It felt like there was a weirdly pro-office tilt in the article, like this shift to less office work and more remote had some kind of moral or ethical judgement associated with it. With that being said, big cities definitely should be worried about being able to keep up with the financial demands, with less revenue streams coming in from taxing office space. But that’s the issue with getting so much revenue from land owners rather than the corporations which operate in your space. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over time and how cities and the country adapts. We certainly have a housing crisis in many places in the US, will this resolve itself by residents spreading themselves more thinly across the US or will there be innovative ways to reclaim this office space in large cities and increased population density? Probably a combination of both.

I’m glad less people are being forced to commute for many environmental as well as practical reasons. In general the workforce is less and less tolerant of shitty corporate behavior. A recent study I read talked about how gen z has the highest rates of not applying for jobs where the salary isn’t posted. I’ve seen many similar narratives and studies - ‘the great quit’, people just leaving without giving notice, people advocating for better work environments, demanding greater equity, the most important factor for workplace engagement being whether diversity is championed, and many other shifts in mindset. As a whole the market will attempt to adapt to the diversity of opinions out there, and it does not surprise me that some companies are pushing a return to office and a response is for other companies to compete by allowing remote work - this gives the employees a choice of company to work for. A response of companies easing their policies or not enforcing a return to work is entirely unsurprising and I expect a more highly remote environment to be the norm now that it’s actually plausible for many positions.