Since the worst days of the pandemic, the economy has started bouncing back, but what about downtowns? Data from the University of Toronto’s School of Cities shows that most American cities have a long way to go when it comes to downtown activity reaching pre-pandemic levels.
To gauge just how much specific downtown areas have recovered, or not, researchers counted the number of unique mobile phones in a city’s downtown per season (spring, summer, fall, winter) and divided that number by the unique number of visitors during 2019’s seasons. The results show that just four of the 63 cities tracked for the spring 2023 period have exceeded spring 2019 numbers. Those cities are:
- Salt Lake City, Utah: 139% of pre-pandemic levels
- Bakersfield, California: 128%
- Fresno, California: 116%
- El Paso, Texas: 107%
Salt Lake City is the clear winner, with the downtown area seeing 39% more foot traffic in spring 2023 than it did in spring 2019. But besides the four above, every other U.S. downtown on the list still has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels.
The cities that are struggling the worst are:
- San Francisco, California; in spring 2023, it had just 32% of the foot traffic it had in spring 2019
- Cleveland, Ohio (36%)
- Portland, Oregon (37%)
- Minneapolis, Minnesota (40%)
The researchers don’t cite the specific reasons for a downtown’s recovery or lack thereof, and each city has its own challenges. But the main reason for the downtown flights starting in 2020 was the COVID lockdowns that came into effect, which drove work-from-home trends to become the norm through much of the pandemic, leading to an evaporation of downtown activity.
You can check out the full list of the 63 cities the University of Toronto researchers tracked here.
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the final deadline, June 7.
Sign up for Brands That Matter notifications here.
