Links to Articles of Interest
Big Brother Overseeing Remote Workers?
A report by Toronto Metropolitan University researchers has found that a staggering 70% of remote workers indicate that they are subject to some kind of electronic surveillance from their employers. The impacts of excessive surveillance on an employee’s mental health can be severe, the report concludes. Ontario has begun a process to require written agreements about monitoring, but more attention is needed, the researchers conclude.
Read Article Here.
Pot Calls Kettle Black – Surprising Reversal from the Postal Child for Digital Meetings
To Zoom or not to Zoom. That is the burning question. The company whose video conferencing tools quickly became a verb in common usage during the pandemic has told its staff that they must spend more time in the office to facilitate cohesion and productivity. “We believe that a structured hybrid approach — meaning employees that live near an office need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams — is most effective for Zoom," a spokesperson said. A recent report from JLL suggests that 200,000 tech employees in North America and beyond are being called back to the office for two to three days a week. Three times that number in other sectors are facing similar pressures.
Read Article Here.
Citi Ramping Up Campaign to Attack Hybrid Working
In both London and New York, Citi is signalling its growing dissatisfaction with hybrid working, telling staff that it is going to start monitoring building entries at multiple locations. “Staff were told managers will be able to use the data to determine the effectiveness of its hybrid work policy, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News. Consistent flouters face disciplinary action from bonus adjustments to termination.”
Read Article Here.
Downbeat McKinsey Reports Suggests Hybrid Trends and Negative Impact on Real Estate Could be Permanent.
A new report from global giant McKinsey looks at the performance of 30 “super star cities” around the world and concludes that the impact of hybrid and remote work is affecting everything from retail sales to real estate values. Toronto is not among the cities examined. Underlying factors like inflation are also a factor, although this insight is not captured in the headlines. “Untethered from their offices, residents have left urban cores and shifted their shopping elsewhere,” the authors report. “Foot traffic near stores in metropolitan areas remains 10 to 20 percent below pre-pandemic levels.” The resulting knock-on effects of these trends are thought to undermine asset value, McKinsey concludes.
Read Article Here.
Changing Dynamics Across the Region – Buttonville to Focus on Employment….
Perhaps a surprise, given the plans for residential once contemplated by owner C-F, but with Buttonville’s airport due to close down in a few months, Markham has announced that the site will be zoned for employment uses, not housing. Regardless of the land uses, Buttonville presents a headache for transportation planners as there are no expectations for rapid transit, with only bus options on the table. Nevertheless, with the housing pendulum seemingly directed exclusively to housing in nearly every part of the region, even having a conversation about the need to provide for jobs makes for a pleasant change.
Read Article Here.
….But Elsewhere, Housing Remains the Main Draw
As documented in the article below, many of the region’s retail malls are due to be redeveloped for housing (Square One, Bayview Village, Agincourt, Galleria, Agincourt etc.). The terminology may indicate ‘mixed use,’ but the reality is that most redevelopment proposals are actually ‘residential’ with a minimal smattering of retail at street level to justify the softer sounding ‘mixed use’ sobriquet. Perhaps it is time to re-think our land use terminology? Does it make sense to refer to a 70-storey condo with a bit of ground floor retail as ‘mixed use’? In contrast, Toronto is home to a small number of genuine mixed-use buildings such as Queen’s Quay Terminal, Manulife Centre, and 914-920 Yonge Street. All three have office, residential and retail.
Read Article Here.
Housing Crisis Across North America Driving Canada and U.S. Governments to Intervene
Both Canada’s Prime Minister and the U.S. President announced plans to intervene in the housing market at the end of July – areas that are traditionally the domain of provincial and State governments. Trudeau promises infrastructure and affordable housing dollars, and Biden does the same, while also taking aim at process delays.
Read Article Here.
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The Well Earning Praise, Expanding the Reach of Deep Lake Water Cooling
A genuine mixed-use project (substantive office uses, significant residential and more than ancillary retail plus green space amenities), the Well is approaching completion at a critical time in the evolution of downtown Toronto. Its proponents believe that the extra care taken with urban design, the provision of amenities and an eye for the quality of working life will help stimulate interest among workers to return to the office. Also important is that the project is built around the latest thinking on the use of energy – with a massive investment in expanding Enwave’s deep lake water cooling network. This will ensure that Allied and investors will be in line to reap a ‘green premium’ in terms of return on investment.
Read Article Here.
Beware Dramatic Story Headlines Fostered by Conflicts of Interest
IWG’s stated mission is to become the world’s leader in helping companies transition to hybrid work. So, we should not be surprised that a recent IWG survey found that hybrid work is “growing in popularity.” Perhaps a bigger surprise is that Toronto is said to tie with Barcelona as an ideal place to pursue hybrid work. SRRA’s regular summary of articles on the future of work (etc.) strives to provide a balance of viewpoints but we also want to highlight when survey findings are less than objective.
Read Article Here.
Getting From Anywhere in 416 to Anywhere in the 905 By Transit Still a Challenge
A fascinating new interactive map illustrates how getting around the GTA by transit can be a time-consuming enterprise if your origin and destinations are not on a rapid transit route. Read Article Here.
In Praise of Commitment and a Sense of Place: Read This Long Love Letter in Praise of an Extraordinary City Builder
This article will be well worth the ten minutes or so it will take you to read it. The late Richard Ravitch was a visionary New York developer who did all the things that politicians only talk about. He built affordable apartments. He argued for and successfully gained tax increases to be spent on transit. Ravitch even found the time to chair the MTA at a critical point in that institution’s evolution that saw reinvestment in transit when the city was facing bankruptcy. “Mr. Ravitch’s death leaves a void. As he co-wrote last fall, ‘the city faces a bleak future of billions of dollars in lost commercial property tax revenues as companies downsize to meet the needs of employees who may prefer to work at home only a few days a week, or full time.’ At the time, New York City office occupancy was around 40 percent; it has since risen, only to about 50 to 60 percent.” He believed in Manhattan and spent his entire life leading by example to illustrate the importance of place, smart investing and building coalitions of the willing, regardless of political stripe. The author adds: “Successful cities also need moderately wealthy men and women — the small-scale developers, the mid-tier of corporate executives — who are motivated to engage in public service not because they want something like tax credits, but because they are fed up with their own quality of life.” And to adapt the author’s conclusion to Toronto’s situation, does our “precarious balance of locally minded wealthy individuals, civically aware property owners, competitive (provincial) and local politics and nimble, smart policy advocates still exist to steer the city toward bread-and-butter solutions — fiscal soundness, decent transit, continuity of basic public services — rather than quick fixes?”
Read Article Here.
“The Occupancy Index is supported by the City of Toronto, Downtown Yonge BIA, and Downtown West BIA. It is a measure of the percentage of office employees returning to the office compared to the number of employees who would normally have come to their offices pre-COVID. For a detailed description of the calculation please contact Iain Dobson at [email protected],”
