Remember vacations? Pleasure trips? Traveling for fun? That was cool. Good times. I just wanted to remind you. That’s it. Seacrest out.
I kid, but the trickle of tourists making their way back to the Quarter got me thinking. At some point in your life, you must have been on vacation and thought to yourself, “I wish I could live here.” Whether it was in the mountains, on a beach, or in a unique, vibrant city, we’ve all fantasized about it until the reality of work crashes the party. Odds are, the places where you’d want to move don’t have the employment opportunities necessary to make it happen.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a seismic shift in how many of us work. If that continues in the post-COVID world, as experts in such things believe it will, that changes everything. You can pack your job up with your furniture and take it with you.
Out of all of the millions of people who have come to New Orleans through the years and soaked it up, how many would live here if they could? That demand has been large enough to create a market of out-of-towners who own condos as second homes. Perhaps this work-from-home revolution will turn those second homes into first. This could help the efforts to diversify the New Orleans economy.
There’s no question COVID-19 has been a punch to the economic gut of this city, but there could be a silver lining when we’re finally on the other side of this pandemic.
