Good Morning, and Hello Friday!

Here are this week’s observations and trends, from coast-to-coast.

• While I live in NYC, where it’s relatively easy to spot nascent trends, I’ve also been keeping tabs on 10 other influential cities around the country to see what’s emerging there.
• And I’ve been doing this, on a daily basis, for over a year.
• Keeping track of where people are spending their time and money has been a phenomenal way of gathering insight into how Americans are coping with the pandemic and now the rebound.
• It’s also confirmed how even in the worst of times, Americans are in a league of their own when it comes to creating opportunities.

The 11 cities I am currently tracking:

• MAJOR METROS: NYC, LA, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami
• MID-SIZE CITIES (with a focus on tech/culture): Austin, Pittsburgh, Nashville
• SMALLER CITIES (creative hubs): Asheville, Boise, Missoula

I selected these cities (through trial and error), for their influencer status, for being trend-forward, for their ability to attract newcomers, and for their wide range of cultural offerings, from art and entertainment to great foodie scenes!

And with that, scroll down for this week’s Top 10.

1. Businesses are DESPERATE FOR WORKERS

I became aware of this problem last year when restaurants first reopened in NYC and many were clearly inadequately staffed. At first, I thought it was because employees were opting for unemployment benefits as opposed to working but it’s more complex than that (see below).

Here’s what’s going on:

• Most restaurants are still legally restricted to 50% seating capacity. This means waitstaff, even with generous tips, are making less than half of what they were previously earning. Not surprisingly, many have sought jobs elsewhere. I’ve spoken to several who became contact tracers for Covid and some even left to train as EMT’s.
• Boomers working in the service industry are currently retiring in record numbers creating even more worker shortages for restaurants. (Source: KTVB)
• Las Vegas resorts are finding less than half of their culinary union members are reporting to work. There are also fewer Uber and Lyft drivers resulting in hours-long waits at the airport. Visitors aren’t happy! (Source: 8NewsNow)
• Delta canceled 100 flights on Easter Sunday due to staff shortages. They also placed customers in middle seats for the first time in a year to expedite travel. (Source: The Hill)
• U.S. factories are desperate for workers with surging demand for everything from pickup trucks to plastic bags. And yet high jobless rates have not translated into workers flocking to open positions on assembly lines. Over 53,000 manufacturing positions were created last month, the highest number of new factory jobs in six months. They’ve found that young people would rather work at a Starbucks than in a factory. MANUFACTURING HAS A MAJOR IMAGE PROBLEM. IT NEEDS TO BE FIXED ASAP. (Source: Finance.Yahoo)

2. Is Work-From-Home Here to Stay or Not? What gives? So Confusing!

I’ve written about this innumberable times. It’s especially frustrating to wade through the double-speak and mixed messages from the TECH industry, e.g., why lease millions of square feet of office space while claiming everyone can work from home “forever.”. This week, the BBC finally called them on it. The Guardian also has a great piece on it, titled “a failed experiment.”

Here’s the latest:

• Google expects employees back in the office by September 1st. Those wishing to work from home for more than 14 days will have to apply to do so. Employees are also expected to “live within commuting distance” of offices.
• Twitter’s Jack Dorsey made headlines across the world last May, when he said “Twitter employees can now work from home forever.….if our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home.” Not surprisingly given how the media operates theses days, most omitted the second half of his sentence starting with “IF.”
• Microsoft envisages “‘working from home part of the time (less than 50%) as standard for most roles.” Does that mean 49% can work remotely or do they really mean they expect at least 80% back in the office?
• Amazon last week: “Our plan is to return to an office-centric culture as our baseline. We believe it enables us to invent, collaborate, and learn together most effectively.” (Not a ringing endorsement of the new work-from-home age.)
• IBM announced 80% of its workforce will spend at least three days a week in the office. “When people are remote, I worry about what their career trajectory is going to be,” said IBM chief executive Arvind Krishna.

BOTTOM LINE: Working from home while there is no office open is one thing. But remote working’s biggest test is going to be when the office starts opening up. My money is on a strong return to the office. (Source: BBC News)

3. massive Rezoning: to get affordable housing and to convert vacant retail into livable space

Examples:

• Macerich sold Paradise Valley Mall in Phoenix for $126.5M and received rezoning approval to transform the 1.2 million-square-foot shopping center into a 6.5 million-square-foot, mixed-use development including apartments, office space, self-storage along with retail, grocery, and restaurants. (Source: AZ Big Media)
• Wynwood Norte, Miami received zoning approval to overlay the traditionally single-family neighborhood with a new affordable housing development. (Source: The Real Deal)
• THE BIGGEST HURDLE FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING IS SINGLE-FAMILY ZONING. THERE WILL BE LOTS OF RESISTANCE.

4. big, dense cities maintain their allure – no matter what you’ve heard!

Online apartment marketplace Apartment List has released their latest Renter Migration Report. Definitely worth a read!!

Highlights:

• Despite many accounts of an urban exodus, activity has turned towards large, dense cities, not away from them. For every renter who left, there are many ready to take their spot.
• When urban vacancies pile up the markets respond with lower prices, which in turn generate interest among newcomers who previously may have been priced out.
• 2020 was less a story about urban exodus and more of an urban shuffle, whereby the people who left cities will be quickly replaced by the next generation of newcomers.
• This is something that I have witnessed firsthand in downtown NYC which is chock-a-block with young, newly minted renters (see more on this, #10 below).

