Downtown Oakland remains a "ghost town" on day of city's return-to-office mandate

CBS News

2 days ago

For most people, the pandemic shutdown ended years ago, but in Oakland, it officially ended on Monday.
After several delays, the city of Oakland finally set June 2 as the deadline for city employees working remotely to return to the office. The mandate is supposed to help improve city operations while bringing life back to the downtown area, but it got off to a slow start.
Oakland City Center is a food venue across the street from City Hall. Jennifer Gemmel, a State worker, eats there nearly every day.
On Monday, she sat alone at a table, looking out onto a plaza of empty tables and shuttered restaurants. But she remembered what it was like before the pandemic.
"It was packed. I mean, it was hard to find a place to sit," she said. "You know, Fountain Cafe was open, and Jamba Juice, La Salsa, Max's. I mean, it's just a ghost town now."
It's hard to believe what the lunch hour now looks like just across the street from where the city is operated. But the truth is, there aren't many people working in the offices anyway, and haven't been for years.
So, in late May, City Administrator Jestin Johnson sent a reminder about June 2, saying, "effective on that date, the City of Oakland will require that all City employees report to the office or workplace a minimum of three work days per work week."
It's only three days a week, but there didn't seem to be much response, with one of the employee unions, Local 21, saying that the matter has still not been fully negotiated. In a letter, the union told its members, "If you have a current telecommuting agreement that you would like to keep, fill out the new telecommuting form with the same schedule."
"I mean, I think people just don't want to come into the office if they don't have to," said Gemmel at City Center. "People don't want to come to downtown Oakland if they don't have to."
But that doesn't do much to revitalize downtown. The city did not respond to a request about the number of remote workers who may have returned to the office on Monday.
"Yeah, it's pretty serious," said Sandra Alvarez, who works at the Sandwicheez restaurant at City Center. "It was pretty slow today. We expected everybody to come back to work. It's probably 60 percent less people than there usually are around here. The plaza's empty. You know, everybody's closing down around here. Starbucks closed down too. Starbucks used to do, like, 15,000 a day. They couldn't even keep up business here. There's no sales anymore."
But at the Marhabah Cafe, owner Mohamad Hamzeh said he's only making it because his is one of the only places left open. But in years past, he never would have had time to stop to talk to a reporter at lunch time.
"Before we were, like, super busy. We don't have time to talk to anybody," he said. "We were like, hustle, hustle, hustle. But now just, like, relaxing. We're just trying to make it day by day."
Hamzeh said he is willing to stick it out for one more year, mainly because he loves his city. But he said no one can survive the current situation for long.
"Unfortunately, that's what it is right now. That's what happened after the pandemic. And we're waiting for people to come back to the office so we can keep going," Hamzeh said.