Foot traffic in Recent York City’s business districts is still down 33% from what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic — one of the bottom recovery rates in the country, a latest survey reveals.
The University of Toronto’s evaluation measured the number of visitors, including shoppers and tourists, plus residents and staff in the so-called “downtown” or business/tourist districts in major cities in the US and Canada.
Lower Manhattan, including the Wall Street financial district, and Midtown, featuring Times Square, were considered the Big Apple’s “downtown” district for the study.
Researchers measured foot traffic through cell phone presence, comparing March to mid-June in 2023 to the identical period in 2019.
Recent York’s 66% recovery rate ranked 54th out of 66 cities surveyed.
Supermarket magnate and radio host John Catsimatidis told The Post on Sunday that staff have to return to the office.
“I’m very concerned about Recent York City,” he said. “Straight away, Manhattan has one nail in the coffin.
“For those who impose congestion pricing to enter the business district, you’ll put two nails in the coffin,” he said, referring to the transit plan to charge drivers in certain city zones to attempt to discourage vehicles.
“You see no one walking after dark.”
Democratic city Councilman Keith Powers, who represents Midtown East and West and Times Square, said town needs to create more housing in the area to make up for the loss of office space and staff.
“We’ve made regular progress in getting people back to Midtown, but we should be forward-thinking in regards to the future and recognize changes to the work place,” he said. “One of our strategies is rezoning Midtown South to incentivize more housing and create a 24/7 neighborhood.”
Las Vegas ranked first, having 103% of the foot traffic — or 3% more — from pre-pandemic. The gambling mecca was the one city to have more foot traffic than before the COVID-19 outbreak.
A researcher for the study suggested the societal shift to distant paperwork has caused a dramatic drop in foot traffic in Gotham’s business districts.
“We’ve been tracking since early 2022, and Recent York was an early comeback story – but then stalled,” said Karen Chapple, director of the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, to The Post.
“Part of that is resulting from business office tenants regularly giving up their leases,” she said.
The researcher did note that unlike earlier studies, her project excluded Hudson Yards since it is just not traditionally considered part of Midtown.
Other major cities that recovered most or considerably more foot traffic from the pre-pandemic period in comparison with the Big Apple include Miami (92%), Nashville (88%), Atlanta (85%), Los Angeles (83%) and San Diego (80%).
As with Recent York, there are other cities which have struggled to get well the pre-pandemic density in their central business district.
Chicago’s foot traffic was just 61% of what it was before the pandemic.
The recovery rate for Seattle and Minneapolis was under 60%.
High-tech San Francisco’s recovery rate was nearly an identical to Recent York City’s — or 67%.
However the Partnership for the City Of Recent York, a serious business advocacy group, questioned the accuracy of the University of Toronto’s data, citing more moderen reports showing a stronger recovery in Manhattan’s key commerce and tourism districts.
Pedestrian foot traffic in Times Square averaged 285,000 in the last week of October 2023, or 80% of the pre-pandemic count of 356,000 in the course of the equivalent week in 2019, it said.
In Downtown Brooklyn, monthly foot traffic reached 75% of pre-pandemic levels in June 2023.
“So much of our pre-COVID foot traffic involved tourists, and international tourism is still down. We even have by far the densest concentration of office staff, so the hybrid work week has had an even bigger impact here, with average weekday presence in the office [having] dropped from 80 % pre-pandemic to slightly below 60% today,” said Partnership CEO Kathryn Wylde.
Wylde also noted such studies don’t consider the rise in foot traffic where many office employees now work and shop.
“Then again, town has business districts across the five boroughs which have likely experienced an uptick in foot traffic because of this of work from home,” she said. “So I don’t think [the Big Apple’s] comparison with smaller cities with a single ‘downtown’ is a good one.”
Broadway sales and attendance were at 85% and 81% of pre-pandemic levels, respectively, in the course of the last week of October, the Partnership added.
Wylde pointed to other promising data points indicating a stronger recovery, noting that Recent York City’s regional airports had their busiest month in history, with greater than 13.3 million passengers served in August and adding that the 192nd latest business opened in Times Square in October, surpassing the 179 businesses that closed in the course of the pandemic.