Nearly three years after the pandemic hit, activity in London, Ont.,’s downtown core is at about 79 per cent of its pre-pandemic levels, making it the leader among all Canadian cities and 13th overall in North America, according to a new update to a study called “Death of Downtown?”
The research was co-produced by the University of Toronto and the University of California, Berkley. Researchers used cell phone data to infer the position of users when they stopped at places such as retail stores, public parks, workplaces and restaurants in 62 cities from June to November 2022 and compared it to the same time frame in 2019.
The new data suggests activity in London’s core has returned to 79 per cent of its pre-pandemic levels — the highest in Canada and 13th overall across the continent, ahead of such cities as Las Vegas, New York, Ottawa, Toronto and San Francisco.
London’s strong showing was a “surprise,” according to Karen Chapple, a professor emerita in geography and the director of the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, who visited the city’s core to see for herself what was behind the robust turnaround.
London’s economy ‘is not very sexy at all’
“London, oddly, was very lucky that it didn’t rely on professional services and tech employment. So London has an economy that is not very sexy at all, and that has made it very resilient. It’s very ironic.”
Instead, Chapple said, London has construction work in the form of three or four residential highrises taking shape on the city’s downtown skyline, a vibrant retail sector and healthcare workers downtown.
Those sectors, in combination with a large number of single-family homes close to the downtown and 500 units in new residential towers, have helped propel activity in the core to levels higher than most cities in the country, she said.
The study is much more positive than some of the recent dour commercial realty data, including reports that suggest one in four downtown London offices remains empty, prompting studies on whether they can be converted into housing and starving businesses that have relied on the once ample foot traffic for decades.
“This has been decades in the making and likely not pandemic-induced,” she said.
Unlike commercial real estate reports, Chapple said, the study is far broader in scope, measuring where and when cell phone users stop in the downtown, whether at work or play.
“We’re measuring activity overall, not just office space, so all workers of all types, and we’re measuring visitors walking around and residents,” she said. “I think our study is a bigger picture view of activity downtown, and it gives me a little more hope.”
Study doesn’t measure homelessness, crime
Homelessness, addiction and crime are also issues in downtown London, but not something the study looked at specifically, Chapple said, adding the presence of social problems in a central business district seems to have little effect on whether a city successfully revives its downtown or not.
“If we did get that data, I don’t think we would see a strong correlation.”
“If you look at homelessness and crime, you see they can be high in cities that came back, and they can be high in cities that didn’t come back,” noting Baltimore, San Francisco, and New York are but a few examples.
Barbara Maly, the executive director of the London Downtown BIA, said part of what makes downtown so resilient is the number of “anchors” downtown, such as the Grand Theatre, Budweiser Gardens, the Covent Garden Market and the eclectic shops and restaurants along Dundas Place or Richmond Row that make downtown a destination.
“We’ve definitely seen a strong return,” she said. “I think because of that diversity, because of those anchors and community spots, I think that’s where we’ve benefited.”
