Activity in downtown Ottawa at 51 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in the fall, study finds
CTV
Ottawa ranks 45th out of 62 cities across Canada and the United States in a study on downtown recovery, with activity levels at 51 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
Workers and tourists are slowly returning to downtown Ottawa, but a new study suggests activity remains at approximately half of pre-pandemic levels nearly three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A study by the University of Toronto School of Cities and University of California, Berkeley finds activity in downtown Ottawa was 51 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in the fall. That's up from 48 per cent between March and May 2022.
According to the study, called "Death of Downtown?" Ottawa ranks 45th out of 62 cities in Canada and the United States for activity in the downtown core in the September to November period, and fifth out of 10 Canadian cities.
The study measures the level of economic and social activity in a downtown core using signals from cellphone towers. To measure the level of economic and social activity, researchers aggregated mobile phone trajectory data documenting the number of visits to places of interest.
Downtown Ottawa businesses are hoping for a boost this winter as federal civil servants begin to return to the office. As of Jan. 16, federal government employees are required to work two-to-three days a week in the office after two-and-a-half years of working from home.
Salt Lake City, Utah, has the highest return to the downtown of the 62 cities surveyed, at 135 per cent, followed by Bakersfield, California and Fresno, California.
San Francisco has the lowest return to the downtown, at 31 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
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