The Core

I think this is still shaking out as corps are lately starting to demand people come back. I sure wouldn't want to own a pure high end office space right now though.

>So, convert it to residential space? Seems like that would solve multiple problems.

If this is the same article I read, they touched on the structures not being good layouts for residential requiring too much upfit to repurpose and they're also often in bad neighborhoods and/or with no community.

>fire egress

yep, and modern US homes now tend to have a lot of plumbing.  Retrofitting wiring and pressure water pipes might be do-able but DWV -drain/waste/vent- would be incredibly expensive.

Residential water supply pressures gets to be problematic when you get above a few stories high.

And then there's the issue with the power requirements for individualized water heating & HVAC.

And how are you going to meter utilities?

No, tear them down. 

Most Empty Downtown

Hmm... When our 18yo niece and her friend visited, we took them around SF for a couple of days. Seemed busy and dynamic. If there had been any more cars, it would have been impossible to park.

I read the numbers, and I believe them. But is commercial occupancy being down the same as "empty" or "deserted" (both words the author uses)? Maybe the pre-pandemic levels were "overcrowded" and "unmanageable."

I don't know. There's only so much I can say from a two-day visit and since I've never been a regular visitor even when I lived in Berkeley (because it was too damn crowded) maybe I'm just way off.

Littleman? What's the report from the ground?

>Littleman? What's the report from the ground?

I am several months late (missed this last time), but I can tell you that returning to the office seems to be in full swing now.  The traffic is approaching to pre-pandemic numbers.  I'm not in SF proper, but the office buildings Peninsula seems to be getting  occupied again.