People want to be where people are

By Isaac Oates, Tech:NYC Urbanism Fellow

In March 2022, several colleagues and I flew to Tampa, scouting locations for a potential Justworks office. We visited a series of office parks—low, sprawling buildings surrounded by seas of parking—that were entirely abandoned.

“Where is everyone?” we asked. The real estate broker explained that everyone was working from home. (In that case, why would we set up an office at all?)

COVID was still a factor, but later that day, we visited two mixed-use districts—Tampa’s Riverwalk and Water Street Tampa—and they were buzzing. Offices were open. Restaurants and food halls were full. People were eating, walking, working, talking. These weren’t tourists. They were locals—some who lived nearby, others had driven in from the suburbs just to be there.

It confirmed what I already suspected: Most people don't want to live and work in isolation.

Continue reading this post on Isaac Oates’  blog.