New poll shows doom and gloom in Bay Area, with one bright spot


Housing prices are ridiculous, trash and homeless encampments line our streets, reservoirs are drying up – and it’s only getting worse.

Bay Area residents are finding a lot to be cheerless about these days, according to an exclusive poll by the Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley. But there’s one major bright spot in all the doom and gloom: working from home. By and large, local workers agree this pandemic holdover has changed their lives for the better, and they’re not ready to give it up.

“After two years, hybrid, at least, is here to stay,” said Brian Jones, who works remotely most days from his home in San Francisco. “It’s going to be very difficult to get people to go back five days a week in the office.”

Brian Jones of San Francisco, who works in financial services, pets his dog, Tarzan, as he works from home on Sept. 28, 2022, in San Francisco, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group) 

The poll, which surveyed 1,628 registered voters in the five core Bay Area counties, highlights the extent to which our lives remain drastically altered two and a half years after the first COVID-19 outbreak, even though vaccines are ubiquitous, mask rules are largely a distant memory and President Joe Biden declared the pandemic is over. About half of those polled continue to have the option to work from home, and nearly everyone given the choice is taking advantage of it, at least some of the time.

Many of those are reveling in their ongoing freedom. Instead of sitting in traffic and spending all day in an office, they’re coaching their kid’s soccer team, taking care of aging pet rats, spending quality time with a partner and starting a new degree program.

Poll results asking if the Bay Area, California and U.S. are on the wrong trackThe pandemic also continues to affect us in other ways, even though COVID has plummeted on a list of the region’s top concerns. Between 45% and 60% of residents in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Mateo counties say they continue to cut back on dining out, attending parties and going to the movies, compared to pre-COVID times.

At the same time, a more generalized angst is widespread and by some measures, way up.

“I was surprised, frankly. I thought we’d be a little bouncier as the pandemic is in its waning days and months,” said Russell Hancock, president and CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a public-private partnership focused on civic issues.  “I would have thought people would be in a better mood. But it turns out we’re grumpy. Like, really grumpy.”

Of those surveyed in the online poll earlier this month, 62% said the Bay Area is on the “wrong track” a startling increase of 10 percentage points from last year. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said quality of life in the Bay Area has worsened during the last five years. Their biggest worries were the cost of housing, the cost of living, homelessness and drought.

Poll on what are serious problems in the Bay Area

“My neighborhood isn’t rough, but it isn’t the nicest either. And it’s just a constant struggle with trash,” said 35-year-old Elle, of Oakland. “The street where I live, it basically feels like a junkyard sometimes.”

Elle, who declined to give her last name because of privacy concerns, also broods about climate change, like nearly three-fourths of fellow Bay Area residents. She’s lived in the region for the better part of a decade, and her lack of air conditioning has never before been a problem. But, after several recent sweltering spells, she felt like she couldn’t escape the summer heat.

Crime too is an increasing worry for Bay Area residents, with 49% describing it as an extremely serious problem up 12 percentage points from last year, the largest jump on the list.

And people are feeling pessimistic about the Bay Area’s economy, with just 38% saying economic conditions are good or excellent. By contrast, half of the respondents said their personal finances are in good or excellent shape.

Poll results on the good and bad of working at homeJones, 47, of San Francisco, frets about the high cost of housing pricing out the region’s young people potentially including, someday, his now 9-year-old daughter. He also laments the many businesses closed as a result of the pandemic, and how the city’s formerly bustling downtown has become a ghost town.

“The vibrancy that was here pre-pandemic is just not fully back,” he said. “And I think there’s questions about whether it will be fully back.”

But working from home during the pandemic gave Jones, who works in finance, the opportunity to coach his daughter’s soccer team something he never could have done while going to the office five days a week. Now, like many in the Bay Area, he wants a flexible schedule that mixes remote work with occasional days in the office.

If they had their druthers, 43% of people polled would work from home sometimes, while 33% would work from home all the time. Of those who have been allowed to work from home, just 5% said their employer is ending remote work, while 41% said they are required to spend some time in the workplace.

