COVID-19 in Boston

KentXie said:
TripAdvisor is shutting down their Boston office permanently
www.boston.com

Tripadvisor is cutting a quarter of its workforce due to the coronavirus

Citing the financial effects of the coronavirus, Tripadvisor announced job cuts Tuesday affecting more than 900 employees — or roughly a quarter of its total workforce. “This is a tough day on many levels, and this pandemic has been nothing short of surreal,” Steve Kaufer, the Needham-based...
www.boston.com
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Undoubtedly the first of many to come.
 
tysmith95 said:
Of other companies highly at risk in the Boston area, Education First comes to mind.
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I think it would be easier to identify the companies for whom there isn’t a risk of them reducing their footprint or closing up shop entirely. Between the economy itself and a shift to remote work wherever possible I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few million square feet vacated by year end.
 
citydweller said:
It will be interesting what the long-term ramifications will be regarding the traditional work-at-the-office mentality by corporate America. There was a lot of speculation that network bandwidth would be overtaxed with the quarantine mandate but I haven't seen anything noteworthy. If the massive remote office experiment has worked for businesses, then I can see a reduction of leases come renewal time or new leases for a smaller office footprint. I suspect that many planned office projects will be put on-hold or cancelled outright. And, I'm sure no ones missed their daily commuter headaches.
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Not that we've ever seen something like this happen, but I have a suspicion that some offices are going to return to normal working conditions because they have to, seeing as we have a few thousand biomedical, defense, engineering/research, etc. jobs that are really struggling right now in handling classified information, and seeing as they would return to 'normal,' I wonder if it will turn into a monkey-see, monkey-do type effect where other offices see full employment returning and just decide they should also return to the same working conditions. I can also see the other side of the argument, where certain offices will see the decreased operating costs as a major pro to transitioning to partial WFH employment.
 
stefal said:
Not that we've ever seen something like this happen, but I have a suspicion that some offices are going to return to normal working conditions because they have to, seeing as we have a few thousand biomedical, defense, engineering/research, etc. jobs that are really struggling right now in handling classified information, and seeing as they would return to 'normal,' I wonder if it will turn into a monkey-see, monkey-do type effect where other offices see full employment returning and just decide they should also return to the same working conditions. I can also see the other side of the argument, where certain offices will see the decreased operating costs as a major pro to transitioning to partial WFH employment.
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My friend, who works for the government, has resorted to staggered WFH schedule where 1/2 of the workers come into the office the last 3 days of the week and the first 2 days of next week and then the other half comes in the office during the days the other half isn't in the office. This could be the type of rotating schedule enacted during the easing of restrictions.
 
I've read a recent article asserting that the pandemic has forced a paradigm shift "as entire industries are working quite effectively from home". The article indicates that industries that have proven that remote work disciplines are not only effective but financially beneficial for both employers and employees and will never return to what existed to the pre-pandemic world. The assertions are interesting and thought provoking. I'm wondering how that may impact public transportation, highway infrastructure, climate change projections, office space needs, oil/gas industries, etc. the ramifications are broad and seem never-ending. I'm curious on what member here think as well. Could this mean the end of transportation woes? over-crowded highways? decrease in pollution, decrease in the need for "green" solutions, decrease in fed spending for infrastructure improvements. Some of the assertions are far-reaching and fanciful but interesting nonetheless.
 
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From the UHub site.

www.universalhub.com

The Pops celebrate essential workers, virtually

It there were a Zoom version meant for orchestral performances, it might look and sound like this rendition of John Williams's "Summon the Heroes," played as a tribute to essential workers. H/t Adam Castiglioni.
www.universalhub.com www.universalhub.com
 
Direct link to the Pops' performance Bee Line alerted us to:


I appreciate it the same way that David McCullough said of Trinity Church: "This isn't just the work of an architect. This is the work of a civilization. " I'd say "This isn't just the work of a composer. This is the work of a civilization"
 
stefal said:
Fun fact, Parcel K in the Seaport is technically on Massport land and can continue construction. I know the workers on site were raising some noise about not feeling safe, so I'm not sure if they've continued work through the peak week(s), but they were working when everyone else around them wasn't at the beginning of the stay at home advisory.
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The City of Boston just approved all work to start back up on the 18th for outdoor work and May 26th for all other projects, great news!
 
OMG Yes! Other states have just started resuming construction.
 
For lack of a better place to put this, and apologies if it has already been shared but the Mayor announced a phased reopening of construction sites in Boston: https://files.constantcontact.com/919af31a201/0d5ccc07-3190-4ba3-99ce-1d12990696e6.pdf

May 18th is the official resumption date for smaller or outdoor projects and May 26th for all projects included under the Governors essential construction list (most projects including large scale residential)
 
KentXie said:
My friend, who works for the government, has resorted to staggered WFH schedule where 1/2 of the workers come into the office the last 3 days of the week and the first 2 days of next week and then the other half comes in the office during the days the other half isn't in the office. This could be the type of rotating schedule enacted during the easing of restrictions.
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This is what I'm doing with my staff. There is one day a week when I and one other person are both in the office. On the other four days it's just one person on a scheduled rotation. We have certain tasks that can't be done remotely, so we are doing them, but we are avoiding contact to the extent possible. The one day of overlap has to do with documents I sign that are prepared and then scanned and mailed by the other person. He'd have to come in twice if we wanted to do this without the overlap, and I don't want him to have to do that. But even so, our interaction is minimal. I suspect that will become a very typical model.
 
I don't know what happened to the COVID-19 thread for urban impact in general (link doesn't redirect me to that thread) but in Manhattan, several major companies are considering reducing their commercial footprint after finding out WFH doesn't appear to have too much of a negative impact on productivity and would save money on their bottom line

www.boston.com

Manhattan faces a reckoning if working from home becomes the norm

NEW YORK — Before the coronavirus crisis, three of New York City’s largest commercial tenants — Barclays, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley — had tens of thousands of workers in towers across Manhattan. Now, as the city wrestles with when and how to reopen, executives at all three firms have...
www.boston.com

Looking forward, my guess is if this trend continues, a sizable portion of these soon to be less than fully occupied commercial buildings will be converted into residential which may actually contribute to the fall in housing prices and potentially solve our housing crisis.

Frankly I'm all for this. Increasing housing supply by converting commercial supply and the flexibility to work anywhere in the country is incredibly valuable and would level the playing field (in terms of reducing the cost of living) for all major cities across the nation as well as surrounding cities/towns of major urban centers.
 
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