Two well-known companies are the latest to announce plans to downsize office space in San Francisco or completely leave.
Twitter says it will be downsizing at its iconic mid-Market headquarters while Etsy is closing its office in the city.
According to a security agent who works at 20 California, Etsy had just completed an expensive renovation of the two floors it leased in the building, but come December, the company will be walking away from it's newly-refurbished space.
In a lengthy post on the company's website, Chief Human Resources Officer Kim Seymour wrote, in part, "supported by Etsy's robust hybrid framework, many who are currently remote have told us they do not plan to return to an office in the near future."
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Etsy's exit from 20 California is bad news for Paul Ayanyan, owner of Le Regency Deli & Cafe. He says he's going to miss a lot of his regular customers.
In the 40 years that he's operated the deli, he's seen a few ups and downs in the city economy, but the last two years have been especially challenging. The only way he's been able to stay open is because of a flexible leasing deal he made.
"We are very appreciative of our landlords from day one to allow us to put the rent aside and work on a percentage base of the gross sales, which is the only way I agreed with them," Ayanyan said.
Jeff Bellisario with the Bay Area Council said the changes are a sign that many big tech companies may never return to pre-pandemic size office spaces in the city. That means policy leaders should start getting creative in trying to entice workers to stay.
"How do you bring back other amenities to make you really want to come back to the office?" Bellisario said. "So, you've heard street festivals, street closures, more promenades, cafes. What do you think about Wi-Fi in more places so that you could even work remotely from within downtown San Francisco."
Bellisario said, according to their research, the most cited reason tech workers do not want to return to the office is the commute.
Software engineer Praveen Kumar agrees.
"Without having to rush the morning or commute, I just have a lot more time to actually do more work without stressing about getting back and forth between home and office," he said.
According to the Bay Area Council, streamlining public transportation in the Bay Area is not an easy problem to solve.
