What Happens To City Centers When So Many People Work Remotely?

As more employers embrace remote work, city centers are emptier than before the pandemic.

The pandemic has changed a lot of things. Working remotely has left city centers ghosted, not nearly as crowded as they were pre-COVID. And you can see it in this commute.  "It could be the pandemic or the riots that happened; so many stores closed down," says Sana Fatema, who interns at BCBS Illinois. Here in Chicago, the Transit Authority says it lost 80% of its ridership at the height of the pandemic last spring. Some are returning, but as you can see, crowds aren’t the same.