CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles acknowledges uptown Charlotte foot traffic isn't back to pre-pandemic levels, but she's optimistic about it.
"I see the lunches coming back, I see the buildings coming back," Lyles said, in an interview featured on WCNC's Flashpoint.
For much of the pandemic, Uptown was a ghost town. The vibrant foot traffic brought by the banks and other employers for decades evaporated overnight. In the last six months, companies have slowly brought back workers, but often on hybrid schedules.
Restaurants, bars, and shops are reliant on the business brought by weekday workers, still not at 2019 levels.
"I don't think that you'd see it today. But will we see it at some point in the 2022-23 timeframe? I do believe that there's the opportunity to see it then," Lyles said.
Lyles doesn't see an active role for the city to play in forcing the return of workers. Instead, she believes the free market will force the issue.
"Companies have culture. And in the culture, you can't do that by zoom, and you can't do it by home," Lyles said.
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Flashpoint is a weekly in-depth look at politics in Charlotte, North Carolina, South Carolina, and beyond with host Ben Thompson. Listen to the podcast weekly.
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