5. Downtown Tampa wants a Target store. Me Too!!!!

• The Tampa study, conducted since 2008, seeks to determine what kind of stores residents would like in their neighborhood.
• Target was the top choice with 40% of the vote, followed by Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods at 5%.
• Target has not announced plans for Tampa but they are opening 30 to 40 stores in 2021, including smaller-format locations in dense urban centers and college campuses.
• I say kudos to Tampa’s Downtown Partnership for dreaming up this perfect pitch for Target!

6. Members-only dog park and cafe opening in Austin

• Neighbors is owned by Kati Luedecke, who also owns Killa Wasi (a Peruvian food truck), and Lamar Bowman, owner of Klock-n Fitness and private dog trainer.
• The pair plan to offer dog training classes, doggie daycare, dog yoga, and other neighborhood activities.
• It will be fully staffed and the dining area will serve coffee, cheese boards, and baked goods.
• And there is already a second location in the works. (Source: Eater Austin)

7. Laughter Yoga – or Lach Yoga in German – is becoming all the rage.

I first heard people doing this in a German Clubhouse room (where everyone was SUPER stressed – see #8 below). Laughter Yoga has been around for a while but has gotten newly popular during the pandemic. Haven’t attached any links but if you google it, 83 million results pop up.

8. German Clubhouse Gets Hijacked, experiences the worst of the internet

Translation of the above for non-German speakers:

the last few days were dramatic. more than dramatic. highly explosive rooms. rooms battling rooms. members attacking members. what’s going on here?

Klartext Room/Clubhouse

I stumbled upon this after not having been on MorgenMotivation for a week or more. I immediately sensed a weird vibe, something had gone very awry over the last few days. Members were upset, even crying.

Here’s what appears to have gone down:

• rooms that previously attracted 50 or 60 people suddenly had 200+ people in the audience
• rooms became pathological/ explosive/ argumentative/ toxic/ polarizing/ total lack of civility
• speaking over people/ blocking people
• rooms/moderators and stages were hijacked
• moderators couldn’t keep order
• people were scared to talk or get on the stage
• people ended up being muted for hours
• the hijackers were younger, described as “crude” influencers

This “hijacking” does not auger well for Clubhouse. It makes the platform worse than the worst of Twitter. Keeping Clubhouse the cool, interesting hangout it’s been will become increasingly challenging as more members are onboarded and more rooms and clubs are created. Not optimistic they can keep it together.

9. Scam alert

I recently had two scam experiences, although one is just bad business practice while the other is an out-and-out money grab (and what makes it even worse is it targets gullible seniors).

Walmart

This scam is on me for not paying attention. But it leaves a bad taste in my mouth since I’ve so often recommended people switch from Amazon to Walmart.

• I ordered an item that costs just under $10 and because I didn’t pay attention, I didn’t realize this item was not covered by Walmart Free Shipping (even though my total order was over $100). Sadly for me, the cost to ship this small item was the same as the cost of the item. Skytale, the third-party vendor, is the culprit. If you google them, the reviews are monstrous. And, by the way, the item was shipped by USPS so probably cost them 50 cents to mail.
• Making me feel like even more of a fool, I had ordered the same item from Target last month, they sent it directly with free shipping. Thank you Target for not doing businesses with these shady third party sellers.
• LESSON: Pay attention when shopping with Walmart but really all e-commerce. It’s easy to get ripped off.

Random scam targeting people 65+ (who have shopped at best buy)

First I got the below email from “sherry long” which sounded sketchy to me. I posted the whole thing on google and saw it classified as a SCAM by several police departments. What alerted me that it might be a scam was the poor English, e.g., “your subscription has been renew” as well as the entire second sentence. I did NOT follow up with them. Then I received a second email (see further below).

Second email from peter parker?? really?. And notice a different amount. Again, I did nothing which is the right thing to do. For this scam to work, they need you to get in touch with them. Many seniors unfortunately did.

LESSON: when you get an email that doesn’t smell right, NEVER EVER call or get in touch. That’s what they want. One woman lost over $20K on this scam. Always google the exact wording. It will immediately show you what kind of scam you’re dealing with.

10. It’s going to be one hella crazy summer. “the whoring ’20s” according to the NY Post

“This summer is about having lots of sex. Everyone’s getting vaccinated, everyone’s horny, everyone’s sick of virtual [dating].”

Serena Kerrigan, Instagram’s “Let’s F–king Date”

I have seen this start to happen in my neighborhood – especially as the weather has gotten warmer. It’s definitely going to be a WILD one!!

And that’s a wrap for this week, my friends.

Weather permitting, Dean, Joe and I will be trekking around Central Park checking out the cherry blossoms this Saturday, followed by lunch at Serafina.

I’m also excited to report that I’ve gotten my ticket for the Frieze Art Fair (held at The Shed at Hudson Yards). My first art fair in over a year.

And I want to give a shout out to Nate Bargatze and his super fun podcast, NATELAND that I’ve been spending way too many hours chuckling over recently. I’m not going to recommend it to one and all because it’s very Southern (out of Nashville) and very down home but I LOVE it. I love the three hosts, and I love the format and the weekly “research” theme. One of the most hysterical episodes was on Inventions. How many of you knew that in the 30’s, babies were aired out in NYC in AC cages (even Eleanor Roosevelt did it)? The earliest attempts at car safety were also pretty crazy. Anyway, NATELAND is an acquired taste. I know some of you will definitely get a kick out of it. Most of you won’t. But this is what I will be watching/listening to this coming Sunday if it turns out to be as rainy as they predict.

And on that note….

Wishing you all a great weekend. Stay safe and stay well! Have fun. I know I definitely plan to – although not quite the wild and crazy type of fun described above.

Till next week, my friends!