BOSTON- This week, Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn passed a resolution (11 support, 1 present) urging the City of Boston to require in-person work for a minimum of four days per week for city employees. While Fidelity recently announced that employees would be required to return to the office five days a week starting in September, and Mayor Wu indicated on WBUR she’s happy more office workers are coming back to Boston, Councilor Flynn believes the public sector has a responsibility to lead the way in bringing foot traffic back to the City and Downtown Boston to support our small businesses and local restaurants.

In 2023, foot traffic was reportedly down 33% from and office vacancies were over 20% in Downtown Boston. In September 2023, Councilor Flynn held a hearing to bring City of Boston employees, and City meetings and boards back but with a true hybrid option – that is both in-person and virtual. Councilor Flynn wanted to also bring back the hundreds of visitors that historically visited City Boards every week back Downtown to support small businesses, to get a coffee, grab lunch or purchase clothing or some other goods. This includes officials and visitors to the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA), Boston Licensing Board (BLB), and the Boston Planning and Development Agency Board (BPDA), and abutters meetings. Since that time, only the BPDA Board has resumed true hybrid meetings of both an in-person and virtual, while the others remain only virtual. This continued virtual only meetings practice has excluded many of our seniors and those lacking digital equity and internet access.

At that 2023 hearing, City officials dismissed concerns on Downtown and continued to emphasize how Boston’s neighborhoods were thriving. However, since February of 2024,  joint studies released by Tufts University and Boston Policy Institute indicated that Boston could lose up to $2.1 Billion in annual tax revenue due to plummeting commercial property values. Boston may potentially be the most vulnerable in the country as 70% of our revenue is derived from property taxes, and over 50% of our land is owned by nonprofits or nontaxable. Many Downtown small businesses and restaurants have closed since the pandemic as well.

“With falling commercial property values to cost us up to $2.1 billion in annual tax revenue, our City over 70% dependent on property taxes, over 50% of our land nontaxable, and Boston now over $100 million in debt after two straight years of double digit tax increases – it is long past time for the City of Boston and public servants to lead the way in bringing foot traffic back to Downtown Boston. It is critical to support our small businesses and local restaurants,” said Councilor Flynn. “While we thank private companies for bringing workers back, the public sector has a responsibility to ensure Boston is a desirable place to do business and remain a key driver of our city, state, and regional economy.”

For more information, please contact Councilor Flynn’s office at 617-635-3203 or [email protected].