What’s Driving US Downtown Revivals
Despite hybrid work, major city centers from Nashville to Manhattan are filling up with people again.
Nashville has as much foot traffic to its downtown now as before the pandemic, driven by visitors and tourists.
Photographer: Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
After struggling in the wake of the Covid pandemic, downtowns across America are turning a corner. Even though workers have been slow to return and office vacancy remains high, residents have surged back and visitors and tourists have helped to fill much of the gap.
Those are the key takeaways of a new study of 26 of America’s largest downtowns by Paul Levy and his team at Philadelphia’s Center City District. It tracks downtown recovery patterns from the second quarter of 2019 before the pandemic struck to the second quarter of 2023. Using detailed cell phone tracking data from Placer.ai, it charts downtown activity patterns for three key groups: non-resident workers who commute to work in downtown, residents who live downtown and visitors who travel downtown to enjoy cultural and entertainment amenities.