Poll results on how the Bay Area was changed by COVD-19

But as Jones’ bosses try to persuade workers to return, they’re struggling to perfect the hybrid work environment. Some days, Jones shows up to work in an empty office and finds himself wondering why he bothered commuting in.

“You go in and say, ‘Well, I’m in the office and now I’m on a Zoom meeting,’” he said.

Not everyone wants to work from home, and 24% of those polled said they have no interest in remote work. Josh Jessup, who works in sales, describes himself as the “weirdo” who would rather be in the office. But his employer has no plans to reopen his workplace after closing it for COVID.

“So now I’m kind of trapped at home feeling isolated and not part of a team anymore, and just kind of on an island,” said 49-year-old Jessup, who recently rented his own small office space so he has a reason to leave his house in Contra Costa County’s Discovery Bay.

Catherine Ball, of Fremont, got to spend more time with pet rats Bippo and Beppo while working from home during the pandemic. (Photo courtesy of Catherine Ball)
Catherine Ball got to spend more time with pet rats Bippo and Beppo while working from home during the pandemic. (Photo courtesy of Catherine Ball) 

People like Jessup aside, the survey results showed overwhelmingly positive reactions to remote work, with many crediting it for helping to fix some of the Bay Area’s most significant woes. Three-quarters of respondents said remote work decreases traffic, and 73% said it enables people to live further away, where housing is more affordable. Fewer than half had negative things to say about it – 44% said it harms restaurants and retail stores near workplaces, and 21% said it reduces the vibrancy and character of the Bay Area.

For 31-year-old Catherine Ball, of Fremont, remote work has been a major boon. Ball, who works as an engineer at a tech company and uses they/them pronouns, loves having no commute. They’ve filled their extra time by taking online classes toward a master’s degree in science and spending more quality time with their partner. Working from home also allowed Ball to take breaks during the day to care for their aging pet rats, Bippo and Beppo, until the rodents passed away.

“It’s been really nice, actually,” Ball said.

But not everyone has the luxury of remote work. Higher-income workers and those with college degrees are more likely to have the option to stay home. While just 16% of people making less than $35,000, and 27% of those making between $35,000 and $49,999 said they can work from home at least some of the time, 85% of people making between $250,000 and $499,999 have that option.

SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA - September 29: Ashley Ortiz kisses her 4-year-old son, Stiles, goodbye as she leaves for her nanny job on Sept. 29, 2022, in Sunnyvale, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Ashley Ortiz kisses her 4-year-old son, Stiles, goodbye as she leaves for her nanny job on Sept. 29, 2022, in Sunnyvale, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group) 

Ashley Ortiz, of Sunnyvale, works full-time weekdays as a nanny, entertains children at parties on weekends, and does odd jobs in between to make ends meet. Her husband, who lost his restaurant job during the pandemic, now stays home with their 4-year-old son. Seeing the families she works for get to do their jobs remotely – spending time with their kids and doing chores while on Zoom meetings – made her envious of that lifestyle. She recently joined a data analytics boot camp that she hopes will help her land a job in tech with a remote option.

James Mello, of Alameda, has been feeling a similar financial crunch. He works as an office administrator for a bus repair company that recently had major layoffs because it hasn’t been able to rebound from a pandemic hit to its business. Last year, he took a second job delivering packages for Amazon on the weekends.

“I’m very tired all of the time,” said Mello, 30. “But it’s a choice between being tired and paying your bills and having enough to go out with your friends when you have the time off.”

ALAMEDA, CA - SEPTEMBER 29: James Mello poses for a portrait in the workshop of a bus repair company on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022, in Alameda, Calif. After a round of layoffs, Mello is the last employee working daily at the site. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
James Mello in the workshop of a bus repair company on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022, in Alameda, Calif. After a round of layoffs, Mello is the last employee working daily at the site. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group) 

The 2022 Bay Area Poll was conducted online September 9-20 by Embold Research, surveying 1,628 registered voters in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties for the Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley. The modeled margin of error is 3.1%. 



Source link

Denial of responsibility! galaxyconcerns is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.

Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published.