[Charles Calkins]

   
      Hi Guys:
              My date lady and I went to the wine country yesterday. Napa,Yountville and St. Helena.
              Browsed around most of the day. Had dinner at Farmstead in St.Helena. Very good food.
              That's the good news.
               The bad news is that because of the Covid and lack of tourist a lot of stores closed for good.
               We were shocked about seeing so many empty stores. The cobwebs have taken over.
               Hope things get back to normal soon. Not much fun looking into empty stores.
               Plus!!! We have not been to a live concert in a year.

                                                            Charlie

[FullRangeMan]

Here situation is exactly the same, empty stores, few customers and even less clerks, Iam buying tools, cloths and food in advance for the future. They want broke all small/medium shops, its called reset.

[Pez]

It has been a tough year and a half for everyone. Some more than others. my heart goes out to all business owners and employees who have been affected.

For me personally, I lost my job February 2020 right before the shut down. It was a really rough time for sure. Before losing my job, I had planned on making Hapa Audio a part time side gig, but when I got laid off I had a choice, try to find a job in a time when everyone was losing theirs or make Hapa Audio a full time gig. In hindsight I chose wisely. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is crisis is often accompanied by opportunity. I hope those closed businesses represent an opportunity somewhere else.

[Bemopti123]

   
      Hi Guys:
              My date lady and I went to the wine country yesterday. Napa,Yountville and St. Helena.
              Browsed around most of the day. Had dinner at Farmstead in St.Helena. Very good food.
              That's the good news.
               The bad news is that because of the Covid and lack of tourist a lot of stores closed for good.
               We were shocked about seeing so many empty stores. The cobwebs have taken over.
               Hope things get back to normal soon. Not much fun looking into empty stores.
               Plus!!! We have not been to a live concert in a year.

                                                            Charlie

The same scenario has been playing in NYC, and many other expensive cities.   But the scenario has been getting steadily worse even before the pandemic.  One of the more colorful streets in NYC, South of 14th street, Broadway that crosses through NYU and heads towards Chinatown, used to have very colorful and distinct stores but so many stores have closed due to the ridiculous amount of rents that landlords asked... either due to greed but also forced by very expensive commercial taxation in NYC.  To add to that, the pandemic and the sense of desolation has gotten all that much worse. 

Many of those who were mobile and could move, they did beyond NYC, towards the suburbs and other states.   

What you are witnessing in Northern Cal, is repeated across many expensive localities, whereas those who used to be able to afford it, no longer feel it is worth fighting a very costly struggle. 

Meanwhile, those city that could attract all those who fled, Miami, Austin, are having a boom happening.