Where has community gone?

My little side project has been trying to crack the case to this mysterious disappearance.

I realize that we are in the summer, which is when Marin empties out, but I’m not talking about just my little gym community.

I’m curious about what Marin and even the Bay Area’s plan is for community.

For the past two-and-a-half years, I’ve been asking everyone at the gym what is going on with their work situation. I’m trying to forecast or understand how office work might affect the gym.

I’ve been told that London, Tel Aviv, Chicago, and New York are back and booming. Offices, bars, clubs, conferences, and social events are on fire.

These other places are doing exactly what we all wanted to do: finally rip the lid off and get back to living!

It’s been different around here.

These two articles were recommended to me.

I’ve been polling a bunch of 20-somethings myself, as well—from interns, to recent graduates, and they don’t really know anything different from what’s been going no lately.

These are all local kids, and they are happy to engage with other professionals their age after work.

The daily Zoom meeting jobs are just that, and when they go to Chestnut Street or the Mission or Dogpatch, they’re fulfilled, for now.

They don’t know about mentoring, bantering around the office, boozy lunches, or late-night cram sessions in the conference room. At least in San Francisco they don’t.

We all know how empty the financial district is.

I went to a One Medical appointment two weeks ago directly across the street from the Transamerica Pyramind at 1pm on a Monday. I parked right in front.

I’ve been told that downtown SF is the only international city that does everything in its power to rush its workers out of the area as quickly as possible, and it’s been that way for decades.

I can remember meeting friends at the Irish Bank for happy hour thirty years ago and being so surprised that at 6:30 when we walked out, the street was completely empty of people, cars, bicyclists. Everything.

That, combined with the collision of easy tech, the influence of an older generation who desperately doesn’t want to go back to the office, and what appears to be a higher-than-normal fear factor of Covid in the Bay Area, have all contributed to a very weird lack of community.

I think it’s having an affect on ours, as well.

I’ve been asked to try and create an energy of some kind at the gyms.

Something like it was ten years ago, but different.

What I know is that people are looking for connection and community. Not necessarily energy.

When we combine our gym communities in January, I think we will have an awesome dose of old, new, creative, interesting, driven people coming together, and I would like all of us to keep in the back of our minds this question I have posed.

As humans, we need connection. I love that we have been an undeniable catalyst for it in the past, and I’m driven to support this community moving forward in any way I can.

Let me know what you think.

~TJ