Will They Ever Return?

eolesen wrote: ↑Tue Mar 15, 2022 12:28 am FWIW, our local gas prices have started to recede by $0.05 - $0.10 of what they were a week ago. Some of the run-up was clearly due to people panic buying...

Let's see what another week brings before deciding that everyone will be jumping back on public transit.

Crude oil prices were settling back down again after the initial panic. Like folks panicing at the pump, speculators paniced at the commodity markets. Things are settling back down, but I doubt we'll get back to under-$3 for a few months.

Yup. If the drops for the past 24 hours are any indicator, we are back to where we were before this became a shooting war.

Still a far cry from the $75 we started the year at. Or the $55/bbl that Biden inherited from Trump...

jwhite07 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 7:04 am Haven't noticed what diesel prices are around here, but my wife and I both topped off our gas tanks at $4.29/gal two days ago and it's increased even since then. As far as diesel, yesterday I got a delivery of home heating oil (which I understand is pretty much the same stuff but dyed and taxed differently)... $5.33/gal. Yeah, 90 bucks to fill up two cars, and then over $850 for oil, all in the same week. Glad I can still work from home - I can't afford to go anywhere for a while.

You know. In Europe, you pay more then 100 bucks to fill ONE car with gas or diesel....

I have payed today €2.069 ($2.2759) for ONE liter diesel. Or €7.83 ($8.613) for an gallon. My car has a capacity of around 15.90 gallons. You can do the math...

On average, half of what you're paying per liter in the EU is due to taxes.

We on the other hand fought a war over excess taxation once....

The evidentiary matter continues to accumulate; the answer is never:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/midtown-ma ... lewebshare

Fair Use (railroad related):

Now, after two years of remote work, the formerly bustling Midtown office district feels more than a little hollowed out. A peek inside office towers reveals floors of vacant cubicles. Once-packed commuter trains arrive at Grand Central Terminal and New York Penn Station with ridership at less than half of pre-pandemic levels. Restaurants, bars and shops that depended on heavy foot traffic have gone out of business.

In New York, and other cities across the country, it’s becoming clear that even when people feel safe going out to eat or shop, most don’t want to return to their daily commutes.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul have prodded employers to bring their workers back, but to little effect. Keycard swipes tracked by security company Kastle Systems show that Midtown offices barely cracked one-third of their pre-pandemic workforces in the first two weeks of March, despite falling Covid-19 infection rates.

WFH could easily be considered the greatest societal impact of the Pandemic that will linger even when young children are asking "Daddy, what was COVID?"

Mention of rail is only tangential, and for those who "have to go in" have possibly noted Wednesday is the peak day. This Journal article certainly notes such.

Fair Use:

For years, Mondays sort of haunted the weekend, a looming day when the fun would be over and it was time to get serious again.

But as employers start asking their work-from-home people to come in part of the time, a different day is taking center stage: It’s Wednesday.

Looking at meeting calendars, it's clear that many are settling into a Tue/Wed/Thu in-office work week.

That's something that those of us who have had to travel our of town for work are long used to - travel on Monday, grind away on Tue/Wed, fly out Thursday evening. Friday becomes a dead day to balance out travel and longer Tue/Wed workdays...

Downtown businesses tailored to commuters simply can't survive on a three day workweek...

On a related note, I just saw a TV hit that says the 35%+ increase in crime for both CHI and NYC is causing many downtown workers to delay their return. I know we've had three shootings near our offices and a couple of carjackings at nearby parking garages. If I weren't located at our suburban satellite, I'd be avoiding the office, too.

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Latest I saw (today) says that only 8% of formerly full time workers who got to work remotely have returned to 5 days a week. 60 some odd percent are returning 2 or 3 days a week, and 22% say they will not return (to NYC). They will either work remote full time or no longer work in the city. Over 50% say their decision to not return full time is primarily motivated by crime.

@CharlieL Aren’t a lot of businesses in NY moving to NJ because of taxes on top of other issues?