Reply to Real talk about the city’s economy, federal buildings leases, and telework impacts

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[quote=Anonymous]I feel pretty resentful about the federal shift to telework without any plan in place for how this will impact DC's economy. The federal properties in downtown DC have always been a liability because they don't pay taxes to the city, but the flip side was that it was a steady and reliably workforce that came into the city daily and spent money, creating an entire support economy around them.

But if those office buildings are empty, it's a massive burden. I support Bowser's initiative to try and force the feds to convert those buildings because just leaving them empty indefinitely will strangle the city. It's not a real option, but the federal government is going to move as slowly as possible to do anything about it because that's their whole deal.

I also think it's shortsighted because while I'm a huge supporter of flexible and remote work, I think some agencies and departments are going to discover that they need more face time than they are currently mandating. But the city can't sit around waiting for them to figure that out. Ideally I think each office would reconceive their office structure in a way that requires a certain amount of face time but allows workers a lot of freedom in arranging it. But again, it's the feds, they are terrible at this kind of pivot, it won't happen quickly enough to save downtown. So I support Bowser and anyone else who wants to force the feds to either put those buildings to use or sell/convert them. We can't have half the commercial district sitting empty and still have a function retail/restaurant economy. It will not work.[/quote]

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