As for looking at the causes of the deterioration of life in Downtown, you only have to look at the last 5 years of events which collectively have all led to the loss of people--alive walking, shopping, working and touring people.
Beginning with Covid, most companies have at best adopted a hybrid work schedule which means that nobody is downtown a third to half of the time. The spin off is that restaurants relying upon working breakfasts and lunches now are empty, or with so few people that they cannot survive.
Second, conventions and meetings are occurring less and less. With on line zoom communication, and a lack of discretionary funding for travel, fewer and fewer people attend conventions that traditionally bring a huge number of folks to downtown to be educated and to gather with their peers. These people tend to work hard in the daytime, and then party hard at night. And working agendas are ofter interrupted by walking tours, and bus tours to area attractions, expending significant bucks while enjoying what the city has to offer.
But the real loss has occurred in the past two or three years with the loss of tourism. With ICE and the dangers of unsafe neighborhoods, tourists, (especially foreign tourists) are just not traveling, and when they do travel, they are not coming to the United States. The international airlines are reflecting a loss of travel up to 60% for some cities like Minneapolis, where the on street deportation activities of Ice has also scared away the families who would normally want to enjoy the great downtowns of America.
In addition, there is the loss of jobs especially in the bigger cities. In Denver, which has been featured in the story, the glut of downtown office space has bee increased by the relocation of people to other markets around the country where the politics fit their preferences for where they want to work. The loss of government jobs in Denver has been huge, with the closing of the EPA, and the relocation of major government activities like the IRS, Social Security, and other white collar jobs either to cheaper space in the suburbs, or relocated or closed completely from a downtown presence.
And then there is retail. Most of the retail that is street driven has been relocated to walkable districts such as Cherry Creek, leaving downtown with virtually no retail space. The emergence of sports related entertainment districts has sapped retail and restaurants from downtowns, leaving block after block of vacant first floor space, created by an overzealous zoning ordinance that required street level activity throughout downtown areas,--way too much to ever be absorbed and especially tough now with retail moving out of the downtown core.
Housing is the last use to mention. The office conversion to housing is a great idea but it is slow and there are very few buildings that work well for housing because floor plates are too large and the buildings cannot easily be adapted to local building codes for residential properties. but the trend is catching on with a number of older office buildings being ideally converted to a combination of affordable and market rate properties.
So what does that leave? Culture, museums, performing arts are all thriving, but like the story says, these tend to be destination oriented, with people driving, parking and leaving without engaging in downtown at all. What can fill the void are street fairs, art fairs, and street festivals that bring people downtown, activate the open space of the downtown area, and provide a catalyst for people to see that downtowns are still desirable and safe. It certainly is possible that as our downtown begin to resemble cities like Paris and London, a vibrant mx of residential, entertainment and shopping will bring the vitality back again. But clearly, it is going to take time, need subsidies, and require developers who are willing to take risks in markets that have seriously eroded and in downtown districts where there is no longer a concentration of people nor a density of active, vibrant streets. The downtown dilemma is really one of chicken and egg. What comes first, the active street life that will bring tourists back and will nurture a return of tourist support hotels, restaurants and entertainment activities; or lots and lots of housing that will spawn active walkable amenities such as grocery. shopping, hardware stores, pubs and other necessary ingredients to vibrant neighborhoods. The attraction of these mix of uses make for complete neighborhoods in a walkable setting, resulting in the desirable outcome of reducing auto traffic in favor of amenities that are close and accessible on foot. I would think that housing must come first for the vibrancy of tourism to return, but in reality we need both scenarios to feed the massive amounts of vacant or under performing real estate, deteriorated public infrastructure, vacant buildings, and shuttered destinations.
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Richard L. von Luhrte FAIA Emeritus
Retired President
RNL, now Stantec
Denver, Colorado
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-22-2026 05:15 PM
From: Nikolaus Philipsen, FAIA
Subject: Clean Streets, Empty Blocks: Is the "Rising" Downtown an Illusion?
Clean Streets, Empty Blocks: Is the "Rising" Downtown an Illusion?
The State of Downtown, according to its boosters, the Downtown Partnership, is always good or rising. To many Baltimoreans it is a rather sad affair, at least since the pandemic. The Downtown Partnership continues to clean and sweep with the uniformed ambassadors which are now a familiar site in many US cities, but for fewer and fewer people. Retail sales are down, hotel and office occupancy occupancy are scary, and whole office towers can be bought for less than a nice condo in New York costs.
The SUN titled their article about the Partnership's Annual Meeting this way: "Failure to adapt prompts shift in properties: $1B commercial crash, residential spike reshape Baltimore tax burden".
More than $1 billion in commercial property value has been erased from Baltimore since 2020 (Baltimore SUN, 4/19/26)
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| Baltimore SUN: Failure to adapt |
Truth be told, though, many cities all around the US are undergoing similar office tower real estate crashes
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE INCLUDING EXAMPLES FROM ATLANTA AND DENVER
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[Klaus] Philipsen FAIA
Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
Baltimore MD
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