The COVID-19 pandemic dealt a nasty blow to cities, many of which were already struggling with housing affordability and homelessness. Remote work, business closures, and shifts in consumer behavior decimated some downtown areas, shrinking an important tax base.
It’s been nine months since the U.S. declared an end to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Some cities have recovered better than others. New rankings from University of Toronto researchers show which downtown areas in North America have been able to bounce back, and which ones are still struggling to return to normalcy.
About the methodology:
The recovery metrics on the charts and maps are computed by counting the number of unique visitors in a city's downtown area in the specified time period (standardized by region – see ‘Standardization’ section below), and then dividing it by the standardized number of unique visitors during the equivalent time period in 2019.
A recovery metric greater than 100% means that for the selected inputs, the mobile device activity increased relative to the comparison period. A value less than 100% means the opposite, that the city's downtown has not recovered to pre-COVID activity levels.
No California city reached 100%, but a couple got close. Here’s how large California cities ranked:
Downtown Recovery Rankings for Large California Cities
San Jose (96%)
Bakersfield (95%)
Los Angeles (83%)
San Diego (80%)
Oakland (74%)
Fresno (72%)
San Francisco (67%)
Sacramento (66%)
The top two cities for pandemic recovery nationwide were Las Vegas, Nevada (103%) and El Paso, Texas (97%). Overall, San Jose ranked 3rd.
See the full list here.
List and data were compiled by the University of Toronto and do not reflect statistics on all cities.