BOSTON MAY LIFT RESTRICTIONS AS ECONOMY SUFFERS

Compared to 2019, Boston’s weekday restaurant reservations are 78 percent fewer, foot traffic in stores is down by half, and hotel occupancy rates are 18.2 percent, according to data reported by the Boston Globe from a variety of sources.
The city’s Planning and Development office shows that:

• people spend less than half as much time at workplaces than in pre-pandemic days;
• commuting has been reduced by 56 percent;
• out-of-town visitors are 40 percent fewer;
• unemployment among city residents has almost doubled to about 25,000;
• consumer spending in the Boston area has risen 2.1 percent this month, a quarter of the 8.4-percent average gain seen by the rest of the state.

As a result, Boston may loosen its restrictions on businesses and social mobility Wednesday. The city’s shutdown has been more drastic than those in other areas of Massachusetts, closing museums, gyms, and most other places where people would come into contact.
The city is mulling easing its lockdown after governor Charlie Baker announced on 21 January he will end the state’s stay-at-home mandate and allow restaurants to re-open at a 25-percent capacity. 
Mayor Marty Walsh (now Joe Biden’s nominee for Labor Secretary) has not been shy about keeping tighter controls in place in Boston than Baker has statewide; he may well leave the city locked down.
“Boston has to recover on the public health side before it can truly recover on the economic side,” Marty Martinez, Boston’s health director, told the Globe. “We cannot do one versus the other.”
TREND FORECAST: By coincidence or by design, strong Democratic states, such as California; New York; and Michigan, and cities including Boston; Chicago; Baltimore; and Washington, D.C. are now lifting strict lockdown rules and starting to open up.
However, in North and Midwest states where winter weather keeps people indoors at the best of times, re-opening in the cold months will do little to boost tourism, hospitality, restaurant, entertainment, and other related sectors.