metro
Published November 5, 2023, 12:33 PM ET
Foot traffic in New York City’s business districts is still down 33% compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic – one of the lowest recovery rates in the country, a new survey shows.
The University of Toronto analysis measured the number of visitors, including shoppers and tourists as well as residents and workers in so-called “downtown” or business/tourist districts in major cities across the United States and Canada.
Lower Manhattan, including the Wall Street financial district, and Midtown with Times Square were considered the “downtown” district of the Big Apple for the study.
Researchers measured foot traffic through mobile phone presence, comparing March to mid-June in 2023 to the same period in 2019.
New York ranked 54th out of 66 cities surveyed with a recovery rate of 66%.
Las Vegas took first place with 103% of its foot traffic – or 3% more – since before the pandemic. The gambling mecca was the only city with more pedestrian traffic than before the COVID-19 outbreak.
New York City ranked 54th out of 66 cities in downtown recovery. University of Toronto
A researcher in the study suggested that society’s shift to remote office work has led to a dramatic decline in foot traffic in Gotham’s business districts.
“We’ve been tracking this since early 2022, and New York was an early comeback story — but then stalled,” Karen Chapple, director of the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, told The Post.
“Part of this is due to commercial office tenants gradually giving up their leases,” she said.
A researcher says New York was an early comeback story after the lockdown until it faltered.Getty Images
However, the researcher noted that, unlike previous studies, her project excluded Hudson Yards because it is not traditionally considered part of Midtown.
Other major cities that have recovered most or significantly more pre-pandemic foot traffic compared to the Big Apple include Miami (92%), Nashville (88%), Atlanta (85%), Los Angeles (83%) ) and San Diego (80%).
Like New York, other cities are struggling to restore pre-pandemic density in their central business districts.
Foot traffic in Chicago was just 61% of pre-pandemic levels.
The recovery rate for Seattle and Minneapolis was less than 60%.
Other tourist areas outside of downtown New York saw larger increases in traffic.Getty Images
High-tech San Francisco’s recovery rate was nearly identical to New York City’s – 67%.
But the Partnership for the City of New York, a major business advocacy group, questioned the accuracy of the University of Toronto’s data, pointing to recent reports that showed a stronger recovery in Manhattan’s key commercial and tourism districts.
Foot traffic in Times Square averaged 285,000 in the last week of October 2023, 80% of the pre-pandemic figure of 356,000 in the corresponding week in 2019, it said.
In Downtown Brooklyn, monthly foot traffic reached 75% of pre-pandemic levels in June 2023.
“A large portion of our pre-COVID foot traffic was tourists, and international tourism is still declining. We also have by far the densest concentration of office workers, so the hybrid workweek has had a greater impact here with average weekday office attendance [having] has dropped from 80% before the pandemic to just under 60% today,” said Partnership CEO Kathryn Wylde.
Wylde also noted that such studies do not take into account increasing foot traffic where many office workers now work and shop.
“On the other hand, there are business districts across the city’s five boroughs that are likely to see an increase in foot traffic due to work from home,” she said. “So I don’t think so [the Big Apple’s] The comparison with smaller cities with a single “downtown” is fair.”
Broadway sales and attendance were at 85% and 81% of pre-pandemic levels, respectively, in the final week of October, the partnership added.
Wylde pointed to other promising data points that point to a stronger recovery, noting that New York City’s regional airports had their busiest month in history with more than 13.3 million passengers in August, adding that in October marked the 192nd new business opening in Times Square, surpassing the 179 businesses that have closed during the pandemic.
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