Boston skyline on a windy, rainy day.*
*— Photo by* *Bert Kaufmann*

*In downtown Providence.*
*— Photo by Payton Chung*

Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

Obviously, many jobs that have required being in a company’s office five days a week won’t be coming back, as remote work (whose adoption was rapidly accelerated by COVID) and artificial intelligence (which will probably destroy many millions of jobs) keep chomping away at them. This, of course, has presented a big challenge to city downtowns – some of which continue to report scary vacancy rates. But things aren’t as bad as has been presented, and indeed some downtowns are rebounding.

And even as employers have cut back on office space, more and more are demanding that employees who have been entirely remote return to the office at least several days a week. This requires precision planning! Good companies know that many good ideas, especially for problem-solving, come from in-person collaboration.

Hit these links:

https://centercityphila.org/uploads/attachments/clnkqulms0ngyngqdkvd1ozpk-downtowns-rebound-2023-web.pdf?utm_source=ccd&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=downtowns&utm_id=report&utm_content=oct2023

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-31/despite-remote-work-downtown-nashville-is-thriving-for-residents-and-visitors?srnd=citylab

City officials are coming to realize that thriving downtowns will depend much more on recreational visitors and new and old residents drawn to their conveniences and cultural and other nonwork-related attractions and activities, and much less on workplaces (except the work done by staff at such places as restaurants, performance venues, museums and so on).

The Providence Food Hall, scheduled to open next year in the old Union Station, is an example of the exciting attractions that will keep people coming downtown as visitors and get some to want to live there. It will build on Rhode Island’s reputation as a food center.

BUT, the success of the food hall will depend to no small degree on the city stopping the social chaos and crime, and fear of crime, that sometimes envelop Kennedy Plaza. There are some fine examples of how public spaces that had become messes have been cleaned up and restored to the civic treasures that they had been. Consider Bryant Park, in Manhattan. (Thanks for the reminder, Brian Heller.)

Hit this link for an update on the Providence Food Hall project (named Track 15):

https://www.golocalprov.com/business/providence-food-hall-announces-name-and-initial-vendors

Downtown Providence is better positioned than many places to thrive in cities’ brave new world because of its walkable compactness, its colleges, whose students and staffs patronize local business, and the fact that a middle-and-upper-class neighborhood abuts it.

What works for downtowns

The trees that remain

Mass transit in 1904